In Motion
The fascination with motion is characteristic of the young participants in the German Youth Photo Prize. The rapid technical progress has made it easier to photograph sequences of movements that can’t normally be perceived with the human eye. It is now no problem to bring continuous motion sequences to a »halt« and to record them for all time simply by pressing the shutter release: a new, previously unknown world presents itself to the viewer.
Furthermore, cameras have become much lighter and user-friendlier in the last few decades. At the same time the cost of material and developing has rapidly fallen.
The motif of motion is the unifying theme of all of the works shown here. Many of the photos have an air of dynamism, joy of living and cockiness. It is no accident that children are the dominant motif, for they have a natural urge to be on the move and test their dexterity in all sorts of ways.
The individual photographs were made under very different conditions. Some pictures are spontaneous snapshots, while others have only come about after long and patient waiting and numerous unsuccessful attempts to capture the motif. Still others appear to owe their existence to subsequent processing in the computer, but have required no less painstaking work than their analogue precursors.
