KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2018 Winner announced!

Since 2010 KAUNAS PHOTO festival KAUNAS PHOTO STAR, an open competition aimed at distinguishing tomorrow’s photography stars. KAUNAS PHOTO Open Call was a huge success bringing almost 300 proposals of photographers from 43 countries of the world. Based on votes of 10 international experts, 12 Finalists were identified. The committee of KAUNAS PHOTO festival and Kaunas Photography Gallery selected the Winner.

This year KAUNAS PHOTO STAR gained a new format staging an exhibition of all twelve Finalists. The exhibition is on display at three Kaunas old town venues: Kaunas City Museum, Folk Music Branch Department, “Meno Parkas” gallery and Kaunas Photography Gallery. The Winner of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR competition received a solo exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery and a 2500 Eur monetary prize.

On 1st of September, at 6 pm, together with life music played by quintet of The Lithuanian Air Force, the doors of Kaunas Photography gallery was opened. The KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2018 Winner became Simon Menner (Germany) for a series “Camouflage”. The director of Mobilisation and Civil Resistance Department under MND Virginijus Vitalijus Vilkelis cogradulated the author and gave him a present – medal of the Ministry. Festival director Mindaugas Kavaliauskas emphasizes that “Camouflage” is special because it invites visitors to a gripping and interactive experience. It is not easy to find snipers hiding in the images on large format prints. The mission is almost impossible.

Invisible due to their professionalism, hidden snipers are located in every of these images. They are aiming at the camera and therefore at the viewer. With a friendly support of the German, Lithuanian and Latvian Armies, Simon Menner was granted access to stage pictures of their snipers. The exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery is on display till 7th of October.

Simon Menner earned a Diploma and subsequently an MFA from the Universität der Künste Berlin, in both cases as a student of Stan Douglas. He has spent time as a student at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. Menner has exhibited his work in photography internationally and amongst other venues, participated in solo and group shows in the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Anchorage Museum, CO Berlin, Museum for Photography Berlin, NRW Forum Düsseldorf, Benaki Museum Athens, Bauhaus Museum Weimar, Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej Krakow and the Biennale de Lubumbashi. His work was featured widely by the Guardian, Der Spiegel, BBC, New York Times, The Independent, CNN, Frieze, Vice, Wired and many others. Menner has received a number of stipends and awards, such as a working grant by the Berlin Senate in 2015, a working grant by the German Stiftung Kunstfonds in 2014 and the Presidential Award of the Universität der Künste Berlin for the best Diploma in 2007. He is an appointed member of the German Photographic Association.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2018 Finalists:
Kirill Golovchenko (Ukraine/Germany) “Bitter Honeydew”, Mindaugas Ažušilis (Lithuania) “Accident”, Gloria Oyarzabal (Spain) “WOMAN GO NO’GREE”, Davide Monteleone (Italy) “A New Silk Road”, Federico Estol (Uruguay) “Shine Heroes”, Hester den Boer (Netherlands) “The Gulag Heritage”, Lynné Bowman Cravens (USA) “Works with different titles”, Alena Grom (Ukraine) “Medium of Instruction”, Gregoire Cachemaille (Switzerland/Germany) “Subsidences”, Hannes Jung (Germany) “How Is Life?”, Laurent Muschel (France) “Haircut – From Ethiopia to Cuba”, Simon Menner (Germany) “Camouflage”.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival invites to visit “Camouflage” by Simon Menner and other exhibitions!