Kolga Tbilisi Photo awards move online amid pandemic
A photograph from the project 'TRI-NA-KRIA' by Fabio Sgroi. Photo via Kolga Tbilisi Photo.
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This year's Kolga Tbilisi Photo awards are set to make a digital debut due to the limiting factors of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, with the contest scheduled to run next week.
The popular awards and connected displays, talks and portfolio reviews will move to online space between May 4-10, with the official website of the competition set up to host the events.
The central occasion for the 2020 edition, the awards ceremony, will be broadcast live by Artarea TV while updates will be brought to social media accounts of Kolga.
Photographer Yan Yugay will be introduced by the EPP Berlin platform at the contest. Photo via Kolga Tbilisi Photo.
In five categories, the jury panel will select recipients of prizes for documentary series, photo report, concept project, single shot and best photo captured using a smartphone. In addition, the Kolga Newcomer Award will go to a participant whose work is nominated for one of the five sections.
Exhibitions of photographs for this year's contest will involve displays of works by photographers including Martin Bogren, Finbarr O'Reilly, Nina Korhonen and Giorgi Shengelia.
The competition will involve a project presenting 1920s Georgian cinematography with exhibits from the National Archives of Georgia. Photo via Kolga Tbilisi Photo.
The five-member international jury panel will be composed of Tina Schelhorn, founding director and curator of Galerie Lichtblick in Cologne; Alan Griffiths, photography lecturer and founder of Luminous-Lint project; Régina Monfort, photography and visual book editor; journalist and ProfiFoto magazine editor-in-chief Thomas Gerwers and publishing editor and curator Eva Riesinger.
Beside digital expositions and the awards, amateur and professional photographers will be invited to portfolio reviews involving editors, curators and creatives - a customary element of the Kolga awards.
In addition, lecturer José Luís Neves will lead a discussion on "boundaries of photobook making", while photographer and filmmaker Clive Booth will talk about ingredients for creating photo portraits.
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