The EU-wide ‘Cultures on My Street’ photo competition

More than 2,000 entries were received in response to an invitation from the EU to visually portray the meaning of the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. The competition, launched last March, invited anyone with a camera and a sense of curiosity to submit their own vision of cultures meeting and mixing in their neighbourhood. EU residents were encouraged to express their own view of what intercultural dialogue means in their daily life, under the generous title “Cultures on my street”. Three of the winning entries were selected by a professional jury and were judged for their creativity and originality in portraying the concept of “intercultural dialogue”, as well as technical merit, wide appeal and eye-catching quality. A fourth prize winner was chosen as the Public’s Favourite through online voting by the European public. All the winners received professional photographic equipment and travel grants to European capitals, with a total value of €15,000.
First prize went to Joseph Smith from Malta, for his image “Village cobbler”. “Freddy’s shop is a meeting place for friends, locals and even the occasional tourist! I was intrigued by this man’s ‘cultural’ vision: the juxtaposition of religious icons next to those of pop stars”, says Smith. According to Professor Chris Wainright, the UK photographer and academic, and chairman of the jury, “intimacy, multi layering of meaning and elegant mood and composition” were what convinced the jury of the merit of this picture.
The Public’s Favourite award was received by the image “Fairy Tales 1” by Simon Vansteenwinckel from Belgium. He describes his inspiration for the picture: “I found four young girls playing in the street. Anna, Clara, Fatou and Marie are métis [with parents from different ethnic backgrounds]. But, above all, they are fairies.” The jury also supported the Public’s Favourite picture: it was considered to be a very dynamic image, well observed and added a sense of action, engagement and optimism to the subject.
The winning photos form part of the exhibition that is currently travelling around Europe and together, the exhibition shows a panorama of intercultural encounters across the EU – in education and religion, sport and entertainment, shopping and socialising, and in everyday exchanges between young and old, neighbours, friends and strangers.
To see the 2 runners-up and 20 finalists’ images, visit http://www.street-cultures.eu/1342.0.html.