Conclusion of the City of Ljubljana's photographic competition.

This year, the EUROCITIES international organisation, which unites more than 130 European cities from more than 30 countries, celebrates its 25th anniversary. For that reason, they announced a photographic competition and invited European countries to showcase the pulse of everyday life in their capital cities via the camera lens.
We at the City of Ljubljana responded and organised a photographic competition that we entitled Ljubljana in your eyes.

We invited young people aged 15 to 25 to showcase their experience of daily life in the Slovenian capital via their photography.

The purpose of the competition, which ran from 16 February to 20 April 2011, was to seek out photography of the city and its people that best represented the following themes:

- the impact of the development of the city on my life;
- people to people – the liveliness of my environs;
- the uniqueness of Ljubljana;
- integration of the people with Ljubljana;
- tolerance and coexistence.

14 authors entered the competition with 36 photos that we arranged into a gallery organised alphabetically by surname of the authors. Each participating photo showed a part of life, a little glimpse of Ljubljana and every single photo reflects the author's understanding of and outlook on life in the Slovenian capital.

The Competition Winner

By decision of a commission, the competition winner was a photograph entitled Market place, by 16-year-old Nik Neuberger.

Author's description of the photograph

It was one of those cold December mornings, which we have around Christmas time. At least this time the sun was shining so I invited a friend to have a walk around the city centre and perhaps stop at a nearby cafe for a cup of tea. We walked around Prešeren Square and went across the Triple Bridge and turned towards Ljubljana's main market place. We were surprised how lively it was in spite of the weather being so cold. The sun was shining above Ljubljana Castle and it was really nice. We just stood there for a while and observed how much city life seems to go on at the market.

Commission explanation

'Market place' by Nik Neubauer united all the important elements of a good photograph; there is a story within it, and it meets the technical criteria and technological implementation.

In its compositional layout the author cleverly avoids a clichéd portrayal of Ljubljana, while the choice of black and white and the central motif establish a relationship to space, content and time.

The focus of the viewer is directed to a leaning youth, before whom a piece of the city, the future, society and the world are unfolding. His posture brings a touch of expectation, while the upright pillar reminds us of the powerful bond that exists with our ancestors and the past.

The author of the winning photo is to be given a prize of €125 by the editorial board of Glasilo Ljubljana magazine.
The photograph will represent Ljubljana and Slovenia in the EUROCITIES competition. It and the other participating photography of European cities will be published in a book entitled Your city – your view, to be published by EUROCITIES to mark its 25th anniversary.

In June 2011, a EUROCITIES commission will select from all entries received the three best, whose authors will receive special honours at the EUROCITIES 2011 conference, which runs in Genoa, Italy from 2 to 4 November 2011.