This leading international competition celebrates and promotes the very best in contemporary portrait photography. The exhibition features photographers shortlisted for the prize including Austrian photographer Kurt Hörbst and his series People Scans.
The People Scans project is to be regarded as a counterpoint to the high speeds found in digital photography. Not, however, as a sign of personal rejection of the new media . According to Hörbst the idea behind this project is more a form of concept-based personal slowdown, concentrated work, personal awareness of the environment. He has traveled around the world photographing people for this series.
The technical part is handled by a high resolution digital camera which moves along a specially designed rail system and can be used to photograph and scan individual surfaces/objects/subjects. The individual images are then put together to make life-size pictures. A finished picture consists of up to 20 individual images – giving you a high-quality finish. When you take a closer look at the finished picture, the high technical quality reveals new aspects in the contents.