We live in visual era, and photography has become integral part of our life and modern art. With the advent of digital cameras and smartphone cameras photography became accessible to virtually everybody. We’re observing the emergence of a new type of people: homo photographicus.
Everybody wants to ‘seize the moment’, and photography helps to capture and preserve the value and unique character of each day in life, every event, every instant. Besides, photography, like any other kind of art, enables to mobilise the inner resources of people, sharpens the perception, stimulates natural curiosity of people, enhances observation skills and communicability. We always want to share a well made photo with friends, colleagues and relatives to get feedback and positive emotion.
In August the ancient city of Yelets situated on the river Bystraya Sosna will welcome photographers from around the world to a grand photographic event – International Photography Festival “Light and Colour”.
The Festival will be preceded by an International Photography Contest under the same title, within the framework of which best photo works will be selected for the main exhibition of the Festival.
Why was Yelets in Lipetsk Oblast chosen as the site of the International Festival? Yelets is an ancient city with rich history, ages old cultural traditions, unique handcrafts, active citizens that adore their city. Yelets is one of a thousand of small Russian cities, which has carefully preserved its identity. We want to gather photographers from Russia and other countries in Lipetsk region, in Yelets to expose them to the mores and everyday life of provincial Russia as opposed to dressed-up, metropolitan part of the country.
Yelets will serve as a pass to understanding of a large country and as a window to the wider world that opens up in a small city.
The aim of the International Contest and Festival is to create a single unified showplace of the best advances of modern photography and best representatives of all its creative branches.
We invite to participate all people related to the art of photography: photography professionals, photo artists, and photo amateurs for showcasing best practices, cross-communication, sharing professional experience and acquiring useful knowledge from acclaimed specialists in all branches of photography.
The objective is to use the example of Yeletsk and Lipetsk Oblast in order to demonstrate the tourist attraction of small Russian cities and their surroundings, which reflect the richness of Russian history, culture, folk art, traditions, variety of natural scenery, unique flora and fauna.
The Festival program is designed to appeal to a wide range of different age groups, enhance mass involvement and attraction of artistic photography, providing broad audience with the skill of looking and finding multiple meanings in images, teach people journalistic and artistic photography, expose the audience to alternative photography techniques using historical and modern best practices.
