Works in Print are very excited to announce that the winner of this year’s Art Graduates Prize is talented photographer Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi from University of Portsmouth. Alecsandra was awarded the £1,000 prize at a prestigious Private Viewing on 6th November at co-sponsor Herbert Smith Freehills’ offices, in the heart of the City of London.
The judges of the prize were incredibly impressed with Alecsandra’s great technical skill and ability to capture emotion in her imagery, a view which was clearly shared by the general public.
WiP’s state-of-the-art voting tool gained a lot of attention in the last few days of voting, with literally thousands of people signing up to register their opinion.
The winning images are from Alecsandra’s project Ritual, which documents various aspects of the Romanian culture, a post-communist country that succeeds in keeping alive the richness of its traditions in a modern era. Many of the old traditions can be discovered in the countryside, which is considered to be the heart and soul of Romania, where peasant culture remains a strong force and medieval life prevails.
The New Year’s traditions have some of the finest winter attractions; diverse, colourful and rich in symbols and meanings. These customs present glimpses of pre-Christian rituals and underline the predominant agrarian lifestyle from the past.
Alecsandra states that “The project is playing with the narrative of contrasting masculinity represented by the bear tradition, with the femininity represented by the women dressed in traditional costumes with their headscarves, bringing light into the dark of masculinity representation. The traditions and the customs are an integrated part of the Romanian national conscience, as they express the ancestral wisdom of the people and are the core of their spiritual legacy.”
Having graduated from University of Portsmouth with First Class Honours this year and now currently studying on the Masters programme at University of Westminster, Alecsandra looks set for an incredibly bright future in photojournalism. Her website, which can be viewed here, is brimming with intriguing, beautifully shot projects that show a mastery in story telling from her unique perspective.
Runners up were Royal College of Art graduates Anastasia Mina with her large scale work ‘Untitled Black Drawing’ and Abraham Kritzman with his diptych ‘Pilgrims’. WiP would like to offer their congratulations to all the accomplished artists that took part in the competition. All other works from the exhibition can be viewed here.
Abraham Kritzman, Pilgrims
Anastasia Mina, Untitled Black Drawing
worksinprint 
Leave a comment