1.000 EUR
for the first placed work of art. The winning work will be announced on 17 January. The winner/s will be notified by email.
+++ UPDATE January 17th 2020: THE WINNERS +++
The work awarded by the jury is {kornea:} by Marie Elisabeth Burghardt, assistant doctor in ophthalmology at the University Hospital Halle/Saale. Juror Renate Kastrowsky-Kraft comments: “The effort is quiet visible. In the medical field, it is important to feel one’s way into the patients. The artist has succeeded in this”. The work focuses on portrait photographs of researchers and surgeons at the University Eye Hospital Halle, whose interest is in the cornea. The portraits show simulated visual impairments as described to the doctor by patients with corneal dystrophy, degeneration or keratoconus. The competition, which was endowed with 1,000 euros, was generously supported by the Foundation of Deutsche Lions.
Conference guests as well were asked to vote for their favorite: The audience award, donated by GO! Express & Logistics with 500 Euros, was won by the microscope images of the Laboratory Biology, Engineering and Imaging of Corneal Grafts (BiiGC) at the Medical School of Saint Etienne.
+++ UPDATE January 16th 2020: THE TOP 5 +++
In the preliminary evaluation by the jury, these five submissions were nominated.
- Marie Burghardt – {kornea:}
- The Team of Laboratory Biology, Engineering and Imaging of Corneal Grafts (BiiGC) – The corneas you have never seen
- Alexandra Bidian – #HinSehen
- Anneliet van Beelen – Eye fishes & Eye chestnut
- Hanna Faber – Craftsmanship
The final jury evaluation will take place on January 16th at the photo and art exhibition at the Welcome Reception of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA) at Schloss Herrenhausen in Hannover.
In 18 submissions, photographers and painters as well as art-loving eye banking professionals show their perspectives on vision and corneal donation and transplantation. Oil paintings, a video slideshow, a mobile installation, microscope shots, photomontages, portraits and, and, and – the artists’ perspectives are as varied as their submissions to the photo and art competition. The contest was initiated by the non-profit German Society for Tissue Transplantation (DGFG) and the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA) to draw attention to the necessity of corneal donation and the art of eye banking and corneal transplantation within the eye banking community – and beyond!
The cornea is the clear window to the world which al lows us to visually perceive beauty. If the cornea is cloudy due to illness or injury, this experience is denied.
Tail of Peacock
by Yveta Urbanová & team of Ocni Tkanova Banka Praha Vinohrady (Eye Bank Prague)
Microscope and slit lamp images (Zeiss SL 220) of a cornea in medium fluid. The glass vial, in which the cornea is stored, shows a damaged structure in the form of the tail of a peacock. Although the glass is only broken in its inner structure, the tissue has been transferred to a new medium. The images of “Tail of Peacock” are not modified.
Like the wings of a dragonfly
by Kerstin Hase und Timo Sczuplinski, Gesundheit Nord/Klinikum Bremen-Mitte
The Klinikum Bremen-Mitte Klinikum sees itself as a centre for transplantation of corneal donations. An outstanding procedure is the DMEK: Part of the donated cornea is transferred to the patient’s diseased eye. DMEK stands for Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty, which means the replacement of the cornea in the innermost part of the corneal membrane. It is a particularly gentle procedure that promises patients a clear view again. From a photographic point of view, this method offers fascinating images.
Hase and Sczuplinski have captured “these special moments of millimeter work during such a transplantation” in an audio slideshow (watch here). While in a normal video the impressive images would pass the viewer’s eyes far too quickly, the the audio slideshow offers the opportunity to engage more intensively with the images. Parallel to the visual impressions, Doctor Erik Chankiewitz, Chief Physician of the Eye Clinic at the Bremen-Mitte Klinikum, explains his view of the procedure. “In this way, the viewer gets an explanation for what he has seen and is not left alone with the pictures,” said the submitting duo.
Moment
by Sabine Zacharski
The artist explains er acrylic painting (80 x 60 cm) on canvas: “The first moment decides whether a relationship can develop. Our eyes are decisive for our social contacts. They let us participate in life. Eyes fascinate and captivate. That’s why I like to focus my eyes on my works”.
DMEK Special Shapes
by Dr. Patrick R. Merz, University Eye Clinic Heidelberg
Lamellar transplantation techniques, in particular Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK), have established themselves as the gold standard in Germany. Nevertheless: Apart from the complications that can occur during the preparation of the donor deszemetocele, the unfolding of the role in the eye is a work of art itself.
“Depending on the transplant, the surgeon must adapt to a large number of possible configurations and the associated problems and complications. Since these have artistic value (even if not for the surgeon), we have compiled an excerpt of the possibilities”, says Merz. The submitted image is a compilation of various live OR images.
rEcYcEIt
by Maurice Niederer
In this photomontage, the artist has incorporated a wide variety of pictorial elements. The idea was to create an image that would inspire reflection. At the same time, the viewer should recognize that the artwork is about the “recycling” of the eye or cornea.
Look at me
by Lydia Feulner-Bärtele
The acrylic painting (100 x 100 cm) was created in 2014 as part of a series of paintings in which the artist dealt with seeing and the sensory organ required for it, the eye: “Inspired by the magic of rounding, whether as pupil, planet or ball, in this series I brought more or less abstract large-format works onto the canvas. The canvases were painted over several times. This process ends when the aesthetics and message of the painting are coherent for me. What fascinates me about the submitted painting is the ambiguity, dynamics and complementary colourfulness”.
{kornea:}
by Marie Burghard, University Eye Clinic Halle
“Patients tell us daily about their visual impressions of corneal disease. The words they find are sometimes as descriptive as they are poetic and led me to make a list, a collection of words, many of which I have. Others collect stamps”, explains Burghard. This list is the starting point for their submission, with four central portraits of researchers and surgeons at Halle University Eye Hospital, whose interest lays in the cornea.
The portraits show the simulated perspective of a patient with e.g. corneal dystrophy, degeneration, turbidity, curvature. The simulated visual impression is based on the list of collected descriptions by patients.
The project should be understood as an approximation to the manifold spectrum of corneal diseases, as well as their individual significance for the respective patient.
Light Symphony
by Katy Schnee
The abstract painting (100 x 70 cm, acrylic on canvas) shows how the rays of light on the right side of the picture enter the eye in the form of silver and white lines. The background of the picture on the left is consciously designed with grey-white gradients and symbolizes the blurred vision that can cause corneal injuries. The two thighs that run towards the “eye” from the outside are symbolic of the insertion and sewing of a transplant.
“The title underlines the abundance of light, but also the emotion felt when such an important sensory organ as the eye is revived”, explains Schnee.
Sun of Bubbles
by Irina Vöhringer, Lions Eye Bank Heidelberg
For a Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK), the lamella is ideally pressed against the stroma with a single air bubble. Irina Vöhringer’s live OP image shows what happens when the cannula with air is “contaminated” with liquid. This impressive work has cost the surgeon nearly 20 additional minutes to manually remove the individual air bubbles with the cannula.
Seeing again
by Ilkay Karakurt
In his portrait series, the photographer shows people from the middle of our society who have completely or partially lost their sight due to genetic, disease-related or age-related causes. They are IT technicians, nursing staff or pensioners. By donating tissue from another person, the portrayed patients have regained their sight and thus their quality of life. They can go back to work, read the menu on their own or drive a car.
Karakurt speaks out in favour of tissue donation: “Everyone can be a donor and everyone can get into a situation in which a donation is needed”.
Craftsmanship
by Hanna Faber, University Eye Clinic Tübingen
The aim of her work in Pop Art style is to “motivate corneal donation by conveying lightness and by putting the art of transplantation – not the death of the donor – in the foreground”.
The idea for the work of art came from Faber’s first surgical assistance during a corneal transplant: “The surgeon’s hand moved with tremendous precision. When puncturing through the solid tissue of the cornea, controlled force is required to ensure that the needle penetrates the cornea. In contrast, knotting must result in a firm and tear-resistant knot, but without too much force and tension, otherwise there is a high risk of suture tearing. At the same time, no gap must remain between the recipient and the donor cornea or the newly implanted transplant must be under tension. Thus, the ophthalmic surgeon balances like a tightrope walker between the strength and tensionlessness of the transplant. The goal: Achieving an optimal result for the patient”.
Sharp
by Veronika Zyzik
The elderly woman looks directly at the viewer of the sketch in oil on paper. With her gaze she literally pierces. The other eye is wide, blurred, not involved.
“I deal a lot with faces. I love to paint people of different ages and techniques. You can almost look into someones soul through their eyes”, states the artist.
Occupied Souls/ New Vanitas
by Franziska Becher
The photograph shows a self-portrait of the artist suffering from glaucoma. In the eyes of the artist, dollar signs can be recognized. On the one hand, this is a symbol for the social focus on money and the resulting blindness for and transfiguration of the things that give happiness in life. On the other hand, it also addresses her own lack of opportunities, which would result from absolute destitution or blindness.
In her hands she holds a bouquet of daffodils. These cut flowers stand symbolically for the narcissist who frequently appears today, but who could never have fallen in love with his mirror image without her eyesight. The artist ponders: “The eyes hurt, a glimmer of hope remains. Why does it hit her? How long will the artist be among those who see? What can an artist do without her eyesight? And then she sees blind sighted people and hopes for insight for humanity”.
Facets
by Nicola Hofmann, Kristin Becke, Julia-Maria Blesin, Stephanie Koch & Yanica Tedsen, German Society for Tissue Transplantation (DGFG)
The human iris – giving colour and shape to what we call “beautiful eyes” and likewise symbolizing healthy vision with which the beauty of our environment can be perceived – is at the centre of this work of art. The perception of our environment through a clear cornea is as multifaceted as the iris itself. This diversity is symbolized by an installation of over 50 different iris images in a mobile. The mobile as an art form is a free-hanging, balanced, light structure that is already moved by the slightest breeze. The term mobile comes from French and means agile and, figuratively speaking, lively. Thus, the mobile as a form of presentation of our artwork picks up on the joy of regaining mobility, freedom and quality of life, of which the recipients of an eye cornea transplant tell us again and again.
Hofmann & team on the mobile: “Over 50 DGFG coordinators and employees and organisations from our network had their eyes photographed with a slit lamp. The mobile is thus a mirror of our diverse network, which works out so well because many are committed”.
Reading Girl
by Claudia Grüting
The picture refers to the painting “Reading Girl” by the painter Gustav Adolph Hennig from 1828.
“With my submission I wanted to create a photographic realization of the topic seeing. Sight as a high health good is the focus of my photography. However, it also addresses a possible loss and shows the fragility of our eyesight. In my works, the exact interpretation remains consciously open – it lies solely in the eye of the beholder”, says the artist.
The corneas you have never seen
by Laboratory Biology, Engineering and Imaging of Corneal Grafts (BiiGC), Medical School of Saint Etienne
At the BiiGC research laboratory in France, studies on corneas using immunofluorescence are being conducted. In contrast to immunohistochemistry using corneal cross-sections, this technique makes it possible to observe the entire corneal endothelium and epithelium as well as the details of each sub-cellular structure. This enables, for example, the precise examination of lamellar transplants for endothelial damage. The submissions by Doctor Zhiguo HE and BiiGC staff members are spectacular images of donor corneas captured by a fluorescence microscope, which fascinate the viewer with intense colours and a planetary atmosphere. Some of the images are retouched and compilations from microscopic images (images 2 and 9).
Eye Fishes & Eye Chestnut
by Anneliet van Beelen
The artist explains the motifs of her oil paintings with the threat that glaucoma posed upon her own eyesight: “In 2007 and 2009 I had serious eye problems and was obsessed with eyes. During this time I painted many pictures with eyes implanted in other organisms such as chestnuts or fish. As an artist, the challenge was to make this implantation fully and easily acceptable to the viewer’s eye“.
#HinSehen
by Alexandra Bidian
“An eye in a lab. A sterile room and a human body part. For many people, this image and the representation of an eye at first appear deterrent, perhaps repulsive. It awakens associations and it is clear: The former owner of this eyeball is no longer alive”, the photographer describes the image taken in the Tissue Bank Hanover.
Death is a taboo subject in German society. Many people do not want to deal with it during their lifetime. They don’t talk about it. Bidian appeals: “I strongly feel that sometimes it is necessary to look closely. Not to close one’s eyes to certain issues. Because death concerns us all! […] Only by dealing with death, disease and also organ and tissue donation, fear can be taken away. Even if it can be shocking or painful sometimes”.
About the Photo & Art Contest
The competition is part of the programme of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA) from 16 to 18 January 2020 in Hanover. The submissions will be exhibited at Schloss Herrenhausen during the conference. On the evening of 17 January, the award ceremony will take place at the Old Town Hall. The entries will be judged by a jury of six representatives from different organisations, countries and fields of activity. The following categories will be judged
- emotion
- presentation
- the story behind the artwork/storytelling
- idea & creativity
- originality & unconventionality
- technology & professionalism (quality of the artwork)
- clarity of the topic
- overall impression
The jury
The prizes
500 EUR
for the work of art voted for by the guests of the Welcome Reception of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA).
Partner
The prizes are sponsored by the German Society for Tissue Transplantation (DGFG) and the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA) with generous support from GO! Express & Logistics and the Foundation Deutsche Lions.
