LensCulture street photography awards

I wrote about the awards season and missed this one. Thanks to The Guardian I was alerted to these rather excellent images. I don’t know anything about the organisers LensCulture except this street photography award. I think you only have to look at these images to wonder why you don’t pick up your camera and head to the streets.

From intimate personal narratives to teeming markets and the world from a dog’s perspective, the LensCulture street photography awards celebrate the explosion in popularity of the form over the past decade

Grace and elegance emerge from chaos in this shot of an old man feeding pigeons Photograph: Alexandre Grand

Taken on the afternoon of 23 July 2016 at the Tongi railway station in Gazipur, Bangladesh. ‘I arrived to shoot in the early morning and waited. It was raining heavily. As a train from Dhaka reached the platform, I suddenly noticed a pair of curious eyes looking at me through the window, while on the left, someone had opened a black umbrella. The mist on the glass and that piercing gaze created a dreamy environment filled with questions’ Photograph: moin/Moin Ahmed

 

Diamond Days is an exploration of the commonplace with a playful touch, a sense of joy and slight unease Photograph: Manuel Armenis

An exploration of the world of pet parents, from a dog’s-eye view Photograph: Dougie Wallace

‘One morning in 2016, on a tube journey into central London, I looked up to see a lady dressed in a velvet hood, seated in a classical, timeless pose. Immediately, a 16th-century Flemish painting came to mind. I looked around and suddenly found I couldn’t see anything else but people held in their own Renaissance-like, personal moments’ Photograph: Matt Crabtree

For Hakan Simsek street photography is in an instinctive practice. ‘My chosen photographs are flashes about myself and my death’ Photograph: Hakan Simsek

there are more to see in The Guardian here

and for more information and further images go to the LensCulture site here

 

 

Photography Awards and Competitions

It is said this is the season to be merry, I know, whoever said that was mistaken, but it seems to me this is the season to be inundated with the outcome of photography competitions and awards. In the past I have produced separate posts on each but I have decided to roll them into one this time as it does all get a bit boring otherwise.

Landscape photographer of the Year

Travel Photographer of the Year

Sony World Photography Awards

Nature Photographer of the Year National Geographic

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Magnum Photography Awards

International Garden Photographer of the Year

Photographer of The Year Panoawards

Taylor Wessing Portrait Photography Award

Urban Photography Awards

This one is always a winner

Henri Cartier Bresson – Sunday on the banks of the River Marne 1938

 

 

 

Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize

It is that time of year again when the various organisations hand out prizes for ‘best ofs’. I am rather conflicted by the whole process of photographic, or in fact any creative activity, held up to competition. I am never sure what wins is worthy nor that the winners are understood as the photographer intended. Many of these photography competitions stretch the idea of photography such that images grabbed from Google Streetview have been awarded prizes in the past. However, I can also accept that competition can push some photographers to achieve much better and that is to be lauded

The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize is one that always provides much room for debate about the value of the winning entries. Once all you needed was a redheaded subject holding an animal, this year the portrait that one third prize is of an android.

This is the overall winner and many would argue that it is deserved.

Amadou Sumaila photographed by César Dezfuli, 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast – this year’s winning portrait. Photograph: César Dezfuli/NPG

Sean O’Hagan in The Guardian, always a reliable critic says:

A handful of politicians, several refugees, various awkward adolescents, two skinheads, the inevitable young girl holding a furry animal and, breaking with tradition, an android – it’s the Taylor Wessing time of year again

This year’s photographic portrait prize, the first to allow digital submissions as well as prints, draws 59 images from 5,717 entries. As a show, it hangs together pretty well, not always the case in the past. The overall standard seems higher, there are fewer celebrities – always a good thing – and most of the portraits of refugees and asylum-seekers tend towards the intimate rather than the concerned.

The exhibition he mentions is at the NPG

16 November 2017 to 8 February 2018

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is the leading international photographic portrait competition, celebrating and promoting the very best in contemporary portrait photography. 

The Prize has established a reputation for creativity and excellence, with works submitted by a range of photographers, from leading professionals to talented amateurs and the most exciting emerging artists.

The selected images, many of which will be on display for the first time, explore both traditional and contemporary approaches to the photographic portrait whilst capturing a range of characters, moods and locations. The exhibition of fifty-nine works features all of the prestigious prize winners including the winner of the £15,000 first prize.

Second Prize Winner

Intimately powerful … Fleeing Mosul from the series Women in War: Life After Isis by Abbie Trayler-Smith. Photograph: Abbie Trayler-Smith/NPG

Third Prize Winner

Maija Tammi’s portrait of the android Erica. Photograph: Maija Tammi/NPG

All the major papers and photographic sources have reviews on this, take your pick

The Telegraph

The Guardian

Metro

The Arts Desk

BBC

Independent

 

Garden Photographer of The Year

IGOPTY is an annual competition to find the great images of plants and gardens from photographers around the world. If you have any interest in this area of photography then this web site and the associated exhibition is an absolute must for you. The images are universally beautiful and engaging; you ask yourself if it is this easy, it is photography in a garden, why can’t I do it. I guess it is about a great understanding of the use of your camera, huge amounts of patience, the desire to be there at the best moment and attention to detail. We can help with the camera bit with our courses on understanding your camera and with help on improving your composition and the use of software to make the most of your images we can help too. However the getting up before dawn to be in the right place at the right time that is up to you. To see the full gallery of winning and placed images go here to the IGOPTY site

Volker Michael – Finalist First Rays Jistrum, Friesland, The Netherlands

Rosanna Castrini – Commended The Ring Piedmont, Italy

Jianjun Huang – Commended Charming Dongjiang Guangdong Province, China

Lili Gao – Finalist Waiting Dandong City, Liaoning Province, China

Stefano Coltelli – Commended Plitvice Falls The Plitvice Lakes National Park, Plitvicka Jezera, Croatia

The winner is

This late autumn photo – from Snowdonia National Park in North Wales – has been crowned the overall winner of the 10th annual International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

Taken by Lee Acaster, and entitled Left, this stark image won the Trees, Woods and Forests category – and then beat thousands of other entries to win the top spot.

Garden designer Chris Beardshaw – one of the competition judges – says the photo “perfectly encapsulates both the extremes of fortune and personality of these giants”.

While Clare Foggett – who edits The English Garden Magazine – says the image “draws the viewer in, to reveal the still surface of the lake behind. It demands closer inspection”.

If you wish you can see these and many more on the BBC website that has a major feature on the competition and winners

The exhibition is toured and here are dates

Venue	Exhibition	Photographs
November 1st 2016 – Feb 28th 2017	The Beth Chatto Gardens, Colchester, ENGLAND	9	Outdoor selection from Competition 9
January 14th – March 5th	National Trust Sissinghurst Castle & Gardens, ENGLAND	9	Indoor exhibition, competition 9
January 21st – March 1st 2017	Willis Museum Gallery, Basingstoke, ENGLAND	9	Indoor exhibition, competition 9
Feb 4th – March 12th 2017	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, ENGLAND	10	IGPOTY Annual launch ceremony – winners of Competition 10 [indoor exhibition] announced to the public.
March 24th – June 18th 2017	de Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS	10	Outdoor selection from Competition 10
April 1st – June 4th 2017	RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Rettendon, ENGLAND	10	Outdoor selection from Competition 10
April 1st – November 15th 2017	The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle, Merano, South Tyrol, ITALY	10	Outdoor exhibition, competition 10
April 1st – November 15th 2017	Gibraltar Botanic Gardens (The Alameda), GIBRALTAR	10	Outdoor exhibition, competition 10
August 28th – October 29th 2017	National Trust Sheringham Park, Norfolk, ENGLAND	10	Outdoor exhibition, competition 10

Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2016

I know you have been waiting for this, now the winner has been announced

FIRST PRIZE: Claudio Rasano

Katlehong Matsenen 2016 from the series Similar Uniforms: We Refuse to Compare by Claudio Rasano, February 2016
© Claudio Rasano
First Prize: £15,000

Swiss-Italian photographer Claudio Rasano was born in 1970, Basel, Switzerland. The portrait, which is part of the series Similar Uniforms: We Refuse to Compare was taken in Johannesburg, South Africa and focuses on issues of preserving individuality in the context of school uniforms. The photograph was shot in daylight, outdoors and in front of a plain white paper background. The sitter for this particular pigment print is eighteen year old Katlehong Matsenen.

 

any comments about school photography gratefully accepted

here is a link to the TW award site

Landscape Photographer of the Year 2016

The Take A View Landscape Photographer of the Year 2016 awards have now been given out. Landscape photography is such a popular subject area, maybe only second to Wildlife Photographer of The Year in terms of awards interest. This year there are again a wide range of images covering many different areas of what is called landscape and most people would find something they like. Here are some

Damian Ward
Caister-on-Sea, taken at the town in Norfolk, won the Adobe prize
Photograph: Damian Ward/PA

Martin Birks
Chrome Hill, taken in the Peak District, Derbyshire, won the Living the View award
Photograph: Martin Birks/PA

Mark Gilligan
Finding Gold, taken in Wast Water in Cumbria, which won the Great Britain #OMGB ‘Home of Amazing Moments’ award
Photograph: Mark Gilligan/PA

Rachael Talibart
Maelstrom, Storm Imogen, taken at Newhaven, East Sussex, won the Sunday Times Magazine award
Photograph: Rachael Talibart/PA

Hannah Faith Jackson
Mirror Bar, taken in Glasgow, won the young landscape photographer of the year award
Photograph: Hannah Faith Jackson/PA

This picture of the starlings off the cost at Brighton is the overall winner

Matthew Cattell
Starling Vortex, taken in Brighton, East Sussex, won the landscape photographer of the year award
Photograph: Matthew Cattell/PA

Tony Higginson
Shifting Sands, taken in Silverdale, Lancashire, which won the Your View award
Photograph: Tony Higginson/PA

Here is a list of all of the winners

Have a look at last years winners here

 

 

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016

It is that time of year when the various award and competitions in photography announce their winners. This is always a very popular award with many different sections. The images are universally remarkable and express the dedication and technical skill of the winners.

This image won the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 award, and depicts an endangered young male orangutan climbing a 100-foot high tree in the Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesia

Indian photographer Ganesh H Shankar won the Birds category for capturing a rose-ringed parakeet kicking a Bengal monitor lizard out of its roosting hole, a campaign that lasted two days before the lizard squatter gave up

Images from both professional and amateur photographers are selected for their creativity, artistry and technical complexity.

Swedish photographer Mats Andersson triumphed in the black-and-white category with his touching photo of an owl mourning the death of its partner, taken in a forest near his home in Bashult, southern Sweden. 

Other winners included Luis Javier Sandoval, from Mexico, with his photo of a playful California sea lion pup for the Impressions category. And Ganesh H Shankar, from India, with his image of a rose-ringed parakeet harassing a monitor lizard.

Luis Javier Sandoval, from Mexico, won the Impressions category for his tricky underwater photo of a playful California sea lion pup grabbing a starfish near shore break at sunrise in Espiritu Santo Island near La Paz Baja California Sur, Mexico

Winner of the urban category was Nayan Khanolkar, who captured a solitary leopard slinking down an alleyway in a suburb of Mumbai bordering Sanjay Gandhi national park, where the Warli tribe has learned to co-exist with the nocturnal big cats

see more here

The exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum on October 21, before touring across the UK

Gideon Knight, 16, from the UK, won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title for his poetic image of a moonlit crow on a sycamore tree , a sight he described as reminding him of ‘something out of a fairy tale’

You can book tickets for the exhibition

Book Tickets Here 

• 21 October 2016 – 10 September 2017

• South Kensington

• Adult £10.50 – £13.50
  Child and concession £6.50 – £8
  Family £27 – £36.90

Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016

At Royal Museums Greenwich there is an exhibition of images from the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016.

View the spectacular images by the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners for each category, the Young Competition, as well as our Robotic Scope prize and Sir Patrick Moore for Best Newcomer prize winners. These pictures capture all manner of celestial spectacles: moons, stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae and some of the great astronomical events of the last year.

Address:	Blackheath Avenue London SE10 8XJ
Opening hours:	Daily 10am-5pm (last admission 4.30pm)
Transport:	Rail: Cutty Sark/Greenwich DLR
Price:	Free
Event website:	http://www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto

Shortlist announced for Taylor Wessing portrait prize

The Taylor Wessing portrait prize is one of this country’s premier photography awards. It is always controversial with those outside the art firmament. If your idea of a portrait is something that flatters the subject then the annual winners of this award will disappoint you. Long ago I gave up trying to understand or justify the shortlist and winners and so now like just to alert you to what is coming in Taylor Wessing world.

Three photographers have been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. The prize winners and the winner of the John Kobal New Work Award will be announced at an award ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday 15 November 2016.

The Guardian is one of the outlets that regularly features TW and so this article and images come from there

Sternbach’s #1 Thea+Maxwell was created using early photographic processes.
Photograph: Joni Sternbach/PA

Tilly and Itty, Beitar Illit, one of two images shortlisted from Kovi Konowiecki’s series Bei Mir Bistu Shein.
Photograph: Kovi Konowiecki/PA

Matsenen 2016 by Claudio Rasano, from a series focused on uniforms.
Photograph: Claudio Rasano/PA

The shortlisted photographs were chosen from 4,303 submissions entered by 1,842 photographers from 61 countries.

The annual prize, which began in 1993, is considered one of the most prestigious photography awards in the world and is judged anonymously. It is open to professional and amateur photographers.

After the winner of the £15,000 prize is announced on 15 November, the shortlisted works will form part of a wider prize show at the National Portrait Gallery between 17 November and 26 February.

Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the gallery, said: “In an exhibition remarkable for its range of subjects and styles, the quality of this year’s shortlisted works reflects the outstanding level at which photographers across the world are working today.”

You can read the Guardian article herehere is a link to the NPG and exhibition details

here are some links to previous Taylor Wessing Awards

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2015-david-stewart-wins/

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2014/

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2013-shortlist-announced/

 

Weather Photographer of the Year 2016 – in pictures

The Guardian has a good tradition of showing photography, it comes in many guises and not all of it is good in the traditional terms, these pictures of weather are that, pictures of weather. I know the British are endlessly interested in the weather but it is just rain and clouds and colours, anyway here are some pictures and links

Clash of the storms, New Mexico, US: Camelia Czuchnicki
A clash between two storm cells in New Mexico, US, each with its own rotating updraft. The curved striations of the oldest noticeable against the new bubbling convection of the newer. It was a fantastic sight to watch and it’s the rarity of such scenes that keep drawing me back to the US Plains each year.

Polar stratospheric clouds: Alan Tough
In late January, early February 2016, unusually cold Arctic stratospheric air reached down as far as the UK. This triggered sightings of rare and beautiful Polar Stratospheric (Nacreous) Clouds (PSCs). I had to go down to Alloa for a course and took an old compact digital camera with me, just in case any displays were visible from that part of the country. PSCs have a sinister side, though: chemical reactions on the surface of the clouds destroy ozone.

Overall winner: Tornado on show, Colorado: Tim Moxon
A classic severe weather setup in the high plains of Colorado near the town of Wray yielded one of the most photogenic tornadoes of the year. We were just ahead of the storm as the tornado started and tracked with it as it grew from a fine funnel to a sizeable cone tornado. At this moment, the twister was at its most photogenic. We were among a number of people, including those you see in the shot, nervously enjoying the epic display nature put on for us.

Hail shower over Jodrell Bank: Mark Boardman
This picture was taken in April from the edge of Macclesfield Forest looking west across Macclesfield towards the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank and beyond. The weather was cold and a north-westerly wind blew this shower of hail to engulf the telescope. The setting sun gives a warm glow to the end of a cold day.

see more here