Photo award

The RuralGeo 2017 organisers called for photos that illustrate the diversity the term “the rural” evokes within Europe. We asked for what the participants imagined as “typically rural” for their country.

From 30 submissions the participants of the conference voted for the photo

"The rural flight"

by

Robert Nadler, ILS - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Germany

to be the best photo of the conference. Congratulations!

The concept behind the photo:

"'The Rural Flight' was a shot that I made in 2011 while cruising on a road in the countryside of Upper Lusatia region close tot he German-Polish border. This region – as many rural regions in Europe – suffers from migration of the young ones to large urban agglomerations. By then, I was studying the phenomenon of migration in rural areas and shuttled between two expert interviews with two officials of public administration on strategies to deal with the rural flight of the young age cohorts, when suddenly this vehicle showed up infront of us… an image just like in a movie, witnessing the moment of another youngster leaving the countryside with all the belongings on the load bed" (Robert Nadler).