Sky Arts announce second season for Master of Photography as €150k winner of season one is unveiled

The first ever televised talent contest for photography comes to a climax as Sky Arts’ Master of Photography concludes and the winner of Europe’s largest photography award is chosen.

Over the past eight weeks, 12 contestants – made up of both amateur and professionals from different photographic disciplines – have travelled to locations across Europe and tackled a series of challenges testing their ability, skill and instinct across a range of styles.

Four finalists – Gabriele Micalizzi (Italy), Marta Lallana Garcia (Spain), Rupert Frere (UK) and Yan Revazov (Russia) – were selected to compete in the final task that involved taking pictures on the theme ‘Europeans, Faces and Places’ in four different European cities using only three black-and-white rolls of analogue film. David LaChapelle guests.

Simulcast in the UK, Germany, Austria, Ireland and Italy, Master of Photography will return with a second season in 2017; a call for entries will open online on 14 September and close on 31 October 2016. Open once more to both amateur and professionals across Europe, the chosen contestants will again compete for a €150k prize. Full terms and conditions for entry will be posted on www.masterofphotography.tv.

As viewers of the finale will discover, season one’s winner is Gabriele Micalizzi. A former football player and professional tattoo artist from Milan, Gabriele has been a professional photojournalist for over 10 years. Social matters and political issues are at the core of his work and he is passionate about capturing the feelings of people out of the spotlight of the mainstream media.

Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts said: “Master of Photography has been yet another success for Sky Arts – the UK’s only dedicated channel for the arts – so we’re delighted to be working with our European colleagues on a second season. As we hoped, the programme was a demonstration of just how powerful and important photography remains, and we brought some extraordinary undiscovered talent to light in the process. We look forward to seeing whom we might uncover in 2017.”

Master of Photography is a creation of the Sky Arts Production Hub, a commissioning and production centre of excellence dedicated to creating quality arts programmes for Sky’s 21 million customers across the UK and Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria.

For more information, please contact:

Benjamin Ward

benjamin@benjward.com, +44 (0) 7837 134 193

OR

skyentpress@sky.uk

Notes to Editors

International distribution for Master of Photography is handled by Sky Vision.

Entries for the second edition of Master of Photography will open from 14 September – 31 October 2016. All aspiring contestants can submit their applications via the website www.masterofphotography.tv where full terms and conditions will be available. A committee of photography and art experts will then select a final line-up of 12 contestants to take part in filming and compete for 2017’s €150k prize.

An exhibition of work from the first season will be held at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice, Italy from 9 September to 9 October 2016 (commissioned by the Foundation with SKY Arte HD and curated by Filippo Maggia, Director of Fondazione Fotografia Modena). A photography catalogue based on the exhibition will be published by Skira.

The Master of Photography contestants for 2016 were: Chiara Stampacchia (Italy), Gabriele Micalizzi (Italy), Gina Soden (UK), Lanka Perren (France), Laura Zalenga (Germany), Marta Lallana Garcia (Spain), Neal Gruer (UK), Rupert Frere (UK), Sebastian Siebel (Germany), Yan Revazov (Russia), Dragica Carlin (Croatia) and Hongwei Tang (Austria).

The Sky Arts Production Hub will focus on producing pan-European events for customers across all Sky territories in addition to content locally commissioned. The arts initiative is one of the first major projects to come out of the newly enlarged Sky group and demonstrates the opportunity to launch new services to more customers. By bringing the three Sky businesses together, Sky is sharing its strengths and expertise to extend its lead in content and accelerate innovation across all the markets in which it operates.

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