The jury of this year's competition for the Best Mountain Photo will consist of 4 members from Photo Cinema Club Bitola: Victor Nalevsky Dimitar Chungovski Kathy Talevska Bakrevska Kosta Dupchinov
Viktor is a professional photographer, born in 1971 in Bitola. He started to get acquainted with photography from a very young age through the photos of his grandfather and father, who were enthusiastically engaged primarily in documentary photography. Keeping his interest in the same, through analog photography until the digital era in the last decade, he fully dedicates himself to the world of photography, through participation and organization of many domestic and international exhibitions, as well as active participation and membership in several photographic associations. He participated in more than 100 international and domestic exhibitions of a competitive and exhibition nature, winning several awards, and he was also part of the jury of some of them. In the field of photography, in addition to classic subjects, his attention is focused on conceptual photography, the psychological context and the symbolism that emerges from it.
Kathy Talevska Bakrevska. Kathy is a graduate engineer in media communication FERI, Maribor, Slovenia, She has been involved in photography since he was 16 years old, and in addition to digital photography, she is also actively engaged in alternative photography: classic analog photography, lumen print and cyanotype. Sh is also among the founders of the first festival for alternative photography in Macedonia "ZRNO" She has participated, organized and judged several domestic and international exhibitions. The first independent exhibition of lumen prints was held in 2022 and is the only one in our country that has presented itself with this photographic technique. As part of the ZRNO festival, it also participated in several other exhibitions for alternative photography in Macedonia. As a lecturer, She has held workshops on: Lumen prints at the ZRNO festival in Skopje and in Vienna, Austria, camera obscura workshop in Bitola, stop animation and video montage workshop in Skopje.
Dimitar Chungovski - Chunga. Dimitar was born in Bitola in 1979. His beginnings in photography are related to the manual production of analogue black and white photography at a very young age, during primary education. After a break during his studies, and with the advent of digital technology, sometime in 2003, he continues the photographic art. He is one of the founders of Photo Cinema Club Bitola where he is an active member, and since 2022 he has been awarded the title of Candidate Master of Photography of the National Photo Union of Macedonia. In 2016, he held his first independent exhibition "Two Saints", which he presented in several cities in Macedonia, as well as outside it. He has participated in more than seventy domestic and international group photo exhibitions where he has won a number of awards and recognitions.
Kosta Dupchinov. Costa was born in 1985 in Bitola, where he lives and works. He graduated from the Technical Faculty of Bitola, majoring in Informatics and Computer Technology. Second year of postgraduate studies at JNU Film Institute, Ohrid Film Academy, Department of Cinematography. His love for photography started at an early age, inspired by his grandfather who often watched him take photos and develop photos. He has been professionally engaged in photography since 2006, as a photographer in a photo studio in Bitola, and during that period he also worked as a cameraman for the national television channel Kanal5. In 2011, as one of the founders and a member of Photo Cinema Club Bitola, he started participating in international and national exhibitions. He has participated in more than 70 exhibitions where he has won about 20 awards and recognitions. For several years, his photos have been part of the collection that represents Macedonia at the FIAP World Cup of Photography. His first solo exhibition "Nostalgia" in 2017 was exhibited in several cities in Macedonia and was part of several film festivals, and also as a digital presentation in several countries in the world.
In addition, we share more information and some of the activities of Photo Cinema Club Bitola so far: Photo Cinema Club Bitola exists to promote artistic photography and non-professional film, supporting and assisting amateur and professional authors in increasing their artistic potential, regardless of their level of knowledge, equipment and skills. Photo Kino Club Bitola is an organization that currently has around 30 active members, but as a charitable organization it organizes a large number of activities that are of public interest. Membership is open to anyone, regardless of level of knowledge and experience. There are no qualifications other than love and passion for fine art photography. Each year the club organizes a series of events, lectures and exhibitions where attendees enjoy exceptional opportunities to share and add to their knowledge, learn from other photographers and develop their photographic interests and skills. Central to the work of the club is the art photography course, which is organized every year through lectures and practical workshops, as well as group visits to locations and outdoor training. The lecturers of the course are the most prominent authors, members of the club who willingly and with much love share their knowledge. Our international exhibition PHOTO FEST BITOLA, which we later plan to grow into a festival, is the first international exhibition of artistic photography in Bitola. Authors from around 60 countries from all over the world participate in this exhibition. PHOTO FEST BITOLA is supported by all world photographic associations including: FIAP, IAAP, UPI, RPS, ISF. We organize this exhibition every year and we are honored that the biggest world names in art photography will hear about Bitola, and some of them will be our guests. With this, we manage to promote our city as a center of artistic photography and as a city that lives in an artistic spirit. History The need to create a club that would unite photographers from Bitola and the surrounding area and through which it would be easier to organize events, group exhibitions, professional lectures, publications, etc. He led the lovers of artistic photography, a group of authors who functioned perfectly as an organization and were in excellent mutual relations to create Photo Cinema Club Bitola. Photo Cinema Club Bitola as an official organization has been operating since 2011. Activities Exhibitions : 2012 Exhibition of artistic photography "Beginning" 20.08.2012 Center for Culture Bitola (Bitola Cultural Summer "Bit Fest '12") Photo Patronage Union of the Republic of Macedonia - PAM 2013 Exhibition of artistic photography "Views" 16.02.2013 N.U. Center for Culture "Grigor Prlichev" - Ohrid (In cooperation with CCP "Arteria") Annual exhibition of artistic photography - Photo Kino Club Bitola 2013 20.11.2013 CC "Magaza" - Bitola Photo Patronage Union of the Republic of Macedonia - PAM 2014 Annual exhibition of artistic photography - Photo Kino Club Bitola 2013 21.03.2014 Museum Gallery Kavadarci Photo exhibition "Together", FKK Bitola and Chkrap! Aunt 21.06.2014 Art Salon, National Museum - Veles 11.07.2014 House of Culture "Ivan Mazov Klime" - Kavadarci (Joint exhibition by Photo Group ČKRAP! - Tetovo) Exhibition of Movie Posters (1950 - 1970) 06.08.2014 Foyer NU Center for Culture Bitola (in cooperation with the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia - Bitola Department) Bitola Cultural Summer "Bit Fest '14" International exhibition of artistic photography "PHOTO FEST BITOLA 2014" 05.09.2014 NU Institute and Museum Bitola Haut patronage de la FIAP 2014/213 Photo exhibition "Bitola rides a bicycle" 20.09.2014 NU Center for Culture Bitola (within the European Mobility Week organized by the Municipality of Bitola) Annual exhibition of artistic photography - Photo Kino Club Bitola 2014 06.12.2014 CC "Magaza" - Bitola Photo Union of the Republic of Macedonia patronage - PAM2014/16 2015 Annual exhibition of artistic photography - Photo Kino Club Bitola 2014 07.02.2015 - House of Culture "Ivan Mazov Klime" - Kavadarci Photo Union of the Republic of Macedonia patronage - PAM2014/16 PREDEL - Exhibition of paintings and photographs (In cooperation with DLUB) 10.16.2015 - CC "Magaza" - Bitola Follow - Exhibition of artistic photography 15.07.2015 - Exhibition hall DLUB - Bitola Photo Union of the Republic of Macedonia Patronage - PAM2015/6 Bitola Cultural Summer "Bit Fest '15" Annual exhibition of artistic photography - Photo Kino Club Bitola 2015 11.12.2015 - CC "Magaza" - Bitola Photo Union of the Republic of Macedonia patronage - PAM2015/11 2016 International exhibition of artistic photography "PHOTO FEST BITOLA 2015 26.02.2016 - NU Institute and Museum - Bitola Feelmotion - Film Makers Meeting - Exhibition 8 - 10.04.2016 Film Institute - Ohrid Film Academy Sadness and Joy – Bojan Petrovic Bokac – Exhibition 13.09.2016 – Magaza – Bitola Lectures/Workshops: 2013 My Story - Dragi Nedelchevski F1 FSM - Lecture on art photography 30.06.2013 Bitola Culture Center, Small Hall (Bitola Cultural Summer "Bit Fest '13") Behind the Film Camera - Prof. Goran Naumovski, M.Sc. - Film and cinematography workshop 04.08.2013 Bitola Culture Center, Small Hall (Bitola Cultural Summer "Bit Fest '13") 2014 Photography and Reality - Prof. Sashko Dete Ilov - Professional lecture 02.07.2014 Bitola Culture Center, Small Hall (Bitolo Cultural Summer "Bit Fest '14")
