Pride Photo Award, the international photo contest on sexual and gender diversity, has kicked off its 2015 edition. The creative theme this year is “Stories of Love and Pride”, said to be a broad theme, yet connects this edition with all five previous editions.
Pride Photo Award is opening its doors to photographers around the world to participate in the 2015 contest. Last year, 375 photographers from 62 different nationalities worldwide entered over 3,600 photos. The winner of the Pride Photo Award 2014 was British/Iranian photographer Parisa Taghizadeh with a photo of her series ‘Boy.’
The idea for the Stories of Love and Pride theme stemmed from several comments the 2014 jury made during their evaluation of the contest and entries. Many of the winning series of 2014 told stories of suffering and of people who live in difficult circumstances, including in Russia, Uganda, South Africa, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. There were very few stories about love and intimacy. Furthermore, the jury remarked that many participants take the word ‘pride’ quite literally, submitting photos of Pride Parades. The 2015 theme therefore challenges photographers to show their subjects’ “true colors”, and “to be proud of who you are, to be yourself without having to adapt to what other people or society expect you to be.”
Besides the theme category Stories of Love and Pride and the new category Singles, the 2015 contest features two permanent categories: Gender and the Open Category. As last year, the jury may also grant Special Mentions to series that form an important addition to the winning selection because of their quality, creativity or subject matter.
The registration of participants and submission of the contest photos will take place at www.pridephotoaward.org beginning April 20. It will end on May 14, at 23:59 PM. These dates are subject to change.
The Awards Ceremony will take place in August at the Amsterdam’s Old Church, also host of the World Press Photo exhibitions. The Pride Photo Award exhibition will be on display for two months and is expected to draw at least 20,000 visitors.
