Union, NJ—The biennial hunt is on to find 10 outstanding photographers worldwide who will win elite Hasselblad Master honors for 2016. Photographers looking to enter the new-look competition have from February 16 until May 31, 2015 to submit three images in one or more of the following categories at hasselblad.com: Art; Landscape/Nature; Wedding; Portrait; Fashion/Beauty; Products; Architecture; Wildlife; Project/21; and Street/Urban.
The announcement of the 2016 Masters Competition on February 16, 2015 coincides with the launch of the new Hasselblad website, in line with the new competition platform.
“We have made some changes to the 2016 competition, which reaches out to both professionals and young, ambitious and aspirational photographers,” said Perry Oosting, Hasselblad CEO. “We look forward to supporting all photographers with our new competition platform. We believe the new Masters Awards 2016 program is the most compelling ever for the world’s most accomplished photographers. For this edition we have new categories and each of the 10 winners will not only gain a Hasselblad Master accolade and global exposure but also a new high-end Hasselblad medium-format camera.”
As noted by Oosting, the rules have changed slightly for the latest competition. Every entrant still needs to upload three images per category to hasselblad.com, but now the voting will be applied to individual images rather than the photographer. This means that the full gamut of photographic skill must be seen in one image. This change was implemented to improve every entrant’s selection opportunities.
Also for the first time, each winner will receive a new, high-end, medium-format Hasselblad camera along with the honor of becoming an elite Hasselblad Master. Winners of each category will be tasked to create a unique set of theme-based images using the latest Hasselblad camera equipment for the edition of the Hasselblad Masters Commemorative Book. The book will be launched at a special ceremony at photokina 2016 in Cologne.
Winning photographers, announced in January 2016, also will be published on the Hasselblad global website, in other Hasselblad publications and various advertising promotion, as well as presented at exhibitions around the world.”
Hasselblad Masters will be judged on their photographic ability, creativity, compositional skills, conceptual strength and technique. Photographers, who must have been working professionally for at least three years (other than in the Project/21 category) can submit images captured by any large-format, medium-format or 35mm- type DSLR providing 16 megapixel resolution or higher. Images captured on film are also eligible but must be submitted digitally.
Three juries (internal jury, public vote and Masters jury) will short-list entries and nominate final winners in each category. The 24 Masters jury will comprise key editors, selected previous Masters winners and some of the most accomplished photographers in the world. The 2016 jury will be unveiled later in the year. hasselblad.com
