Simon McCheung, An Underwater Spell
Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London

SAATCHI GALLERY AND GOOGLE+ INTRODUCE MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY AS AN ART FORM FOR EVERYONE

With the ubiquity of smart phones and rise in photo-sharing services, the world has recently exploded with photographers from all backgrounds who are embracing new technology to tell their stories in innovative ways.

Motion photography has emerged as a new trend, but until now required special tools and know-how. Google+ allows users to effortlessly and automatically animate a series of still photographs and turn them into motion photography.

In recognition of the exciting potential of this new technology, the Saatchi Gallery and Google+ have launched a new prize, the Motion Photography Prize, inviting photographers all over the world to celebrate this new creative art form.

Posted 1 April 2014

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The Motion Photography Prize, which will have six unique categories, will be judged by a panel of forward-thinkers including film director Baz Luhrmann, artists Shezad Dawood and Cindy Sherman among others. Winners will have their works showcased in a special exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London launching on April 16th, 2014, with one overall winner getting the opportunity to go on the trip of a lifetime with a photographer or filmmaker of their choice.

The exhibition will also be featured online on Saatchi Art, the world’s largest online gallery for emerging artists.

The competition opened for submissions on 5th February with the category Landscape. A new category has been introduced week by week. The five categories are: Landscape, Lifestyle, Action, Night, People, and Urban. All details are found at www.saatchigallery.com/mpp or on Saatchi’s Google+ page, www.google.com/+SaatchiGallery

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Google+ on an initiative that will provide a global platform for exciting new motion photography and highlight the potential of the very latest technology to encourage creativity” Nigel Hurst, CEO Saatchi Gallery

“We’re excited about enabling anybody with a smart phone to tell their story in a new creative way.” Cristian Cussen, Head of Marketing Google+ EMEA

This initiative follows on from the success of the Google Photography Prize, a collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery in 2012 to find the photography stars of the future, which received nearly 20,000 entries from 148 countries.

Saatchi Art is the world’s leading online art gallery, connecting people with art and artists they love. Saatchi Art offers an unparalleled selection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography in a range of prices, and it provides artists from around the world with an expertly curated environment in which to exhibit and sell their work. Based in Los Angeles, Saatchi Art is redefining the experience of buying and selling art by making it easy, convenient and welcoming for both collectors and artists. www.saatchiart.com

>Read article on ArtNet on GIF

London, UK, 14 April 2014: The Saatchi Gallery and Google+ announce the six finalists for the Motion Photography Prize, the first global open entry competition for artists and creative people working with animated GIFs. The Prize received over 4,000 entries from 52 countries, and the six finalists will exhibit their work at the Saatchi Gallery in London from 17 April 2014.

The prize has six categories: Landscape, Lifestyle, Action, People, Night and Urban, which were judged by a panel of forward-thinkers comprised of film director Baz Luhrmann, artists Shezad Dawood, Tracey Emin and Cindy Sherman and Saatchi Gallery CEO Nigel Hurst. The six finalists chosen are:

Instantdreamsnet          Landscape
Kostas Agiannitis          Lifestyle
Micaël Reynaud             Action
Matthew Clarke              Night
Emma Critchley             People
Christina Rinaldi            Urban

The finalists’ motion photographs can be found here: http://goo.gl/cFcs0T

An underwater spell

Simon McCheung