Award winners

The second EU-OSHA photo competition, launched in May 2011, challenged photography enthusiasts across Europe – both professional and amateur – to once more pick up their cameras and capture their image of safety and health in the workplace. The competition captured the interest of some 2,500 photographers from across the EU and beyond, with the winners announced at the Healthy Workplaces Campaign Closing held in Bilbao, on the 22nd and 23rd November, 2011.

First prize: Dressmaker, Krzysztof Maksymowicz, Poland

This photo was selected by the jury for its ‘clean simplicity, which captures risk prevention in its most basic form.’
Commenting on his winning photo, Krzysztof Maksymowicz said: “When taking this photograph I was trying to capture a universal occupational safety image, something that could apply to every person. And so I came up with the idea to photograph a sewing woman (dressmaker) with a needle and a thimble – a tool which is slowly becoming forgotten.”

Second prize: Grow up, Isa Kurtt, Turkey

Third prize: Gold panner, Saša Kosanović, Croatia

For the first time, a youth prize was awarded to the best entrant aged under-21 which this year was presented to Paweł Ruda of Poland for his imaginative and provocative ‘Cold Sandwich.’

Commended:

Solving the enigma, Vladica Adamov, Serbia

Balancing over the waves, Jose Luis Morales Martin, Spain

The Solution, Riccardo Cigno, Italy

Breaking the wall, Davide Franceschini, Italy

The victim, Zsolt Dobóczky, Hungary

Beginners, Miran Beškovnik, Slovenia

Blind man’s bluff, Josef Hinterleitner, Austria

Working with a view, Felipe Antonio Juarez Moreno, Spain

Look at all pictures

Prizes

• 1^st Prize: €3,000
• 2^nd Prize: €2,000
• 3^rd Prize: €1,000
• Youth Prize: €1,000

Prizes will be awarded for the most outstanding photographs in terms of artistic value and best embracing the competition topic.

The contest consists of two rounds of evaluation for the first three prizes. In round one, each judge in a panel of photographic experts will select ten photographs in each category from among all eligible entries. They will make these selections based on the quality of each photograph and the creativity it displays. The entries selected in round one will be put forward to round two. In round two, the judges will collectively select a first, second and third place winner based on the same criteria.

An additional youth prize will be awarded to the best entrant aged under-21.

Winners will be chosen in September 2011, and notified by email. Decisions of the judges are final and binding. The winners will be announced at the EU-OSHA Healthy Workplaces Campaign Closing Event to be held in Bilbao, on the 22^nd and 23^rd November 2011.

Jury

To select the very best entries, EU-OSHA has assembled a diverse and experienced pan-European jury to provide both excellent analysis of the photo competition entries and solid artistic quality.

Leading the panel will be OSH Communications Expert, Peter Rimmer, who will be joined by three professional photographers and an experienced OSH multimedia specialist.

Mertxe Alarcón (Spain)

Barcelona-born Mertxe Alarcón is an experienced photographer. Her interest in photography started at the age of 16 when she began working in photography shops, and she went on to work for various photography labs (including for Fujifilm Spain) for fifteen years. For two years she was involved in an architectural photography in Spain.

Mertxe was first introduced to the publishing world as photography coordinator for a corporate magazine publisher, later becoming head of photography at ‘El Meuble’ interiors magazine. She has been Graphic Editor at National Geographic Spain since 2005, combining this task with illustrated features on weddings, children and fashion.

In 2008 her exhibition Fragmentos del Tíbet was held at the Casa de Tíbet in Barcelona and in the same year she co-authored the book Cazadores de Luz National Geographic, Editadorial RBA, 2008. She rejoins the jury having previously been on the panel during the 2009 EU-OSHA Photo Competition.

Jørgen Brandt (Denmark)

Born in Aalborg, Denmark, Jørgen Brandt has run his own Copenhagen based photographic studio since 1987. To him photography is both a lifestyle and a business. He specialises in capturing personalities, taking shots of individuals, groups, weddings, families and fine art nudes (and also creates his own fine art). Across the years his photographs have been exhibited in galleries and art organisations across Denmark.

Jørgen was the first Dane to achieve the Master Qualified European Photographer (MQEP) certification from the Federation of European Photographers (FEP). The FEP represents photographers in some 24 European countries with approximately 50,000 members, he has been Press Officer since 2010 and FEP Board Member 2010-2012. He is also elected to become the President of the FEP starting his term during 2012.

In addition, he is Chairman of the Board for the Museet for Fotokunst, a state-approved national museum of photographic art.

Marco Di Lauro (Italy)

Award-winning photojournalist Marco Di Lauro studied literature and philosophy at Milan State University, followed by journalism at Boston University and photography at the European Institute of Design in Milan.

He started his professional career in the 1990s as a freelance photographer. In 1998 he covered the Kosovo war, before moving to Rome to cover the jubilee of the Catholic Church. In October 2001 he went to Afghanistan where he was one of the first Westerners to cover the fall of Kabul from the inside.

Since 2002 he has covered international news stories for Getty Images and joined Reportage by Getty Images in 2007. Marco’s main topics are war religion and social issues: he covered the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and the second intifada between Israel and Palestine and numerous others conflicts in Africa.

His work has appeared in major publications and his numerous awards include two World Press Photo prize in 2002 and 2011, three PDN (Photo District News) awards, nine PX3 (Prix de la Photographie Paris) prizes and a Gran Premio Nazionale di Fotografia in Italy.

Peter Rimmer (UK)

Born in the United Kingdom, Peter Rimmer is a freelance writer, editor and communications consultant who worked for 16 years as Director of Information with the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) until the end of 2003. He is also EU-OSHA’s former campaign manager.

He has worked extensively in Europe on PHARE and Twinning Projects, and in partnership with European colleagues in the production of videos, including the Napo series of animated films and acts as an Assessor for Health Promotion Wales, the Corporate Standard. He writes for Safety & Health Practitioner magazine and is Editor of Health Protection Matters, a magazine published by the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Vincent Aubert-Jaquin (France)

Vincent Aubert-Jaquin is a consultant in Social Communication and graduated in psychology and educational science. He was head of the film and multimedia production unit of INRS, the French Institute competent in the area of occupational risk prevention. Vincent Aubert-Jaquin is a founding member of the Napo Consortium, which was established to commission and produce health and safety information videos for use across Europe.

He took part in the jury of EU-OSHA’s Healthy Workplaces Film Award at the DOK Leipzig International Film festival in 2009 and 2010.

Legal Notice

How to enter

If you have already taken your photo and would like to enter the competition, please take some time to read through the participation requirements first, then please complete the online registration form and submit your picture.

Entry rules

• The competition is open to all citizens in the European Union plus the three EEA (Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway) and the six candidate and potential candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, FYROM and Albania).
• Participants can enter a maximum of four photos using the online registration form.
• The deadline for submission of entries is 31^st August 2011.
• All participants must agree to the subsequent rights-free use of their photo material by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and its network of Focal Points and partners in Europe.

Photo criteria

The jury welcomes photographic creativity and values especially photographs highlighting the importance of safe, healthy and fulfilling working conditions, and risk prevention in action.

This can be done through an artistic as well as documentary approach not prohibiting stage photography. The focus of the photographs could be on certain work-related topics such as

• accident prevention
• changes at the workplace
• dangerous substances
• maintenance
• risk assessment
• back pain
• noise
• stress
• harassment
• violence
• bullying

Photographs could also depict situations in different economic sectors such as agriculture, construction, education, fisheries, health care, transport, hotels and restaurants or highlight problems of a certain group: young or old workers, migrant workers, people with disabilities and women at work.

Each entry must comply with the following requirements:

• Photographs must be in digital format. Only online entries will be eligible. No print or film submissions will be accepted for entry into this competition. Photographs do not need to be taken with a digital camera; scans of negatives, transparencies, or photographic prints are acceptable.

• Photographs must be submitted digitally uploaded in two formats. Only jpg and tiff are allowed, with 300 dpi resolution, and a maximum file size of 10 MB. It is encouraged to add metadata to the photo file.

• Minor burning, dodging and/or color correction is acceptable. Hand tinting is acceptable, as is cropping. Fish-eye lenses are acceptable. High dynamic range images (HDRI) and stitched panoramas are acceptable only if the combined parts are all made at around the same time.

• The photograph, in its entirety, must be a single work of original material taken by the competition entrant. By entering the competition, the entrant represents, acknowledges, and warrants that the submitted photograph is an original work created solely by the entrant, that the photograph does not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, moral rights, rights of privacy/publicity or intellectual property rights of any person or entity, and that no other party has any right, title, claim, or interest in the photograph.

• The photograph must not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the sponsor, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content.

• Photos must be uploaded via the online entry form

• Entrants to the youth prize must be 21 or under on the 31^st July. Proof of age may be required.

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