The Anthony Minghella Theatre at the Quay Arts was buzzing in anticipation on Saturday 21st November, with over 120 people awaiting the news of who was going to be the winner of the Isle of Wight Photographer of the Year 2009.
The winning photographer of the annual competition was David Vennings of Wellow, with ‘Hey Good Looking’ Second place went to Ian Scovell with ‘Solitude in a small world’ and third place was secured by Jason Swain with ‘Rise Above Plastics – it all ends up somewhere’.
The organisers said it ‘was the biggest crowd in the history of the IWPOY and as always it was refreshing to see so many new faces and more reasons this year to celebrate photographers if not photography on the Island.’
Bob Aylott for the Judges said; he ‘was so impressed with the standard and the diversity of images that it had made him rethink his own photography and encouraged him to go out and take more photographs.’
Earlier in the year the IWPOY was enlisted by the Islands Biodiversity group Wild on Wight in providing an opportunity to budding nature and Wildlife photographers to Go wild on Wight in ‘It’s a very small world’ category. These awards were presented by Tina Whitmore of Wild on Wight and Ian Boyd of Island Trust 2000.
The winner of the title was Gay Farmer with an exquisite study in her image of a ‘Dragonfly’ this was closely followed by Stuart Shore with ‘Red Squirrel’ and Paul Blackley with ‘Male Barn Owl’.
Other awards presented on the evening, included the winners of the recent ‘Church at the Heart of the Island’ Newport Minster Photo Competition.
The overall winner being Nick Kidd with ‘Evensong’, 2nd place Roger East ‘Another Fine Day In Newport’ and 3rd place to Vanessa Harris with ‘In The Distance’.
The annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award was won by photographer and Manager of the Island Photo Centre in Newport Chris Barton. The silver trophy was presented to a very surprised Chris by last year’s recipient Eric Mitchell. Whilst this award is not necessarily for the best photographer it is awarded for services to the photographic community.
Main Judges for the IWPOY 2009; Bob Aylott, Larry Ellis and Bob (Robert) Barclay who attended and stepped in to award various winners with their prizes and winning certificates.
In presenting the shortlist certificates, Bob Aylott gave a special mention to the youngest lady photographer 14yr old Roxanne for ‘ Crazy Daisy’ and presented the main IWPOY winner David Vennings with a copy of the hottest photography book on the island (possibly worldwide) ‘The Isle of Wight Festival 1970: Six Days That Rocked The World’ *
All in all the event went without any major hitch and was a very successful evening, with Bob Aylott giving closing credit to Amanda Johnson and Gary Early for making this annual photographic event possible for so many people on the Island.
All of the fifty shortlisted entries from the main IWPOY category and Go Wild on Wight winners will be exhibited in the Quay Arts and at other venues in 2010. This will further enable more people to recognise the quality and the skills of our Island photographers.
A special vote of thanks comes from IWPOY organisers Amanda and Gary to the IWPOY technical team of the evening; Lorraine Skipper, Sandra Trigg, Lucy Johnson, Colin Trigg and John Graney.
“We are already making plans for next year and have much more news in the pipeline; keep checking the IWPOY website for further details www.iwpoy.org
Special thanks to: Island Pulse for their continued support: www.islandpulse.co.uk and Essential Signs & Prints for their continued support and exceptional quality canvas prize prints www.espiw.co.uk
Completing our 11th hour Press Pack of Judges for the Isle of Wight Photographer of the Year Competition 2009 we would like to extend a warm welcome to Bob (Robert) Barclay.
As an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society and a member of The Master Photographers, Bob is in great demand and very busy with his own professional photography business, but also manages to run the Readers’ Masterclass for the Amateur Photographer Magazine.
As regular readers of the AP magazine will know, Bob gets to take three amateur photographers through their paces on a specific photoshoot. Read more
A warm welcome to former press and celebrity photographer Larry Ellis as a judge for this year’s IWPOY.
Press Photographer Larry Ellis was born in East London in 1931. Like many who were eager to join the rank and file of Fleet Street, he started at the bottom – as a messenger boy for Central Press Photos – before quickly progressing to darkrooms and assignment work.
In 1951 he joined the Press Association and was taken on by the Daily Express, soon working his way up to be their official Show Business Photographer. In fact Larry performed a dual role he’d shoot celebrities for the Daily Express during the week and would switch to sports coverage over the weekend for the Sunday Express – predominantly football, rugby, golf and cricket.
Larry, now retired lives on the Isle of Wight and can still talk the hind legs off of a donkey. In fairness to the Donkey Sanctuary we will keep that location under wraps – his favourite phrase is “to cut a long story short…” but he never does! Read more
All Weekend-FREE Entry-Live Demonstrations-Special Offers-Latest Innovations-Impressive Discounts- Win A Free Canvas Print.
The Island Photo Show 2009 hosted by the Island Photo Centre is the most comprehensive imaging event ever to be staged on the Isle of Wight and will cover all of your needs from image capture through to output and beyond.
The entire weekend 7th-8th November, will provide demonstrations from many of the leading lights in the photographic market. Including the latest digital cameras and processing equipment from … Nikon, Olympus , Fuji , Ricoh , Pentax , Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lyson , Slik , Tamrac , Tokina and Kenro to name but a few. Read more
