PHOTO COMPETITION: ‘Capture Your City’ is a photo contest and exhibition where we invite citizens from all over Europe to take photos of their city - from March 1 - May 1, 2024. The theme is New Beauty. An international jury will select 50-100 photos for an exhibition and 3 winners of the competition.
Published March 20, 2024
Close-cut lawns with ‘Keep off the grass’ signs – that’s the ‘nature’ we usually find in our cities. But can we find beauty in weeds and the less planned greenery too? A tree shooting up where it wasn’t supposed to, or wildflowers blooming in a road verge.
We buy and throw out more than ever before – from our homes and in the building industry, where we tear down buildings and replace them with new ones. But if we want more bees in our backyards and less construction waste on the curb, shouldn’t we get used to seeing the world around us with new eyes too?
In 2024 the Capture Your City theme is: New Beauty
- If instead of newly painted white walls, we need to learn to live with patina and traces of the past – where can you find these in your city?
- If our cities need more weeds and wild nature – how does the countryside, the forest or the beach coexist with the asphalt in your city? And maybe we humans are not the only creatures living in cities?
- If we ought to share more things in the future – can you find new communities and ways of living in your city?
Kristina Neel Jacobsen, senior project manager at Danish Architecture Center and in charge of Capture Your City 2024, says:
"Architecture affects everyday life across age, geography, ethnicity and gender. Whether we know it or not. Capture Your City is an opportunity to show others a snapshot of our towns and cities. We’re looking forward to seeing if we can spot any cultural differences and similarities across Europe in the contributions."
So far, 1,658 photos have been submitted to Capture Your City from all over Europe!
A European contest
In 2024 Capture Your City is made in collaboration with the New European Bauhaus project Desire – an Irresistible Circular Society, and for the first time this year Capture Your City is open to everyone in Europe – and especially to the collaborating cities of Riga, Amsterdam, Milan, Turin, and Ljubljana. Can we find new beauty in the old Soviet buildings of Riga? Are there signs of wild nature in Ljubljana? Are there new ways of dealing with water in Amsterdam? Or foxes living in Turin or Milan?
A jury will select the three winners and select 50-100 photos that will be part of the exhibition. The exhibition will be on show from June 6 to October 1, 2024, at Bryghuspladsen in front of Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. Additionally, as something new this year, the exhibition will be shown digitally and physically in various locations across Europe.
When judging your photo, the panel will concentrate on:
- A clear depiction of this year’s theme
- Interaction between the physical framework and people
- An exciting composition
The photo competition is supported by the philanthropic association Realdania and developed in collaboration with the New European Bauhaus project Desire – an Irresistible Circular Society. Desire is funded by the EU.