Selected for Creative Review’s Photography Annual 2016
A nice bit of news to share with you this chilly Friday afternoon – I am delighted to announce that three of my images have been selected for Creative Review’s Photography Annual 2016. Every year, a judging panel of industry experts selects photographs which present ‘the best in visual communications from the past year’, to celebrate new work in the field of photography. The winners feature in renowned creative magazine, Creative Review. The standard is always world-class, so as you can imagine, I was humbled and delighted when I heard the news last month that I was to be part of the selection. In fact, it was a very difficult secret to keep.
The three images that were selected were taken in Spring this year, as part of my Kenema series, of a community who were building a new school in Kenema, Sierra Leone. The first is of a local man I spotted when I was driving through Kenema. When I saw him, I stopped the car, grabbed my camera and jumped out. The enjoyment he was getting from pumping out his music was infectious and reminded me of my teenage days spent listening to music blaring out from huge speakers in Dorset. No matter where you travel, some things are universal.
The second is of two women who came to the school building site every evening to sell homemade stew and dumplings to the security guys. In this photo, they are standing in front of the new school building, in the glow of the evening sun.
The third photo is one of the construction workers fixing the school roof. The team were just finishing work for the day and as we were coming down from the roof, we could see a large storm approaching over the horizon. The light was amazing, and so I paused to get my camera out. We had to be quick, otherwise we could have been excellent targets for the lightening, but I’m glad we stuck around for those extra few minutes.
