Fresh M.I.L.K. Photography Competition Winner

Fresh M.I.L.K. Photography Competition Winners Announced

The winners of the Fresh M.I.L.K. international photography competition were announced today by publisher PQ Blackwell Ltd. After receiving nearly 35,000 entries from photographers in 112 countries, a judging panel has selected 150 general winners, and eminent Magnum photographer and Chief Judge Elliott Erwitt has selected the Grand Prize winner.

Fresh M.I.L.K. was a US$125,000 online competition that challenged photographers to capture spontaneous and emotive moments shared between friends, families and lovers around the world. Fresh M.I.L.K. marks the tenth anniversary of the original M.I.L.K. (Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship) competition, which ran worldwide in 1999. The highly acclaimed winning images were exhibited at venues around the world including New York's Grand Central Terminal, Sydney's Opera House and London's Science Museum, and the M.I.L.K. books have sold more than three million copies in ten languages.

M.I.L.K. creator Geoff Blackwell commented, "We announced the Fresh M.I.L.K. competition in August 2008, and in contrast to the original competition we conducted it entirely via the World Wide Web. Having been almost ten years since we fi rst launched M.I.L.K., it was with considerable anticipation that we downloaded the fi rst batch of images in January 2009, and began the judging process. Unlike the entries received a decade ago, there could be no lovingly stitched cloth packages and extraordinary stamps from diverse parts of the planet. But they came to us packaged in different ways, wrapped in words, seeming to carry with them the subtle fragrance of people and places close by and far away."

Victoria Vaisvilaite Skirutiene

Fresh M.I.L.K. Photography Competition Winners Announced Victoria Vaisvilaite Skirutiene from Lithuania was chosen by Elliott Erwitt as the Grand Prize winner. Erwitt commented, "A US$50,000 award is a real responsibility. I looked over the pictures again and again. I kept whittling down the candidates to about ten, then I chose the three that speak to me personally, and fi nally I chose the one among them that is the best and most dynamic picture." Skirutiene's response to the news of her success: "My family and I are all so thrilled. Photography is such a big passion of mine and this appreciation is so signifi cant for me."

Fresh M.I.L.K. Photography Competition Grand Prize Winner - Victoria Vaisvilaite Skirutiene
Fresh M.I.L.K. Project Manager, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel. +64 9 300 9955 Fax +64 9 300 9959
www.milkphotos.com

The 150 winning images will be published in a new book entitled Fresh Milk - Friendship, Family, Love & Laughter in November 2009.