The Winners of the 2010 Young Photographers Competition.
This is the fourth year running that shots has sponsored an international competition for current and graduating photography students. The aim of adding visual interest to the Directory has always been a secondary consideration to celebrating and nurturing new talent, and our primary aim with the competition is to help and support emerging photographers worldwide and present their work to potential commissioners.
It has now become a major event, with yet another record entry. The competition is launched through some 1,600 photography tutors around the world, who pass on details to their current and recently graduated students. Without the tutors, the competition would never have taken off; we remain deeply grateful to them for their invaluable assistance and support.
This year's theme 'Sublime' presented a particular challenge to entrants - not because the word is impossible to translate - it is the same in most European languages; it is just that we have lost the original sense of what the word means and represents. The sublime is about extremes - of weather, emotion, situation - things beyond our everyday life and comprehension. There's a lot of latitude there: wars, disasters, sensational events, extremes of emotion, place and weather - none of which tends to figure strongly in the lives of photography students preparing their final presentations.
The judges take technical excellence and the ability to frame a decent shot for granted - so we are really forced to make decisions based on how well the theme has been addressed. Just like a commissioning editor, we want to see them take that commission to places we never dreamt of.
Ten entries were outstanding, and they are featured on this page. Our overall winner, Melanie Clark, uses existing photos, projected onto the space that her relations once inhabited: an internal, personal and emotionally charged sublime that is also the most riveting family album we have ever seen.
The other winners have produced such a broad range of stunning work that we feel entirely justified in the choice of theme - for it is all extraordinary and memorable work. We wish all our entrants well in the difficult times ahead, launching their careers, which we hope we have helped in some tiny way.
Steve Hare
Click on the images to view full size versions
CLICK HERE to see the non-placing finalists of the shots Young Photographers Competition