The gash by Fabrizio Stefani, winner of the 18th Fondation Grand Paradus photography competition
It was this year Fabrizio Stefani to get the first prize of 18th photography competition “Upside down” organized by the Fondation Grand Paradis.
Titled “The Gash”, the image immortalizes four dippers protagonists of a play of light and water suspended between the visible and the invisible. The shot will be officially presented and awarded during the dedicated evening scheduled in Cogne next Saturday 27 July in conjunction with the 27° Gran Paradiso Film Festival.
In addition, it will be used as communication material relating to the summer film festival as well as projected between the months of July and August on LED wall screens between Cogne and Valsavarenche.
The jury’s motivation
The “Sottosopra” photography competition had photographers as its expert examiners Enzo Massa Micon, Paolo Rey And Giorgio Marcoaldi as well as the president and director of the Fondation Grand Paradis, respectively Corrado Jordan And Luisa Vuillermoz.
What convinced them of the artistic validity of the shot was in particular the idea of the lively but at times mysterious group of dippers seen through the transparency of a waterfall. In addition, as specified in the evaluation note, «this image captures the essence of wild life, reversing the point of view and connecting the pullets not with the element of air but with the primordial element of water».
The experts then continue: «The impeccable composition and the ability to capture the emotion of the moment give this photograph an extraordinary narrative power».
Zorro, by Massimo Arcaro, second place
The other winners of the photography competition “Upside down”
Focused on the theme of “Upside Down” understood as a search for alternative points of view on nature, the Fondation Grand Paradis photography competition had as its second classified image “Zorro” by Massimo Arcaro.
Depicting a fox wrapped in a blurred whiteness, it has the animal’s eye as its beating heart, capable of «catalysing the attention of the observer, suspended between the visual dimension and the emotion of waiting», a gaze which in turn «it shapes a scene with highly evocative tones».
The mythological guardian of the Park by Ubaldo Franco Mantegazza third place
Instead, she placed third “The mythological guardian of the Park” by Ubaldo Franco Mantegazza, capable of leading the observer «into an arcane and mysterious world guarded by an austere and solemn guardian, whose shape is accentuated by a play of shadows and reflections that outline his profile»; Above all, the creation is applauded for «the originality of the point of view, obtained with a ninety-degree rotation of the shot, which allows the static nature of the form to dialogue with the flexibility of the imagination».
(dd)
