The winner of the 2010 Olympus Auckland Photo Day competition says she wanted her photograph to capture a contradiction.

17 year old Sylvie Boutelje-Chasteau, from Titirangi, has called her photo of a young man smoking a cigarette “Youth is Wasted on The Young”.

The winner of the 2010 Olympus Auckland Photo Day competition says she wanted her photograph to capture a contradiction.

17 year old Sylvie Boutelje-Chasteau, from Titirangi, has called her photo of a young man smoking a cigarette “Youth is Wasted on The Young”.

“For me Auckland often contradicts itself, and I wanted to show that in a photograph,” says Sylvie. “It’s quite a sad thing for a young person to smoke and I wanted to capture that attitude about life.”

Second prize went to Ho Hai Tran for the photo “Burnt To Death” while the third prize went to James Yang for the photo “Jump Street”.

“The winner and two runners up reflect youth culture in Auckland,” said the Judges. “We were impressed by Sylvie’s intimate portrait of the smoker, which is a well-observed portrait of an activity that we don’t see photographed any longer, especially amongst young people. It’s a comment on rebellious youth culture.”

The competition was judged by Auckland photographer Jocelyn Carlin, Ron Brownson (Senior Curator, NZ and Pacific Art, Auckland Art Gallery) and Kellie Blizard (Chief Photographer at The Aucklander). 

“The judges had an extremely difficult job this year,” said Julia Durkin, the organiser of the Auckland Festival of Photography 2010. “with more than 1300 photographs submitted, it took a good chunk of time to consider them all”.

The annual OLYMPUS Auckland Photo Day competition was held on June 12th and challenged photographers to capture their Auckland in a single photo, with the only rule being the photo had to be taken on that day. Photographers were each able to enter three images through the festival web site www.photographyfestival.org.nz

The winning entry receives an Olympus E-620 DSLR with 14-42mm and 70-300mm lenses (Twin Lens Kit). First and second place winners receive a colour photography book published by Lewis Blackwell (Photo Wisdom: Master Photographers on their Art). The top three receive a Fullers ferry pass to Waiheke Island and all 30 top photographers receive one sheet of NZ Post personalised 50c stamps featuring their photo. These photographs may be seen on the Festival web site: www.photographyfestival.org.nz