DMJX students win ten prizes at the 76th CPOY

Nine different DMJX students have won ten prizes in the still picture categories at the 76th College Photographer of the Year that was concluded this Friday the 29th of October. In one category, International Picture Story, four out of the five winners were DMJX students.

The winners are:

Team Picture Story
Gold – Sarah Hartvigsen Juncker and Louise Herrche Serup

“In Lithuania I have a 14-year old daughter. Kids are not stupid. She sees that I have underwear and robes, so I can’t tell her that I work at a bar, and I bring so much money home that my family would never believe me. I bought two apartments in Lithuania, so how would they believe that I work at a restaurant? So I told them that I work with very rich men, that I sometimes have sex with. I don’t tell them that I have 10 customers a day”.
Image from Sarah Hartvigsen Juncker and Louise Herrche Serup’s BA-project about migrant sex workers and potential victims of human trafficking in Denmark.

International Picture Story
Gold – Jesper Houborg

Newly graduated high school students are attending their graduation ceremony in national costumes, as tradition dictates. Some of the accessories for the suits are made of silver. If the suit is not homemade, it can quickly cost 20,000 Danish kroner (3,000 US dollars). The trumpets play up to Faroese national anthem facing the Atlantic Ocean, and the families vote in. The national pride is unmistakable.
Photo by Jesper Houborg from his story “I Am Tired of Being Denmark’s Little Puppy” amde during his internship at Politiken.

International Picture Story
Silver – Valdemar Stroe Ren

One of the unique things about Southern Greenland is the warm weather. It makes it possible for farmers to have agriculture, which is not possible anywhere else in Greenland. Chris Papis is one of these farmers. He has 300 sheep, and lives 15 kilometers away from Kvanefjeld. Chris Papis fears how the mine will affect his agricultural business.
Photo by Valdemar Stroe Ren from his story “Kvanefjeld” made during his internship at Politiken.

International Picture Story
Bronze – Marius Renner Christensen

For a lot of South Korean women, the dream of the perfect exterior begins already in the early teens. Some of the young korean women receive a plastic surgery as a gift from their parents, others as a request or pressure from friends.
Photo by Marius Renner Christensen from his story “Painful Beauty” made during his internship at Politiken.

International Picture Story
Award of Excellence – Emilie Lærke Henriksen

Mike Tranbjerg and his friend Sebastian having dinner at a restaurant in Istanbul, where they have gone to get hair transplants.
Photo by Emilie Lærke Henriksen from her story “Hair of Istanbul” made during her internship at Information.

COVID Experience
Bronze – Katrine Noer

While the neighboring countries was opening from lockdown in the beginning of spring 2021, Germany was still in lockdown and was going through the third wave of the pandemic until late May. Strict restrictions of gathering and nightly curfews prevented the youth from having a spring with parties and dancing through the night. But the young people were still meeting up, swimming, and kissing by the river and lakes of Hannover.
Photo by Katrine Noer from her story “Next Spring by the River” made during her exchange study in Hannover.

COVID Experience
Award of Excellence – Walther Bølge

The conference and exhibition place Bella Center on the island of Amager functions as vaccine center.
Photo: Walther Bølge from his story “The Vaccination of Denmark” made during his internship at Børsen.

Portraits
Award of Excellence – Mads Frost

At first my doctor and I tried to avoid the psychiatric department, because it could cause problems, if I wanted to get feminizing hormone therapy later on. But my depression and suicidal thoughts became so severe that I had no choice. I told myself ‘if I kill myself, hormone therapy won’t matter. I need to deal with my depression first.’ At that time, I didn’t realize that my experience with dysphoria was a part of the reason why I was depressed.” Brynhildr Frederiksmose is a non-binary trans femme.
Photo by: Mads Frost. The portrait was a part his final BA-project.

Domestic Picture Story
Award of Excellence – Valdemar Stroe Ren

Many of the boys have made a cut in their eyebrow, as some sort of ritual. Until now Yahkemlek has avoided the cut. He was afraid of what his mom would say, if she saw it. After half an hour chase, the other boys caught him, and made the cut on him. Afterwards Yahkemlek liked how it looked.
Photo: Valdemar Stroe Ren from his story “First Year Away From Home” made during his internship at Politiken.

Domestic Picture Story
Award of Excellence – Marius Renner Christensen

Linda has been a farmer all her life and has worked with mink for 20 years, but the weeks around the killing still surpassed her imagination. And the future is uncertain. The killing itself is a gasp that is palpable, but it is just as much what awaits afterwards. Her livelihood has been removed from one day to the next and she has a hard time imagining what she is going to do now. Linda is not alone in this uncertainty. “It is terrible to see your entire mink-population killed so soon before we should have furred many of them. Killing the healthy mink feels completely wrong,” says Linda Christensen.
Photo: Marius Renner Christensen from his story “The Last Mink” made during his internship at Politiken.

CPOY is the biggest competition in the world for students of documentary photography. 535 students from 116 schools in 35 different countries have submitted 10,022 images for this year’s competition.

On the CPOY website you can watch screencasts of the judging.