1st place
gold star award
Martin Stranka
czech republic
title
Boyhood
During the last years he has won over 80 major international photography awards from different competitions, including title Special Photographer of the Year from International Photography Awards™ held in New York at Carnegie Hall, Sony World Photography Awards awarded in London, APA Photographer of the Year, Nikon International Photo Contest and Prix de la Photographie Paris. Martin's works were exhibited and auctioned by the leading auction house Christie's in London. His solo and group exhibitions have been seen from South and North America, through Europe, all the way to Asia. His photographs have been exhibited in places such as New York, Basel, Tokyo, London, Miami, Paris, Prague, Hong Kong, Kiev and many more. Martin's work was presented in galleries such as Christie's London, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Saatchi Gallery or SNAP! Orlando.
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entry description
For me, the Boyhood series is a narrative visual confession which maps both personal and mediated experiences. Boyhood is a time in our life when we begin to discover ourselves through inner dialogues and explore our self identity. We connect with everything around us, begin to discover and close in on ourselves. We create isolated places where we feel safe from all the hustle and bustle around us. Even so, a form of alienation can be poetically and visually beautiful. I offer the viewer a look at the emotionally unfinished stories. I create images that appear to be stills from a film as untold stories. What led to this situation and what will happen next is a question for all of us, which I am looking for an answer to.about the photographer
Martin Stranka, a native of the Czech Republic who lives in Prague, is a self-taught professional photographer, born on April 13 1984. Martin was a bored student plodding through courses in business school when the unexpected lost of a close friend led him to pursue photography as a form of therapy. That hobby turned into a passion and, eventually, a profession. His distinctive vision of photography is etched as a unique space located in a balance and serenity, while his sophisticated and rewarding images exist in that narrow window of a few seconds between dreaming and awakening. Martin creates images that appear to be stills from a film — one that walks the line between fantasy and reality. Stranka explores our fascination with the incomplete narrative: ‘in these deliberately visually unfinished stories I seek the boundary between visual appeal and a dramatic scene,’ he has written.During the last years he has won over 80 major international photography awards from different competitions, including title Special Photographer of the Year from International Photography Awards™ held in New York at Carnegie Hall, Sony World Photography Awards awarded in London, APA Photographer of the Year, Nikon International Photo Contest and Prix de la Photographie Paris. Martin's works were exhibited and auctioned by the leading auction house Christie's in London. His solo and group exhibitions have been seen from South and North America, through Europe, all the way to Asia. His photographs have been exhibited in places such as New York, Basel, Tokyo, London, Miami, Paris, Prague, Hong Kong, Kiev and many more. Martin's work was presented in galleries such as Christie's London, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Saatchi Gallery or SNAP! Orlando.
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