HOUGHTON HALL & GARDENS PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION RESULTS

David Ashfield LRPS ( Overall winner )

I am delighted that my image has been selected by Professor Falconbridge. The visit to Houghton Hall and the Damien Hirst exhibition provided such an abundance of photographic opportunities that I found it impossible to choose a single photograph to convey my impressions of the day and, as I explored, I found an image forming inside my head. In fact, the concept was sufficiently clear that most of the shots I used were taken with the end result very much in mind. It was then a simple matter of extracting the relevant sections of each of the images with a variety of selection techniques before blending them together and applying a variety of ‘cleaning’ operations to improve the final image. The final picture is the result of six images, twenty Photoshop layers and several hours editing.

Prof. Brian Falconbridge PPRBS ( Judge )

Houghton Hall, with its Palladian splendour, expansive landscaped grounds and exquisite walled garden, offers a wealth of opportunities for creative photography. When linked to the brilliantly sited monumental sculptures by Damien Hirst and the intervention of his paintings within the house, creative potential is multiplied. Competition entries reflected a pleasingly full range of responses, with the majority incorporating aspects of Hirst’s work, especially his sculptures. Most were polychrome, with both deep perspective and close-up photography being explored, along with the representational and the painterly abstracted, together with many foregrounding tonality entries confirmed excursions into the full spectrum of offerings from assertive fantasy to the quietly understated, with an equal division between ‘portrait’ and ‘landscape’ formats. Judging across diverse points of view and interpretations presents its own challenges but my decisions in assessing have been made on the basis of seeking a distinct and imaginatively composed visual responses conveyed with clarity of purpose. I have therefore been drawn to images that, in my opinion, present versions of extremes within each genre, be they highly dynamic or very understated and subtle and all points in between. I have tried not to be influenced by my own ‘taste’ in favour of maintaining strict objectivity in reaching my conclusions. All photographs were considered merely with title with names of photographers being removed for the purposes of judging.

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Judge’s comment: I have chosen this image on the basis of its outstanding and comprehensive response to the unique opportunity contained in the grandeur of the setting that is Houghton Hall featuring Damien Hirst. In “Daydreaming” Hirst’s sculptures are redistributed to create an imaginative new narrative, one which takes on the air of a mythological history painting depicting a plausible drama - the exact details of which are open to fanciful speculation. The composition is well balanced and wittily strategic, where new relationships of character are proposed to successfully contrive to engage and hold the attention of the viewer.

HIGHLY COMMENDED steps and the subtle variations of colour and tone they contain. The steps form the perfect backdrop to the intensity of the colour of the petals inviting reflection on the contrast of their utter delicacy against the durability and antiquity of the stone steps, their fleeting impermanence and the fact of transience itself.

Judge’s comment: I was much taken with the sheer visceral and richly painterly opulence of this captured image. Bold, dynamic and uncompromising, it was derived from close observation of the sculpture “Scholar Rock” by the Chinese artist Zhan Wang. While it may be understood as being entirely abstract I also note the image’s ambiguity in its potential to anthropomorphise elements. This is principally evident in the dominant core of the piece and which may be seen as being somewhat face-like - with shades of The Scream by Edvard Munch even.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Judge’s comment: “Against stone”, a close-up of stone steps incorporating a casually posy of sweet pea petals, combines orderly horizontal bands bisected by a more diagonal line of shadow with petals transfixed by the heat and light of the sun. The simplicity of the finely balanced composition of light and shade encourages one to savour the texture of the stone

HIGHLY COMMENDED

This monochrome image is exquisitely restrained, composed with highly restricted tonality, presenting an image of subtle tenderness where the fingers and toes begin take on the delicacy of bleached and fragile fronds, thus opening up new possibilities for poetic interpretation.