Review: the winners of the 2013 Felix Schoeller Photo Award
Osnabrück, 13 October 2013
Peter Schulte of Hamburg is the overall winner of the 2013 Felix Schoeller Photo Award. Peter Schulte’s work first wowed the jury in the portrait category. They selected his portrait entitled “Up close” as the category winner and then chose it from the five category winners as the overall winner of the Gold Award. The awards ceremony was held in Osnabrück‘s Cultural History Museum on 13 October 2013 and was followed by the official exhibition opening. Peter Schulte was delighted with his €12,000 prize money. The category winners received a certificate and €2,000. The emerging photographer award donated by photo retailer CALUMET – a voucher for €5,000 – went to Silke Schwarz for her work “17 square metres – waiting for a new home.”
The Award, which was launched in 2013 by the Osnabrück-based Felix Schoeller Group, was a success from the very outset, as CEO Dr Bernhard Klofat stressed in his welcoming speech to 120 invited guests: it attracted some 1,300 entries from 26 countries. Dr Klofat went on to explain why the photographic competition is so important for the company: “The burgeoning demand for photographic paper inspired Felix Hermann Maria Schoeller, the founder of our company, to buy a paper mill in Burg Gretesch near Osnabrück in 1895. He had the vision to see that there was a gap in the market for silver halide or photographic base paper and a belief that manufacturing it would be lucrative enough to warrant setting up a business. And he was right: photography, especially expressive professional photography in its many facets, is still a hugely exciting field and – as the work submitted for the Felix Schoeller Photo Awards demonstrates – it also has social relevance. The camera sees more than the human eye. And through the photographers’ creativity - which consists, on the one hand, of how they compose the image and, on the other hand, of being able to capture the right moment - photographs record moments for posterity. These are the moments photographers are looking for; our specialty papers record them. And it is often our papers which, as a result of their special structure, serve as an additional creative element and reinforce the distinctiveness of the motifs in their visual and haptic dimensions.”
Klofat announced that the next Felix Schoeller Photo Award will be in two years’ time and thanked those responsible in Osnabrück’s city authorities for their support for the four-week exhibition.
Chair of the jury, Düsseldorf-based photographer Michael Dannenmann, confirmed that the award has set the bar high in terms of quality. The Competition Rules called for participants to submit at least three, but a maximum of five, photos per category, placing the focus on conceptual photography from the start. Dannenmann and the entire jury noted: “The entries often did not fit the classical definition of the categories. It was the conceptual context of each series of photos that made it possible to understand their classification.”
In his tribute to Peter Schulte, the winner of the Gold Award, Michael Dannenmann described his series of portraits as being carried off into a children’s world. “At first glance, it seems threatening and sinister. But then, as you look more closely, what is going on behind the masquerade begins to unfold. These are images that invite you to dream, images that take you out of your comfort zone. This is extraordinary work that is far removed from our current way of seeing things.”
Silke Schwarz, a student at Berlin University of the Arts, won the emerging photographer award with her entry “17 square metres – waiting for a new home.” “Silke Schwarz’s work gives us access to an issue that could not have greater topical relevance: asylum-seekers in the interim place they call home. A defining moment in their lives,” said Dannenmann, describing how the jury saw her work. After Silke Schwarz had received the award from Bernhard Klofat, Stefan Schreck, marketing director of international photo retailer Calumet, presented her with a voucher for €5,000, which she can spend in any Calumet branch in Germany.
An overjoyed Peter Schulte’s initial response to winning the Gold Award was: “All I knew was that it would be worthwhile coming to Osnabrück. But the extent to which it was worthwhile was a total surprise. I still can’t quite take it in. I am thrilled to bits that this very personal project with my daughter has received recognition.” And with that, Schulte brandished another of the Mamelok Papercraft masks, which were a central element in his series of portraits and which he had specially brought along to the awards ceremony.
Great pieces of work – and large formats to showcase them
The works of 30 photographic artists were on show in Osnabrück‘s Cultural History Museum from 13 October 2013 to 10 November 2013 in an exhibition entitled Winners & Nominees 2013 – Felix Schoeller Photo Award. In collaboration with the city of Osnabrück and the Cultural History Museum, the winning entries were displayed in large formats.
Exhibition: Winners & Nominees 2013 – Felix Schoeller Photo Award
Exhibition venue:
Cultural History Museum, Osnabrück, Lotter Strasse 2, 49078 Osnabrück
Felix Schoeller Photo Award – the 2013 winners:
Overall winner: Peter Schulte, Hamburg
Title of the work: Up close
Winner in the portrait category: Peter Schulte, Hamburg
Title of the work: Up close
Winner in the landscape/nature category: Sebastian Mölleken, Oberhausen
Title of the work: Opencast mining
Winner in the architecture/industry category: Sebastian Keitel, Cologne
Title of the work: Home
Winners in the photojournalism/editorial photography category: Lisi Niesner & Georg Hochmuth, Vienna
Title of the work: Call of the deep
Winners in the free choice/conceptual photography category: Daniel Wetzel & Gregor Schuster, Berlin & Darmstadt
Title of the work: Supermodels
Best work by an emerging photographer: Silke Schwarz, Berlin
Title of the work: 17 square metres – waiting for a new home
Information on the 2015 Felix Schoeller Photo Award is available at www.felix-schoeller-photoaward.com
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