Dean Whitbread

Prix Mobile

It has indeed been fascinating organising the Prix Mobile art contest. From over 4,000 tagged images, to thirty shortlisted contestants, we arrive today at twenty six serious contenders for the Prix Mobile trophy and the thousand euro prize. This last stage is by far going to be the toughest. I am very glad not to be a judge, and have the onus of deciding a winner and two runners up.

Our finalists were all issued personal challenges put together by the judges, allocated randomly. We tried to arrive at parity across these tests of artistic interpretation, but some were definitely easier than others. Three of the thirty dropped out at this point, and one, Mylay, produced a single, poignant image (left) as if to say, why did I get this impossible challenge?

Another of the three was possibly not using mobile tech – a basic requirement – and though politely emailed, he didn’t send in an original file for us to examine as requested until the day after the shortlist challenge ended, and thus missed his opportunity.. the lesson being that if you want to take part, don’t use email addresses you rarely check.

This simple slide show includes images from phase one of the contest – some of the makers of these remarkable images didn’t even get to the shortlist, the standards were that high.

http://prixmobile.eu/finalists/phase-one-contestants/