Canon announces the winners of The Assignment

Four winners picked from over 43,000 images

7 July 2008 16:07 GMT / By Verity Burns

Canon has announced the winners of The Assignment, its European challenge for amateur photographers.

Following a response of 43,404 submitted images – voted for by 192,127 registrants on the competition website – the final four winners have been confirmed as UK's Ivan Hoo (Portrait), David Bernard of the Czech Republic, (Sport) France's Alain Laboile (Macro) and Dave Derbis from Germany (Landscape).

The announcement comes after a head-to-head competition finale in Vienna. The event, held over four days, saw four pairs of finalists compete in a series of challenges.

Macro finalists' skills were tested with a night shoot at Vienna's Votive Church, while Sports finalists shot a street luge event outside the city. The Portrait finalists tackled a group of ballroom dancers in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace and the Landscape finalists enjoyed an aerial shoot from a hot-air balloon.

The final four winners will now have the chance to plan and follow their own personal dream assignment – each of which will be filmed for broadcast across Europe later in the year.

"While congratulating our winners, we would also like to pay tribute to the legions of other talented photographers who submitted images," said Gregory Kukolj, marketing & communications director for Canon Europe.

The competition was held across 18 European countries between March and May this year, with regional winners being judged against competiting countries by an expert panel of judges.

Keep an eye out for the dream assignment documentaries later in the year.