| Written by John Mc, on 22-04-2009 16:05 |
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 Monday, 20th April saw a desperate struggle for glory as the judging of the annual "Andrew Kerr Memorial Competition" drew to a close. Such was the quality of the submitted body of work, that judge Trevor Woods, APAGB, EFIAP was forced to introduce his own, unique placings system.
"In addition to the expected 1st, 2nd, 3rd and H.C. (or, Highly Commended) placings," he explained, "I have introduced the "H.D." mark." To his bemused audience, he further explained:
"That, obviously, means Highly Disappointed. And a lot of you are going to be exactly that!"
In a highly entertaining evening, Trevor was most complimentary regarding the overall standard of submitted entries. There were, he felt, only perhaps 2 or 3 entries which would have fallen below a standard enabling them to hold their heads up in any N.C.P.F. competition.
The main problem, he pointed out, was that judging such a wide variety of subject matter in an "Open"-themed competition was difficult! But, he adopted a pragmatic approach to the matter and simply informally "grouped" entries into loose categories (e.g. Portraits, Natural History etc). Then, having decided which images were the best in those groups, he judged those select few against one another.
Hmm... This still left him with a problem... Let me explain...
The winning trio had pretty much picked themselves. They were that good!
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3rd place?
In a departure from his softly-lit, lovely ladies studio style, this place went to "The Fighter" - a moody, atmospheric, monochrome portrait from Phil Davis. The shot was taken on location at the Ferryhill-based British Full Contact kick-boxing champion's local gym.
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2nd place?
That was claimed by Carl Gorse, for his image "City Sparrowhawk". A gimlet-glared, feathered killer, perched on top of it's lunch. Chilling! This was captured outside York Minster, completely by chance! |
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And the winner is...?
"Emma and Rachael" - another entry from Carl Gorse. A very sympathetic, nicely composed and warmly-lit studio portrait. |
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However, in his deliberations, Trevor had amassed a sizeable collection of worthy entries for consideration as "Commended" prints. Each of which was comparable on technical ability and, furthermore, were all pictorially pleasing. It was going to be down to "personal preference" to split those hairs! Hence, the need for a new classification: the"Highly Disappointed" were born. These were to be prints which, but for a simple twist of fate and a prickly hair on the back of Trevor's neck, could have been in the Winners' Enclosure.
This, then, left us with the Highly Commended entries:
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"Kelly", by Phil Davis
"Stephanie", by Phil Davis
"Winter Robin", by Charlie Goddard
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And sadly, squeezing in at the back of the pack, "Disappointment" written large all over their faces:
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"Holy Island cobble", by Charlie Goddard
"Winter night at Tanfield", by Carl Gorse
"Heron" by Trevor Roxby
"Kingfisher" by Trevor Roxby
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Our gratefull thanks go to Trevor for his hard work and entertaining presentation (even when delivering "bad news"). His presence at our local hostelry for some post-judging discussion and post-mortem was particularly welcome. We look forward to seeing him back here.
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