Swiss Photo Award: Photo festival with 45,000 Swiss francs in prize money for the best Swiss photographic works

This year, the selection of the nominees took place within the framework of a new formula, according to a statement on Wednesday: the international jury consisted of four jury teams, which in mid-February selected the 18 nominated photographic works from the entries and determined one winning work in each of six categories. The jury of the main prize, Frank Bodin, CEO of Euro RSCG, Urs Stahel, director of Fotomuseum Winterthur, and Barbara Stauss, founding member and picture director of Mare - the magazine of the seas, will select the winner of the Ewz-selection award from these outstanding works at the Opening Night.

The six category winners

The category winners this year include the following photographers: Zoe Tempest (Zurich) is awarded in the category Advertising (Photo Award of the VFG Association of Photographic Designers and the Swiss Professional Photographers and Photo Designers SBF), Sven Bänziger (Zurich) in the category Fashion (Photo Award of the magazine Bolero), Meinrad Schade (Zurich)in Editorial Photography (Photo Award of the Sonntagszeitung), Katalin Deér (St. Gallen) wins the prize for architectural photography awarded by Hochparterre, Joel Eschbach (The Umbrella Kid, Basel) wins that of the Julius Baer Foundation.
for Fine Art and Fred Merz (Geneva) the Alpa of Switzerland Photography Award in the Free category.

The nominees

The following photographers will be taking part in the show of the 18 best and in the competition for the main prize: Nico Ammann, Zollikon; Claude Baechtold, Ollon; Sven Bänziger, Zürich; Katalin Deér, St. Gallen; Thomas De Monaco, Zurich; Bianca Dugaro, Biel; Joel Eschbach, Basel; Roger Frei, Zurich; Andrea Good, Zurich; Hannes Henz, Zurich; Steeve Iuncker, Genève; Sandra Kennel, Zurich; Bruno Kuster, Lucerne; Fred Merz, Geneva; Meinrad Schade, Zurich; Zoe Tempest, Zurich; David Willen, Zurich; Armin Zogbaum, Zurich.

The professional juries

- In the categories Advertising and Fashion/Beauty/Lifestyle: Lukas Frei, Creative Director Jung
von Matt/Limmat and Joachim Baldauf, photographer, Hamburg;
- In the category Editorial Photography: Jean Révillard, photographe, directeur de l'agence
rezo, Genève and Thomas Meyer, photographer, managing director of the Ostkreuz agency in Berlin;
- In of the architecture category: Hans Danuser, artist, Meret Ernst, Hochparterre and Urs
Wolf, Architect Isa Stürm Urs Wolf SA
- In the categories Free and Fine Art Timothy Persons, Helsinki School, Helsinki, and Claudia Jolles, Editor-in-Chief of Kunstbulletin.

Large photo festival accompanying the exhibition from May 21 to 29, 2011 with 1st Zurich Photo Night

Parallel to the exhibition at Ewz-Unterwerk Selnau, numerous events will take place, such as the Portfolio Days, a platform for photographers looking for clients, or the Sofagepräche, where photographers will provide insight into their portfolios and their work. Professionals and photo aficionados can then take a closer look at the places where photography is made or marketed during the Open Days: for the first time, photographers open their studios, and clients such as agencies or photo editors open their offices to the interested public. At Unterwerk Selnau, Bank Julius Baer will present selected photographic works from its art collection, and The Impossible Project will show works by Swiss photographers on the new Impossible Polaroid films.

The evening program brings the public and photographers into contact with portfolio evenings, and renowned stars of today's photography, including Hannes Schmid,Paolo Pellegrin, Timothy Persons and Joachim Baldauf, present themselves at picture soirées.