LIVE PORTRAIT CONTEST
I had the honor of being invited to compete against some a group of top photographers from across Europe in the in the Live Portrait Contest (LPC) and what a great challenge it was.The LPC is one of the most exciting competitions for portrait photographers and has been held for last 15 years in Europe by the Confederation of Professional Portrait Photographers (BPP). What makes it such a challenge is that you have to take a client brief from concept to completion in 55 minutes. This would normally be a 8-12 hour process. We were given the brief a week before the shoot and as usual, the most important thing to me was working on creating a concept that meets the client’s brief…but was not usual was that I would have to light, shoot, edit and present to live audience in under 55 minutes !
It was NEW FOR 2016 that the nominees were 5 Internationally Renowned Photographers who normally sit at the jury table or are successful photography educators. The hand picked photographers for 2016 were five of the most prestigious and successful portrait photographers in Europe. The exciting thing about this competition is, the photographers take photographs before a live audience in succession on the same topic, the same model and work with the same studio equipment. This competition leave no where to hide as the lighting, direction of the model, retouching of your images and the final design have to be delivered to the highest standards. To succeed in the competition the photographers need to be captured in camera at an exceptionally high standard.
The Internationally Renowned Photographers were :
Henk van Kooten (NL) Photographer and Chairman of the IPQ and jury member in Asia, America and Europe
Jens Haugen (NO) Commercial / Advertising photographer and 4 times Norwegian Photographer of the Year
Joachim Bergauer (AT) Advertising and People photographer from Austria
Olaf Schwickerath (DE) Portrait and Commercial photographer and 3x LPC Winner
Richard Mayfield (GB) People photographer and International BIPP photographer of the year 2012
The client brief of the LPC 2016: “Phantasy of pretty lingerie”
Create a portfolio of five photographs to be used for a new, sensational, exceptional image campaign of a leading lingerie manufacturer and a conceptual implementation of the topic “Phantasy of pretty lingerie”. There Should be a recognizable idea of the concept behind the five images.
Time allocation : 55 minutes
Within the time allocation each photographer must set up all lighting, shoot, make a selection, retouch and present the 5 final images as one piece of design.
Watch each of the photographers shooting live on stage
Here are the results from each of the shoots
Henk van Kooten
Jens Haugen
Joachim Bergauer
Olaf Schwickerath
Richard Mayfield
Watch the film of the WINNER being announced
Here are a selection of the shots that I conceptualised and crafted
Michael Belz, CEO of bpp
German version:
Es war eine große Ehre für uns, dass Richard Mayfield in diesem Jahr Teil der bpp convention war – zum einen als Teilnehmer des diesjährigen LIVE PORTRAIT CONTEST, zum anderen als Referent zum Thema „erfolgreiches Marketing und Verkaufsstrategien für Berufsfotografen.“
Als Richard Mayfield beim Live Portrait Contest als letzter Kandidat auf die Bühne kam, lagen Zustimmung und Sympathie der über 200 Berufsfotografen, die auch als Jury fungierten, bei den Bildergebnissen des holländischen und des deutschen Kandidaten.
Richard begeisterte dann aber das Publikum mit einer tollen, außergewöhnlichen Performance und mit einer konzeptionellen Fotografie, die dem gestellten Thema am nächsten kam. Der Ausleuchtungsstil begeisterte die Zuschauer sehr.
Nach Auszählung aller Jurystimmen konnte Richard die absolute Mehrheit aller Stimmen auf sich vereinigen und gewann verdient den Live Portrait Contest 2016.
Auch sein nachfolgender Vortrag am nächsten Tag stieß auf großes Interesse und Zustimmung bei den anwesenden Fotografen des bpp.
Dies war für alle ein besonderer Genuss den Richard, selbst 2012 Fotograf des Jahres in England, fand sehr schöne und passende Worte für die Ehrung. Der bpp ist sehr froh mit Richard Maifeld, einem so erstklassigen, kompetenten Fotografen aus England zusammen zu arbeiten.
Wir würden uns sehr freuen, wenn diese Zusammenarbeit zukünftig fortbesteht und noch weiter intensiviert werden kann.
Michael Belz
Geschäftsführer des bpp
English version:
It was a great honor for us that Richard Mayfield took part in the bpp convention 2016 – as a candidate of the LIVE PORTRAIT CONTEST as well as speaker in regards to Marketing and professional sales strategies for photographers.
Richard Mayfield came onstage as the last candidate of the competition to perform his shooting for the LPC. The audience of professional photographers that were judging the contest – was quite impressed by the performances from the competitors that were performing before him. So far, the results of the Dutch as well as the German candidate stayed ahead. But when Richard started, he inspired the audience with a great, extraordinary performance and with a conceptual photography that was matching the topic of the competition better than anything else. The audience was impressed by his lighting and his creativity.
After having counted out all ballot papers, Richard received the absolute majority and won deservedly the LIVE PORTRAIT CONTEST 2016. The bpp is very happy to work with Richard. He is a first class photographer, very unique in his style and very competent.
We would be very happy to go ahead with our cooperation and when we even intensify it.
Michael Belz
Managing Director bpp
LPC Organisers : http://www.b-p-p.info/
Model : www.olgakaminska.com
Lingerie designer for the winning shots : http://www.cutilondon.com/
BTS films : Stephan Kaminski