Nine photographers – Lukas Balandis, Ričardas Vitkus, Justinas Stacevičius, Laura Vansevičienė, Arnas Čemerka, Aistė Ridikaitė, Kęstutis Vanagas, Virgilijus Usinavičius-Augulis and Asta Sabonytė-Jankauskienė – were awarded the Golden Shots. In addition, the traditional “Colleagues’ Prize” was awarded, which is one of the most popular photos collected by the participants of the competition and included in the yearbook and the exhibition. This year, the Colleagues’ Prize went to Paul Peleckis for his portrait of a coal miner from the Luhansk region of Ukraine.
The event was attended and presented by the Commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Grand Duke Gediminas Staff Battalion Lieutenant Colonel Egidijus Čiūtas, Chairman of the Lithuanian Union of Journalists Dainius Radzevičius, representatives of Vilnius City Municipality, faithful Lithuanian Press Photography Competition Manager, Lithuanian Rep. Jonas Staselis, the head of the Lithuanian Photographic Club, Evgenia Levin, the chairwoman of the Press Photographers ‘Union of the Lithuanian Journalists’ Union, and the winners of last year’s competition. Members of the competition evaluation commission – press photographers Tatsiana Tkačova (Belarus), Dragan Kujundzic (Serbia), Zenonas Nekrošius (Lithuania), graphic artist, photographer Daiva Kairevičiūtė and cultural producer Jonas Staselis – shared their thoughts and wishes in video format.
“This year there are quite a lot of indirect messages in the photographs – starting with the frame where the quarantine is conveyed through the dancers reflected in the glass partition of the empty basketball court, and ending with Virgilijus Usinavičius’ series on indulgences, when the format of the photographs gives us semantic meaning,” Staselis. Although much of our lives were locked in a pandemic last year, more than 110 photographers from the country took part in the competition, who submitted close to 3,200 photos. According to the organizers, the competition “Lithuanian Press Photography” directly contributes to the continuity of the Lithuanian humanistic photography tradition.
For twenty years, he has been inviting the country’s photographers to pay more attention to the participants and observers of events, to better understand, to convey their experiences, to seek a unique approach by visually informing the public about significant events and life in our country and the world. This year, among the works of the traditional competition category “Portrait”, there are a lot of emotionally strong, deeply touching shots that stay with the viewer for a long time. The photos presented in the category “Culture and Entertainment” show how we know how to enjoy simple things, and the “Army” as always immediately moves to the world of various and difficult Lithuanian soldiers, which is rarely seen up close.
“I was impressed by the quality of the photographs, the variety of subjects and the visual language used by the photographers. It was not easy to select a winner in the “Photo Story” category, as there were many interesting series in the last round of voting, “said commissioner Tatsiana Tkachova. The competition and the accompanying yearbook encourage photographers to take a fresh look at their environment, rethink their work, give them the opportunity to look back and evaluate not only the past year, but often their entire photographic path.
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