A route through the centre of Amsterdam, six themes, three jurors and an exhibition at Dokzaal in December.
Every year the race goes to a new part of Amsterdam, and in 2017 the route ran through the busy city centre, along its streets, parks and squares, in search of the best series of the day.
New and experienced photographers raced together, and the day drew media attention: an audio podcast by Valérie Jardin with Maurice Vliegen, a video on Salto.nl's Festival Journaal and a video by Cafe Obscura.
New faces found out that this really is a race, one that takes energy all day, while the regular racers had become calmer and more selective. What the team valued most was how everyone helped each other with tips, motivation and feedback, even on such a tight schedule.
Over the years the most valuable thing has been the network of photographers that grew around the race. The team thanked Alicia Sanz and Beatriz Pineda for their help on race day, every checkpoint location, and every racer who turned the themes into photographs.
Huge thanks to the organizers for yet another brilliant UPR event!
The exhibition at Dokzaal
On Saturday 9 December the year closed at Dokzaal, with the winners in large format and every racer's photographs on the walls, and almost all thirteen winners received their prizes in person.
The series
Jurgen Onland
1st place
"I finally became an old guy" · Anton Corbijn
Theme 1
On track
Theme 2
Not close enough
Theme 3 · Best Theme
Noise
Theme 4
Timothy Luza
2nd place
"I finally became an old guy" · Anton Corbijn
Theme 1
On track
Theme 2
Not close enough
Theme 3
Noise
Theme 4
Hosing Lee
3rd place
"I finally became an old guy" · Anton Corbijn
Theme 1
On track
Theme 2
Not close enough
Theme 3
Noise
Theme 4
Guillaume Groen
"I finally became an old guy" · Anton Corbijn
Theme 1 · Best Theme
Marc Schager
Noise
Theme 4 · Best Theme
Michiel Witlox
On track
Theme 2 · Best Theme
Sergey Alimskiy
Body language
Theme 5 · Best Theme
Three photographers judged every series.
Heleen
PeetersPhotographer · picture editor · project manager, Paradox
Studied photography at London College of Communication after which completed an academic master degree in photographic studies at Leiden University.
Previous photographic projects have been exhibited in group and solo shows at numerous institutions such as Museum M (Leuven, BE), KBC Tower (Antwerp, BE), Felix Meritis (Amsterdam, NL), among many others.
In 2010 she launched her first self-published book ‘Amandla’, as part of an awareness campaign for AIDS orphans in South Africa. She was the picture editor of ‘Harmonie’ and curator at ‘The Art Department’ in Amsterdam. Currently Peeters works as project manager for Paradox, a Dutch documentary photography non-profit, on the production of ‘Turtle 1 – Building a car in Africa’ and ‘Welkom Today’.
Bas
LosekootArtist & photographer
Is a Dutch-born artist and photographer, concerned with socio-cultural issues in cities around the world. Working with cinematic apparatus, he is challenging our understanding of reality in everyday city-life as well as the limited narrative potential of representations of truth in documentary photography.
With an intuitive eye, he visualizes the human experience in modern megacities. His practice combines concepts of mobility, social geography and the cinematic. Bas Losekoot holds a BA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague and recently graduated for an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work has been exhibited widely in galleries and at festivals including New York Photo Festival, Voies-Off/Les Rencontres d’Arles and Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam.
Theo
NiekusStreet photographer · publisher
Works on the streets since the mid eighties. He worked on a Image-encyclopedia of behaviour in the public domain for some 16 years titled PASATIEMPO.
Two other publications are PASSANTEN and DAMRAK. He publishes his own photography magazine called REPORT.
Currently working on street-portraits.
The race day and the exhibition at Dokzaal, in photographs.
What the winners took home.
Best Theme
- Each themeBest Theme"I finally became an old guy" (Anton Corbijn), Guillaume Groen · "On track", Michiel Witlox · "Not close enough", Jurgen Onland · "Noise", Marc Schager · "Body language", Sergey Alimskiy · "Warm", Jurgen Onland. Each won a Van Duuren Media photo book + UPR prints.
Jury favourites
- 1 winnerJury favouritesHeleen Peeters selected Ellis Petri · Theo Niekus selected Marius van Pijpen · Bas Losekoot selected Rob van Hoorn. Prizes courtesy of Degreef & Partner.
Global Theme · "Water in the City"
- Each themeGlobal Theme · "Water in the City"1st, Robert de Bock · 2nd, Perle Laouenan-Catchpole · 3rd, Yvette de Bruin, each with Fokko Muller's "The Street" photo book + UPR prints.
With thanks to our partners.