2017 Zeiss Photography Award
The World Photography
Organisation and Zeiss have announced the winners of the 2017 Zeiss Photography Award. The grand prize was won by Belgian photographer Kevin Faingnaert for Føroyar, a series about life on remote and sparsely populated villages on the Faroe Islands.
Now in its second year, the theme of the 2017 Zeiss Photography Award was ‘Meaningful Places’ which challenged professional photographers to look past the ordinary and every day with images which captured extraordinary aspects of the world.
The winning portfolio was selected from more than 31,000 images submitted by 4677 photographers from 132 countries.
Kevin Faingnaert’s prize comprises 12,000 Euros worth of Zeiss lenses and 3000 Euros in travel expenses to complete a photography project.
The judges also recognised the work of nine other photographers, including Australian Fabian Muir.
Kevin Faingnaert is a social documentary photographer who lives and works in Gent, Belgium.
“In February 2016 I immersed myself within the Faroese community, I couch-surfed and hitchhiked my way across the islands, finding doors opening to me everywhere I went. There, across swathes of snow-veiled landscapes and bordered by dramatic coastline, villages are slowly dropping into decline as more and more of their inhabitants are emigrating from the islands in pursuit of greater opportunities. In these clear and pristine landscapes, where villages with populations as low as ten huddle together on the edge of cliffs, I tried to reveal a community hanging on firmly to their roots and traditions, while underlining that one day these villages must inevitably disappear.”