A University of Leeds student has been named Student Photographer of the Year 2016, winning £11,000 in prize money.
Henry Nathan, an undergraduate in Film, Media and photography, entered his freelance work into Calumet Photographic’s national annual competition but didn’t think it would get noticed. He said “I never dared believe that I could come first because of the high standard of work I saw from last year’s winner and runners up”.
Nathan’s image was of an underground cave in Oregon, America, which caught a beam of light shining down on a man and a dog walking through.
The student said “It was spectacular to see. I knew as soon as I had taken the shot that I had captured something pretty special and I hardly needed to do any editing to the picture.”
Speaking of Nathan’s image, Jon Warner, Managing Director of Calumet Photographic, suggested how this image shows the 20-year-olds passion and talent for photography. “Henry’s winning image shone out. He is clearly very talented and has an eye for composition and working with light. The fact that he captured such an amazing shot taken during such a short window of opportunity demonstrates his patience and skill”.
It comes after hearing these encouraging words that the student, who beat 800 competitors to the title, is considering his future and is looking forward to a possible career in photography.
“I am hugely overwhelmed and honoured because I believe winning this competition will give me the confidence boost I needed to take my photos to the next level and really push my career forward”.
Calumet Photographic hold the competition every year, receiving hundreds of images, which then have to be cut down by a panel which consists of professional photographers.
Speaking about their competition, which this year partnered with Canon and the leading industry magazine Professional Photography, Calumet said: “We believe [our competition] helps to celebrate young people’s love for pictures and encourages artistic photography. We would like to congratulate Henry and the runners-up and thank everyone for participating.”
William Marriott
(Image: blog.calphoto.co.uk)