After reviewing hundreds of stunning entries across 10 categories, the judges of the Best Photography Awards chose the winners who showcase the best in composition, lighting, and creativity. If you’re into photography, you know it takes dedication and skill to create the perfect shot. Whether the photographers entered as an amateur looking to gain valuable experience or as a professional photographers looking to expand their portfolio, participating in this competition will allow all contributors to compare their work with the best in the field. Winners should take great pride in their accomplishments as their photographs will now be featured in the competition magazine and online gallery, revealing their talents to new audiences. While only a select few can claim the top spots, each participant must experience a sense of accomplishment while pursuing their passion.

The Best Photography Awards Professional Photographer of the Year 2022 Award Goes To…

The Professional Photographer of the Year award goes to Alexandr Vlassyuk for his stunning drone photography “Beach Season”.

Author’s mention of the project:

 “During quarantine, no one could travel abroad, and that winter, ice hummocks on the Kapchagai reservoir near Almaty were very popular among the townspeople, filling social networks with pictures of ice hummocks. One evening, after talking with the girlfriend, I offered her to take photos on the ice hummocks from the drone. So early the next morning, we were on our way. We went to the most distant place where there was no one at all. I picked up the drone and preliminarily inspected the place from the air to choose the best location for shooting, and then start improvisation. The difficulty with this shooting was the cold and sometimes gusty wind, which, with small particles of ice, literally burned the body, and we tried to shoot as quickly as possible without spare takes.”

The Best Photography Awards Discovery of the Year 2022 Award Goes To…

The Grand Prix in the amateur photographer’s section won by Antonio Coelho with the photography series “Cities, one vision”.

The photographer talks about this project:

“I have a great fascination for cities, although I live in the calm of a small village in the north of Portugal.

 Cities are getting bigger, more populous, more polluting, and more consumerist. Each city has its specificity. This set of images points to just that. Since the massive use of iron and other metals, cities have grown, luminous and colorful, in height and in magnificent places that defy nature. Of course, for all this, there was the hand of architects,

 engineers, and builders. This series of images below features it all, including a tribute to the twin towers.

The connection to capitalism and the importance that each city has for the economy was also addressed in one of the images I presented. The complete series has more images. The series uses simple elements like screws, electronic elements, notes from my collection, and pastel pencils that I use in painting, arranged in a way to give the idea of ​​the skylines of big cities. I usually lay everything out on a glass platform and dark cardboard backgrounds.”

Ten photography categories conmpetiotion from all over the world

The BPA competition presented amazing results in these 10 categories: Advertising, Architecture, Portrait, Art Photography, Fashion, Nature, Animals, Nude, Documentary, and Open Theme.

We invite you to visit the winners’ gallery to see the works from the Professional and Amateur photography Sections.

Open Call – Season 2023

The unique medals of the BPA competition are a special, honorable, and exclusive thing that is intended for great talents from the world of photography! To have such a medal is a real pride, recognition, and also a reminder to photographers that they need to strive forward for new achievements.

In the 2023 season, the Gold Winners of the Professional category will receive such medals! BPA Awards has updated the list of the jury of the competition. The jury members are professional photographers from various genres of photography, as well as gallery owners, collectors, magazine editors, and other professionals.

Win valuable prizes and get the opportunity to become the Best Photographer of the Year! The open call will start on July 1st! Be the first to send an application to win!

Go here to discover more!

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Lindsey Made This is an illustrator raised and based in Minnesota. As on her website, she instantly presents herself as a colorful, happy, and usually girly person who just wants to make stuff. With a BFA in Graphic Design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with a pit-stop at the Central Saint Martens in 2004, she now delivers graphic illustrations work to a broad list of clients, all with a fun and light-hearted tone. 

Her portfolio already includes work for Apple, Coach, Cosmopolitan, Facebook, Pepsi, Nike, Revlon, to mention a few. 

Lindsey Made This is part of Closer&Closer, an Artist Representation Agency based out of Los Angeles, California.

Following is an exclusive short interview for Hue&Eye.

Hello Linsdey, when or how have you understood you wanted to become an artist?

I always wanted to make colorful, happy, fun, usually girly, sometimes sporty, light-hearted, thought-provoking stuff. After working in a more traditional 9 to 5, I decided I was tired of it and wanted to give full-time freelance a go.

Can you briefly say something about your technique and tell us what drives you to make art?

I’m a digital and commercial illustrator who creates colorful and fun illustrations and lettering. The drive to make art comes from my desire to make things more beautiful, fun, and joyous!

What main feature has changed in your works or practice throughout the years?

I’ve developed some signature motifs and “stickers” that reappear repeatedly and make my work recognizable through the years.

Which artist primarily inspires your work? And is there something else, outside visual arts, that keeps you motivated?

My family.

How would you like people to engage with your work?

I want people to leave happier after seeing my work. 

Follow Linsdey Made This on Instagram, on Closer&Closer, or visit her website.

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As a child, Nevena already attended various art courses to learn diverse creative techniques.

Hello Nevena, can you tell us something about your creative path?

I attended the high school of art since 2007. In 2012, after gaining a degree from the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, I had a Masters’s degree in fresco painting. 

Today I have participated in several shows inside and outside Serbia and am a ULUS (Association of Serbian Fine Art Artists) member since 2015. Since 2018 I am represented by the Gallery Artium in Kragujevac (Serbia).

How did you discover you wanted to become an artist?

While studying at my Master’s, I did a series of paintings about rhythm. It happened then. The moment I met a brush, I felt a magnetic attraction. I knew I was on the right path of exploration and self-realization.”

What happened next?

After accomplishing my studies, I got a job in an art high school as a drawing and painting teacher. I think it’s terrific to work with young artists, as educating them is a delicate responsibility and opportunity.

Also, since graduating, I have started undergoing independent research. I sometimes miss the consultation with a professor or someone who may recommend me the best path according to my sensibility. Now though, I enjoy learning and exploring by visiting museums and exhibitions, film screenings, and performances to gain inspiration and new ideas.

What does your research focus on?

The main topic of my research is the human body in space. The body is naked, alone, facing all its fears and suffering. I want my subjects to explore the truth about themselves. The figures are mainly males, which may have more than one head, an allusion to long photography exposure. They express anger, alienation, and struggle – which is, to me, the definition of today’s society. I think that the work of an artist is a lonely one. Our job is to make a process, which for the viewer is continuously transformed by social contingencies, smoother and transparent. 

It may only happen through the relation between the author, the artwork, and its audience. 

Can you tell us something about your technique?

It is a combined technique of hand-tinted paper, acrylic, charcoal, ink glued on canvas, or paper. From the earlier days, I felt a special connection with the collage technique. Unlike painting with a brush, I do it with torn pieces of paper and lightly fill the puzzle, so each piece has its appropriate shape and place. 

My intention is not to represent the detail of a moving body part, but the spirit and concerns encompassing it. I paint supported by emotions, and these are what construct my paintings. 

The movement is a metaphor in the world’s overall pulsation that carries a unique and lasting message.

Who influenced your creative process?

One of the central figures who significantly influenced my work is the Austrian painter Egon Schiele, whose work involves intense sexuality, twisted bodies in spasms, expressive, nervous lines that are universally present in the artworks. 

I would also mention Irish-British artist Francis Bacon, an enigmatic painter who gave his art a nightmarish quality.

What else outside art is part of your inspiration or routine?

Since I started practicing yoga actively, all the fear present in me is gone. It merely took a different form, and I channeled it through my work. That is why one needs to expel every block or negative emotion through tears, the cleansing process, sweat, and work. When I do that, I feel free and relaxed. 

Where do you see yourself in the future?

Given the current situation in the country, it is time to wait for a solo exhibition. Still, I plan to participate in various international exhibitions, if given the opportunity and art residencies. And maybe there will soon be an online exhibition with a gallery. I don’t overthink the future; I live now in the present moment, look forward to meeting new people, exchanging experiences, and of course, traveling a lot.

Nevena Kostic is part of st-Art Amsterdam. Get in touch for any purchase inquiry here.

To view more of her work visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

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Hue&Eye, thanks to st-Art Amsterdam,  recently had a fascinating interview with painter and sculptor artist Eric Don – part of the st-Art collective.

He told us about his life and artistic practice and guided us through an exclusive tour around his studio space in KNSM Eiland, Amsterdam.

The studio and surroundings are themself a portrait of Eric Don. Structured yet ethereal, genuine yet complex, filled with energy where each piece finds its place. The Harbour overlooking the Ijriver is to Eric a continuous source of inspiration.

Upon arrival, his daughter Lara – who works with him – cheerfully welcomes us through. She explains how the whole area converted into a growing community of artisans by the eighties. His father indeed owns his studio atelier there for 40 years.

That sunny evening, sitting at a table by the Ijriver outside his studio – we started by asking him to tell us something about his approach to art. We needed to begin somewhere.

APPROACH AND TECHNIQUE

Eric Don was born in 1954 in Breda, in the South of Holland. He left at 17 years old to study art and painting in Utrecht and later at the Rijksacademie Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. It seems that Eric always knew that art would become his life. He started sculpting in 1975 and since then intensively explored the technique by mainly working with metal and bronze. Despite this – as for today – his relation with painting is still deep too.

“I make sculptures and 3D objects out of iron, wood, stone, and bronze. I combine different materials into one piece and weld metal, work with clay, and epoxy. I may say my work is semi-abstract yet recognizable,” he explains to us.

Eric aims at turning ideas into original pieces, both by painting, and sculpting. “Whether I paint or sculpt, my work has the same essence of reaching out to the present and past through their contradictions.” 

His work is rich in references to Historical Mythology and Classicism.

When asked how he attempts at choosing whether to paint or sculpt a subject, he says: “Painting its a little like flying. When painting you are allowed to experiment through knowledge. It is easy to get lost, but it will always forgive mistakes. It is not the same case with sculpture, where one needs to plan. Sculpting is like choosing with no regrets.”

INSPIRATION

Our interview goes on while Eric mentions his sources of inspiration. Artists as Picasso, Gonzalez, Giacometti, Germaine Richier are still his masters since his earlier years.

However, what surprises us is his extraordinary interest and knowledge of music. Eric finds a significant relation between music and art. Probably driven by his art teacher who used to tell him: “Drawing is the first violin. Painting is the whole orchestra”, Don was also a drummer in a band. Citing Chagall and its correlation with rhythm, Eric has a strong passion for Stravinsky, Chopin, and avant-garde pop music. “Art and music are the same things.”, he says.

From NEXT Magazine:

He once explained during an interview with Next, Arte e Cultura (Fall, 1991): “I master the material I work with. When I find a piece of iron on the ground, or between the wreckage of an old ship, the material is not yet able to sing. It is only a piece of iron which, despite its history, is anonymous. What I do is comparable to the work of a magician, who Iets the material sing with the words and music which belongs to.”

‘NARCISSUS’

We now leave our table to follow him inside. He brings us to the Baggagehall building, right next to his studio. The industrial area showcases most of his essential sculptures, all well placed in the unique space.

One especially catches our attention. In a niche resides the Narcissus, an extraordinary work made of steel and chrome, completed in 1992.

Following the Greek legend of Narcissus, the handsome greek-like profile of the head is made of chrome and reflects its image into a pond made of steel. The piece speaks for itself, and the impact is powerful. It needs to be seen in person to highlight Eric’s talent to capture Narcissus’ expression while contemplating his reflection.

“I want people to get inspired by my work, and that is why I leave room to experience it.”

FUTURE PROJECTS

Eric Don’s latest project is about two bronze heads he is working on for some years. “I am still curious about the result!” 

His only hope for the future is to maintain his creativity in action.

Eric’s work has been exhibited at various locations in the Netherlands and abroad and resides in various Dutch and foreign public and private collections.

For buying inquires or information about Eric Don, you may get in touch with st-Art.

To visit his website click here.

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