Aussie…Aussie…Aussie…Team Australia wins the World Photographic Cup 2019!
After a second place last year in the home edition, in 2019 Team Australia wins its first WPC! Second place trophy went to USA, defending champion, with Mexico in the third place. In Norway, at the end of the celebration for the 125 anniversary from the foundation of the Norges Fotografforbund, the World Photographic Cup 2019 winners have been announced on April 8th in the historical “Drammens Teater”, in Drammen.
The WPC competition is truly a global organisation unlike any other in professional photography. This year 32 national photographic teams entered the edition n.6 of this one-of-a-kind competition, from Europe, Asia, North & South America and Oceania. This was the most ever.
All individual winners, the “Best of Nation” and the top 10 teams of the 2019 World Photographic Cup (WPC), have been announced and presented with their awards. The Ceremony has been broadcast online and watched from around the world.
Gold medal winning images
Individual gold medals for the 6 categories of the competition went to photographers from Australia, Finland, Malaysia, Mexico and USA (2), with Canada, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and The Netherlands also joining the medal circle. All winning images, thanks to the WPC Gold Sponsor ChromaLuxe will be visible for 4 weeks at the Fotografien Hus in Oslo.
Lists of medals winners – in the actual order of rank (from Gold to Bronze)
COMMERCIAL: Patricia Soon Mei Yung (Malaysia), Dusan Holovej (Slovakia), Mark Engelen (The Netherlands)
ILLUSTRATION: Onni Wiljami Kinnunen (Finland), Nicolas Boutruche (France), Diogo Freitas (Portugal)
NATURE: Christian Vizl (Mexico), Michael Smith (Australia), Richard Horák (Czech Republic)
PORTRAIT: Erich Caparas (USA), Damien Bowerman (Australia), Victoria West (Canada)
REPORTAGE: Michael Teo (Australia), Per Ekdahl (Sweden), Lacey Barratt (Australia)
WEDDING: Michael Loizzi (United States), Felix Barra (Mexico), Yeo Tun Boon (Malaysia)
The TOP 10 TEAMS circle!
The top 3 scores in each category receive medals. But the Top 10 scores in each category count towards their country’s team total (10 points for the Gold, 9 for the Silver, and so on. So every photographer whose image ends up in the Top 10 contributes points to their team’s total).
2019 Cup Winner Australia: 56 point, 4 medals (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze) and 3 Top 10 finishers
Second place USA: 40 points, 2 Gold medals, and 4 Top 10 finishers
Third place Mexico: 38,5 points, 1 Gold and 1 silver medal, and 5 Top 10 finishers
4th place Malaysia: 32 points, 1 Gold and 1 Bronze medal, and 3 Top 10 finishers
5th place Finland: 29,5 points, 1 Gold medal and 6 Top 10 finishers
6th place Slovakia: 15 points, 1 Silver medal and 2 Top 10 finishers
7th place Spain: 12 points, 3 Top 10 finishers
8th place Sweden: 11 points, 1 Silver medal and 1 Top 10 finisher
2 way tie at the 9th place Czech Republic: 10 points, 1 Bronze Medal and 2 Top 10 finishers and The Netherlands: 10 points, 1 Bronze Medal and 3 Top 10 finishers.
The complete list of winners and their pictures are available , click below:
Winners
32 Best Of Nation Gallery
The pictures of the Ceremony will be also available soon.
Reactions
AUSTRALIA – John Swainston, President of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP).
“Oh my goodness! That is absolutely brilliant! It goes to show that entering every year enables a nation’s entries to grow in quality. Having finished on the podium three times previously, now our team has won. On top of hosting WPC in Sydney in 2018, tonight’s win is a tribute to our Australian Team, to the hard work of our Team Captain, Sue Lewis, and to the AIPP members who’s fine work enabled us to submit so many excellent images. AIPP also congratulates all of the other finalists and a gives a huge thank you to the organisers, host nation Norway and sponsors Chromaluxe and Koylab for making it all possible.”
USA – Audrey Wancket, President of Professional Photographers of America
“The 2019 World Photographic Cup in Drammen, Norway represented everything that is good about the photographic industry. Photographers from all over the world sharing their talents, experience, and friendship. This is the photographic industry at its best -there is nothing else like this in photography. Of course, we express our deepest congratulations to our friends with Team Australia who put together a beautiful combination of images. They are very deserving of this year’s World Cup. We are already excited about the opportunity to compete along side with all of our friends in the worldwide photographic community again next year!”
MEXICO – Marian Bliss Blake, Team Captain of the Team Mexico
“Mexico is ecstatic to be participating for the 4th consecutive year in what truly is the Olympics of Photography. Participating in this world wide competition has not only allowed our photographers to grow in talent to unprecedented levels, but also to make good friends around the world. We look forward to continuing to participate in the World Photographic Cup & seeing it grow globally.”
Truls Løtvedt, President of Norges Fotografforbund Association of Norway, Host Event Country. “What an outstanding performance from the Australian team this year! Wonderful images resulting into a well deserved 1st place. And what a great event in prestigious Drammens Teater, honoring all the winners in a fabulous way. We, the Norwegian association NFF, love having been chosen to host this incredible competition award ceremony, and look forward to competing for the WPC again the coming years. Well done, Aussies!”
Giuseppe Scozzi WPC Chief Executive. “There is not in the world a program with photography like this, which is able to conjugate international fellowship and national pride, and moreover respect for professional photographers worldwide”. The WPC CEO also thanked the Norges Fotografforbund for having organized such a beautiful event, and announced that the dates and venue of the next WPC announcements will be announced in a very short while. “We received candidacies from the Americas, Asia and Europe for hosting the next editions, and the WPC governing committee is at work to define who will be the hosting countries and towns for the next 3 editions”. He finally thanked the WPC gold sponsors ChromaLuxe and KoyLab, two important companies related to the photographic market, for their continuous support to the project and to the professional photographers around the globe.