Best 2012 photo of Slovenia

The contest hosted 1700 amateur and professional photographers, including foreign tourists, who submitted over 5000 photographs. 160 photos and 68 authors received awards. This year’s contest surpassed all previous contests as regards the amount of photos submitted and awarded as well as the amount of authors awarded. A special feature of this year’s competition was a number of contests for the best photography of individual regions or municipalities.

Primož Žižek: “This year’s Picture Slovenia contest again represented a new challenge, as foreign authors were invited to participate in it for the first time. We received an interesting response, with around 300 foreign photographers who submitted work. Altogether, we received slightly over 5700 photos. This year’s contest was characterised by a large number of landscape photos, which strengthens the perception of Slovenia as a green destination. In future, more energy and contests will be focused on lifestyle and street photography. To this end, plans for Picture Slovenia camps are already underway, along with several other approaches aiming to promote Slovenia to visitors, tourists and nature lovers. In the next period, our photography exhibitions held worldwide will include a monograph, catalogues, outdoor exhibitions and several major projects with the goal of promoting Slovenia.”

Polling visitors of the www.pictureslovenia.si portal about the best photography of Slovenia is still underway. Photography lovers are invited to submit their votes by 31 December 2012. In the first six months, the portal was visited by 135,000 guests from 64 countries.

The Picture Slovenia project was put together in order to enhance the graphical representation of Slovenia on the Internet, which contributes to better recognisability and competitiveness of Slovenian tourist destinations. By organising contests, the project encourages photographers to document the image of Slovenia, presenting it on the portal with a suitable description and geographical placement. The project further promotes Slovenia by organising exhibitions, publications and numerous announcements in the media. The Picture Slovenia project was successfully initiated four years ago and has since presented over 35,000 photos.

Sourse: Slovenian Tourist Board