Red Bull ‘Illume’ Contest

Awesome Photo Gallery: Red Bull ‘Illume’ Contest

The Red Bull Illume contest gathers the top action sports photographers for an exhibition and awards ceremony. Over the past year, nearly 23,000 images were submitted for consideration, the top 50 of which can now be seen at a special gallery at Trinity College in Dublin. But if you can’t make it over to Ireland, check some of them out here.

Red Bull Illume Image Quest Enlightens World of Action and Adventure Sports Photography

The world’s best action and adventure sports photographers were recently revealed at a spectacular unveiling in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. A stunning landscape-style surf photo by Chris Burkard (USA) wowed the international jury and was selected as the overall winner of Red Bull Illume 2010.

“I am so blessed,” said Burkard on picking up the biggest prize in freesports photography. “I feel really, really lucky just to be here and be surrounded by people I look up to and my peers. There’s something to be said to win an award in front of people you respect. So for me this is huge, a really huge honour. I’m really grateful.”

“As action sports photographers, we’re used to getting towards the action and getting close to it. And nine times out of ten, that’s what we’ll do. But I decided to get as far from the action as I could so I could show the whole landscape so people could appreciate everything that was going on and not just the surfer.”

The top 50 images were voted as the best from an amazing 23,000 images that were submitted to the competition. The collection can lay claim to being the cream of action and adventure sports photography and features shots of daredevil female B.A.S.E jumpers, high-flying BMX riders and stylish skateboarders from around the world.

Burkard’s image proved to be a hugely popular choice with fellow photographers and the public on the night. “The overall winning shot by Chris Burkard is amazing,” said New Creativity finalist Silvano Zeiter. “When I saw the random pictures exhibited on the Red Bull Illume website, I looked through them and saw that one picture by Chris Burkard. I made a screen shot and said to my friend, ‘This is going to be shot!’”

The images will now go on tour, with exhibitions planned in UAE and USA plus to-be-confirmed dates in Europe.