Creativity expressed with a shot
January 24, 2005
Up to until today, ITS# has been a fashion contest to support fashion students and young designers. One must not forget that its inner soul believes in the support of creativity at large, no matter the field. The main protagonist of ITS# has always been creativity, that bonded everyone at the event. It’s like a background, or a recognition plate. A scent you can smell.
A few months ago, a famous car company came to us to start a collaboration. They asked us to think about a project they could do with us for ITS#FOUR, and they wanted it to be a project outside fashion. It was a really exciting thing from the start. It meant a development, an opportunity of supporting creative talent in a new field for us! We worked on ideas we could propose to the car company, had a meeting, told them what we had in mind, and… Voilà!
EVErs are proud to present a new project: ITS#PHOTO for MINI. Yep, it’s not a mistake, you read it correctly. THAT’S the car company behind the project. You know those small sexy bullet cars you drive like a go-kart, that you can personalize in hundreds of different ways, a real thrill to drive and pleasure to look at? Ever seen the film "The Italian Job"? No matter if it’s the ‘69 version with Michael Caine or the ‘03 with Mark Walberg. The car is the same. Grown up and improved to match the needs of our times, and always an icon in the car industry. MINI has become part of the ITS# family joining DIESEL, our presenting partner who has believed in the ITS# project and supported us from the very beginning.
MINI and ITS# join their strengths to search for talents in this new field. The project will be a competition upon invitation for a selected number of schools. "Us & Them" is the theme for the photos that the students will shoot for the contest. During the fashion preselections which will take place in mid-April, a preselection Photo Jury will choose the finalists for ITS#PHOTO. The finalists will attend the event in July and have their photos displayed in a special exhibition area for everyone to see and for the Photo Jury to judge. The Jury will be composed by experts in the field of photography. I advise you keep your eyes on the website to know the names…you’re going to like them.
The MINIInternational Award perfectly matches the ITS# philosophy: winner will be hired to take photos for MINIInternational magazine. He/She will be sent to one of the cities (Buenos Aires or Seoul) to be featured in a forthcoming issue in 2005 or 2006 and will be compensated with €5000. Expenses for transport and accomodation will be covered by MINI. The winner will also appear in MINIInternational magazine and on the MINIInternational website with a selection of his winning photos.
MINI is not the only one involved in the project. Le Book, the bible of fashion, beauty, design, entertainment, publishing and advertising industries, has entered the project with a prize for the winner: a dedicated page in the French edition of Le Book plus a 64 image gallery on the Le Book website.
So if you thought ITS only about fashion…things are changing. We are beginning to walk the road we had always wanted to from the start: we’re walking towards creativity, no matter where it comes from. It’s a long and winding road (remember Snoopy going to Tipperary with his stick and bag?), and the steps are many and they must be made one at a time.
We EVErs have already begun improving our knowledge on photography (and practicing…have you checked the article on the shooting of the image for ITS#FOUR?): until now most of us had an intuitive, average-level way of shooting photos. Beware though: by July we will be experts on the subject, wondering around with tripods and professional cameras with bazooka-like lenses, taking pictures of everything and everyone, with a magenta scarf and a monocle around the neck. So all you young photographers out there waiting for a chance to show your work, keep an eye on this contest. Who knows? Maybe next year it’s going to be open to everyone…
