8th Vevey International Photo Award, 2011-2012

After having looked at some 820 applications from more than 50 countries, the jury has decided to give the 8th Vevey International Photo Award to the artists Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh and Rozenn Quéré. Vies possibles et imaginaires, is a unique and poetical vision of four old Palestinian women in exile. Combining family photographs and photomontage, this work will depict, with irony and tenderness, the gap between reality and fantasy with the history of Lebanon in the background.

The jury also gave the following prizes:

-The Spanish photographer Fernando Moleres received the Leica prize (Reportage) for Juvenile behind bars in African prisons. These classical and strong photographs portray the violence, promiscuity and the numerous daily problems that occur in the overpopulated prisons of Africa.

-The Boncolor Prize (Light) was given to the Swiss photographer Anne Golaz to reward the technical quality of her work that enables to create mysterious and dramatic atmospheres. The proposed project, Metsäta (From the Woods), is a photographic exploration of the relationship that Finland has with its forests.

-This year, the jury expressed the desire to reward the German artist Frederick Vidal with a Special Prize for his graphic approach to the problem of pollution. Entropia is a look at the natural disasters and ecological problems with images that create visual parallels between microscopic views and photographic landscapes.

This year jury was composed of:
Andres Serrano, photographer, New York
Clément Chéroux, curator, cabinet de la photographie, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Marloes Krijnen, director of the photography museum Foam, Amsterdam
Christian Lutz, photographer, winner of the Vevey International Photography Award in 2009-2010, Geneva
James Reid,photography director, Wallpaper*, London.

Zürich photographer Christian Riis Ruggaber won the Nestlé - Festival Images Award, which fosters the creation through a partnership between the artist, the Festival and Nestlé.