OREANDA-NEWS. Five finalists have been selected for the fourth ING Unseen Talent Award. The winner will be announced on 22 September at the opening night of the Unseen Photo Fair & Festival.

The finalists were selected from a field of 47 talented photographers from across Europe by six cultural scouts, including Simon Bainbridge (Editorial Director, British Journal of Photography, UK) and Sena Cakirkaya (Head of Photography, Istanbul Modern, Turkey).

This year’s final five emerging photography talents are Thomas Albdorf (b. 1982, Austria), Laurianne Bixhain (b. 1987, Luxembourg), Felicity Hammond (b. 1988, United Kingdom), Miren Pastor (b. 1985, Spain) and Tereza Zelenkova (b. 1985, Czech Republic). They stand to win the Talent Award (which is the jury prize) and the Public Award.

Unseen Photo Fair & Festival

The award was created to coincide with the annual Unseen Photo Fair & Festival in Amsterdam, organised by ING and Unseen since 2013. Unseen is an annual international photography fair and festival based in Amsterdam. This year, ING is for the first time the main sponsor of the event.

Unseen provides an international platform for emerging artists across Europe to present their work on a global scale. Sanne ten Brink, head curator of the ING Collection said the five finalists “symbolise a new generation of emerging photographic talents from Europe”.

Unseen Photo Fair & Festival takes place from 23-25 September in Amsterdam. This year’s theme is Fool for Love, which explores the passion and devotion required to pursue ones dreams.

Talent programme

In the coming months the finalists will take part in the ING Unseen Talent Programme. This is an online coaching course that includes a range of workshops with different professionals, opportunities for professional networking, and a commission to each produce a work for the ING Collection around the theme Fool for Love.

Leading up to Unseen Photo Fair, finalists will also receive media coaching, a workshop on curating exhibitions with Tim Zeedijk (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) and a speed-dinner with all 2016 ING Unseen Talent Award talents, scouts, coaches and jury members.

The five finalists will be coached this year by internationally renowned American artist Todd Hido.

“Very early in my career, I was the recipient of a grant at a point when it had a tremendous impact on my ability to focus on my photography. I’m excited to help give young photographers a similar opportunity with the ING Unseen Talent Award,” he said.