New Delhi: Capture India's unseen beauty and culture through the lens and stand a chance to win a seven-day trip to Serbia, thanks to a twin photography contest that has been launched to boost people-to-people and cultural ties between the two countries.
The ‘India Serbia Photography Contest 2014' was launched mid-July during Serbia's famous summer music festival in its historic city of Novi Sad.
Themed on ‘My Land. My People', the four-month-long contest invites people of all ages, from both India and Serbia to showcase what best represent the “essence of their country” and people, and asks them to “present the unknown and unseen facets” of their homeland to the audiences in both the countries.
Two grand winners, one each from India and Serbia, stand a chance to travel to the counterpart nation. Indian Ambassador to Serbia Narinder Chauhan, who opened the competition at the ‘EXIT Festival' in Novi Sad, said the contest will allow exchange of culture and strengthening of cultural ties between the two nations.
“The contest will enable the people of Serbia and India to capture their perspectives on their country, people and culture on camera. All the brilliant entries will be shared with all through the social media networks of Facebook and Twitter,” Chauhan told PTI in an email. The contest will run till November 10 and the results will be announced in December, which includes two grand prizes.
“The grand prize from India would be a seven-day trip for two to Serbia in 2015, from Brand Serbia while the grand prize from Serbia would be a week-long trip for two to India in 2015, from Incredible India,” the Indian Embassy at Belgrade said.
Participation is open to both amateurs and professionals and a contestant is allowed to submit maximum of five entries. “The contest has been conceptualised by India-based IdeaWorks Design & Strategy, that not only encourages all citizens from the two countries to participate, but it also brings together professionals from both the countries to work together,” the Indian Embassy said.
Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design is the institutional partner in the competition, that has a panel of eminent photographers from India and Serbia as its jury, the organisers said.
Ambassador Chauhan said the contest will enhance the cultural and people-to-people ties between the two nations as one country will get to know more about the other. Meanwhile, making a reference to the massive floods in Serbia that the European country is recovering from, he said the natural calamity and loss of lives in the tragedy have also “saddened” India, which has announced help.
“Embassy of India, Belgrade has announced that the government of India has extended financial assistance of USD 100,000 as immediate relief to the people of Serbia from the disastrous effects of the recent catastrophic floods,” the announcement made by the Indian Mission in Belgrade on May 27 said.
“An art exhibition was also held in the national capital recently and part of the sales of the works would go towards the flood relief,” an official at the Serbian Embassy here said.
