Selected Views : Katapult 2009 Award - for promising young professional photographers in the Rhine-Main area, Germany

On 20 and 21 January, the events took place around Katapult, a prize for promising young professional photography talents in the Rhine-Main area, Germany. Event organiser and host Oliver Lebkücher and Thomas Hobein c/o Wolkenkratzer and Bernd Sumalowitsch of Selected Views greeted several hundred visitors on both days.

A Portfolio Show kicked off the event on Wednesday, to provide the young talents with contacts in the visual, creative and art buying sectors. In the evening, visitors to the event location on Hanauer Landstraße, could experience a live Pecha-Kucha-Night of photography, which was also broadcast as a live stream for those that couldn’t make it.

13 speeches – each seven minutes long – all about professional photography. The speakers came from Rhine-Main, Hamburg, Hanover and Heidelberg. It wasn’t about being top of the class at giving presentations. Indeed, there was a relaxed atmosphere, passionate speakers and a more than interested audience.

The Katapult 2009 Top Ten were premiered the next day. A total of 100 participants had registered and sent in hundreds of images. In Third Place Per Schorn. In Second Cornelius Manuel Braun. And in First - Stephan Nau from Frankfurt was presented with the Katapult and the prize money of 2,000 Euro.