My choices for Portfolio Review in Bratislava in November 2014

Each contest has its own laws and principles. More than two dozen judges in November 2014 on Portoflio in Braislava chose three winners.

The winners of Portfolio review 2014:
1. Zuzana Pustaiova (SK), she is going to have an exhibition during Month of Photography 2015
2. Lara Ciarabellini (It), Wim de Schamphelaere (Bel)
3. Klaus Pichler (At)

You can see The best of Portfolio on Vimeo.

There were many good photographers. I will mention some of them: Loli Kantor, "Beyond the Forest. Jewish Presence in Eastern Europe 2004-2012", Thomas Schild with new approach to Gipsies in "To be beautiful Gypsy", 2009-2014, Bibiana titled "Irene" (2011) about some days after hurricane, Tina Remiz, "Where the Pigons Roost", since 2013, with sill lifes' and nostalgic atmosphere childhood.

But my choices are a different. The best in my private opinion was Wim de Schamphelaerewith very strange and simply in our normal view using electronic montage of landscapes, buildings and proud people. He shows Africa which I don't see to this time. Is this photography post-colonial or not? Yes, but Wim shows how he loves disinterestedly simply people. How marvellous is your his technique. Very important is in this case a huge format his panoramic pictures a new kind of painting not worse than Andreas Gursky's f.e. famous "Rhein".

Wim de Schamphelaere, Black Madonna, Madagascar, 2009

Wim de Schamphelaere, Kenso (Ethiopia), 2009-2011

Wim de Schamphelaere, The Longhouse, (Sao Tom & Principe), 2009-2011

Wim de Schamphelaere,Borea, (Ethopia), 2009-2011

On my 2-nd position I voted for known German photographer Thomas Kellner which had created a new method to combine architecture views with historical approach. It's postmedial photography come back to conceptual thinking as a new language of visual arts. He wrote about his credo: "I want to break manifold ways of perception to my audience. My main interests have always been in finding strong visual languages that are powerful enough to tell us something about their subjects that more "realistic" images cannot do. Right from the beginning of my studies, my basic interest was in experimental and conceptual photography. I created different pinhole series, photogram work and printings in alternative techniques, such as cyanotype, saltpaper and others". it is his method a new deconstructive technique? I am not sure but Kellner wanted deconstructed modernistic architecture. It's is obvious. It's a new method in rationalization of deep photographic medium but not alternative technique how is speculating Kellner.

Thomas Kellner,

And of the 3-rd position I voted for Nicola Mihow Bulgarian photographer with monumental project forget your Past ed socialistic architecture in Bulgaria with very traditional but very good style black&white photography. He wanted understand old utopian history, rationalized it if it's possible. He showed me two different cycle and was very interesting too. He wrote about own project :"Forget Your Past , 2009-2012, The project Forget Your Past traces the fate the most important communist-era monuments in Bulgaria. The title of the series is borrowed from graffiti writing over the entrance of the Bulgarian Communist Party Memorial at Mount Buzludja that poignantly illustrates their faith. Constructed at enormous expense as expressions of national pride, today most of them are looted and neglected. Whether they commemorate the feats of the Soviet Army or the April Uprising against the Ottoman rule, they all share a common fate – to be silent symbols of the forgotten past. After the political changes in 1989, a number of iconic communist-era monuments have been dismantled, but more than a hundred of them remained standing. Nevertheless, most of archives relevant to their history have been destroyed. I began my research in 2009, travelling through the country, talking to people, interviewing sculptors and architects, digging through archives, and of course, taking photographs.