The competition judges
The Jury of the Competition is international and consists of 9 people, as well as both the I.A.O. advisors. Judges using a password can get information about the material submitted for the competition but will be not able to see the names of the contestants. The names of the contestants as well as all the declared data will be stored with absolute security in a database.
Dr Kostas Mygdalis, Greece /I.A.O. Advisor/
Dr of Theology, Architect, Advisor of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy. Member of the Organisational Committee of Pan‑European Congress „Orthodoxy in the New European Reality” (1993) organised by the Greek Parliament. Founding member of the Centre for Ecumenical Studies and Inter‑Orthodox Information seated in Thessaloniki.
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Alexander W. Fomenko, Russia /I.A.O. Advisor/
Born 30 August 1961, married, four children. Advisοr to the Chairman of the State Duma Committee. Member of Board, Russian Union of Writers.
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Viktor Semionov, Russia
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the “Belaya Dacha” Group of Companies. Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation, Member of the Russian State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the third, fourth and fifth convocations. In 2014, he founded and led the Interregional Social Movement for the Revival of Spiritual Traditions «Orthodox Ros». He is actively involved in charity activities. He created the Charity Fund for the Social Initiatives “Narodnoe predpriyatie” (“Peoples Enterprise”), implements the Programme “Save Our Forest” and actively participates in the revival of spiritual shrines in Russia.
Constantinos Charalambous, Cyprus
Born in Nicosia - Cyprus 1952. From his childhood he showed interest and worked intensely with the art of photography.
Since May 2013 he is the President of the Central Directory Board of the Cyprus Photographic Society. He has had twelve personal exhibitions. He participated in many group exhibitions and many of his works have been distinguished both in Cyprus and abroad.
He was a jury member in various local photo contests, the National Greek Competition 2019 and 6 International Photo Competitions.
Vasilis Anglopoulos, Greece
Vakhtang Beridze, Georgia
Winner of the 1st prize in the I.A.O. competition "Destruction of Monuments of Eastern Christianity".
Lawyer and photographer from Georgia. Lives in Gori.
Aurelian Iftimiu, Romania
Patriarchal adviser to His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel and the head of the Basilica News Agency of the Romanian Patriarchate. He studied International Relations and Orthodox Theology. He translated the documents of the Holy and Great Council of Crete into Romanian. He is keen on foreign languages, geopolitics of religion, diplomacy, Orthodox spirituality and online church ministry.
Kristina Kormilitsyna, Russia
Born on 29 Dec 1984 in Moscow region, she studied journalism at the Russian State Social University, and then studied photojournalism at Moscow State University. She worked for the Russian newspaper “Kommersant” and “Izvestia”.
She was the winner of the photo contest "Best of Russia" in 2015 and 2017, and placed second in the photography contest of the Orthodox "Faith and The Word" in 2017 she won 3rd prize World Press Photo contest, category «People».
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Penko Skumov, Bulgaria
Photographer and graphic designer from Sofia, Bulgaria. Born in Burgas in 1978, he grеw up in Pomorie on the Black Sea coast. He has studied art history and cultural studies at New Bulgarian University in Sofia. He is a co-founder and member of the photo group Naos. His photographs are published in “Mirna”, “Christianity and Culture”, “Svet” magazines, in issues from Omofor publishing house etc. Since 2015 he works especially in street and documentary photography genres. Member of BULB Collective (Balkan Urban League without Borders) since November 2018.
Gali Tibbon, Israel
Gali Tibbon is an award-winning photographer based in Jerusalem. In 2013 she was named Travel Photographer of the Year at the World Photography Awards (WPO) in London for her documentary work on Lailbela, Ethiopia.
Recently she has been chosen to be a Canon Explorer, part of Canon Europe Ambassador’s program. Her professional work explores the theme of religion, focusing on faith, capturing the spiritual and abstract emotions of the believers into her stills images.
http://www.galitibbon.com/
Aleksander Wasyluk, Poland /Coordinator/
President of the OrthNet Association. Εditor and one of the founders of www.orthphoto.net. Founder of a Polish website about and for orthodox believers www.cerkiew.pl. Currently working for a photo educational project: www.szerokikadr.pl for Nikon Poland. Thanks to SYNDESMOS visited and explored many places connected with Orthodox religion.
The evaluation process of the competition
In the first phase of the evaluation process, the judges will be asked to select, based exclusively on their own personal criteria, from each of the two areas of the competition, the 20% of the best entries. The maximum that each judge will be able to choose is 20 entries. That is, if 100 entries have been submitted in a field, each judge will select the 20 best entries.
In the second phase, the selections of the judges in each field will be gathered. This process creates two new groups of selected entries, one for each section of the competition.
In the third phase these two new groups of entries are re-evaluated by the judges one by one, but this time based on several criteria. For each participation is scored:
A. The artistic value of the photo, with a total of 60 points of excellence.
B. The complete general or historical information provided for the photographed church, it’s importance, it’s exact location, but also its visiting information with a total of 20 points of excellence.
C. The other photos of the general view of the monumental environment which is the work of the contestant himself with a total of 20 points of excellence.
The maximum points that each entry can collect is 100.
In the fourth phase, the entries that have accumulated over 70 points will be selected. From these entries the judges and the advisors will select the three that will be awarded from each section of the competition.
How to participate
Entering the competition is free of charge. Entries must be received between 12th of March and 30st of June 2021.
