The Head Quarters of the Honourable Artillery Company played host to the top names in newspaper photography on Monday night.
They gathered together to hear the judges decisions in this year’s UK Picture Editors Guild Awards in association with Shutterstock. The awards were presented by Evening Standard Editor George Osborne.
Paul Jarrett, Secretary of the Wire Photo Association and Chair of the judges said ‘2017 produced some of the most diverse and truly extraordinary images’’ The panel of judges included AFP’s Rob Bodman who said of the Canon Sports Photographer of the Year’’ Interestingly the highest number of entries in all the categories, and the quality of our sports photographers is, without doubt, outstanding. There were some stunning images in many of these entries, making this one of the most enjoyable, but also trickiest categories to pick winners from’’.
Annabelle Whitestone, Sunday Times, said’’This has been a very big year for news, and news photographers have risen to the challenge magnificently. Powerful, dramatic and moving, the top entries displayed single-minded dedication to get the best images in fast-moving and sometimes distressing situations’’
Other members of the judging panel were Millica Lamb, Head of International and Entertainment at the Press Association, Sharon O’Neill of the Sunday Times, Gina Turner of Bloomberg, Dave Muir of Mirror Group, Alan Hamilton, Daily Record and Matt Phelvin of Shutterstock.
A new category this year was the Fujifilm Student Photographer of the Year won by Myren Berry of City of Glasgow College. Matt Butson, Vice President, Hulton Archive said of this new category ‘’My top pick here was based on technical and compositional merit – as a student still learning one’s trade, the ability to tick both boxes certainly is key and the stark black background helps to bring the subjects to life. Shooting portraits may seem simple to many but capturing more than just the subject in front of the lens – an indefinable essence if you will – is what marks out the great shot from the run of the mill portrait, and I feel the student here has a real talent in this respect’’.
Shutterstock Press Photographer of the year : Guilhem Baker of LNP
His harrowing set of pictures in the Fixation News Photographer of the Year and the UKPEG Essay of the Year category were considered by the judges to be of the highest quality. Working for London News Pictures, the photos of the Grenfell Tower fire captured the horror of the event itself and the mark it left on the people involved’’ said Matt Phelvin, Shutterstock Senior Manager – Picture Editing,
Phelvin continued ‘There were some incredible essays entered this year, some with really harrowing images representing what has been a tumultuous year for global news, as well as more regional, personal projects that were no less impressive in terms of photography. The winner for me for this category contained images that I recognised as having been published at the time of the event they covered’.
The Chairman’s Award in association with British Airways: Adrian Murrell.
The Chairman’s Award in association with British Airways recognises those whose contribution to our industry has been outstanding. Sunday Mirror photographer Phil Coburn was the first recipient and set the bar high. His dedication to our industry cannot be questioned.
He has been joined along the way by Joan Sisley, Pulitzer prize winner Horst Fass, Kent Gavin, Paul Delmar, Richard Young and Kenny Lennox, Bob Kirwin and Evening Standard Picture Editor Dave Ofield.
Adrian Murrell
In the late 1970s Adrian Murrell was the first salaried photographer Allsport ever hired.
He had found a way as a freelancer to fund and endure gruelling 3-month long trips to India and Pakistan covering England cricket tours. This necessitated wiring photos back to the National dailies in an era when one black & white image took 30 minutes to transmit. Travel over vast distances on the sub-continent was also very basic, especially on a shoe-string budget, and he often slept on the floor of journalist’s hotel rooms. He was clearly someone who found a way to get the job done, even under the most harrowing conditions.
His talents firstly as a photographer, and later, the editorial and management side helped ensure success for Allsport. Twenty years later it led to a take-over from Getty Images. Once at Getty he rose rapidly to the top of Getty’s high-powered management team overseeing the global editorial operations of news, sport and entertainment.
In 2015 and then in his sixties Adrian left Getty and was expected to retire and spend time on the golf course and with his wife and two college-aged sons. Instead of which he launched a brand-new business, Silverhub Media in this volatile and competitive media market. Surrounding himself with talented people he has seen it flourish beyond expectations. I suspect Adrian won’t be sleeping on any more floors.”
Tony Duffy.
Len Greener 1938 – 2017
Len Greener, Picture Editor of the Daily Mirror Newspaper. Len at his desk, telephone in hand, and an array of pages, proofs, layouts and print photographs in front of him. Photo 9th April 1985 © Foster/MirrorpixLen changed the art of tabloid picture editing from not just covering major news stories but creating wonderful feature and news feature photographs. He was always the photographer’s champion and he used to think of headlines for picture ideas and pass the idea to the photographer to make it happen. Len’s secret was his close-knit relationship with his team of photographers and applying their individual skills to the appropriate assignment during the most competitive and changing times of press photography with the introduction of colour and digitisation.
Len joined the Mirror Group in 1964 starting on the House magazine then moving on to The Daily Mirror picture desk working his way from assistant to deputy and in November 1974 became Picture Editor of Daily Mirror, a position he held 18 years,
He was my colleague and dear friend and I have nothing but happy memories of Len which is shared by many other photographers and picture desk staff who knew and worked with him. There are many Len gave their start into this wonderful world of press photography and photo journalism and it is a fitting reward that the UK Picture Editors Guild have honoured him with this posthumous award.
Kent Gavin.
The Photographers:
Bloomberg Business Photographer of the Year
Commended: Simon Hulme
Commended: Simon Dawson
Highly Commended: Tom Stockill
Winner: James Glossop
Canon Sports Photographer of the Year
Commended: Glyn Kirk
Commended: Michael Steele
Highly Commended: Laurence Griffiths
Winner: Daniel Mullan
Dave Benett Photos Arts & Entertainment Photographer of the Year
Commended: Joanne Davidson
Commended: Gareth Cattermole
Highly Commended: David Fisher
Winner: Samir Hussein
Fixation News Photographer of the Year
Commended: Toby Melville
Commended: Stefan Rousseau
Highly Commended: Jeremy Selwyn
Winner: Guilhem Baker
Fleet Streets Finest National Newspaper Photographer of the Year
Commended: James Glossop
Commended: Richard Pohle
Highly Commended: Bruce Adams
Winner: Jeremy Selwyn
Fujifilm Student Photographer of the Year
Commended: Niamh McInally
Commended: Alexander Fleming
Highly commended: Emily Allen
Winner: Myren Berry
Genesis Regional Photographer of the Year
Commended: Simon Hulme
Commended: Joel Goodman
Highly Commended: Bruce Rollinson
Winner: Charles McQuillan
Getty Images Young Photographers Bursary
Commended: Naomi Baker
Commended: Tom Nicholson
Highly Commended: Aaron Chown
Winner: James Gourley
UKPEG Videographer of the Year
Commended: Charlie Bibby
Highly Commended: Gloria Kurnik
Winner: Bryan O’Brien
UKPEG Royal Photographer of the Year
Commended: Chris Jackson
Commended: Samir Hussein
Highly Commended: Jason Dawson
Winner: Jane Barlow
UKPEG Photo Essay of the Year
Commended: Dan Kitwood
Commended: Tommy Trenchard
Highly Commended: Claire Thomas
Winner: Guilhem Baker
Shutterstock Press Photographer of the Year
Guilhem Baker