Flickr Launches 20under20 Award to Shine a Spotlight on 20 Talented Young Photographers

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Wanting to recognize some of the most talented young photographers in its community, Flickr today announced 20under20, an annual award that honors 20 of the “world’s most extraordinary young photographers on Flickr.”

To select the winner’s of this year’s award, the photo sharing service enlisted the help of four superstars Flickr photogs: Lou Nobel, Cuba Gallery, and Rosie Hardy and Bernardo Hernandez (Flickr’s head honcho). The judges evaluated 1000 photographers over four months for creativity, technical talent, and overall portfolio strength.

Hernández tells The Next Web that they are trying to identify the most influential photographers of the future while they’re still young,

Some 15 to 20 years ago, to explore photography you had to be older, you had to have money to experiment, to buy a decent camera and the photography process was expensive. But today, photography has exploded, devices are portable and we see experimentation starting at a very early age. We believe that the best photography will emerge from people who are experimenting at a very young age.

[…] They’re in their teens today. Imagine what they’re going to be able to do 15 years from now.

The 20 winners this year are: Evan Atwood, Rachel Baran, Olivia Bee, Alex Benetel, Oliver Charles, Alex Currie, Silvia Grav, Zev Hoover, Katharina Jung, Lissy Laricchia, Brian Oldham, Laurence Philomene, Greg Ponthus, Berta Vicente Salas, Nicholas Scarpinato, Alex Stoddard, David Uzochukwu, Chrissie White, wiissa, and Lauren Withrow.

Needless to say, clicking any of the photographer links above will lead you to a major dose of inspiration.

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Flickr is planning to showcase the work of these 20 winners throughout the year on the Yahoo and Flickr websites. They will also be shown at an exhibition in New York City curated by Vogue’s photography director, Ivan Shaw. Shaw also chose Philomene to receive the 20under20 Curator’s Choice Award, and will be personally mentoring the young photographer for a year.

Check out the 20under20 website for a closer look at the photographers who have been chosen this year. You can also email [email protected] if you’d like to nominate a photographer for next year’s prize.

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