WPC 2015

Oficiálne výsledky World Photographic Cup 2015

Montpellier, France, April 12th, 2015

Peter Bagi Master QEP, Natália Benčičová, Raťo Blaško, Pavol Delej, Lucia Eggenhofer, Norbert Eggenhofer, Stanislava Hricová, Martin Krystýnek QEP, Gabriel Lipták QEP, Matej Michalík, Ján Štovka Master QEP, Mária Švarbová, Vlado Veverka, slovenskí fotografi, ktorí sa zúčastnili celosvetovej súťaže World Photographic Cup a vďaka štyrom finalistom zabezpečili Slovensku vynikajúce siedme miesto, o ktoré sa podelili s fotografmi z Francúzka.

Body pre slovenský tím získali: Natália Benčičová, ôsme miesto v kategórii portét, a v kategórii Landscape Ján Štovka Master QEP, piate miesto, Matej Michalík siedme miesto a Gabriel Lipák QEP, desiatete miesto.

Slovensko má v sútaži zastúpenie aj v organizačnom tíme. Martin Vrabko Master QEP, spoluzakladateľ súťaže je zárovaň aj predseda poroty. Martin Vrabko odovzdal hlavnú trofej, Svetový pohár, víťaznému tímu z USA. Na druhom mieste sa umiestnil tím z Portugalska a tretiu priečku si odnášajú fotografi z Austrálie.

Martin Vrabko k výsledkom súťaže povedal: „Som nesmierne rád, že sa mladým slovenským fotografom podarilo presadiť v tak náročnej a vysoko kvalitne obsadenej súťaži. Obzvlášť by som vyzdvihol úspech slovenskej krajinárskej fotografie, kde sme získlali 100% účasť vo finálane na bodovaných miestach. Verím že tieto výsledky povzbudia a podporia ku kreativite a spolupráci dalších fotografov a další ročník slovenský tím dosiahne na ešte vyššie méty.“

World Photographic Cup je celosvetová súťaž tak individulánych fotografov ako aj tímov, organozivaná pod hlavičkou FEP (Federation of European Photographers), PPA (Professional Photographers of America), UAPP (United Asia Professional Photography) and AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photography).

The World Photographic Cup 2015 winners announced!
Gold medals went to Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and USA.
Defending champion Team USA won the World Photograhic Cup.

Individual winners and the Cup winning Team of the 2015 World Photographic Cup (WPC), sponsored by the FEP – Federation of European Professional Photographers, PPA – Professional Photographers of America, the UAPP – United Asian Professional Photography and the AIPP – Australian Institute of Professional Photography, has been finally announced on April 12th, in Montpellier, France, aside Les Rencontres de la Photographie Professionnelle, organized by the French professional association (GNPP).

27 national photographic teams entered the second edition of this unique, one of a kind Olympics-styled competition, from 4 continents (18 from Eastern and Western Europe, 5 from Asia, 2 from North America and 2 from Oceania).

The Golden medals in the six categories went to:
Ben Shirk (USA), for portrait and wedding (Ben also got a silver medal in the illustrative category!)
Diogo Freitas (Portugal), illustrative category (Diogo also won a bronze medal in the commercial category).
Koen De Langhe (Belgium), for Landscape
Amber Griffin (New Zealand), for the commercial category
Roberto Alonso Quintana (Spain), for Reportage/Photo Journalism

Also appears in the medals table: silver Andre Brito (Portugal) and bronze medalist Evgeni Kolesnik (Ukraine), for the portrait category; Kenneth Martin (silver, USA) and Mauricio Abreu (bronze, Portugal) for the landscape/wild life; Anuchai Secharunputong (Thailand), a bronze medal in the illustrative, silver Marcos Rodriguez (Spain) and bronze Joshua Holko (Australia) for the photo-journalism reportages, James Simmons (silver, Australia) and Antti Karppinen (bronze, Finland) for the wedding pictures, and finally Hannes Kutzler, (Austria), silver medalist in the commercial category.

While gold, silver, and bronze medals have been awarded to the individual creators in each category, teams were awarded points for top ten finishes. They received 10 points for gold, 9 for silver, 8 bronze and that follows to the tenth top image. The top ten positions were decided literally on decimal points which suggests a very, very tight team competition.

They finished the competition in a two-way tie for the 9th place Norway and Czech Republic, and in another two-way tie in 7th place France and Slovakia. All alone in 6th place, New Zealand. In 5th place Austria, and in a 4th place, just close to the podium, Spain.
The third place trophy, with 2 medals and 8 top-ten finishes, went to Team Australia.
The second place trophy, with 4 medals and 7 top-ten finishes went to Team Portugal.
And the winner of the 2015 World Photographic Cup with 4 medals and 9 top-ten finishes, for the second year on a row, is Team USA.

“Congratulation to Team USA and all the winners. An incredibly close competition is exactly what the WPC committee could hope for, commented the Chairman of WPC Judging Committee Martin Vrabko”, who also tanked the 27 team coordinators and the 15 international judges for their amazing job.. “All countries having great entries and all countries “dancing with tenths of points” to determine the winner. It has been exciting to see such a great images coming from around the globe, and really hard to judge them! “

“It’s a unique feeling coming out from a unique competition” – added Giuseppe Scozzi, WPC Chief Executive. “ And it is amazing to see great photographers and their proud associations’ representatives standing tall and expressing the pride they have in their country and the passion in their craft. We are grateful to our French colleagues of the GNPP to have hosted and perfectly organized such a prestigious event.”

The WPC CEO also announced that after the celebration made in USA in 2014, and France this year, the next hosting countries will be Australia in 2016 and Japan in 2017.

He finally added that 2 important companies related to the photographic market, CHROMALUXE and KOYLAB will be proudly supporters and “friends” of the WPC for the next two years.

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The WPC was founded in 2013 as a cooperative effort by The Federation of European Photographers (FEP) and Professional Photographers of America (PPA). Its singular goal is to unite photographers in a spirit of friendship and cooperation.

The WPC is governed by an international committee, formed by Jørgen Brandt (Denmark), Dennis Craft (USA), Don Dickson (USA), Kylie Lyons (Australia), Don MacGregor (Canada), Noboru Okamoto (Japan), Bruno Vetters (Belgium), and Martin Vrabko (Slovakia), Chairman of the Judging panel.

Each country can only be represented by one team, which is created by a national association comprised of professional photographers. Each team picks its own photographers and images to enter.

Teams submit up to three images in each of six categories: Portrait, Wedding, Commercial (including advertising, architecture, industrial, fashion), Illustrative/Digital art, Reportage/Photojournalistic and Landscape/Wildlife. Teams may choose to enter the images of a single photographer in multiple categories. However, no single photographer may have multiple images entered into a single category

Pictures attached by Didier Law photographer
For other pictures of the ceremony visit the WPC facebook page:
For further information please contact:
Giuseppe Scozzi – WPC, Chief Executive Officer –  www.worldphotographiccup.org