Hessen Ideen – Wettbewerb
Event photography at the Hessen Ideen innovation competition for start-ups. The award ceremony took place in a hall full of historic machinery — rows of…
Photographic coverage of the Hessen Ideen innovation competition, which recognizes start-up ideas from universities across Hesse. The award ceremony took place in a hall full of historic machinery — rows of chairs among industrial history, HESSENIDEEN beach flags between them, the welcome address from the University of Kassel. Documented are the audience, the reactions from the second row, the conversations at the tables, and finally the winners with their trophies on stage.
The frame of the welcome address is deliberately made from within the audience, over the heads of the row in front. From the edge of the stage the speaker would be isolated and alone — from here you can see who is listening and how full the hall is. For a format that lives on participation, that is the more important information.
The presentation screen behind is exposed for rather than suppressed. It carries the speaker's name and his subject, which makes the picture its own caption. At an event with a dozen speakers, that is the difference between a sorted archive and a folder full of men at microphones.
The hall with its machinery is both a gain and a hazard. It gives every frame a place no conference room could supply — and it pulls attention away the moment you open up too wide. So in most frames the machines sit soft in the background, and only in one wide shot are they the subject.
At the end the winners stand with their trophies. Those pictures go to the universities, into press releases and into the portfolios of young founders. So the same rule applies as at any award: the trophy is not covered, the faces are complete, and nobody stands half out of frame.
- Format
- Competition
