OAA Photographic Competition

The inaugural OAA Photographic Competition on the theme of Community was judged by Patrick Whibley, a member of the teaching staff here at the College. Apart from being an enthusiastic photographer himself he also runs our Liberal Studies photography programme. He was joined by Ed Brilliant (OA) who is currently the College’s artist in residence, teaching photography to students.

 

From the Judges

A wonderful array of photographic styles and subjects comprise this inaugural alumni competition. We aimed to be open-minded, rather than technically obsessive. Still, there are technical commonalities between the shortlisted images, including a range of effective compositions that emphasise the representation of community. Interestingly, between the three winning entries, we see environment playing very different supporting roles to the community of subjects: it might be an integral part of the story (how did they get there?); a feature of scale and context; or it can be very much secondary to the composition and character of the group.

What the six shortlisted images all do successfully is invite the viewer to ask questions about the featured group – what have they been up to? what is about to happen? do we want to be part of the action?

Thank you to all those who shared their images – a wide representation of vibrant life, captured by the lens and together making up a unique visual tapestry that belongs uniquely to this OA community.

Winner

Amongst a Greater Hall
Ben Schlossman (09-16)

The photo depicts six Old Alleynians (Hugh Skepper, Johnny Vineall, Finn Lanchester, Alex Gorvett, Milo Jackson-Brown, and Alfred Curry) pitching their tents in Snowdonia this past summer's solstice - almost a decade since leaving the college, but still very much together. It was shot on an Olympus XA that was my great-grandfather's (an architect from Chicago) with Portra 400 film.

Judges Remarks

While we aren’t in the thick of the action, the balanced composition (a rare portrait orientation among a mainly landscape group of submitted images) gives us a strong sense that the group has reached this peninsular after some sort of adventure and is setting up camp ahead of what promises to be a special night beneath the stars.

Second Place

Deep in thought in Amman
Paul Formanka (08-15)

Judges Remarks

It isn’t easy to give prominence to a subject that is potentially overwhelmed by its environment – this image achieves the feat by exploiting the curved benches of an empty amphitheatre. It could be a lunchbreak or a gladiatorial battle taking place – more importantly, the group has space to disperse but chooses to sit together.

Third Place

Preparing for the Village show
Clive Quick (52-59)

Preparing for the village show - for more than 7 years, a group of people from our village gave annual sell-out variety shows in our village hall. Rehearsals and preparing for the show - with costumes, make-up and props - was just as much fun as doing the shows

Judges Remarks

In Clive’s image, we have a more intimate sense of characters and facial expressions. They are clearly having fun preparing for a theatrical performance, but they also take the craft seriously – adjusting costumes, checking scripts. The togetherness is subtle – the four supporting subjects angled in towards our main character.

View the portfolio including Special Mentions and a selection of all the submissions.