With a four-month delay, the Kompetenzzentrum Wandern WALK, Detmold, announces the winners of this year's E1/R1 Amateur Photo Award. The overall winner,selected from the four category winners, is Stefano Lucchetti with his magnificent photograph "Castelluccio in the Clouds" of the Italian town of Castellucio in the Abruzzo region, which was completely destroyed in an earthquake 12 years ago.

Themotif was previously selected as the winner of the "Culture and Landscape" category from ten nominated works and was able to prevail over the three other category winners in the final round: The Belgian Dhanvanth Raman won in the category "Man and Nature" with his work "Alone in Alps", the German Manuel Philips won in the category "Animals and Nature" with his photo "Herd of Reindeer", and Otello Gironacci from Italy won in the category "Heaven and Earth" with the b/w work "(On stage of)Pilato's Lake". Each category winner will receive a prize of 500 € and the overall winner will receive an additional prize of 3,000 €. With the publication of the winners, the next photo competition "E1/R1 Amateur Photo Award 2020/21" will start at the same time.
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E1/R1 Amateur Photo Award in Corona times

Hans-Joachim Graef, licensor and organizer of the competition, regretted the delay of the competition under Corona: "Participants were able to submit their work until the end of March, and by then Corona had us under control. For a number of reasons, we were not able to get anywhere near the organization of the competition, including jury meetings and exhibition works, as we had imagined. Most reasons were due to the pandemic. Now I am glad that the winners have been determined. However, for the time being we have to say goodbye to one of the central achievements of the award,an exhibition of the winners and nominees. The pandemic also plays a decisive role here. Günter Weigel, managing director of WALK, points out that after the lockdown, many photographers from all 16 countries regretted not being able to submit more because they were stuck in the countries. District Administrator Dr. Axel Lehmann,however, sees the silver lining throughout these trying times: "With the photo competition, we still have a jewel in our hands in that photographers visualize and document sights worth seeing around the E1 and R1. What was already a strong trend before has been accelerated again by Corona. Hiking and cycling is only now being discovered by millions of people. In the middle of this boom, but also in the painful situations that many are experiencing or have experienced, we give a little joy and courage to live. The photographers have captured the natural beauty of Europe and we are happy to show it to our guests". And that's why he also calls for the next competition, which starts immediately. The submission period starts on September 1, 2020 and ends on January 31, 2021.

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More information can be found at www.e1r1-photoaward.eu.

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