More than 65 Thousand Photos: Submissions for the RGS Competition "The Most Beautiful Country" Are Closed

Фото: Владимир Мельников, участник конкурса "Самая красивая страна"
Фото: Владимир Мельников, участник конкурса "Самая красивая страна"

At midnight on April 6, closed the submissions for the VII Photo Contest of the Russian Geographical Society "The Most Beautiful Country". In 143 days, authors from different countries had sent 65,661 photographs, of which 7225 were by children.

This year, for the first time, it was possible to submit not only photographs to the competition, but also videos up to three minutes long. 1418 such works were received. The best video will be awarded a special prize "Behind the scenes".

Photos for the VII Photo Contest of the Russian Geographical Society "The Most Beautiful Country" were accepted in ten categories: "Landscape", "Wild Animals", "Those Funny Animals", "Russia from a Bird's Eye View", "Art of Wildlife (fine-art photography)", "Many Faces of Russia", "Taken on a Smartphone ", "Photo Project", "Live Archive" and "Magic of Water".

The most popular category was "Landscape" – 21,295 works. The second most popular was "Taken on a Smartphone" – 15,579 photos. A real struggle unfolded for third place, which went to  "Magic of Water" (4735). It was closely followed by "Wild Animals" (4728).

The children's competition of the Russian Geographical Society "The Most Beautiful Country through the Eyes of Children" has four categories. Most of the works of photographers under the age of 16, similarly to the adults’ competition, were sent to the "Landscape" category – 4121 pictures. "Animal World" (1222) came second; "Macroworld" (1144) – third; "The World of People" (738) – fourth.

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Фото: Николай Третьяков, участник конкурса "Самая красивая страна"
Фото: Николай Третьяков, участник конкурса "Самая красивая страна"

An expert commission of 17 professional photographers and photo editors will select ten finalists in each category for adults and five in each category for children by April 30. Before the end of June, a jury meeting will be held, where the winners and the holders of second and third places in each category will be announced.

The Jury of the photo competition traditionally includes well-known public figures and artists, recognized domestic and foreign masters of photography and cameramen, including: Sergei Gorshkov, Viktor Tyakht, Maxim Marmur, Thorsten Milse, Florian Ledoux, Marco Urso and Philippe Ros.

The Jury also includes theater and film actors Sergei Garmash, Vladimir Mashkov and Anton Shagin, founder of the Lumiere Brothers Gallery and the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography Natalia Grigorieva-Litvinskaya, director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Marina Loshak, cosmonaut Ivan Wagner.

The Jury is traditionally headed by Konstantin Leifer, a photo editor, associate professor at the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design at the Higher School of Economics.

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Фото: Илья Степанов, участник фотоконкурса "Самая красивая страна"
Фото: Илья Степанов, участник фотоконкурса "Самая красивая страна"

The adults will be awarded 250 thousand rubles. The young photographers will receive professional cameras as a gift.

In addition, Internet users will choose the winner of the “People's Choice Award” through an open vote on the site from May 3 to May 14. The partner of the competition – VTB Bank – will award the author of the best shot taken in the specially protected natural areas with a special prize "Reserved Russia". The Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation will present the “Russia in the Faces of the Older Generation” prize for the best photograph about the life of older people.

“The Most Beautiful Country” is rightfully considered the most ambitious Russian photography competition. In six years, more than half a million images took part in it. This time, as in previous years, it attracted many new authors. For the first time, 6039 participants presented their works to the Jury. Among them are 1116 children. To participate in the project, expensive photographic equipment is not required. The main rule is that all photographs must be taken on the territory of Russia.