After Dark

This competition has now closed.

Winners

1st
Cones
Carolyn Evans
2nd
Clio at Wolf Creek Pass
Kip Harris
3rd
Workshop
Jonathan Mitcalf

Commended

Competition Judge

Rachel Wallace

Born in 1963, UK Rachel Wallace studied at Central St Martins and later received her M.A in Photography Art from the University of Westminster in 2018. Her practice concerns itself in the interplay between ourselves, land and nature addressing the issues of life, death, and decay. Her instinctive and visceral reaction to our interlinking life cycles with the natural world is often described as a delicate and poetic.
She is an award winning photographer working with a variety of cameras and techniques to respond to and illustrate her response to the natural world. She was awarded a Silver Gilt medal from the RHS Botanical Art & Photography exhibition at Saatchi, London last year and will be showing there again this year. Her floral prints are currently being used in collaboration with a London fashion company for a capsule collection to be in the shops later this year.
Rachel’s work is held in private collections and has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group shows in London- most recently the Saatchi Gallery – Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin and Korea. She regularly exhibits and is frequently published as both writer and artist.
She works from her studio in the Hambleden Valley, Oxfordshire and is an accredited Carbon Literacy Photographer giving talks on her environmental work. She also takes commissions and gives tuition.

Rachel’s comments on judging the competition
My judging goes by how interested I am in the picture and what it’s saying – what is it’s deeper meaning and what made the photographer take that image, as well as the thinking behind making it. Clearly there has been much thought in making these images. They are not just snaps.
Thank you so much for asking me to judge this competition. Condolences to those who didn’t make the cut. There were an additional 10 in the long list of excellent thinking!

rachel@markjwallace.com
www.racheljwallace.com

View Archive

Cones

Carolyn Evans

First Prize

The winner is perhaps surprising, but it's simplicity and cleverness struck me. To see this line of cones at night and decide to photograph them, placing them just off centre, showing the leading line and probably using a tripod as well as a torch to highlight just the cones, shows great presence of mind and opportunism. There is something about it I could just keep looking at and the glow of the cones draws me in.

Clio at Wolf Creek Pass

Kip Harris

Second Prize

This image also draws me in. The child's face, beautifully lit from below is curiously smooth like a marble sculpture, but her hair tumbles about her face. What is she looking at? The 3/4 angle shot works well and the glimpse of her hand on the bed covers just balances the picture. She looks curious but confident and content. It's a strong and striking image, asking questions.

Workshop

Jonathan Mitcalf

Third Prize

The room at night raises so many questions. Whose room? What are the things behind the first curtain? Composition going in block from left to right and the two long top lights again balancing everything. Everything has been seen and perfectly placed within the picture. Shapes observed and echoed or balanced, lighting soft, and careful. Things aligned on the desk. What is the window looking out onto - is it an office or a factory? The image appears to be black and white, but look closer and there is colour. Darkness has absorbed most of the colour but the photographer has captured what little is left very subtly. A well crafted and considered image.

The Watchers

Evangelia Mavridou

Commended

As a nature lover this shot appeals to me. The soft, misty night sky gives a feeling of calm as do the birds captured in the bushes. The photographer has caught them in a good balance and spacing which works well and the moon, which I hope is real and not an add-on, finished the picture off. It has a film feel to it and is reminiscent of Stephen Gills photos in Night Processing. You can feel those birds in the picture, illustrating what we don't see when we walk past a bush at the dead of night when all is quiet.

Midnight Souls

Samanta Krivec

Commended

Again a story here. A very gentle feel again as an elderly couple walk down a maple street - presumably home after a night out. The lighting and composition is well observed and captured, the oncoming couple in the distance balances it well and again, you feel the quietness of the night, captured in black and white, movie-style and emotive.

Dean Street

Jonathan Mitcalf

Commended

Simple again, and effective. The only light the glow of the neon sign and the window light - the rest almost sepia. Where is the man going and who is he? Dean Street in Soho with plenty of night life. The man well positioned in front of the door with the writing curving behind him.

Dancing in the Dusk

Rajesh Dhar

Commended

Again - really thought about. The bright yellow of the sheets against a soft blue sky rather than an overly dark one. Movement against the stillness of the night. Probably using slow shutter flash. The use of colour makes me think of Eggleton and the particular yellow tone is a perfect opposite to the blue sky.

Mid Iowa Motel

Kip Harris

Commended

A wildcard. I was drawn to this by the stand out colours against the dark sky. The picture would be nothing without the movement of the headlights of a passing car. I would have liked the van to be a deeper colour or darker to match the depth of tone of the motel. It tells a story - a workman parked up for the night finding sanctuary in a remote motel.