Wednesday, April 04, 2012

International Garden Photographer of the Year 2011 at Kew Gardens

I visited the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition while visiting Kew Gardens in March and I've just noticed it closes on Easter Monday.

International Garden Photographer of the Year Overall winner
Magdalena Wasiczek's Upside Down
(Trzebinia, Malopolska region, Poland)
click the link to see the original and discover exactly what is upside down!
Try looking at this and imagining a non-neutral mid-value background.
(prints available from Kew)
Although not a blog which focuses a lot of photography, I've previously featured a couple of photography exhibitions on my blogs:
This one is very much a complement to my own personal interests - which very much include the visual images associated with plants, flowers, trees and gardens.

The reason I like looking at photography exhibitions is that I always find them very stimulating.  Photographers are all dealing with the same subject matter so to my mind they seem to work harder at 'what makes a good picture' and 'how to make my work look different from the rest'.

There's also something to do with how shots are framed - I learn a lot from the intelligent use of the four most important lines

The International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012


This is the website for The International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 competition.  the competition was started by a professional group of garden photographers in 2007 and has become the most popular garden photography contest in the world.  Entries come from all over the world.

There are seven categories plus an Under 16 section and a section for Portfolios – a themed collection of six photographs.

These are the winners from the first five years of the competition
You can see all the winners for the different categories on the IGPOTY website
Here are some of the images which can be seen in the Nash Conservatory, Kew Gardens until 5.30pm on Monday 9th April.  Obviously in a glasshouse I was fighting both sunlight and reflections so the images are not great.

Winner of Portfolios - Joanna Stoga
2nd and 3rd places - Porfolios competition
John Grant - Solace: Adrift with Flowers | The Beauty of Plants 
Nikki de Gruchy A Garden of Walls in a Border Town | Beautiful Gardens
Dennis Frates

Other exhibition venues

The exhibition for the 2011 winners was launched at Kew and will also be seen in various places in the UK and abroad - more details here

DatesVenueExhibitionContact detailsPhotographs
3 March -
9 April 2012
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK5RBG KewCompetition 5 winners
23 March -
10 June 2012
Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, UK4RAMM ExeterDownload list of exhibition photographs
new 3 April -
8 June 2012
Antrim Castle Gardens, Northern Ireland5Download list of exhibition photographs
21 April -
30 June 2012
Rheged Centre, Penrith, Cumbria, UK5Rheged
Centre
Competition 5 winners
new 12 June -
26 August 2012
Palace of Monserrate, Sintra, Portugal1, 4Monserrate
Palace
tba
14 July -
26 September 2012
Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Shropshire, UK4Ironbridge Gorge MuseumDownload list of exhibition photographs
21 July -
30 September 2012
Winchester Discovery Centre, Hampshire, UK4Winchester
Discovery Centre
Download list of exhibition photographs
new 30 August -
16 September 2012
Aula Picta, Bergamo, Italy4, 5Arketipos - I Maestri del Paesaggiotba
new 2 September -
31 October 2012 
Chelsea Physic Garden, London, UK5Chelsea Physic Gardentba
3 November 2012 -
19 January 2013
Callendar House, Falkirk, Scotland5tba

International Garden Photographer of the Year 2012 Competition

The sixth annual competition opens in March 2012 with a deadline of November 30th 2012. 

1 comment:

  1. I always enjoy seeing photography posts, exhibitions, galleries etc.
    And I agree in some respects they have to work harder.
    This is evidenced by the back story of photographers Debashis Bandyopadhya ("...out before sunrise...") and Dennis Frates ("...the sun had set and the trail was almost pitch black.") among others...

    I like hearing the human interest side of their trials and tribulations of capturing their subjects. Not always in controlled environments or easy.
    The story of the New Mexico crosses by Ansel Adams always comes to mind.

    Some specular images here!
    Some of my favorites:
    "Drinking II" by Vincentius Ferdinand, can't go wrong with ants!
    "Upside Down" by Magdalena Wasiczek
    "Confused Grasshopper" by Matt Cole
    "Sweet Dawn" by Diane Varner
    "Dance" by John Grant
    "Inside Out" by Jenifer Bunnett, I love orange!
    "Golden Light" by Bror Johansson, more orange to love! And graphically so striking.
    "Conversations from a Balcony at dusk along the High Line" by Claire Takacs
    "Invitation to a Private View" by Colin Pearce

    I bought a poster from wildlife photographer Thomas G. Mangelsens' gallery in Santa Barbara CA a few years back and I still love looking at it. From 'BBC/British Gas 1994 Photographer of the Year', titled "Born of the North Wind"... can't go wrong with polar bears!

    Keep up your good work Katherine, another thorough post.
    And great work on your pinterest posts. A huge service (your posts and work to prevent unwanted pins) to so many others.
    I don't know how you do so much.

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAIN because of too much spam.
My blog posts are always posted to my Making A Mark Facebook Page and you can comment there if you wish.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.