CitiesToBe Photo Award

 

 

 

 

CitiesToBe Photo Award: a photography contest for images that portrait cities and their complexity

 

The CitiesToBe Statement

Urbanization is a global phenomenon. Throughout the 20th century and especially in the last six decades, the world’s population has been progressively concentrated in urban centres. According to United Nations forecasts, in 40 years the world urban population will double, from 3,400 million in 2009 to 6,400 in 2050. This phenomenon takes even more importance in developing countries. Especially in Latin America, where there are large migrations from rural to urban areas and it is expected that, in the same year, almost 80% of the population of the continent will live in cities. In short, cities have acquired a fundamental role in contemporary global reality and concentrate a huge social, political and economic burden.

Urbanization is a phenomenon of great importance and it generates benefits of many types – cultural diversity, creativity, innovation, networking, new business opportunities, inspiration, collaboration. However, it also brings along some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. In a context of globalization, current cities face major challenges at all levels – environmental, social and economic sustainability, energy efficiency, climate change, cultural conflicts, migrations, differences, inequality, infrastructure obsolescence or occupation and wealth. Cities are, therefore, complex ecosystems that concentrate multiplicity of layers. Their compounded nature and their powerful aesthetics make so many of us passionate about them.

This is what moves us at CitiesToBe, and that is why we have decided to launch the 1^st edition of the CitiesToBe Photo Award: a contest for images that portrait cities and any aspect from the complex ecosystems they entail.

The call of the CitiesToBe Photo Award was closed on February 16th.

 

Thank you very much to the 533 participants from more than 50 countries that submitted their artwork to the CitiesToBe Photo Award!

 

After a first round of evaluation, the Jury has determined a shortlist of 50 finalists:

 

	Name	Surname	Artwork Title	Nationality
1	Sameer	Al-Doumy	City of Ghosts	Syria
2	Antonio Emanuele	Alterio	Commuters X	UK
3	Manuel	Alvarez Diestro	New Town in Pardis, Iran	Spain
4	Guillermo	Astiaso Llamazares	The problem is borders	Spain
5	Alexandr	Bormotin	Metrostation, Moscow	Russia
6	Mpumelelo	Buthelezi	E’Plazini: The Home for Waste Collectors	South Africa
7	Sandipani	Chattopadhyay	Dhaka Street on a Friday	Bangladesh
8	Farnaz	Damnabi	Dungeon	Iran
9	Roman	Demyanenko	Vorkuta	Russia
10	Manolo	Espaliú	Welcome to Paradise	Spain
11	Ben	Etienne	Montreal Climate Strike 2019	Haiti
12	Inés	García Ruiz	Plastic city	Spain
13	Enrico	Gatti	what remains	Italy
14	David Eliud	Gil Samaniego Maldonado	Polluted New Year	Mexico
15	Juan Manuel	Gomez Sandoval	Grito y represión	Colombia
16	Ralph	Gräf	A Rest With Ernest	Germany
17	Ihar	Hancharuk	A local cemetery shot from above	Belarus
18	Liz Hingley	Hingley	Fang Sheng gathering, Shanghai Ferry Port, 2015	UK
19	Muhammad Amdad	Hossain	Fatigue Sleep	Bangladesh
20	Pablo	Izaguerri	Conflicts of others	Spain
21	Olesia	Kim	Hong Kong, 2019	Russia
22	Kevin	Krautgartner	Connecting Berlin	Germany
23	Willem	Kuijpers	Malecon Sounds	Netherlands
24	Diego	López Calvín	The Wall in Palestine	Spain
25	Jorge	López Muñoz	El Clot Block	Spain
26	Adrián	Markis	Surreal city in Buenos Aires	Argentina
27	Debarshi	Mukherjee	Destructive Downpour	India
28	Ana	Nance	The Rising Of A New Satellite, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	USA
29	Natalia	Oreshina	Skyscraper	Russia
30	Jordi Jon	Pardo Acebedo	Door to Aridity	Spain
31	Ben	Parker	Industrial landscapes of Ludwigshafen	Bolivia/UK
32	Olya	Pegova	Kunststück	Russia
33	Camilo José	Peña  Pérez	The Big Day	Spain
34	Christof	Pluemacher	Urban Jungle – Fritz Jaeneke & Sten Samuelson	Germany
35	Cetywa	Powell	183 Freeway in Austin Texas	USA
36	Md Tanveer Hassan	Rohan	Massive Crowd At Rail Station During Eid Vacation	Bangladesh
37	Reza	Rohani	When the wind was blown	Iran
38	Azim Khan	Ronnie	World’s biggest refugee camp	Bangladesh
39	Sujit	Saha	Friendship	India
40	Sanghamitra	Sarkar	Rag picker in the dumping ground	India
41	Mariano	Sayno	Below the city of dreams	Philippines
42	Shridarshan	Shukla	Cotton Candy Seller	India
43	Suvro Paul	Suvro	Train Journey	Bangladesh
44	Mouneb Taim	Taim	War Notes	Syria
45	Dana	Taylor	Sleeping Rough – Fast Asleep & Furious	Israel/UK
46	Marlon	Villaverde	Shenzhen	Philippines
47	Elizabeth	Vinck Monroy	Seascapes. Variation 15	Mexico
48	Giovanna	Wilson Morello	Burn-out (Consumido)	Chile
49	Alessandro	Zanoni	Wuhan Boulevard	Italy
50	Edo	Zollo	London After Dark	UK

 

What is next?

 

1. The Jury will soon meet to make the final selection of the winning photograph and the 25 honorary mentions.

2. The Final Decision will be announced on 4th March, 2020 to all the contestants via email, our blog CitiesToBe and our social network channels.

---

 

The Jury

 

The jury of the CitiesToBe Photo Award is composed by:

· Roger Grasas, photographer and visual artist

· Pilar Conesa · anteverti CEO & founder 

· Ana Alcantud · Consulting Director of anteverti 

· Cristina Garrido · Director of Innovation & Strategic Development of anteverti & Co-Director of citiestobe.com

· Sergio García i Rodríguez · Strategic Communication Coordinator of anteveri & Co-Director of citiestobe.com

The jury will evaluate both the technical elements of the submitted photographic images and the way in which these document, capture and display the reality of life in cities, as well as the dynamics of urban ecosystems.

 

The Prizes

 

· One first acquisitive prize for the amount of 1,500 euros to the winning photograph

· 10 honorary mentions to the finalist images of the CitiesToBe Photo Award

· The winning image and the 10 honorary mentions will be featured in the CitiesToBe Photo Award 2019 ebook, to be digitally –and freely– disseminated to highlight and promote the work of the rewarded authors

 

 

 

Legal bases

 

· Check out the legal bases of the CitiesToBe Photo Award here.