For the fifth time Ringier was looking for the year’s best press photo. 53 photographers from seven countries submitted their favourites from the past year, to be judged by a jury of 14 experts. The photo “Speeding Up” by the 42-year-old Hungarian Zsolt Reviczky was chosen as the best photo of the year. Taken by Reviczky during a symbolic race in the city centre of Budapest for the Ringier newspaper Népszabadság, the photo was intended to demonstrate how little time people have to cross a street. He recalls: “It is incredible how fast city dwellers have to rush across streets today before the next wave of cars roars past. This is a particular problem for the elderly.”
Thomas Seelig, curator of the Winterthur Photo Museum and president of the jury, praises the photo as a record of a political and historic moment: “A group of people wearing race numbers crosses a wide access road into Budapest, gesticulating wildly and protesting in an entertaining way against the ridiculously short time that the traffic lights allow them to cross a dangerous road in Budapest. Zsolt Reviczky finds a fleet-footed and cheerful way to express a highly charged social issue. If the world around us is becoming faster and faster, our belief in speed – says the photographer – has its physical limits.”
Robert Bösch came in second place with his technically impressive mountaineering photo “Martin Mras, Corvatsch”. The photo was taken in perfect snow conditions in Engadin and printed with others in a report by the SonntagsBlick Magazine. “This is a great pleasure and honour for me! I have been working for Ringier magazines for many years and I know that photos in magazines are very significant,” explains Bösch. The photo “Afghan military drill” by the Czech photographer Stanislav Krupa? was nominated for third place. It depicts Czech and American soldiers at the allied military base in the Afghan province of Logar. The report on this camp was published in October 2009 in the Czech Ringier magazine Reflex.
The Ringier Photo Award has been bestowed since 2006 to honour outstanding photos published in one of Ringier’s publications. “The Ringier Photo Award not only goes to the photographers but also by extension to all those who take care of individual (journalistic) images in print or on the Internet and who promote and understand them as part of our visual communication, whether they are editors, art directors or even the readers who know how to appreciate exciting and well-presented information,” says Thomas Seelig about the Ringier Photo Award. The independent jury under his leadership comprised experts from eight countries, including editors-in-chief, art directors and photo editors.
Ringier Corporate Communications