Last year, illy encouraged students and alumni of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York present their own vision on Big Apple through photography in the AuthentiCity competition. In October, 2010 the main prize $10,000 in cash was awarded to Igor Aronov, who was selected out of five finalists for his bespoke impressionism-inspired series ‘Reflection of the City.’ The coffee brand is now returning with the second installment of the project, which attracted over two hundred photographers in its first year, and inviting aspiring visual artists to explore the nature of the city with their cameras again and unlock its secrets in their stills.

Image: Igor Aronov, Winner of AuthentiCity 2010,From «Reflection of the City»

In 2010, the contestants were creating their works under the theme of ‘Revealing purity and authenticity in urban life’ and the finalists continued the competition with new stills about ‘tenderness of the urban universe,’ and now illy issimo is challenging entrants with a new task: ‘discovering new urban lifestyles.’ The contestants will be exploring the world of today’s lifestyles within the city (most probably, they will focus on street sport, urban art and in a way will research “social dynamics within the urban context” as the description to the project states).

The details on the dates of the competition are not disclosed to date, but they will be posted to the www.illyissimo.com soon. So far, it’s announced that the three finalists (last year, there were five) will be selected by a panel of jury including representatives of illycaffè, SVA, ILKOCoffee International and Elisabeth Biondi, Visuals Editor of The New Yorker and asked to continue their ‘investigation’ with creating a new set of stills, which will be revolving around the ‘discovering new urban lifestyles’ theme. The works of these three contestants will be displayed in July at an exhibit to be arranged it NYC, when the overall winner will be named and awarded with a cash prize of $10,000.