People's Landscapes: announcement of the winner

More than 150 European students took part to the first edition of the International Photographic Contest “People’s Landscape” launched by UNISCAPE.

The overall winner of the 2009/2010 edition of the contest is Enrico Lombardo - student of Project Architecture at Politecnico of Turin  - with the image “The cloud factory”.

The image has been chosen by a Jury composed by four landscape specialists:

• Annalisa Calcagno Maniglio, University of Genoa (Italy)
• Sasa Dobricic, University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia)
• Yann Nussaume, Ecole Nationale Supériore d'Architecture de Paris La Villette (France)
• Daniele Torreggiani, University of Bologna (Italy)

President of this Jury is the photographer William Guerrieri, coordinator of the association “Linea di confine per la fotografia contemporanea” (Rubiera, Italy).
 

The image of Enrico Lombardo has been chosen for its original interpretation of the concept of landscape according to the European Landscape Convention. The Jury commented on the picture:

"At first the picture may seem like a complaint to the disfigurement of nature caused by man and to some extent it is. However, upon closer examination it is not just this. Or is it?
The picture plays with the reconciliation of irreconcilable opposites, between contrast and affinity, between break and merge. In this case, there is a provocative and "burning" oxymoron natural-industrial landscape with a combination of grass, bush, sky, and factory. On one hand clearly distinct and mutually indifferent, yet on the other hand unexpectedly close and in touch.
The industrial area looks like a foreign body, an intrusion into the rural landscape, even if this does not show any distinctive or outstanding feature, and yet seems somehow aimed at achieving a close intimacy with the sky above. This link is probably created by water vapour, the most abundant element on earth: through this vapour, the factory seems to “feed” the clouds".
 

The Jury will also select two images that will be part of the front cover of UNISCAPE's publication “Landscape as a Project”, edited by Franco Zagari (2010).
Other photos will be used for UNISCAPE's brochure and website banner.
All the authors of the photos selected will be contacted by e-mail.
 

The award ceremony of “People's Landscapes” will be organised in November 2010.
More details will soon be available on this website.