Competition – Photo Ambassador for 2014 – Mobile!
Following a survey commissioned by Celebrity Cruises* that a staggering 67% of people now take pictures on their mobile on holiday, the leading luxury cruise company has launched a search – alongside worldwide known and award-winning photographers – for the best travel photo ever taken on a smartphone.
Surprisingly, Samsung is the leader in the mobile camera market with a 24% share of the overall market – 4% of those questioned were more likely to use the brand over an iPhone. Despite the much-hyped recent launch of the Lumia 925, Nokia and HTC proved the least popular at 6% each. The dominance of Facebook and Twitter seems to be a factor for this increasing trend – with 38% citing the ease of sharing images on social media platforms as a reason for leaving the digital camera at home.
Marking this significant change in the photographic landscape, Celebrity Cruises is working alongside esteemed photographers Stuart Franklin (Former President of Magnum, who took what is lauded as one of the most iconic images of all time: the World Press photo Award-winning picture of a man defying a tank in Tiananmen Square, China); Ian Berry, Art Wolfe, Massimo Vitali and Oliver Lang to find the best smartphone travel photo ever taken.
The winner will be appointed as Celebrity Cruises ‘Photo Ambassador for 2014’ and embark on a 14-night Scandinavia & Russia cruise in May 2014. Taking in the spellbinding sights of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Berlin and Paris, there will be spectacular scenery and cities for the winner to capture the essence of the each destination through their smartphone. As well as the cruise, the winner’s photographs will then be exhibited on the Celebrity Cruises blog.
Jo Rzymowska, AVP & General Manager of Celebrity Cruises said “Celebrity Cruises prides itself on offering its guests an enriched experience in the destinations we visit. Through our smartsnaps competition we are looking for photography enthusiasts to capture the essence of the destination through their smartphones. We are delighted to be working with such a stellar judging panel and very much hope these budding photographers take inspiration from some of these photographers great work”.
Five lucky runners-up will be treated to a personal photography tutorial with Stuart Franklin on board Celebrity Eclipse in Southampton in Spring 2014 which will include lunch and a tour of the ship.
The smartsnaps competition coincides with the appointment of writer and broadcaster Ben Fogle as Celebrity Cruises ‘Destination Expert’. An authority on global adventures, Ben will be offering Celebrity Cruises guests tips and advice on where to go and what to do in a variety of cities.
To enter simply submit your image via www.celebritycruises/smartsnaps or via social media, using the hashtag #smartsnaps. Closing date 15th November 2013. For full terms and conditions visit www.celebritycruises/smartsnaps
The Judging Panel
Stuart Franklin – Magnum http://www.stuartfranklin.com/
Former President of Magnum Photos, the worldwide known British born documentary photographer Stuart Franklin won the coveted World Press Photo Award (1989) for his celebrated photo of a man defying a tank in Tiananmen Square, China – which has been revered as one of the most iconic images of all time. His photographic career began working for the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph Magazine (London), and later with Agence Presse Sygma (Paris). During his time at Sygma (1980 –85) he absorbed the skills of news photography, and also followed Henri Cartier Bresson’s approach to photography; as he puts it, ‘curious, gentle, surreal with beautiful compositions – his work influenced just about everything I attempted.’
Stuart’s published books include: The Time of Trees, La Città Dinamica, Sea Fever, Hotel Afrique, Footprint: Our Landscape in Flux, and Saint – Petersburg. His latest body of work, Narcissus was published earlier this year – and contemplates the landscape in a small region of Western Norway.
Ian Berry – Magnum http://www.ianberrymagnum.com/
Ian Berry made his reputation as a photojournalist reporting from South Africa, where he worked for the Daily Mail and later Drum magazine. He was the only photographer to document the massacre at Sharpeville. While based in Paris he was invited to join Magnum by Henri Cartier-Bresson. He moved to London to become the first contract photographer for the Observer Magazine. He has covered, conflict in Israel, Ireland, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia and Congo, famine in Ethiopia and apartheid in South Africa. He has also reported on the political and social transformations in China and the former USSR.
Awards include Nikon Photographer of the Year (twice), Picture of the Year award from the National Press Photographers of America, and British Press Magazine Photographer of the Year (twice). Arts Council Award, Art Directors’ Club of New York Award.
His books include The English, two books on South Africa and Child Slavery in Ghana.
Exhibitions in London, Paris, Hamburg, Brussels, Bradford Perpignan, Aix en Provence and Lowry Gallery.
Art Wolfe http://www.artwolfe.com/
During his 40-year career, Art Wolfe has championed the environmental cause through his conservation photography – winning numerous awards for his work. Art has worked on every continent and in hundreds of locations; and his photographs are recognised throughout the world for their mastery of colour, composition and perspective. Wolfe is the host of the award-winning television series “Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge,” an intimate and upbeat series that offers insights on nature, culture, and the realm of digital photography. Wolfe has released over eighty books, most recently The New Art of Photographing Nature and The Art of the Photograph. His work is available to view at Art Wolfe Gallery in Seattle, Washington; and the Rotella Galleries, located in Las Vegas and SOHO, New York City. “Art Wolfe’s photographs are a superb evocation of some of the most breathtaking spectacles in the world.”—Sir David Attenborough
Massimo Vitali http://www.massimovitali.com/
Massimo Vitali lives and work in Lucca, Italy, and in Berlin, Germany. He worked as a photojournalist in the early Sixties; it was during this time that he met Simon Guttman, the founder of the agency Report, who was to become fundamental in Massimo’s growth as a “Concerned Photographer.”
Massimo’s series of Italian beach panoramas, starting in 1995, began in the light of drastic political changes in Italy. Massimo started to observe his fellow countrymen very carefully. He depicted a “sanitized, complacent view of Italian normalities,” at the same time revealing “the inner conditions and disturbances of normality: its cosmetic fakery, sexual innuendo, commodified leisure, deluded sense of affluence, and rigid conformism.” (October Magazine 2006, no. 117, p. 90, How to Make Analohies in a Digital Age by Whitney Davis).
Oliver Lang http://oggsie.com/
Oliver Lang started photographing with a mobile phone in 2007. His images have been exhibited in galleries in Berlin, New York and Sydney. In 2013 he won the Street Photography category in the Mobile Photography Awards.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
