Focus on risk prevention! EU-OSHA announces winners of 2011 photo competition

Nov. 30, 2011 - PRLog -- The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has announced the winners of its pan-European photo competition on safety and health in the workplace.

The Agency received over 2,500 entries from 36 European countries to its second photo competition which challenged professional and amateur photographers to share their perspective on safety and health in the workplace.  The winning photo – showing a close-up of the hands of a dressmaker at work – was selected by an international jury of professional photographers and health and safety experts for its ’clean simplicity which captures risk prevention in its most basic form.’

Awarding the prizes, Dr Christa Sedlatschek, Director of EU-OSHA said: ’Nothing speaks louder than a photograph that stirs the imagination, evokes emotions and engages both the photographer and the viewer. With over 7 million accidents and 20 million cases of work-related disease annually in the EU-27 alone, this pan-European photo competition is helping to raise awareness of workplace safety and health across Europe, supporting our mission to make Europe’s workplaces safer, healthier and more productive.’

The jury panel was lead by occupational safety and health (OSH) communications expert Peter Rimmer who was joined by three professional photographers; Mertxe Alarcón of Spain, President elect of the Federation of European Photographers Jørgen Brandt and award-winning photojournalist Marco Di Lauro, alongside experienced OSH multimedia specialist Vincent Aubert-Jacquin.

Commenting on his winning photo, Krzysztof Maksymowicz said: ’When taking this photograph I was trying to capture a universal occupational safety image, something that could apply to every person. And so I came up with the idea to photograph a sewing woman (dressmaker) with a needle and a thimble – a tool which is slowly becoming forgotten.’

Krzysztof Maksymowicz received the first prize of €3,000 while the second and third prizes of €2,000 and €1,000 were handed to Isa Kurtt of Turkey for his photo ‘Grow Up’ and Saša Kosanović of Croatia for ‘Gold panning’ respectively. For the first time, a youth prize of €1,000 was awarded to the best entrant aged under-21 which this year was presented to Paweł Ruda of Poland for his imaginative and provocative ‘Cold Sandwich.’

To see the winning and commended entries, visit www.osha-photocompetition.eu or http://www.facebook.com/euoshaphotocompetition.

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