UNMIK ON AIR

4^th July 2003

PHOTO MARATON

(Luan Qorraj)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on Air with Sputnik Kilambi and Martin Redi.

The first day of this, up to now very hot, summer was the day the first ever Prishtina photo marathon was held. Following the traditions of many world capitals, a 24h competition was organized on the 21^st of July, during which over 300 photographers, amateur and professional, spent a whole day doing their best to fulfill the tasks given to them by the jury. Each photographer had only 24 shots in a roll of film to produce 24 pictures on 24 different subjects. Titles ranged from “Red” or “audience” to “sale” or “Prishtina”.

It might sound easy- but each contender had only one chance to capture the subject and when you are racing against time, one wrong shot can make a big difference. A difference felt by some participants, since out of over 300 who started the marathon, around 120 didn’t make it to the end.

Still, Afrim Spahiu, the head of Xhon Mili School of film and photography in Prishtina, one of the organizers of the marathon was more than happy with both the turnout and, more importantly, the quality of the photographs:

Afrim Spahiu: It was a pleasant surprise since we did not intend to ask from the competitors to bring in pictures of high quality. This was a photo marathon for all, be they amateur or professional, but in general, from what I have seen during the first second and third qualifying selection, I am very happy with the quality of the pictures.

All the contenders handed in their work under pseudonyms, not their real names, in order to avoid any influence over those short-listed for prizes. And the prizes were, quite tempting:

Afrim Spahiu: the first two prizes were a trip to Denmark – a gift from the Danish office in Prishtina, in order to take part in the Copenhagen marathon. The second price, a week’s trip to Paris, during November, the month of photography to be held in France. And the third prize is also important. A week’s trip to make a, let’s say photo safari through Albania.

It was a tough job for the jury, selecting the lucky prizewinners from over 180 contenders. The line up was as follows: Krenare Zajmi and Dren Gjonbalaj will take part in the great photo marathon in Copenhagen, Veton Nurkullari goes to Paris during the month of photography and Bronwin Owen is about to embark on a photo trip to Albania.

Second place winner, Veton Nurkullari, a photographer from Prizren, seemed very happy with the way things went, although he was sorry that many competitors weren’t there for the ceremony:

Veton Nurkullari: It seemed like a healthy idea and I liked it the day it was held, and I like it today, although not all the people who were taking photographs that day came, but I like it and I hope that next year it would be better, something bigger maybe even something that we could be proud of one day.

For his part, Shenoll Zeneli, who ended up in 6^th place found the quality of other pictures shown better than his own achievement:

Shenoll Zeneli: they were good, they were interesting, I didn’t expect that from our youth, which is really making good pictures, but they also have strong ideas. They had interesting ideas which really...can drive you nuts, strong ideas.

An unexpected winner of the third place was Bronwin Owen, whose third place and a photo trip to Albania, were a surprise for her too.

Bronwin Owen: I live with a girl who has helping organize it so I didn’t have a camera so, on the morning she turned up with a camera for me. So I was able to do it. But I’ve never taken photographs before. My photographs are pretty bad, if you look at them, like, the focus is all wrong, I suppose they like the idea. I had one model throughout who was acting out different parts.

Now that the awards have been handed over and the lenses all covered it seems clear that for everybody involved, the first Prishtina photo marathon was a frank success. The next step, says Afrim Spahiu, is to take it step further:

Afrim Spahiu: It would be good if this became a tradition, and if it continued in a more organized manner, with more people on the organizing board, and to have everyone, I mean everyone who loves photography get closer to each other so that we could make something even better.

Here’s wishing them all the luck in the world and more initiatives of this kind.

That’s all for this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.