Travel Photographer of the Year

Changing lives…

tpoty — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:23:39 +0000

Photography is such a powerful medium; it can transform lives. And it’s not just images that have this power, it can also be the act of taking – or learning to take – those images. In late 2011, Travel Photographer of the Year founder Chris Coe was privileged to play a small role in a fantastic photographic project in our home county of Suffolk; a project which has made a big difference to those who took part in it.

JumpstART! is a series of modular arts courses for people with learning disabilities, aimed at increasing creative skills and work opportunities for its participants. One of those courses is on photography, and Chris was a guest tutor at one of the photography sessions in 2011.

We spoke to JumpstART! Project Development Officer Fran Speight about this very special initiative, which resulted in an exhibition – ‘Sea of Shapes’ – in the Pond Gallery at Snape Maltings in January 2012.

Tell us about JumpstART!
JumpstART! is run by Suffolk Artlink, an organisation that works to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged people through taking part in arts activities. It’s funded by the National Lottery.

Why photography?
Photography guarantees the total involvement of the student – it’s a wonderful form of self-expression. And the pictures don’t have to be technically perfect for the participants to feel a great sense of achievement and self-esteem.

How does the course work?
JumpstART! runs a series of two-hour taster sessions in community venues, colleges and resource centres, followed up by one-day Explore sessions in photography, leading to the course.

The course ran at The Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft for 15 weeks. The tutors were professional photographers James Fletcher and Albert Robb, and guest tutor Chris Coe.

The students had the opportunity to explore colour, shape, texture and pattern in their local environment and looked at portrait, landscape, macro and reportage photography. They also visited the Atlas Photography Gallery at Snape to view pictures by Elliot Erwitt, Nick Brandt, Ernest Haas and Robert Capa.

What were the challenges for tutors and pupils?
Many of the students had never picked up a camera before, so had to learn the basics of handling the camera. Many have physical disabilities, so the tutors had to consider the right type of camera for that person. For example, some of the compact digital cameras are just too small to handle. SLRs provide better grip and larger display panels, however the weight of the cameras was also an issue, so we used tripods – some of which could fit onto wheelchairs.

Tutors had to use different methods of explaining the different aspects of photography in an easily understood manner – which can be tricky when explaining depth of field and the rule of thirds! The students however were able to see the differences between a brilliant picture and one that was merely OK, and explain why.

What did the students get out of the project?
They gained knowledge and experience from the practical workshops in a supportive environment. They have developed a real interest in photography and since starting the course most of them have brought their own cameras.

Tell us about the ‘Sea of Shapes’ exhibition
One aspect of the module is to have a public performance or exhibition at the end of the course, to celebrate the participants’ learning and to invite a public audience to view their work.

The Pond Gallery is a beautiful exhibition space, in a really busy environment, and the students were thrilled to see their pictures framed in a public gallery and to hear the positive comments made about their photographs.

The reaction from the exhibition visitors was also extremely positive, and members of the public were genuinely interested in the background of the project. The enthusiasm and self-esteem of the students was noticed by the visitors. who joined in with the celebration of their work. Comments from the visitor book included

‘Lovely exhibition, brilliant photographs, lots of creative ideas.’

‘This has been my first time to something like this, very interesting and very well done’

‘There are some really really good images here, exhibited in a wonderful place. What a fantastic project and what a fantastic result’

The project also ran in Bury St Edmunds, and the images from that project have been exhibited in the cafe in Debenhams department store.

What’s the next JumpstART! project?
We’ve just started a 15-week course in film-making and animation. This will culminate in an ‘exhibition’ in the form of public screenings in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.

Students’ image captions from top: Crimson Cloth (photographer – Erik), Station bench (photographer – Winston), Globe (photographer – Vicky), Happy Car (photographer – Vicky), Train (photographer – Mark).

Tales from a former TPOTY New Talent winner

tpoty — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:52:32 +0000

We would like to thank 2010 New Talent winner Eric Kruszewski, who had provided this blog post and image from his prize trip to India. To view more of his images from the trip, please click on the link in the post.

In December 2010, Travel Photographer of the Year founders and organizers Chris and Karen Coe notified me that I was the contest’s New Talent Award Winner. This exciting announcement came while I was eating breakfast; my spoon fell from my hand to the table and my cereal bowl crashed to the floor. At that moment I did not realize that it truly was just the beginning.

Over the next several months, I worked with TPOTY from my home in America in preparation for the upcoming exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London, England, which ran for several weeks during the spring/summer of 2011. Fortunately, I was able to travel to London to attend the exhibition’s opening ceremony and meet industry professionals, contest judges and fellow photography lovers from around the world. Travel Photographer of the Year was extremely supportive in arranging meetings and ensuring people of interest were in attendance and available for discussions regarding the contest and the craft of photography. Following the exhibition, weekend workshops were planned, thus granting even more opportunities for photographers to attend lectures and participate in portfolio reviews. This contest has been reinventing itself constantly while giving established and emerging photographs an avenue to share their passion of photography.

As part of my winning the New Talent Award in 2010, former contest sponsor Intrepid Travel granted me the opportunity to venture from Delhi, India, to Kathmandu, Nepal. The 15-day journey allowed me to further develop my photographic vision while obtaining an intimate glimpse into fascinating cultures. The highlights of the trip were abundant and are impossible to enumerate. Therefore, I am happy to share my impressions of the region through my latest imagery: http://erickruszewski.com

Thank you very much to TPOTY for sharing my work, to Intrepid Travel for the journey through India, and to all photographers who have made the contest a huge success.

Eric Kruszewski
2010 TPOTY New Talent Award Winner

Results of the 2011 Travel Photographer of the Year awards are announced

tpoty — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:03:28 +0000

Many, many congratulations to Louis Montrose, the overall winner of Travel Photographer of the Year 2011. His evocative images of life in a painted village in Burkina Faso, and haunting portfolio of the Day of the Dead festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, make you want to return to them again and again. To see all the 2011 winners, please visit our Winners’ Gallery.

The exhibition
The winning images from the 2011 TPOTY awards will be displayed in a major exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London from June 21st to August 19th 2012. This means that anyone visiting London during the Olympics will be able to take time out from all that sport to enjoy some wonderful travel photography.

A very big thank you to our judges
The 2011 Travel Photographer of the Year awards were judged by an international panel of experts, including travel and wildlife photographer Steve Bloom, Caroline Metcalfe Director of Photography for Conde Nast, stock photography expert Jerry Tavin, Colin Finlay of Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Matt Phillips Editor of Travel Africa, Mary Robert Head of Photography for American International University, Melissa de Witt Editor of Hotshoe, Manfred Zollner Managing Editor of Fotomagazin (Germany), Debbie Ireland former head of the AA Photo Library, photographer and TV cameraman Jeremy Hoare, landscape and panoramic photographer Nick Meers, designer and digital imaging expert Terry Steeley, and freelance editor and writer Emma Thomson – plus TPOTY founder, travel photographer Chris Coe.

All our judges committed a great deal of time to Travel Photographer of the Year, and we are hugely grateful for their dedication, enthusiasm and expertise.

And to all our finalists!
To the 180+ photographers around the world who worked so hard to get their prints to us for the final judging – you gave our judges a really tough job, as they had some incredible work to choose from.

Those of you who are not amongst out winners should take pride in the fact that out of the many, many thousands of images entered this year, yours made it through to the final judging round.

And thank you to our sponsors!
Without the support of our sponsors for the competition and exhibitions, Travel Photographer of the Year quite simply could not exist. This year’s sponsors have been involved, enthusiastic and creative in their prize concepts, and we are extremely grateful. So thank you to:
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Connekt Colour
Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky
Elephant Family
Explore
Fujifilm Professional
Genesis Digital
Lexar Media
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
Oman Air
The Oman Ministry of Tourism
Photo Iconic
Plastic Sandwich
Tribes Travel
Tselana Travel
Young Photographers Alliance

Congratulations!

tpoty — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:21:22 +0000

…. to Travel Photographer of the Year sponsor Tribes Travel, who have received the Association of Tour Operators’ award for the ‘Most Innovative Sustainable Tourism Initiative 2011’.

This responsible travel award recognised Tribes’ eco-rating system of environmental and social impact auditing of the properties with which it works around the world. So far, 325 properties have been assessed across 17 countries, establishing their relative eco strengths and weaknesses, before publishing their grading on the company’s website.

This is a fantastic achievement – well done Tribes. It couldn’t have happened to nicer people!

Out of Africa (and back into Sweden)…

tpoty — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:10:59 +0000

Travel Photographer of the Year 2010 One Shot category winner, the Swedish photographer Maja Flink, has just returned from her Intrepid Travel prize trip to Africa.

We caught up with her for a quick interview and she shared a few of the images she took on her journey:

1. Where did your African adventure take you? – We started the trip in Johannesburg, drove through Botswana and ended at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

2. How did you travel in Africa? – We were a group of thirteen people traveling in a minibus

3. What was your impression of the people you met on your journey? They were extremely nice and welcoming. Especially the group of locals that looked after us at the Okavango delta

4. And the landscape? – I was there in October which is the really dry season (supposedly called the suicide month) so the landscape was without any leaves and coloured by sand and dust which was beautiful. As soon as the rain comes everything will apparently turn green in a week or to and change the landscape completely.

5. Did you see incredible wildlife? – We saw a lot of zebras and elephants. And towards the end I saw giraffes which was super exiting. No snakes, thank God!

6. What is your strongest memory of the trip? – Definitely the Okavango delta. We stayed there for two nights and it was incredible to camp out in that wilderness. It was amazing to travel around it in the local canoes and then end the whole experience with a helicopter flight over the area, seeing herds of animals below.

7. As a photographer, did you ever find yourself short of something to photograph? – Never!

8. Would you like to go back? – It was my first time in Africa and I cant wait to go back!

Festival memories

tpoty — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:10:19 +0000

Timothy Allen talks about photography On The Edge

Before we turn to the serious business of judging this year’s Travel Photographer of the Year entries (and a quick glance has told us that the standard is higher than ever this year), here are some images from the first-ever Travel Photographer of the Year Festival at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

The Festival closed with People & Cultures Day on October 16th and, in the midst of all the technology, with presentations being passed around on memory sticks and last-minute ticket purchases being managed from our mobile office (an iPad2) it was heartening to see Eamonn McCabe arrive for his talk, bearing nothing more sophisticated than a small blue suitcase, circa 1965, full of slides. And what slides they were!

Feedback from those who came along to the events has been hugely positive, with one visitor commenting “If tickets for the 2012 Festival were on sale now, I’d buy them today,” and many praising the relaxed, informal atmosphere and saying how much they appreciated the chance to hear from, and meet, so many great photographers and leading image experts.

If you were there – thank you, and we hope very much to see you there again in 2012. And if you weren’t, we hope that these images give you a small hint of what you missed, and that you’re inspired to join us next year.

Philip Lee Harvey talks travel photography

David Noton Chasing the Light

Nick Meers discussing panoramic photography

TPOTY founder Chris Coe, with 'Human Planet' producer Dale Templar, with an image by Timothy Allen

An aerial view with Jason Hawkes

Tiny themed displays of TPOTY-winning images

Oman Air, one of our supporters

Steve Bloom talks wildlife

Taking a break in the sunshine on the RGS terrace

A cultural journey…. Steve Bloom at work

tpoty — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:02:48 +0000

Travel Photographer of the Year judge – and eminently talented photographer and author – Steve Bloom has posted an HD video up on You Tube giving taste of his work in Africa. You can learn more about his experiences in this incredible continent first-hand from the man himself when he speaks at People & Cultures Day at the TPOTY Festival at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) this Sunday, October 16th.

If you’re coming, you’ve got a real treat in store. And whether you can be there or not, why not check out Steve’s You Tube site – for some fabulous footage.

It really can pay to enter…

tpoty — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:03:17 +0000

One valuable benefit of doing well in Travel Photographer of the Year is the amount of international exposure that the successful entrants receive through our website. And for some, it can be very valuable indeed…

The TPOTY website attracts a huge number of visitors, not just those thinking about entering or even those who just like to look at stunning images. It also attracts serious image buyers, as young Courtney Krawec, the Australian teenager who won the Young TPOTY title in 2009, discovered earlier this year.

We were approached by a major London advertising agency, who had spotted one of her winning images (see left) on the site, and were interested in using it for an international advertising campaign for a blue-chip client. Usually we simply pass such requests straight onto the photographer but, as Courtney didn’t have anyone experienced in handling image sale negotiations to advise her, we handled them for her. Courtney, now 17 years old, tells the rest of the story in her own words…

“When I first received notification from the TPOTY office that there was an international buyer interested in one of my images, I was shocked. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if it was really happening. At first I thought the offer might come in around £200 British pounds for my image. I had no idea that it might be several thousands! To say that the five-figure sum I actually received was amazing is an understatement!!

I captured the image in question with a regular compact digital camera around 3 years ago now. Though the image could have been taken anywhere in the world, it actually portrays my young neighbour who had moved to Australia from Thailand.

Having such a large company purchase my photo has given me more faith in my own abilities, and more confidence in my work. Next year is my last year of school and feel it will be much easier to really get into my photographic work when I am not having to devote so much of my time to my studies.

I really want to make a difference in the world, and I feel I can do this through my photography. Film is also a medium that is beginning to catch my attention. Capturing images or footage of the disheartening things that happen in third world countries is one way I can raise awareness throughout the world. That the world would then understand and take action, is a true dream of mine.“

Glorious…

tpoty — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:28:14 +0000

Taking time out from the sunshine to admire this glorious image of Zadie Smith, shot by the legendary Eamonn McCabe, who’s speaking on People & Cultures Day at the TPOTY Festival at the RGS on October 16th. We have an amazing line-up of speakers for this day – so exciting!

Steve Bloom – who got the thumbs-up from all concerned when he spoke on Exploring Photography & Travel Day – returns to regale us with tales of his many years photographing the peoples and cultures of Africa.

Focus on the Human Planet – Series producer, Dale Templar, talks about the BBC’s Human Planet series and how it came to fruition.

Photography Question Time – Chris Coe chairs a panel of photographers answering your questions on anything photographic. Panel includes Mary Robert, Nick Meers & Steve Bloom.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Bazaar – Mary Robert tells how a trip to Turkey & a chance encounter turned into a fascinating photographic project.

Winning Images – Ever wondered how the winning images are chosen when you enter a photography competition? Colin Finlay, organiser of Wildlife Photographer of the Year, & TPOTY judge, Nick Meers, discuss the way awards are judged and what catches the judges’ eye.

Light Fantastic – TPOTY founder, Chris Coe, looks at light, composition & what gives an image impact.

John Thomson: Photographic Pioneer – James Ryan explores the photography of one of its early exponents from the days of the lantern slide

It’s a fabulous way to end the TPOTY Festival, before the TPOTY team is submerged beneath the judging rounds for TPOTY 2011 (which closes on October 9th…).

Go Wild in London!

tpoty — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:26:42 +0000

Feel like going Wild in London this Sunday? Come to Wild Day at the TPOTY Festival at the Royal Geographical Society and learn about wildlife and adventure photography from some of the best around. We have amazing speakers, including David Noton, BBC Human Planet photographer Timothy Allen, aerial photographer Jason Hawkes and Martin Hartley, one of the world’s leading adventure and expedition photographers, who shoots stuff like this…. Mindblowing! Book through our website.