CEWE Photo Award 2021: The Winner is Announced!

With a beautifully surreal landscape shot of an ice-covered lighthouse on the island of Rügen, Germany, photographer Manfred Voss has officially taken the crown in this year's CEWE Photo Award.

Beating tough competition from over 606,000 entries, Manfred’s sensational winter scene was selected as this year’s winner by the CEWE Photo Award jury members, and he was awarded the prestigious CPA 2021 trophy in a ceremony near his home in northern Germany. The 2021 contest saw record numbers of participants, with photography enthusiasts from over 170 countries entering their images – an achievement made particularly poignant since the competition took place throughout the global pandemic.

"It is more important than ever for us to celebrate the beauty of the world and to share it with people in all its forms," says Dr. Christian Friege, Chairman of the Board of Management of CEWE and one of the seven CPA jury members. "With more entries than ever before and an incredible range of photographic skills on display, the CEWE Photo Award 2021 will go down in our company history as a record-breaking photo contest.”

The winning image

The judges deemed Manfred Voss‘ photo "Frozen Lighthouse" the image that best captured the contest slogan of ’Our world is beautiful’, and we can’t help but agree that it’s a powerful – and beautiful – symbol of what nature can create.

The jury cited several factors in the success of Manfred’s image – the choice to shoot early in the morning in unique soft lighting, the wonderful variation in tone, the perfect crop using the classic golden ratio and the warm-yellow light from the lighthouse contrasting with the otherwise icy-blue cool tones all combining to create the perfect shot.

Manfred Voss has elicited something very special from the scene to create this magical mood we see in the photo, as summed up by CPA juror Ulla Lohmann, who commented that "it looks like something from a fairytale". With his extraordinary photograph, Manfred was able to win not only the Landscapes category but ultimately also the overall victory in the CEWE Photo Award 2021.

Greatest ever charity donation

In addition, this year’s contest generated a record donation to chosen charity SOS Children's Villages Worldwide. With €0.10 donated by CEWE for each photo submitted, an impressive total of €60,628.90 now goes towards an educational project in Haiti, led by the organisation. On the grounds of the SOS Children's Village Santo, near Port-au-Prince, the donation has already been put to good use, helping to add another school complex to a primary and secondary school. A total of 14 new classrooms have been built, giving 500 more children the chance to attend school, bringing the total number of pupils to over 1,000.

You can see this year’s CEWE Photo Award winner in more detail as well as viewing the full gallery of all 1,000 prize-winning images at cewephotoaward.com

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