Vitamin D wins the photo contest "Long lived lives: the constant vitality".

The General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, through the International Centre on Ageing (CENIE), among other relevant actions, is the promoter and developer of the Programme for a Long-lived Society, based on the strategic, committed and constructive decision to address longevity as one of the strengths of present and future society.

The Programme for a Long-lived Society is based on the need to promote, support and implement studies, research, scientific discoveries and technological advances that contribute to defining longevity as a healthy and rewarding stage of life, both for individuals and for the society to which they belong. In this way, longevity becomes a promising horizon full of possibilities, a real engine for growth and a continuous factor for improvement in our relationship and social culture.

Longevity should never be equivalent only to retirement and, even less, to inaction, absence of participation, lack of usefulness or productivity - understood not only from an economic point of view - but should be seen as the privileged moment of life in which what has already been learnt becomes a true individual and social capital, transferable to the community as a whole. And the basis for new and continuous learning.

Being long-lived is a way of being and being in a world happily made up of people who value and appreciate their existential baggage as a valuable heritage, but who, at the same time, continue to be driven by projects, by the essential vitality of illusion, by ideas of renewal. In short, by the legitimate aspiration for a better life for themselves and for others.

This is the only way to broaden and enrich social relations. Only in this way will the attained prolongation of life not only be the effect of organic or biological behaviour, but the horizon in which individuals and societies can walk together, where experience attains its irreplaceable value and the future is the aspiration that continues to energise our lives.

The Programme for a Long-lived Society is a real social and cultural challenge. The implementation of a transformation process in which the length of life is accompanied by the extension of the quality of life. A possible, timely and just process. A process that cannot be delayed. 

As part of the actions carried out in pursuit of these objectives, the 3rd edition of the Photography Competition was held with the slogan: "Long lived lives: the constant vitality".

In this edition, 510 photographers from 46 countries took part, submitting a total of 1,881 entries.

The evaluation and selection of the winning works was carried out by a jury of recognised prestige, made up of José Antonio Díaz, Julio Galeote, Beatriz Martínez, Ana Palacios, Jorge Salgado and José Luis Amores, who wished to state the following about this 3rd edition: 

"The jury of this edition would like to highlight the great participation and especially the high level of photography that the competition has experienced in this edition.

All the members of the jury agreed that it was very difficult to select, not only the finalists, but also and more specifically the winners, due to the high quality of all the works presented in all the categories of the competition. 

We would like to congratulate all those who took part and encourage them to continue to offer their photographs the wonderful possibility of being seen, commented on and enjoyed by all". 

This activity, as indicated, is part of the Programme for a long-lived society, is framed in the INTERREG V-A Programme, Spain-Portugal, POCTEP, 2014-2020, of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Winners

Below are the winning photographs and authors of the prizes assigned to each category, as well as an explanatory text provided by the Jury of the competition:

Big Prize CENIE

Title: Vitamin D

Author: Winston Van Hughes Gomis (Spain)

"We live in a society that extols the bodily beauty of youth within pre-established canons, so images that show other types of bodies and other forms of beauty are always welcome. 

The winning image is an ode to the beauty of the body and skin of older people and their capacity to enjoy and devote themselves to the small pleasures of life".

Category: People's Choice

Title: Mi pasado Mi presente

Author: Juan Miguel Ortuño Martínez (Spain)

"This woman's pride and nostalgia for her land, her trees and her fruit. Longing for youth in a time of harvesting, showing a black and white image within a colour one, which manages to merge the present and the past in a single glance. 

An accumulation of sensations in one image, direct and simple. 

The award of the public's choice says a lot about the visual capacity of the public and its high degree of knowledge".

Category: People

Title: A girl With Art.

Author: Abhay Patel (India)

"Lights and shadows, highlighting a magnificent composition where blacks and whites direct our gaze towards the bottom of the stairs, focusing our vision on a female portrait, a drawing of dreams and memories. 

All this with the image of this woman, who between impossible balances, transmits us calm, tranquillity and solitude.  

Difficult with so little, to tell so many feelings, in only one image".

Category: Looks

Title: Nostalgia

Author: Carlos Lopes Franco (Portugal)

"Carlos López's photography uses the gaze as the main discursive element, in which two generations communicate and show closeness and distance at the same time. 

Strangeness and complicity coexist in the image, where a bus stop shows the necessary daily independence of the elderly. 

This photograph brings the most current culture, represented by the singer in the advert, closer to two different generations who actively coexist".

Category: Iberian Looks

Title: Capotes

Author: Sérgio Conceição (Portugal)

"The space of the winning photograph is completely filled with elements, dozens of capes in shades of brown, grey and black, with their fur collars, embracing and surrounding the man. 

The table introduces us and directs our gaze like a river in the landscape, showing us on it a single short, bluish-grey cape, which directs us to the erect pose of the protagonist, who shows himself to us with the proud look of a master. 

A fantastic result for having so few elements in which the portrait of the character can stand out".

Category: Looks at the line

Title: Tia Purificação

Author: João Galamba (Portugal)

"Yes, it's fine. It's a photograph, but it could perfectly well be a portrait of classical painters; composition, lighting...everything perfect. I don't know the name and age of the lady, it could be my mother.

From the author's signature I suppose she is Portuguese, but I don't know either and it's not important. Those dark circles under her eyes, those wrinkles, that firmness of a working woman holding her little cane with dignity. I would like to see her hair, white I'm sure, but the beauty of her veil prevents it.

Adolfo Domínguez used to say that wrinkles are beautiful. This is embroidered. 

And as a teenager she could have been "The Girl with the Pearl Earring".

Category: Altered Images

Title: Luces y sombras

Author: José Ángel Arias Tomás (Spain)

"The winning image shows us a dreamlike and imaginary world in which practically everything is in movement, except for the main character's cane, which seems to be the only stable element in this "vertigo world".

The digital alteration of this image supports the conceptual proposal very well and underlines the message in a clear and very expressive way which, together with the black and white toning, transports us to a place not identifiable neither in space nor in time, but very recognisable for any of us in the imaginary of sensations". 

Category: Mobile

Title: Extraño atardecer

Author: Sara López Termes (Spain)

"The mobile phone photo leaves little room for technical issues and focuses on the emotions it conveys. This image transcends photographic technique and opens us up to a sensorial narrative that invites us to reflect on its story.

Her silhouette, between the warm, reflected and kindly light and the more direct and harsh cold light, finds calm at the end of the day. In this contrast of light of different shades and her shadows there is a veiled reading of what her life may have been like. She reveals an intimate moment in which she opens her box, a safe space for her. Perhaps it is a thread and a needle, or a memory that makes her smile or feel nostalgic. Time and her experiences have led her to treasure her memories in that magic box. At this moment, the contrast between the dualities of life is soft, light and reveals a calm balance.