Red Bull challenged the Dutch this year to reach their creative climax in a serie of 5 pictures. Contestants entering the Red Bull 5 Pics competition had to make a personal statement showing what gives them energy, inspiration and as a final result: wings.

By using the popular medium photography ‘Red Bull 5 Pics’ involves young people with the Red Bull brand. The competition is challenging creativity and enhances the brand values focussing on stimulating the mind. The main target is that Red Bull is recognised as a creative brand. Red Bull cooperated in the organisation of the 5 Pics competition with Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. Foam just started an experiment, Foam_Lab; a group of 5 young and talented people organising events aimed at bringing young people to the museum. Foam_Lab became the sparring partner of Red Bull. This unique cooperation between museum and commercial brand opened doors that normally would have stayed closed. Foam_Lab provided the 5 Pics competition with credibility in the photography scene while Red Bull’s creative support and network was a huge advantage in organising spectaculair events in Foam.

After a couple of months of preparation, the 1st of April the start of the Red Bull 5 Pics competition was a fact. The first series of 5 pictures where uploaded on the website and the contestants started batteling for the best votes. After three weeks, more then one hundred series where uploaded and time came to honour and stimulate the 10 best competitors. They where invited for a Masterclass during the first Foam_Lab event: ‘Bring Your Own Camera’ on the 25th of April.

‘Bring Your Own Camera’ aimed at inspiring the visitors to make better pictures. The Red Bull 5 Pics Top 10 where told by a real master in photography, Tom van Heel, what photography was really about. In an exclusive and extremely inspiring night Tom van Heel showed them the tips and trics behind photography. The feedback he gave on their series was hard but true: the series could just be better. Stimulated by the Masterclass the top 10 created new and even better series for the final judgement of the jury that would take place one month later.

The 30th of May it was time for the final event ’15 Minutes of Foam’. During this event various famous Dutch bands performed and the largest photography exposition ever in Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam could be seen. This exposition consisted of all series uploaded on the Red Bull 5 Pics website. In total almost 300 people where inspired by Red Bull to take there camera and be creative in 5 pictures. Seeing these 1.500 photographs in the museum was truly overwhelming! But ofcourse the peak of the night was the verdict of the jury. Around 500 visitors saw that the winner
of the Red Bull 5 Pics competition became: ‘Pepijn Vanthoor’.

Pepijn Vanthoor won a unique exposition which he is currently developing in cooperation with Red Revolver. His exposition, a pavilion specially designed for his serie of five pictures is going to start travelling through the Netherlands next month!

Article written by: Joost de Leij for Red Bull Magazine / July 2008

For more information go to Red Bull 5 Pics.