The ninth edition of the photo competition Go and take pictures is coming to an end. The winning images in each category are known. A total of 742 photographs were submitted for this year's edition, from which the jury selected the best quality ones. Public voting for the best shot is still open until 5 December 2021.
Competition categories
This year, photographers could submit a total of seven images to the six categories of the competition.
- Nature
- Culture, traditions and history
- Sport and leisure activities
- Black & white
- Man and Region (portraits, interesting photographs from the life of ordinary inhabitants of the region)
- Architecture (photos of buildings - interior, exterior)
The photographs awarded with a special title deserved special attention. In the 9th edition of Go and Shoot, the jury awarded the Grand Prix to The way home by author David Ilkovic.
"This award is precious to me. Just the thought that a jury of photographers, who are top in their field, noticed my photography and awarded it is a pleasure and an honour for me.," says the author about the award.
The photo was taken during the month of October last year on Branisko hill.
"The view from Branisko Hill provides a unique vista of the busy highway, Spiš Castle, the dominant feature of Spiš, and in the background another dominant feature of Slovakia, the King's Hill, which is shrouded in songs and legends. Last year's autumn was rather poor for autumn fogs and so I was glad that after work I had the opportunity to "run out" to take pictures of Spiš Castle. When I started from Spišská Nová Ves, it was clear from the ground fog in the surroundings that the castle would not be visible and so I thought to go to higher ground, towards Branisko hill along the old road, to see if the castle would appear above the fog. The photo was taken after sunset at the beginning of the blue hour," Ilkovič, who has been taking photographs for 12 years, describes the shot he captured. "Photography is a hobby for me, a leisure time relaxation that I can combine with time spent in nature and capturing the beauty of our landscape, psychohygiene," concludes the winner.
The Jury President's Award goes to the shot St. John's fires, captured by Matúš Matufka. KOCR Northeast Slovakia also decided for the second time to award KOCR award, which goes to the photographer Martin Botko for the image Resting under the milky way.
"The 9th edition of Go and Shoot received a lot of quality shots that deserve to be awarded. A professional jury selected the highest quality ones, with evaluated not only the visual aspect, but also the idea, concept, space or difficulty of capturing a given photograph. The images submitted to our competition every year confirm that Prešov region is a beautiful photogenic piece of land," says Martin Janoško, Executive Director of KOCR Northeast Slovakia.
The last category announced is the People's Choice Award. Voting took place on the Northeast of Slovakia FB page from 16 November to 5 December 2021.
Jury
The winning photographs were selected by a professional jury, whose Jano Štovka (MQEP), a photographer from Prešov, is the permanent chairman. In this edition, he enlisted the help of his colleagues Martin Krystýnek (MQEP) and Marian Kuric, who is a member of the Association of Professional Photographers of the Slovak Republic. He added his artistic opinion to the four-member jury Peter Bič - frontman and hitmaker of the Peter Bič Project.
"This year also proved that the Prešov region is the most photogenic region in Slovakia. The varied diversity of the submitted photographs shows us the richness of this region. I am very glad that this competition motivates people to visit different corners of our region. I would like to congratulate all those who submitted photographs and especially the prize-winning photographs. We have awarded the Grand Prix to the photo "The Road Home", which is a symbolism for people who always like to return home or just to visit our region. There is nothing more beautiful when a person sees places close to him after a long time, that symbolize his home, or places where he felt comfortable. The Prešov region is truly the most photogenic region in Slovakia," emphasizes the chairman of the jury Jano Štovka (MQEP).
In addition to the winners, the jury also selected the images included in the category Honorable mention (honorable mention). These and the winning photographs will be compiled into the exhibition Go and Shoot. The opening is tentatively scheduled on Thursday 9 December at the Jonáš Záborský Theatre in Prešov.
"At the opening there will be winners of the 9th as well as the 8th edition of the Go and Shoot event were awarded, as this event was not held last year due to the bad pandemic situation. Even this year the situation is not ideal, but the methodology of the Covid automat allows us to organize the opening if certain conditions are met," adds Janoško.
Categories
Traditionally, the strongest category in which authors submitted their works, was the category Nature, where 388 images were registered. It was followed by the category Culture, traditions, history with 94 images, in the category Architecture it was 80, Black and white - 76, Man and region - 63, Sport and leisure activities - 41. From the selected photographs, KOCR Northeast of Slovakia will compile a calendar for 2022.
RESULTS GO AND SHOOT 2021:
Architecture:
1. Place Róbert Hlava - Jalová
2. Place František Tóth - Church of St. Francis of Assisi
3. Place Erik Richvalský - Radničné námestie Bardejov
Black & White:
1. Place Dušan Ignác - Young wagon driver at work
2. Place Daniel Faix - Equally Happy
3. Place Daniel Dluhý - View from Veľká Studená dolina
Man and region:
1. Place Dušan Ignác - Beekeeper
2. Place František Eštočin - Prayer for my husband
3. Place Dominik Petro - Domaša, Nová Kelča
Culture, traditions and history:
1. Place Matúš Matufka - Janske ohne
2. Place Juraj Sabol - Bee Alchemy
3. Place Radoslav Cerula - Zámutov costume
Nature:
1. Place Dávid Ilkovič - The Way Home
2. Place Filip Hrebenda - Mountain Ocean
3. Place Erik Richvalský - Tree of Love
3. Place Jaroslav Kačmar - Pieniny Kingdom
Sports and leisure activities:
1. Place Jaroslav Volansky - Speed skating
2. Place Dušan Ignác - Refreshments
3. Place Ladislav Lukáč -Ideš
Author František Baláž, KOCR Northeast of Slovakia
