The Isle of Man Photographic, Society welcomed its Patron, His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Lorimer, to its prestigious 2025 Annual Competition, held in mid-April. This is a keenly anticipated event each Spring when members submit their best images of the past year for critical appraisal by an independent judge. This year, the judge who had been invited to undertake the unenviable task of assessing the numerous entries and awarding marks, was Dennis Wood, from the Western Photographic Society. He said that many of the images were so good, that he was left with no option but to award full marks to them! He added that he was delighted to have been invited to judge.
So, it fell to our outgoing Society President, Andrew Cairns, to introduce and welcome both His Excellency and Mr Dennis Wood. Dennis is an accomplished local photographer, so was well qualified to fulfill the criteria for being accepted as being sufficiently ‘independent’ of the Society to judge such an important year-end competition. It was clear from the outset that Dennis had adopted a highly sensitive approach and he commented concisely, and succinctly, on each entry in a constructive manner, offering suggestions, where he thought appropriate, on any areas where improvement might have been possible.
Amateur photography on the Island has taken a dip in interest recently, as all clubs and societies can attest, and has not really recovered the ground ‘lost’ following the widespread Covid pandemic. The print entries and some of the Digitally Projected Images were featured before the refreshments break with the remaining DPI's afterwards. Dennis had examined each image in advance and then proceeded to give his assessments. He announced his awards as follows:
Open Mono Prints: The Bridge Cup: Sean Corlett with 'Walk on the Beach'
Open Colour Prints: The Sanderson Cup: Martin Sanderson with 'Vik Church'.
Nature Prints: The Kelly Cup: Martin Sanderson with 'River of Ice'. Martin also won The Redwood Trophy for Best Colour Print in the Competition and The Spiers Trophy for Best Overall Nature Image in the Competition.
Creative Prints: The Atlantean Trophy: Ron Shimmin with 'A Windy Day'
Open Mono DPI: The Glendown Trophy: Chris Blyth with 'The Candle Maker'. Chris also won The Mackie Cup for Best Overall Mono Image in the competition.
Open Colour DPI: The Andrew Barton Cup: Martin Sanderson with 'To the Rescue'.
Nature DPI: The Greenwood Trophy: Barry Murphy with 'Going Fishing'
Creative DPI: The Malew Cup was awarded to Nigel Owen for 'Ignition'. Nigel also won The Mistral Trophy for the Best Overall Creative Image in the competition.
Tony Curtis brought the evening to a close by thanking Dennis on the Society’s behalf. Sir John then said a few words in which he said how impressed he had been with such a high standard of photography, but admitting that he only took photos on his phone.
By Antony Hamilton
