Camera Shy

The Zumtobel Photographic Competition is purely for architects and provides them all with a level playing field which they love – a standard disposable camera. The aim is simply to take the best picture they can with it, the subject matter is largely irrelevant, it’s the composition that counts. There is no opportunity to edit or re-touch images, you simply enter what you shoot. It is a much loved competition that we all look forward to working on as it is one of the few jobs that we are given complete design freedom on. The wackier the better in fact! We can have a lot of fun with the concepts and over the years the competition has featured a winking, tattooed baby, a gherkin on London’s skyline, a bum in a rubber ring (really cheeky), a finger in training and most recently a collection of animals dressed as humans.

The animal images for this years competition, were created by Yago Partal, and we animated (or is it animalated) them in the promotional video used to launch the event. You can see the full range of animals’ here. Year on year we have between 350 and 450 used cameras returned with greatly differing quality and subject matter. The winning entries are awarded some top of the range photographic equipment but the joy is primarily about winning and being exposed (in the nicest possible way) to peers in the architectural press.

View the video and sign up here.