RCN launches photo contest: “This is THE place” – Dare to Share”

Yesterday the RCN launched a photo contest with the theme “This is THE place”, a cross-border photo contest for all citizens of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.On November 16th, 2013 a unique and cross-border photo exhibition will be opened on Bonaire, and this exhibition will simultaneously be shown on St. Eustatius and Saba. At this ‘CN Expo’ 29 unique photos of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba will be exhibited. The photos are made by the winners of a photo competition, at which all inhabitants of the Caribbean Netherlands (Caribisch Nederland – CN) can participate as of September 2nd. With this photo exhibition and accompanying Facebook page, which showcases all submitted photos, the citizens of the Caribbean Netherlands will offer each other as well as the inhabitants of Netherlands a personal look at their own island and reveal what is most precious to them.Ordinary citizens with an extraordinary view                      The theme of the photo competition is ‘This is the place’, in other words ‘Dit is dé plek’, or ‘Esaki ta é lugá’. This photo contest for ordinary citizens with an extraordinary view, calls for young and old residents of the three islands to capture those spots that are special place to them. These can be photo’s made of places of their island, but also from family, school, work or home. What matters is sharing the place you cherish, the place where you feel fine and that has a unique meaning for you.

The photo contest offers residents of the Caribbean Netherlands the opportunity to (re)discover their own world in a creative way to share it with the inhabitants of the other islands. This will further strengthen the ties within the Caribbean Netherlands. Possibly the exhibition will travel later also to the Netherlands, where the images will be exhibited in public places. This allows for citizens in the Netherlands to also get acquainted with life on the three islands and get a real and positive image of what their fellow citizens in the Caribbean Netherlands dedicate themselves to and what binds them.

The photo competition distinguishes three categories of participants: the youth of up to 12 years, young adults from 13 to 21 years and adults aged 21 and over. Photos may be made with mobile phones, tablets and simple to semi-professional cameras. Per each island three winners will be selected per age group, what will yield a total of 27 winning photo’s. In addition, also ‘The most popular’ and ‘The best of the best’ photos are selected. ‘The most popular’ photo is voted through Facebook. The winners of ‘The most popular’ and ‘The best of the best’ are furthermore rewarded with a contemporary camera.

For the photo contest an independent jury is appointed, consisting of two professional photographers and a representative of each island. The photos, which can also be viewed on Facebook, are judged on their content, artistic appearance and technical quality, whereby the jury obviously will take into account the device with which the pictures were taken. The photo contest starts on September 2nd and closes on October 13th, 2013. Those interested can simply upload their favorite photos via the Facebook page facebook.com/the.CN.expo, where clear instructions can also be found.

The photo contest and related CN Expo ‘This is the place’ is an initiative of Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland, which works closely together with the tourist offices and youth organizations of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba and the Committee 200 years of Kingdom.

The CN Expo documents the current environment of the islands, seen through the eyes of the residents themselves and may, according to the organizers, possibly be repeated in the future. This would create a unique visual historic document. Citizens who wants help submitting (uploading) their photo to the relevant Facebook page can contact their own tourist office. The involvement of these agencies may possibly also ensure multiple lifecycles for the selected photos and may also global exposure possible, in which case the winners will be put even more in the limelight.