Young photography talent celebrated as KIU Photo Contest announces first winners

Still life moments, snaps of youth hanging out, monochromatic scenes of countryside and colourful portraits - some of the standout works by professional and amateur young photographers were celebrated on Tuesday as the winners of the first KIU Photo Contest were named on social media.

After three months and around 900 submissions, nine creatives were picked by the contest jury in three categories - sections for professionals and amateurs and a single-shot competition that was open to both. Photographers aged between 18-30 sent their work themed Georgia – Stories told with the images following organisers' call in November.

In the section for professional photographers, the three winning spots were taken up by Data Patatishvili, Saba Gorgodze and Tamuna Chkareuli. Their works were also showcased by the contest, with Patatishvili's First Prize-winning project Cognitive Poetry centred around an "exploration of personality development through visualisation", Gorgodze's Imaginary World comprised of fragments of Georgian youth life, and Chkareuli's Forcefully Displaced Memories dedicated to the topic of IDPs being left without memories of their former homes after conflict.

'Colourful Reflections', a series by Nata Kantaria, ended up taking one of the three prizes in the amateur section. Photo via KIU Photo Contest.

Equally diverse subjects were reflected by winning works in the category for amateurs. Mariam Giunashvili was selected for the First Prize with her series of photographs of young partygoers, taken during her time as a bartender and kept as remembrance for "what we were like".

Photographs illustrating customs and relations - with particular attention to patriarchal cultural norms - of an eco-migrant community in Georgia, snapped by Giorgi Dundua in black and white, were awarded the second place in the section. The photographer titled the project Maradisi: Happy and Aching in an effort to reflect the dual fate of the people who established their new village of the same name.

The third spot in the amateur section went to Nata Kantaria, whose Colourful Reflections capture people memorised with hues associated with them on film. Kantaria said in her summary for the series she had taken the snaps as part of her habit of assigning colours to personalities in her life.

Mano Svanidze was awarded by the juries for her portrait of a transgender woman in the One-Shot contest. Photo via KIU Photo Contest.

Freelancing amateur photographer Juba Karmazanashvili earned the First Prize of the One-Shot category with his monochromatic snow-immersed countryside scene, while Sandro Siamashvili's photograph of a moment between two people on storm-engulfed coast, and Mano Svanidze's portrait of a transgender woman were selected as the two other winners.

A project coming out of the recently launched Kutaisi International University - an ambitious educational project in Georgia's west - KIU Photo Contest saw a jury panel involving Georgian and foreign professionals deliberating over submissions. The judges were Georgia's own award-winning photographer Natela Grigalashvili, Magnum Photos' Thomas Dworzak, Washington Post Director of Photography MaryAnne Golon, LagosPhoto Director Azu Nwagbogu and Vogue Italia Visual Director Alessia Glaviano.