The Russian Geographical Society determined the finalists of the photo contest "The Most Beautiful Country" in 2020. Their work is published on photo.rgo.ru. This year, the winner of the Audience Choice Award will be selected from among the finalists by open voting. Voting is open from April 21 to May 15, inclusive.
The list of finalists of “The Most Beautiful Country” was determined by the Expert Commission of the photo contest at an in-person meeting. It included 10 photos in the categories of the main competition and 5 in the category of “The most beautiful country through the eyes of children”.
The winner in each category will be determined by the Jury of the competition (we will additionally announce the date of its in-person meeting when we defeat the coronavirus). But until then, according to the terms of the competition, it is necessary to determine the winner of the Audience Choice Award.
Voting for the best shot started on April 21 and will last until May 15, inclusive.
“Each year, some of the finalists are dissatisfied with the jury’s choice. We hope that an open vote for the Audience Award will relieve tension,” says Konstantin Leifer, chairman of “The Most Beautiful Country” photo contest. “The experts and the jury are very meticulous. They’re not just choosing a beautiful shot, but, from a professional point of view, evaluating the composition, dynamics, shooting conditions, other technical details. For an ordinary viewer, it’s enough for the photo to just be beautiful. Therefore, the choice may vary. The expert jury determined the finalists, and now everyone can make their choice of the best of the best. I wonder what will happen."
Панк-рок. Фото: Андрей Сидоров
Voting Rules
- Any Internet user can vote, regardless of age and country of residence.
- In order to take part in the vote, you need to have an account on one of the social networks - VKontakte, Odnoklassniki or Facebook.
- One person can vote for all the photos they like, but only one vote can be given to each picture.
- Finalists have the right to campaign for their work.
- At the same time, the organizers of the contest will closely monitor possible vote fraud. If technical experts confirm the fact of cheating, the votes will be invalidated.
- A picture chosen by open voting can also become a winner in its category.
- The People's Choice Award is not a separate category of the competition. The winner of the vote receives the “Audience Choice Award” certificate and a commemorative gift.
Разрешите представиться! Фото: Станислав Казнов
About the finalists
The application process for the VI photo contest of the Russian Geographical Society "The Most Beautiful Country" was from October 14, 2019 to February 16, 2020. 59 538 pictures from 8 645 authors were received. Of these, 48,198 - for the main competition "The Most Beautiful Country", and 11,340 - for the competition for young photographers "The Most Beautiful Country through the Eyes of Children".
The residents of absolutely all regions of Russia and more than 20 countries of the world took part in the competition. The youngest photographer is 7 years old and the oldest is 79.
The photos were accepted in 11 categories. Among them were the traditional ones, such as "Landscape", "Wild Animals", "Macroworld", "Underwater World", "Many Faces of Russia", and new ones.
Among the new categories, it is worth noting the “Live Archive” - the contest organizers asked the participants to recreate the pictures of Russian cities and natural attractions made in the 19th to the early 20th centuries. Archival photographs were provided by the partners of the competition - the Russian State Film and Photo Archive and the TASS news agency, as well as the Scientific Archive of the Russian Geographical Society.
Also, together with PJSC RusHydro, a special category "Water Energy of Russia" was established in honor of the 15th anniversary of the company.
In the competition "The Most Beautiful Country Through the Eyes of Children", the participants under 16 sent their photos in four categories: "Landscape", "Animal World", "World of People" and "Macroworld".
“The new category ‘Project’ (a series of shots united by one idea) was successful indeed. To be honest, some of the works submitted for this category made me look very differently at our country and at seemingly familiar phenomena. They inspired me to be creative myself," said Konstantin Leifer. "Another amazing acquisition of the competition was the category ‘Live Archive’. Almost all the works sent for this category are extremely interesting."
Первый снег. Фото: Юлия Назаренко
However, according to the chairman of the jury, there were also disappointments: "Many photos underwent strong post-processing. The photographers made shots from Disney cartoons from gray, generally not bad pictures using computer programs. It’s a shame for the authors of some of them: they wanted the best but it turned out the other way around."
According to the terms of the competition, such photographs were not allowed to participate in the final.
The winners of the competition from among the finalists will be selected by the jury of the competition. It will also approve the results of voting for the Audience Award.
Prizes to the winners - 250 thousand rubles in each category of the main competition and professional cameras for young photographers.
The photo contest "The Most Beautiful Country" is a large-scale media project dedicated to the preservation of wildlife of Russia and the promotion of careful attitude to the environment. It was held for the first time in 2015. During four years of existence of the contest about 500 thousand pictures were uploaded to the site of the project photo.rgo.ru . The main condition is that the photo should be taken in Russia.