Long live the self-portrait: WINNERS of PHE16 contest

PHotoEspaña 2016 includes among all its exhibitions one dedicated to the American photographer Vivian Maier, a nanny who spent more than 40 years portraying their country with none knowing. This way of dealing with photography, that portray unseen, was the inspiration that PHE and the Fundación Canal took to launch a contest: "From Selfie to Self-portrait". A declaration of war on the growing number of selfies, trying to recover the intention and the magic of classic self-portraits, of which Vivian Maier is a reference.

In the surroundings of the exhibition Vivian Maier, Street Photographer, PHotoEspaña and the Fundación Canal proposed to the public a difficult challenge in the form of competition: to park  the passion for selfies and retrieve the value and magic of self-portraits of classical photographic tradition. Time to get it: one month; the platform on which participate could not be other than the fashion's social network: Instagram; the unique and intriguing nanny photographer Vivian Maier was the inspitarion. A powerful combination that has resulted in a resounding success of participation, originality and quality in this contest.

The jury of it was composed by the photographer Chema Conesa; the head of the Department of Exhibitions of La Casa Encendida, Tania Pardo; and the director of exhibitions Fundación Canal, Cristian Ruiz Orfila. It wasn't easy to choose the winning photos, but eventually Ciudad: dónde lo íntimo se vuelve público y lo público íntimo - by Esther Elena Pimienta - has obtained the first prize, receiving a prize of 2,000 euros, and the second prizes went to Tarde de barbería and Para lo bueno y para lo malo - by Carolina Santos and Ignasi Raventos, respectively - which have obtained 500 euros each one.

More than 20,000 people have visited the exhibition Vivian Maier, Street Photographer and many of them have participated in this contest inspired by the photographs of the sample. Among the participants images there are many variants of self-portraits: shades ranging as puddles, reflections in a glass or a mirror, distorted faces... Sometimes they show how to leverage the elements of the city to build enigmatic and fascinating self-portraits as Maier did.

The self-portraits marked the photographic path of the nanny. She made many of them, as many as chances of discovering who she was; something that was proposed with some insistence and obsession. Her work and her story continue to fascinate experts and public. This contest is only a small sample of the number of followers that generates the phenomenon Maier, a character on who will always remain misteries.