Presenting our final awards of the season

Audience award winners sometimes cannot fully appreciate their prizes, considering them to be definitely second-rate. However, experienced photographers say that such attitudes are prevalent mostly among those who are just beginning their professional careers and therefore see expert community’s recognition as an overarching goal. Professionals say that audience award is an unerring indicator that a photo has hit the mark, because in this case, the jury’s neutrality cannot be questioned. The audience is the jury, there are a lot of jurors, and their verdict’s main determinant is the photo’s ability to stir one’s soul, touch it, and prompt emotional response. Is it not a worthy prize to know that hundreds of people appreciate your work? It is even more so when this knowledge is also confirmed by gifts from Den, including photo albums, books of Den’s Library series, original postcards by our staff artist Anna Havryliuk and issues of our glossy supplement Route No.1…

Thus, most votes went to 10 photos: Admirer by Oleksandr Synytsia, Jury by Maksym Asauliak, Flowers of Life by Volodymyr Falin, Before the Concert by Andrii Nesterenko, The First ABC by Mykola Tymchenko, Support by Iryna Mandryka, Heat by Artem Slipachuk, Crossroads by Oleksandr Synelnykov, Together by Vasyl Pylypiuk and Crossroads by Olena Shovkoplias.

“The audience award is primarily a proof that the photographer has made right choice when selecting a picture for the competition. It turned out that my choice matched that of the audience, and I am pleased with that, because it means that my work’s general direction is right and I do understand to some extent what today’s public needs and wants,” Falin told us. His Flowers of Life won the second highest number of votes among Den’s Exhibit visitors who were asked to name the best photo.

Remarkably, all 10 works are positive and cheerful in their outlook, as well as totally apolitical. People are longing for positive visual images and therefore voted for their own “agenda of good news.”

“We can only ‘thank’ Ukrainian press, which has already overfed people with negative news, for making people to come and choose a positive narrative,” Falin said. “When people visit the exhibition in their spare time, they are totally disinclined to see once more the press headlines and TV news stories featuring the politicians’ faces distorted with fury... They want to see something different, something positive. If they find it, they have not come in vain.”

Another favorite of dozens of visitors, Crossroads’ creator Synelnykov, told us that he had looked for a chance to take his winter picture on his friends’ balcony. “I shivered for more than an hour to make a good shot and capture an interesting image,” he said with a smile. His efforts were not in vain, as the audience fully appreciated this photo. “Everyone is happy when their effort’s results do not go unnoticed. Every creative work needs evaluation, providing an incentive for further development,” the photographer explained.

Some of the works most popular with the audience were created by Den’s own photographers. These are Tymchenko’s The First ABC and Slipachuk’s Heat. This means that our photographers are able to see and capture optimistic and kind images, even amid the nation’s stormy and very complicated social and political developments. Thus, Den itself is a winner of this audience award.