SUN AWARDS 30 by Shot Up North

Shot Up North SUN AWARDS

The SUN AWARDS discover, showcase and reward the best photography produced each year by professional photographers based in the Northern regions of the UK. This is a non-profit event run by photographers for all those who work with, purchase or commission photography.

Follow SUN . . . shotupnorth.co.uk instagram: @shotupnorth facebook.com/shotupnorth twitter: @shotupnorth ISBN 978-0-9563170-9-4 Published by SUN EXPO LIMITED Copyright Â© SUN EXPO LIMITED

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Contents How to enter

30 years of SUN

Best Image

Index 81

How to enter

• The Call for Entries is announced annually. • News of this appears on our SUN web site,

and in various publications and online media.

• Categories include Best Image, Best Use of Image and Best Promotion of a Photographer. • Details and Entry Forms appear on the web site once the call is announced. You can find these at: shotupnorth.co.uk/call-for-entries

Buy the book You can purchase the book online via our web site.

This year SUN reaches itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 30th. Birthday. 30 years that have seen massive changes in just about every area of life both personal and professional.

We all know the changes in our profession have gone a lot deeper than just dealing with the advances in the technology we employ. In the era of the internet where everything is driven by the visual you would expect respect for and the value of good photography would be elevated but unfortunately the opposite is true. Now virtually everybody walks around with a phone containing a high definition camera that would have put even high end professional equipment of a few years ago to shame. All this technical possibility of course does not automatically evolve into remarkable photography but in many people it engenders the idea that photography is easy and eminently disposable and of very little worth especially when it comes to paying for our services. Technical advances always provide opportunities for those prepared to use talent and effort to make their images more sellable and subsequently more valuable. This has always been true throughout the history of photography. Where would we be without innovator Oskar Barnack and his invention of the Leica camera or Steve Sassons digital offering in 1976 that eventually lead to the remarkable equipment we use today.

Steve Sassons

Steve Sassons invention has indeed made it easier to capture a digital image than say using Fuji Velvia 50ASA film where you had to be part photographer and part magician to be able to illuminate a subject with the right quality of light in the right direction at the right contrast ratio and then assess the exposure within a quarter stop of accuracy to achieve the desired result not once but each and every time. Those who could do this had the basis for a lucrative business as their work stood out from other less able photographers. Now the less able photographers have a lot more digital assistance to fall back on to produce a merely adequate result that keeps the less discerning commissioners happy and hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the rub. If the commissioner and eventually the viewing public are not capable of recognising top quality photography why will they be prepared to pay the extra costs that it deserves.

Oskar Barnack

Geoff Smith

Madeleine Penfold

The basis of all our businesses is that photography works wonderfully

photograph models for their cards and head-sheets and gradually

to promote services and products but what we have to demonstrate is

worked his way into producing work for local advertising and design

that good photography works even better just like we had to do during

agencies. From these small beginnings he gradually built up his list of

the transition from black and white to colour film images and then on

clients to include national and international companies which were

to high quality digital capture we have an education job to do to help

reflected in his now enviable portfolio of work.

people appreciate this difference.

Madeleine had an interest in photography which only became apparent

Two photographers who agree with this concept are Geoff Smith and

after she had spent a few years studying and working in marketing.

Madeleine Penfold.

She points out that the problem with going it alone as a photographer

Geoff has been around since before the birth of SUN and Madeleine has only just started her career nevertheless they have a great deal in common.

is that there is no career structure or pay scale to guarantee prosperity as some of her friends enjoy still in marketing organizations. This is true but they are also vulnerable to the redundancy notice and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;staff reorganisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; proclamations of over heated HR departments. It must

Geoff came to photography after starting out as a trainee chef but after

always be more desirable to hold your future in your own hands.

a few years of hard graft and a day release course in photography he

The trick is to ensure that your photographic efforts are suitably

used his new found ability to open a small studio in Manchester backed

rewarded. Geoff has ably achieved this with a combination of hard work,

by a bank loan with his parents house as collateral. He continued to

luck and sound business practice the very same attributes that

Madeleine realises she needs to employ to fulfill her business aspirations. She of course has new tools available to aid her progress notably social media so important that she would be prepared to hire a specialist company to give her tweets and Instagram profile the right look and content to appeal to past and future clients and the constant updating that this demands. This by definition also includes elements of your private life that you may or may not be prepared to share with others even potential clients. Madeleine was prepared for this when she decided to raise money via crowd funding to raise money to assist in renovating a school in Kotu in The Gambia. She of course used her photographic skills to show the kids and their school in the best way to help her successful fund raising appeal. Madeleineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire to help was the motivation behind the project and not direct financial reward although she has also shot commercially paid work over the last couple of years that has resulted from clients seeing these shots. Like us all she would always like to shoot subject

matter close to her heart but she is also realistic about the possibilities of this happening. Geoff had no choice but to finance his own studio back all those years ago but now Madeleine has no need for this huge expense as these days studios can be easily hired as can lighting and camera equipment. This eliminates the need for the vast financial investment that Geoff had to make to enable his work along with the time and cost involved in producing and printing mailers and ads in creative books and magazines to get his work and name in front of the same people that Madeleine can do so successfully by using social media. Ads and mailers also had to be followed up with phone calls and meetings that gradually built up a network of clients that might be called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Followersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; today. Another avenue that Geoff links to his success is becoming a member of AoP or AFAEP (Association of Fashion Advertising and Editorial Photographers) as it was back in 1976 when he joined

and having his work chosen for inclusion in the very first ‘AFAEP Awards’ competition in 1984 which through it’s exhibition and printed catalogue was a very competitive and valuable promotional tool. The catalogue started out in black and white but later transformed into colour. Some of Geoff’s early work shot for Twyford Bathroom advertisements is shown here as it appeared in the original 1984 black and white catalogue of ‘The Awards’. Other work illustrated is from a later AFAEP Award and multi award winning series of campaigns for Marie Stopes that brought Geoff and Art Director Dave Price further accolades. ‘The Awards’ went from strength to strength but were seen as a very London centric event perhaps as evident in the rather lavish Hamilton’s Gallery launch for the exhibition and catalogue in 1984 so in 1988 a number of northern members of AFAEP decided to promote the work of non London based photographers and thus SUN (Shot Up North) was born, later rebranded as ‘SUN Awards’.

Award competitions have always been popular as not only do they get your work in front of potential commissioners but they also give you an idea of where

Award competitions have always been popular as not only do they get your work in front of potential commissioners but they also give you an idea of where you stand amongst your competition and peer group. The social events that mark the openings of the Award exhibitions of these chosen images also provide a very valuable opportunity for a bit of socializing something that has been sorely missed since the more isolating procedure of digital image capture compared to frequent visits to film labs waiting for the chemical processing of those precious images . We seem to have come full circle in gauging the importance of people to our businesses. Thirty years ago a successful business relied on a network of clients mostly designers and art directors just like it does now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only the way that we build and maintain this network that has changed. This is paramount to our survival in this digital age and any other age that awaits us in the future. See you there and good luck.

Doug Currie

you stand amongst your competition and peer group.

Best Image