The top is closing in: amateur photographers from the bamberg region are climbing higher and higher in the national finals of the prestigious blende photo competition. At the 44. For the first time, a photograph submitted on the french day made it into the top ten. And the photographer was a 14-year-old girl!
In the youth category for participants under 18, lara spiegel from grobniedesheim came in fifth with her picture. The girl titled her black-and-white photo "ben completely losgelost" – and in fact, a golden retriever on a lonely beach, looking into the camera with joy and energy, fits perfectly to the young people's motto "that moves me". As a reward, lara received several prizes, including a cool outdoor camera. A great 42. Tim abmann from bamberg also took first place in the youth category.
In the top 100 for the third time
But the works from bamberg also made a very good impression on the adults, and five made it into the prize-winning range. Alfred hinrichs is increasingly becoming the best representative of the region. The FT reader from bamberg has now made it into the top 100 nationwide for the third time in a row. As last year, when he finished in 20th place, he was once again the top-ranked FT participant in the deutschland finale. He came this time as 27. The police found the arm and were pleased to receive, among other things, a 360-degree camera.
His picture "forgotten wine" was created in 2018 during his visit to the bodega gonzalez byass in jerez de la frontera (spain). It shows the former tasting room, which has been untouched for decades – as the dust on the bottles makes clear. Hinrichs submitted the photo, appropriately enough, in the category "lost places".
Also in the front range landed jennifer alka from habfurt (60. Place), markus herterich from hirschaid (69. Place), stefanie witt from stegaurach (83. Place) and sylvia glaas from bamberg (106. Place). In total, there were again around 80,000 entries in the competition, in which more than 50 newspapers from all over germany took part.
Curiosity on the sidelines: the entries from the bamberg region by lara spiegel and alfred hinrichs, which were rated best by the federal jury, did not make it to the very first places in the FT jury's rankings. This proves that even with photos, tastes differ – and are allowed to do so.
New year, new competition
This will probably not change this year, when the aperture no. 45 invites participation.
The french day will participate again and is expected to announce in may the new categories and eligibility requirements.