This summer, the international photobank “Depositphotos” launched its first photography contest to support independent photographers in their artistic and professional pursuits. The theme of the contest was “Authenticity 2.0” to encourage participants to share their vision of authenticity, capturing candid moments in everyday life. The contest had no categories, just a central theme that focuses on authentic photography.

To provide creative freedom, every photographer could submit up to five images to the contest. Other requirements were to fill in a form, tag the official account of the contest @depositphotos_contest, and include a short description of an image submission as a continuation of the hashtag #authenticity_is.In just one month and a half, 1,884 photographers submitted their works to the contest and shared over 5,200 images under the hashtag #authenticity_is. For the duration of the contest, Depositphotos was selecting images from runner-ups and posting them on its Instagram feed.

The competition was judged by independent international award-winning photographers Daro Sulakauri, Rosa Roth, Eldar Khamitov, Mikael Theimer, and Kate Kondratieva. They evaluated the works based on the following criteria: adherence to theme, uniqueness of concept, creative composition, and framing, technical excellence/execution, and overall artistic impression.

The prizes for winners were three mirrorless cameras to invest into the future creative pursuits of photographers.

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