Prestigio Technologies Ltd. has announced the winners of the 2nd International Contest of Artistic Photography “People – The Art of Life”.

The Jury considered more than 850 entries from photographers living in 33 countries of the world. People from 80 countries visited the contest website to browse the photo gallery. The Jury had an extremely challenging task of selecting just the 3 best images. One more winner was selected by popular vote at the contest’s website .

The Contest was open to photographers from around the globe, from all backgrounds, ages and levels of experience. The Prestigio Jury which included corporate designers and managers from 20 European countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.) however considered only the entries performed at a high artistic level and relevant to the contest theme “People – The Art of Life”.

The participating photographers faced a seemingly easy but at the same time daunting task of expressing the whole variety of life in one image. After long discussions the Prestigio Jury short-listed 50 best photos. They took part in the final voting which identified the winners.

Grand Prix
The photo which scored the highest number of points and eventually won the Grand Prix is titled simply “The Art of Life”. The author, Kirill Smirnov, lives in Ukraine. He likes to photo-hunt with his friends. One of such hunts in the centre of Kyiv proved to be especially fruitful bringing its author one of the most attractive Prestigio prizes – the portable multimedia recorder Prestigio PMR-701 capable of playing movies and TV on the go. Besides, the winner also won a $700 cash prize. His work will definitely become a gem of the Prestigio photo collection .

Children. The Art of Life.
The choice of the winning photo in the special category “Children – The Art of Life” was the most complicated task for the jury. It is in this nomination that the biggest number of photos were competing. Amongst them the works of Indian authors attracted special attention. 10 out of the 21 short-listed photos belonged to Indian authors. Eventually, the winning place was awarded to the image “Tribal Girl” by Madhu Gopal Rao Rama. He is a professional photographer and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Photography from the College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad. The winning photo is that of a tribal girl taken in Araku Valley, which is 600 km away from Madhu’s native city. He had extensively documented these tribes, their living conditions and traditions, and their Art of Living. Madhu will get an elegant leather external drive Prestigio Data Safe II and $300 in cash.

Prestigio in Art of Life.
In this special category the photos competed which best matched the “Prestigio style”. Among the 20 photos which made it to the second tour of voting, the Prestigio team finally chose the photo “Vogue” by Barbee Cain. The winner will get a leather external drive Data Safe II and 300$. That was the first contest in which Barbee took part and this is what she said about the origin of her lucky image, “The photo was chosen because it literally is Art applied to an individual. The entire piece is actually not clothing but applied artwork, what I like to call one-time-wear clothing. Everything from the outfit, jewelry and accessories I crafted and applied to her. We then went into a bar and I photographed her. This particular shot was done in a tiny phone booth with a small spot light on top to illuminate the shot. ”

User’s choice
In addition to the winners chosen by the Prestigio Jury, one of the prizes was set aside for the photo which would score the highest number of visitors’ votes. In this year’s contest visitors from Belarus showed enormous support for their fellow entrants, but only two photos clashed in fierce competition for the 1st place in this category. A small advantage tipped the scales in favour of the image “Students in Rome” by Nataly Morozova . She took the lucky shot during her recent tourist trip to Rome where she was amazed at how the local students displayed the Art of Life when reading up for exams.

The awarding of the winners will take place in July 2007 and then, just a couple of months later, in September, Prestigio will announce another traditional international contest of computer wallpapers. The contenders will be offered an interesting theme and get the chance to win amazing prizes.

All contest entries will be available for viewing in Prestigio’s Virtual Photo Gallery: http://art.prestigio.com/