POPCAP ’16: Outstanding African Photography
Intro
The international photography competition POPCAP is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 fifth anniversary edition. This year’s winners from South Africa, Jersey, England, France and Germany were chosen by an international panel of 20 renowned judges from 900 applications from 94 countries. The award aims to foster interest in and support for contemporary African photography. The winning artists will have their works presented at a series of international exhibitions and are invited to take part in an artists’ residency program.
POPCAP ’16 – THE WINNERS
Nicolas Henry
Born in 1978 in St Denis, France. Lives in les Mesnuls, France
Jason Larkin
Born in 1979 in London, England. Lives in London, England
Sabelo Mlangeni
Born in 1980 in Driefontein, South Africa. Lives in Johannesburg, South Africa
Thom Pierce
Born in 1978 in St Helier, Jersey. Lives in Cape Town, South Africa
Julia Runge
Born in 1990 in Berlin, Germany. Lives in Berlin, Germany
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
POPCAP aims to raise the profile of African photography within the arts and encourage a generally rethinking of the image of Africa. Every year five winners are selected by an internationally-sourced panel of judges, enabling the promotion of African photography worldwide. It is important to us that the judging panel be diverse, as this helps us to avoid geographically and culturally one-sided views of the portfolios. POPCAP is open to artists of any age and descent. Photographic series must consist of a minimum of 10 images, and may not exceed 25 images. There is no entry fee.
THE PRIZE
POPCAP, the piclet.org Prize for Contemporary African Photography, is directed at photographers whose work engages with the African continent and/or its diaspora. The prize consists of global exposure at major international photography exhibitions including POPCAP exhibitions at Image Afrique in Basel, Switzerland, at LagosPhoto Festival in Nigeria, at the FIFCV Festival Internacional de Fotografia de Cabo Verde and at Eyes On – European Month of Photography in Vienna. POPCAP always invites all winning artists to the main exhibition Image Afrique, which is held during Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. All winners and their respective portfolios are featured in the POPCAP catalog as well as in the piclet.org directory for hand-picked photographers’ portfolios. Each of the five awardees has the chance to participate in an artists’ residency and will be featured by many of our media partners.
In a nutshell: POPCAP is a prize that raises the winners’ international exposure and helps them to build a high-level network for future projects.
Information about how to enter can be found here.
THE PANEL OF JUDGES
The POPCAP panel of judges comprises 20 international experts from the field of photography and is reformed annually.
Shahidul Alam, director, Chobi Mela Photo Festival, Bangladesh
Akinbode Akinbiyi, artist, Berlin, Germany
Vignes Balasingam, director, Obscura Festival, George Town, Malaysia
Joselina Cruz, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art+Design, Manila, Philippines
Calvin Dondo, director, Gwanza Month of Photography, Harare, Zimbabwe
Florian Ebner, curator, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Steven Evans, executive director, FotoFest, Houston, USA
John Fleetwood, director, PHOTO, Johannesburg, South Africa
Benjamin Füglister, artist and founder of POPCAP, Berlin, Germany
Wassim Ghozlani, director, maison de l’image, Tunis, Tunisia
Yumi Goto, curator, Tokyo, Japan
Michket Krifa, curator, Paris, France
Missla Libsekal, editor in chief, Another Africa, Vancouver, Canada
Jeanne Mercier, publisher, Afrique in Visu, Paris, France
Rixon Reed, founder and director, photo-eye, Santa Fe, USA
Jürg Schneider, historian, Basel, Switzerland
Samuel Sidibe, director, National Art Museum, Bamako, Mali
Jae-hyun Seok, curator and editor, Seoul, Korea
Clara De Tezanos, director, GuatePhoto, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Dana Whabira, curator, Njelele Art Center, Harare, Zimbabwe
ABOUT POPCAP
POPCAP aims to raise the profile of African photography within the arts. Each year five winners are selected by an internationally-sourced panel of judges, enabling the promotion of African photography worldwide. It is important to us that the judging panel be diverse, as this helps us to avoid geographically and culturally one-sided views of the portfolios. Due to its extensive application in a day-to-day context, we consider photography to be the ideal medium through which to foster an unhindered exchange of ideas about the image of Africa.
POPCAP was initiated by Benjamin Füglister in 2012. For the fifth anniversary edition in 2016 we received a total of 900 submissions from artists from 94 countries. 54% of these applicants came from African countries, which is an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. The five prize winners works will be presented at a series of international exhibitions being held in collaboration with major photography festivals.
ORGANISATION
POPCAP is a project organization. The call for entries was initiated by Benjamin Füglister in 2012 in Berlin and the competition has been produced in collaboration with the non-profit association Liaison since 2013. The core team consists of artistic director Benjamin Füglister, administrative director Angela Nyffeler and international relationships manager Paul Geraghty. The team works closely with local partners for each event and is growing with every edition of the competition.
Further information can be found at www.popcap.cc.