The two NJP-photographers Marie Sjøvold and Monica Larsen have been selected for The European Photo Exhibition Award.
The European Photo Exhibition Award – epea for short – aims to create a free space where socially relevant topics concerning Europe are developed and discussed by talented photographers who live and work in Europe and who still are at an early stage of establishing themselves as professional photographers. 12 photographers have been selected and the results will be presented in a joint touring exhibition within Europe.
– The goal has been to bring out young photographers under the age of 35, all on an international level in photography, but that has not been seen internationally in the past, says Rune Eraker, curator and mentor for the Scandinavian photographers, to foto.no.
Specialists in photography
This initiative by the Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca (Italy), the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal), the Fritt Ord Foundation (Norway) and the Körber-Stiftung (Germany) aims to contribute to and to intensify dialogue within Europe. It also wants to support young European photographers at the beginning of their careers by providing international facilities.
Each foundation selects one curator – a specialist in photography – who is in charge of nominating three talented photographers, of taking on the role of mentoring and of curating the exhibitions.
The twelve photographers are given a period of six months to produce their body of work on the given subject in form of a photo essay. In addition, the twelve winning photographers receive a grant and participate in two workshops. These offer them the opportunity to work together with experts on the chosen topic and to exchange views and share working methods with the other European photographers and the four curators.
European identities
The first exhibition opening will be held in May 2012 at the House of Photography at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, followed by Paris during Paris Photo 2012, by Lucca during Lucca Photo Fest 2012 and at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo in 2013.
The European Photo Exhibition Award 01 focuses on the question of “European Identities”.
The four curators are Rune Eraker (freelance photographer, Oslo), Sérgio Mah (curator and sociologist, Lisbon), Enrico Stefanelli (artistic director Lucca Photo Fest, Lucca) and Ingo Taubhorn (curator at the House of Photography, Hamburg) and they have selected these 12 photographers:
Catarina Botelho (Lisbon, Portugal), José Pedro Cortes (Lisbon, Portugal), Gabriele Croppi (Milan, Italy), João Grama (Lisbon, Portugal), Monica Larsen (Oslo, Norway),Frederic Lezmi (Cologne, Germany), Pietro Masturzo (Naples, Italy), Hannah Modigh (Stockholm, Sweden), Davide Monteleone (Rome, Italy), Linn Schröder (Hamburg, Germany), Marie Sjøvold (Oslo, Norway) and Isabelle Wenzel (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
Read more at Fritt Ord and on the webpage of The European Photo Exhibition Award.