Honorable Mention
The statue
DESCRIPTION
The main challenge in this type of contest is to choose among dozens of photos the one you consider as being your "best" photo and hope to be among the finalists and possibly get an award for your work. I leave the choice to the jury to appreciate the artistic and technical quality of this picture. I chose "the statue" because it best reflects the recent evolution of my style and the way I work in artistic nude photography. First of all, it is the result of team work because a good friend of mine, a photo artist and lecturer, coached me with lighting, natural light for the most part. Second, the choice of color. This picture is also available in monochrome but this color version reflects the atmosphere of the moment and location much better. Third, the location. After having worked in many classical studios with paper backdrops, I now work more and more in less traditional studios to be able to create a story more easily around the picture, here a factory in Budapest that has been transformed in several studios, each one with its own theme. Fourth, the square format that is not used that often in photography allows me to eliminate what is superfluous in the picture and focus on the story. When retouching, my idea was to integrate the model as a statue in the floral setting. The credit for this photo certainly goes to Dorka, a talented model based in Hungary. I asked her to improvise and she chose this pose inspired by the special atmosphere in this studio. AUTHOR
Eric is a French amateur photographer who is considered by many to be more of a photo artist, not least because of his style and the international awards he has received in recent years. He creates most of his nudes in Germany, Hungary, and Croatia.Venusonearth has been his project for 20 years. It consists of his website, his presence in social media, and his participation in international contests. Eric’s track record includes prints in magazines like PHOTO in France, VIEW in Germany, several books from the Trierenberg super circuit and Dodho, Motiva, and contest catalogues. Recent awards include being the 3rd place winner at Monovisions 2023 and a Gold winner at the Muse Photography Awards. Many honorable mentions are among his other references. His participation in PSA-sponsored competitions has been rewarded with several gold medals. Back in 2012, his own exhibition took place at the Miskolci Fotógaleria in Miskolc, Hungary.
Eric has been able to evolve from mainstream to artistic photography thanks to three artists. Back in the late 90s, he practiced high-quality photography with the German photographer Arboulan. In 2004, he started to learn from the Hungarian artist Szeni Jung at the so-called Sebesviz workshop, a summer camp he's attended more than ten times since. He is now being coached by Sandor Benkoe, also an Hungarian artist.
Today, Eric has worked with more than 100 amateur models and succeeded in getting international recognition. The best way to describe what has become his passion is a quote from Richard Avedon he read in 2023 at an exhibition in Palermo, Sicily: “If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up".
