© Elena Grashchenkova

UPR ROTTERDAM 2019

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU DID IT!

Thank you everyone who joined our third edition of the UPR ROTTERDAM. We had a lot of fun organising it and we hope you did too participating in it. Together we fought the weather as well as the long hours into the night. Nonetheless we saw many tired but smiling faces, and that's always a sign that we did our job well.

We hope you found the themes challenging enough and that you got to explore not only some new photography but also a chance to look at the city in a different way. We know that the first time is always more complicated and stressful, but we still hope you had a great time, that you had the chance to meet other photographers, learn and share your experiences.

These were the 2019 themes:
T1 (S,M,L) - Timing is everything
T2 (S,M,L) - Stranger than fiction
T3 (S,M,L) - We will meet again
T4 (M,L) - The real you
T5 (M,L) - All straight up
T6 (M,L) - Abandoned
T7 (L) - Go-getters
T8 (L) - Dark matters
T9 (L) - Night angels
T10 (L) - Early birds

As you can imagine, it takes some effort to organise such a day and we couldn't do it without the help of our local team as well as the support of our sponsors.

We would like to thank all of our partners who support us into making such an event: Sigma - Olympus - Kamera Express - Profotonet - Degreef & Partner - Van Duuren Media - 53 Graden Noord - Digifotopro - Amsterdam Photo Club

Also, we owe a great deal of our success to the local team, who made themselves available beyond expectations to get this done for you. To them, Iwona Montel, Arjan Boerlage and Jurgen Onland a big thank you!

I leave you with some snapshots of the day and below the Winners photo galleries, enjoy browsing through them, get inspired and see you all next year.

AWARDS

We know you don’t do it for the awards but still we like to offer you some extra incentive. This year and with the combined 3 formats + Olympus T&T we summed up well over 8000€ in awards. That’s pretty sweet and we’re very thankful to all our sponsors for such offers.

Race Format S

Best Photographer - 1st Place

Sigma - 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC OS HSM | Contemporary

Best Photographer - 2nd Place

Olympus - OM-D Messenger Bag
Profotonet - Photo print Dibond w/ alu frame - 40x60

Best Photographer - 3rd Place

Kamera-Express - F-Stop Fitzroy Aloe Drab Green bag

Jury Favourites

Van Duuren Media - Photo books

Race Format M

Best Photographer - 1st Place

Sigma - 35mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art

Best Photographer - 2nd Place

Olympus - Manfroto new bag
Profotonet - Photo print Dibond w/ alu frame - 50x75

Best Photographer - 3rd Place

Kamera-Express - Hama Statief “Trekking Duo”, 160 - Ball

Jury Favourites

Degreef & Partner - Carry Speed FS-Slim camerariem

RACE FORMAT L

Best Photographer - 1st Place

Sigma - 24-70mm F2.8 DG OS HSM | Art

Best Photographer - 2nd Place

Olympus - Olympus CBG-12
Profotonet - Photo print Dibond w/ alu frame - 70x105

Best Photographer - 3rd Place

Kamera-Express - Nikon Coolpix A900 black

Jury Favourites

Kamera-Express - Hoya Filters

OLYMPUS T&T COMPETITION

Best Photographer - S

Olympus - E-M10 Mark III

Best Photographer - M

Olympus - E-M10 Mark III

JURY

Julie Hrudova

Julie Hrudova (1988) was born in Prague but now lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has worked with a variety of publications, including CBS News, The Guardian and VICE News. Hrudova's work has also been exhibited in numerous shows, on an international scale. In 2017 she won the EyeEm Award in the Street Photographer category. In 2018 the Leisure series was awarded with the third prize at the Italian Street Photography Festival. Hrudova also works as photo editor at RTL News in The Netherlands and she is the founder of the StreetRepeat account on Instagram.

website

Kjell Leknes

He’s the manager of Amsterdam Photo Club; a fast growing local photography community with over 4.000 members. As a stock photographer and former community leader at Shutterstock, his photography focuses on creating high quality images using the latest photography trends that are in demand.

Website

Marc Driessen

Studied portrait and documentary photography at the Amsterdam Photo Academy, where he graduated with honors in 2008. Since graduating, he’s been a steady freelance photographer for the Dutch daily newspaper, Het Parool, and works for international titles such as El Pais and Le Monde, as well as a variety of commercial clients.

website

Merel Schoneveld

Merel Schoneveld, who lives in The Hague, Netherlands has taken street photographs since 2016. Capturing and collecting moments from the lives of complete strangers has since become a serious obsession for her. The challenge of finding something interesting in the most mundane moments and often having just a split second to fit it perfectly in the frame is something she finds very exciting. Merel's approach is very intuitive and focussed on storytelling, emotion, and composition.

website