FOTOSPORT 2020

When we announced the date for Fotosport 2020 in February of this year, nobody could have imagined anything like what the entirety of humanity has since lived through with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our lives have made a radical change in course and we cannot even fathom the changes it will lead to yet. Nevertheless, the grave consequences are overwhelming clear with regard to the number of lives that the pandemic has cut short and the vast numbers of consequences on people’s health, employment and economic well-being.

Despite all of this, the administration of Fotosport have chosen to maintain, to the extent it is possible, the utmost normality in the development of the salon, especially given that this year’s edition will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Fotosport.

We believe that opting for normality has been the right choice and this is shown by the success in amount of participation we have received this year. Once more, the photographers have entrusted us with their works in order to participate in our Fotosport. They have sent us the best of themselves: their personal vision of the the widest variety of the different aspects of sports and their environment despite the exceptional situation in which we all find ourselves at the moment. Thus, we have received 1698 works from 131 authors from 35 countries around the world.

Naturally, the fact that we were able to move into the virtual world to receive images years ago has greatly facilitated this relative normality, but, all the same, we deeply appreciate these photographic artists who once again have provided their talent that is so essential, since without them, Fotosport would not exist and would not be about to celebrate its 50 anniversary.

Another aspect that we have always valued highly in the administration has been the jury, and we have always tried to form juries made up of people whose worth is well recognised within the world of photography. For us, it is another element that is essential to maintaining the cultural solvency and prestige that we have gained over the years. In this matter the pandemic has forced us to make some changes, for obvious reasons. We had to go without the personal contact that so enriches us all with the exchange of live experience, knowledge and ways of understanding the art of photography that it entails. So, this year the jury had to be virtual, arranged through video conferencing. This somewhat limits that rich interaction I was talking about, but it has also allowed us, despite all we are facing, to carry out the salon with a certain degree of normalcy.

We hope that when we meet again in 2022 for a new edition of Fotosport, the situation will have significantly improved and we will be entering a new stage where the events we are living now seem like nothing more than a bad dream.

Josep M Casanoves Dolcet, AFIAP, EsFIAP
Chairman of Fotosport
Director of the FIAP Exhibition Centre of Reus at the CIMIR
Club Natació Reus Ploms