At the Tatar Academic Theater named after Galiaskar Kamal, the ceremony of rewarding the winners of the All-Russian photo contest "Ethnographic mosaic of the Tatar people" held

The next, the fourth, photo contest "Ethnographic mosaic of the Tatar people", which was held as part of the implementation of the Republican state program "Preservation of the national identity of the Tatar people (2014-2019)", has been finished.

The organizer of the competition is the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The main objective of this competition is to enhance the role and contribution of photography in the development, preservation and popularization of the cultural heritage of the Tatar people. In addition, the tasks of the creative review include the identification of the most talented works and authors who showed interest in this topic.

The competition provides for three nominations - "Traditions and Rites", "Folk and Applied Art" and "Portrait".

The works received from the regions to the contest show that the representatives of the Tatar people, living far from their historical homeland, in various parts of Russia, strive to preserve the culture and customs of their native people.

Perhaps, these works can not in a strictly scientific sense refer to ethnographic photography. But they certainly demonstrate the people's desire to carefully preserve their national traditions, crafts, folk arts and crafts.

At the same time, it should be noted that a significant number of works were sent by photographers of the most diverse nationalities. At the same time, they all tried to reflect the nature and soul of the Tatar people, to record interesting pages of their everyday life, traditions and customs, holidays and everyday life.

A total of 64 photographers from 15 regions of the Russian Federation took part in the photo contest in 2017. Including - from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Nefteyugansk, Penza, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Tver, Ufa, Tomsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Crimea, Mytishchi, Gatchina, Struzhnevoy and others.

As the chairman of the photo contest jury, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic Guzel Azatovna Sharipova, speaking at the award ceremony, there is a feeling of satisfaction with the results of this year's competition for a number of positions.

 "Firstly, the geography of the regions of Russia has seriously increased in the presented works. And besides, and this, perhaps, the most important thing - their artistic level has grown significantly. Moreover, not only professional photographers showed interest to the theme of national traditions and customs, folk-applied art of the Tatars, but also a significant number of amateurs who nevertheless caught the specificity of the given theme of the photo contest, "Guzel Sharipova emphasized.

There are among the works received unconditional photographic pearls, which were appropriately appreciated by the jury members.

At the same time, it should be noted that, from the point of view of the organizers, the collective opinion of the jury members on the received works has become stricter and, presumably, more objective. To a large extent this was facilitated by the participation in the work of the jury of such authoritative   names in the world of photos  as Ramil Galiev, Ruslan Bushkov, Maxim Bogodvid, and also such expert in ethnography as the head of the Republican Center for the Development of Traditional Cultures Fanzil Khakimovna Zavgarova.

Of course, the long experience of working with the national communities of the republic, by a jury member Nikolai Mikhailovich Vladimirov - Deputy Chairman of the Council, head of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Assembly of Peoples of Tatarstan, is also very important.

They, being members of the jury or participants in this competition of previous years and having the opportunity to compare, unanimously note the significant increase in the level of the photo contest in the current year.

It is no accident that, in addition to the works that were awarded prizes, the jury members noted more than 20 works deserving an encouraging assessment. Among the winners are the following names: Rifkat Yakupov, Iskhakov Sultan, Tukhbatov Ilnar, Erokhina Irina, Dovgal Anna, Gataullina Angelina, Fattahov Ramil, Petukhova Lyubov. Among the authors of the works that received the jury's encouragement, such names as Titov Andrey, Alexandrov Nikolay, Bikmukhametova Alfia, Ziatdinov Farit, Kuleshov Eugene, Samoilov Oleg, Faizova Gulia, Eugenia Tsoi, Aleev Egor.

At the same time, the jury found it possible, within the framework of the powers, in accordance with the Regulations on the competition, not to award the first place in the nomination "Applied Arts" due to the fact that in this nomination there were no works meeting the criteria of an unconditional leader.

The jury members Ramil Galiyev and Maxim Bogodvid made a number of wishes to the future participants of the contest, which was prolonged by the decree of the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan until 2019, and also undoubtedly showed positive dynamics in the level of works submitted for this year's competition.

Of course, there are tasks for the future in working more closely with the regions to expand the circle of contestants, which, naturally, will raise its level as a whole, and enrich the collection of the contest with new interesting works and new bright photographic names.

And here it is pertinent to emphasize that the collection of the best works received for the previous three years, received for this contest in 2014-2016, takes part in various solemn events both in the republic and far beyond its borders.

It   travels with our remarkable national Sabantui holiday to other regions of Russia and abroad, it decorates congresses and conferences. And ahead and such a significant event with the expectation of a huge number of guests of the republic as the World Cup.

Undoubtedly, in the matter of acquaintance with the republic, the collection of this photo competition will be invaluable. It is undeniable that the photograph became an effective plenipotentiary representative of the culture of the Tatar people and Tatarstan as a whole, carrying very valuable and reliable visual information about the national character, history, traditions of our people.

The chairman of the jury G.Sharipova also made a proposal to consider in the future the possibility of reviewing the list of nominations within the framework of the given topic of the competition. This was supported by the jury as well, which was confirmed by Nikolai Mikhailovich Vladimirov in his greeting at the awards ceremony.

The first deputy head of the executive committee of the World Congress of Tatars Danis Fanisovich Shakirov gave a high evaluation of the results of the photo contest in his speech at the awarding ceremony. He stressed the great importance of photography and expressed gratitude to photographers, all participants of the competition for attention to such an important topic as the preservation of traditions.

There is a hope that both Tatarstan photographers and photographers of the regions of Russia, with the appropriate initiative of the national-cultural autonomies of the Tatars on the ground, will respond even more vividly to the growing photo-competition "Ethnographic mosaic of the Tatar people", which has become all-Russian one.

At the same time, guided by the future, and professional photographers and amateur photographers, the organizers of the competition, represented by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, invite you to watch in their places of residence the events that affect the themes of this photo contest in one way or another, and remember to record the brightest, colorful moments reflecting the national character of the people, its rich traditions and culture.

The organizers express their gratitude to everyone who took part in the photo contest-2017.