Carol in Moscow … !
Real chuffed to learn overnight that my new and recent portrait of the amazin’, courageous and beautiful burns survivor Carol Mayer – entitled “The Skin I’m In” (below) – won a Second Place in the Portrait category of this years “Moscow International Foto Awards” (MIFA).
A buzz to once again be selected as a winner in the MIFA’s (last year it was a First Place in the ‘Moving Image’ category with the short film “Eyes – The Soul of a Photograph”) alongside much amazing photographic talent from around the planet. The MIFA’s this year attracted entries from a massive 85 countries. Some brilliant work listed amongst the winners this year … in particular … Mary F. Calvert and Michele Palazzo (USA), Sandra Hoyn and Tom Jacobi (Germany), Danillo Balducci (Italy), Younes Mohammad (Iraq), and Sergey Ponomarev (Russia) … and more.
I’m so, so grateful to Carol for fearlessly agreeing to pose as she did for me in this new portrait … I’ve had this image ‘in my head’ now for some time and it’s almost a relief to actually complete it and now be able to let it go. (It’s the second time that Carol has featured in the “Moscow International Foto Awards” … my portrait of Carol focused on her wonderful eyes from a few years back won an Honourable Mention in the 2014 ‘MIFA’ Portrait contest.)
“The Skin I’m In” … along with the other powerful winners work … will be shown at the Moscow Na Kashirke Gallery (Галерея “На Каширке”, Москва, ул.Ак.Миллионщикова, д.35, корп.5) from the 20th July till the 7th August.
Image © Brian Cassey 2016
Moscow, Moscow …
… Thanks to a congratulatory Facebook post from AP photographer and mate Mark ‘Crusty’ Baker, I learnt that my image “Tomotaro on the Block” has been announced as Second Place (Silver) Winner in the ‘Editorial Sport’ category of the 2019 Moscow International Foto Awards (MIFA) … and will be shown at the Moscow Photocenter, Gogolevsky Boulevard, 8 Moscow (119019, г.Москва, Гоголевский бульвар, д.8) from the opening event on 19th June to the 24th June. (The original notification from ‘MIFA’ ended up in my ‘Junk’ folder … Thanks Crusty!)
Sadly … as much as I’d like to … I can’t make it to Moscow to see it and the other winners on show. (unless someone out there feels inclined to donate a return airfare 😉 ! … NB … I haven’t yet visited Moscow !)
As I bit of compensation, however, it turns out that I also received a ‘Highly Commended’ for another of my images … “Victims of Sorcery – Dorcas” in the ‘Editorial Conflict’ category … a combined result that almost mirrors that of a few months ago in the 2019 Tokyo International Foto Awards (see post ‘Two Up in TIFA’ here). Gratified that both these images have so far picked up several accolades between them.
The image of Tomotaro was made whilst covering the Pan Pacific Para Swim Games in Cairns (for the Canadian swim team) … whilst the image of Dorcas was made whilst working on a story on sorcery and witchcraft in Papua New Guinea for News Ltd’s News 360.
Below … the two awarded images from the “Moscow International Foto Awards” web site (click on each to take you to the full web site page) … Images © Brian Cassey