LONDON.- Saatchi Gallery and Huawei announced that Paola Ismene from Mexico has been named the winner of the #SelfExpression competition. Paola won the competition with her entry Daydream in Blue and will be awarded a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.
The winner is announced today as part of the exhibition From Selfie to Self-Expression, presented by Huawei, which closes tomorrow after enjoying a 3-month extended run due to its popularity with visitors. The winning image was selected from over 9,000 entries by artists Chris Levine, Rachel Maclean, Simon Roberts and Gillian Wearing, and Picture Editor of the Sunday Times Russ O’Connell, who were joined by Saatchi Gallery CEO Nigel Hurst to form the judging panel. The overall winner receives a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery and the ten shortlisted entrants will each receive Huawei’s newest P10 smartphone, co-engineered with Leica, which features the world’s first 8MP Leica front camera and dual Leica lens.
The nine other entrants, who will also have their shortlisted entry displayed at the Saatchi Gallery are Bob Ballantyne (United States), Denis Cherim (Spain), Duncan Cunningham-Reid (Australia), Emma Gahan (Portugal), Casey Hennessy (UK), Lola Kay (Ukraine), Nick Owen (UK), Jason Pevey (United States) and Vallas Vincent (France).
The #SelfExpression competition was launched on the 12th June following the enormous success of the #SaatchiSelfie competition, and the commissioning of ten exciting young British photographers to create new works using Huawei smartphones, co-engineered with Leica.
Paola Ismene, Winner of #SelfExpression Competition: "I am truly grateful for being selected…because it’s a great platform to expose the work of emerging photographers. Mobile photography has allowed me to capture countless images in my everyday life. So I find it fortunate to participate in competitions like this where the use of new technologies in the artistic field are recognized."
Nigel Hurst, CEO Saatchi Gallery: “We hope that this new #SelfExpression competition encourages everyone with a smartphone to realise its potential as an artistic tool, and inspire them to document their daily lives with even more creative vigour.”
Glory Zhang, CMO, Huawei Consumer Business Group: “We have been thrilled with the creativity seen in the #SelfExpression Competition. Once again, people from all parts of the world have displayed incredible levels of originality. When we set the challenge, we hoped the public would take the opportunity to express themselves by looking at the world and those around them, and the photography we got back absolutely lived up to the ideas behind this competition and the exhibition.”
From Selfie to Self-Expression
Having opened at the Saatchi Gallery on 31st March 2017, From Selfie to Self-Expression presented by Huawei is the world’s first exhibition exploring the history of the selfie from the old masters to the present day, and celebrates the truly creative potential of a form of expression often derided for its inanity. The show also highlights the emerging role of the smartphone as an artistic medium for self-expression.
From Selfie to Self-Expression showcases key artworks, many of which feature interactive, digital and user-generated content, by artists as diverse as Christopher Baker, Juno Calypso, Tracey Emin, Van Gogh, Mohau Modisakeng, Rembrandt, Cindy Sherman, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and, Velazquez. Showing alongside examples of many influential artists’ work will be selfies that have quickly become icons of the digital era – from the beautiful and sublime to the mad, bad and downright dangerous.
Huawei’s partnership with the Saatchi Gallery is a demonstration of its commitment to supporting creative expression through photography everywhere. It follows the launch of the game-changing Huawei P Series smartphones which reinvent smartphone photography by incorporating the world’s first dual-lens camera co-engineered with iconic camera brand Leica.
