Banff Mountain photo contest sends winning entries to Museo Nazionale della Montagna
The dolce vita just got sweeter: your winning photo could travel the world.
The Banff Centre announced an open call for entries for the Banff Mountain Photography Contest, which will see winning photographs on display at Italy’s Museo Nazionale della Montagna in Torino.
The deadline for the competition, open to both amateurs and professionals, is May 31.
The Italian venue is considered a top international venue for visual art and specializes in photograph displays. The association with the Museo is part of a business partnership started by Banff Centre vice-president Bernadette McDonald.
McDonald, who is working on additional Italian partnerships, is currently attending the international Montagna Esplorazione Avventura film festival.
The international link is part of the Banff Centre’s continuing mission to promote mountain culture world-wide.
The work of Jack Ives, senior advisor on mountain ecology and sustainable development at United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan, is on display at the Banff Centre throughout May.
The show, titled Mountain Prospects, includes photos from Ives’ fieldwork in a Hasselblad medium format.
Ives, whose show was a result of winning at last year’s photo competition, uses the camera as his tool to capture different land forms. He writes: "I allow for two viewpoints – the traditional adaptation of mountain peoples to their environment (and its modification), and the ‘western ethic’ of mountain exploration, research, and recreation that has led to present-day concern over wilderness preservation."
Ives cites legendary landscape master Ansel Adams, whose landscapes of the American west are legendary, and David Brower, whose efforts completed Sierra Club’s large format books, as two people who use images to convey the power of landscape.
And with 2,200 entries in last year’s photo competition, the theme of mountain appreciation thrives.
Marketing and communications manager Debra Hornsby says the submissions support "part of our overall vision of promoting mountain cultures from around the world."
Up to five entries can be submitted to win $500 in each of the following five categories: Mountain Adventure, Mountain Culture, Mountain Environment, Mountain Landscape, and Mountain Flora and Fauna.
Criteria at the 2001 competition included looking for images "that have some initial grab." Submissions are also judged on the basis of composition, technique, content, originality, and "effectiveness in conveying a mountain theme."
An additional $1,000 worth of sponsor prizes from Eagle Creek Travel Gear and National Geographic will be awarded to the photographer with "the best overall photograph," regardless of category.
The winners will be announced by a yet to be confirmed jury panel, and will be displayed during the Banff Mountain Festivals, from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3, 2002.
The format for all photographs is 35mm slides (in a 8.5 X 11 inch sleeve) and/or black and white prints or colour prints, unmatted and unframed, minimum 8 X 10 inches, maximum 11 X 14 inches in size.
Entries can be posted to: The Banff Mountain Photography Competition, Mountain Culture at the Banff Centre, 107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Box 1020, Banff, Alberta, T1L 1H5.
For more information log on to www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture or e-mail [email protected].
Winning photos from last year’s competition tour from Denver to Bariloche, Argentina over the next six months.
