Europe's air story told in pictures

The competition challenged participants to take three pictures telling a story about air. The five winners announced today show a broad range of creative responses, from surreal landscapes to documentary-style images of pollution.

Twenty-one finalists were selected from entrants from 15 European countries. A jury made up of communication experts from across Europe selected the winner of each category, as well as a Youth Prize for participants between 18 and 24. Winners in each category will receive a € 500 cash prize.

Dovile Lubyte from Lithuania won both the Air and Technology category and the Youth Prize with her entry, ‘Astronauts of the Polluted Earth’.

Demonstrating a more realistic approach, Javier Arcenillas from Spain won the Air and Cities category with ‘Contamination,’ which creatively depicted the pollution from industry.  In ‘BADAIR’, Stella Carbone from Italy showed how people try to avoid air pollution, winning the Air and Health category.

‘Ever closing’ by Stephen Mynhardt from Ireland won the Air and Nature category with a photo story about air pollution and bird life.

Finalists were also open to a public online vote. The Public Choice Award was won by Stephen Connell from the UK with ‘Wasted light’, a series of photographs of power stations and steel works taken during the night.

You can see all the finalists and the eventual winners by clicking on the circles in the Eye on Earth map below, and selecting ‘Feature info’. Scroll to the right to see all three pictures for each entry. Note that the circles represent the entries.

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