News
Friday 16 December 2005
Photography students achieve great exposure
A Nottingham Trent University graduate has scooped a prestigious Jerwood Photography Award, completing a fantastic quartet of prizes for the institution’s photography department. BA (Hons) Photography graduate Oliver Parker won with his digital print series, Foxhounds, which portrays the animals posed in studio conditions, removed from their natural environment.
Oliver Parker was one of five winners in the third annual Jerwood Photography Awards, organised by Portfolio Magazine and the Jerwood Charity. His work has been published in the December issue of Portfolio, is featuring in a group exhibition at the Jerwood Space in London, and then touring galleries across the UK throughout next year.
The competition was open to artists who work with photography and who have graduated from visual art degree courses in the UK within the last three years.
Gloria Chalmers, editor of Portfolio magazine, said: “We viewed over 6,000 individual photographs to select five outstanding winners of the award. We are delighted to be collaborating with the Jerwood Charity on this exciting project, which aims to heighten awareness of photographic art and spotlight the breadth of skills, creativity and imaginative flair alive in art colleges in the UK today. The showcase exhibition will be a fantastic opportunity to see innovative works by these exceptional upcoming young artists.”
Max Kandhola, a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Nottingham Trent University, said: “The hounds series is an excellent conclusion to Oliver’s degree show, as his interest in photographing aspects of Englishness and hunting began during his first year. It has been recognised by Portfolio Magazine and Jerwood Award as a definitive representation of British culture and the hounds series has its tradition embedded within society, literature and painting, and deserves the recognition."
He added: “The Jerwood Photography Award in its three years, is fast becoming the major award to win for our emerging new photographers, and in winning this year with the various other awards it once again establishes and recognises the photography programme at Nottingham Trent University as being at the forefront in photographic practice.”
Oliver’s success follows that of Amy Lake, who took both platinum and joint gold in the Institute of Medical Illustrators (IMI) awards for her images of instruments from a historical collection and a growth on the eye. Charlie Stewart won the Photo Imaging Council award for his project documenting the desperate socio-economical situation of an island off the coast of Sumatra. Hamim Miah also won a major commission from the British Council (Nigeria) in which he had to photograph Mosques in England. His photographs were then used as large posters for exhibitions in Nigeria and the UK.
Cary Welling, Programme Leader of Photography, said: “We encourage students to go in for competitions because it gives them real deadlines to work to and experience fulfilling professional briefs. I like to think that our students are successful because our course has helped them to become confident in their knowledge and skills and unafraid to try new things.”
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Dave Rogers, Press Officer, on Tel: +44 (0)115 848 2650 or via email: dave.rogers@ntu.ac.uk
Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: +44 (0)115 848 6589 or via email: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk
