FRITZ PÖLKING PRIZE 2008

The jury's comment 2008

by Markus Botzek

Probably most people will say that it was almost inevitable that in the end a story has made it through. Well, it is not as simple as that.

The story about the monarch butterflies is accurately developed and homogeneous, and the topic is brought to life through technically perfect photographs of persuasive creativity. So in the end Ingo Arndt's photographs were fractionally ahead although there was a number of exciting and photographically attractive portfolios which made it very difficult for the jury to reach a decision.
Many portfolios failed because photographers completely exhausted the possibility to submit 20 photographs. For example, in order to show as many photographs as possible three green pictures were combined with 12 otherwise great red pictures. Often less would have meant more. For the jury it was important that the photographs had an obvious connection with each other, the photographer displayed an idea, the general overview was harmonious, i.e. maintained the same aesthetic quality throughout, and / or an interesting aspect of natural history was covered.
In 2008 the Fritz Pölking Award will be awarded for the first time. The jury had the chance to look at a lot of interesting works and was delighted to see such an enormous creative capacity and journalistic interest for the natural world. Once photographers will have become more familiar with the contest and its photographically very interesting challenges, they will hopefully make the work of future juries even more interesting and more difficult.

Likewise for the first time, young photographers had the opportunity to enter their photographs in the Fritz Pölking Junior Award. The winning portfolio convinced the jury with interesting atmospheric photographs and good technical implementation. In these pictures it is obvious that the photographer devotes a lot of his time to the study of nature and nature photography not only during a holiday but also at home, at different times and continuously. This portfolio is an inspiration for other young photographers. In addition it is an example - just the same as the entire award - that there is a lot out there to be discovered and displayed. And it starts right in front of our door steps.