The winners of the first Danish Embassy Photo Marathon were announced recently.

“The Grundfos Photo Marathon 2011 turned out to be a big success,” said Danish Ambassador Peter Lysholt Hansen.

Almost 20,000 people showed interest in the event online and close to 100 people took the challenge.

For 24 hours the participants were busy being creative and finding interesting angles on the five given themes: “Design Your Life,” “Pump and Water,” “Modern Fairytale,” “Be Green,” and “Hasselblad and Space.”

A professional jury judged the pictures, and the winner and runner-up were celebrated at an official award ceremony held at the Danish Ambassador’s residence.

Lee Dae-hee was the first Korean winner ever, and he is now going to Denmark to explore what the country has to offer.

After his victory he said that he knew very little about Denmark and will have to study a bit before going.

“I only know Danish milk and cheese,” he said.

Song Young-joo won the second prize worth 2 million won.

Song said he will donate part of his prize to charity, then spend some on a bag for his girlfriend, who modeled in some of his pictures.

“The honor of being runner-up in this exciting event is more than enough for me,” Song said. “I will definitely be back next year to conquer the first prize.”

The Photo Marathon was organized by the Embassy of Denmark and sponsored by Grundfos, Hasselblad and the SLR Club.

Winning pictures can be viewed at the embassy’s Facebook page, “Embassy of Denmark in Seoul.”

(yoav@heraldcorp.com)