Top Awards Win at BPPA

Style Photography's Doug Brown has been awarded top prizes for his work, winning UK Family Portrait Photographer of the Year and UK Events Photographer of the Year at the recent British Professional Photography Awards.

Hundreds of professional photographers from around the world were joined by representatives from the major photographic companies at the glittering Awards ceremony held at the Hilton Hotel in Newcastle.

The Awards are a joint initiative between the Master Photographers Association and the British Institute of Professional Photographers. Membership of the associations is restricted to full time professional photographers who must qualify to the minimum required Licentiateship standard. Both organisations exist to promote and maintain standards of excellence and professionalism within the photographic industry.

Chairman of the judging panel, Simon John FBIPP FMPA was delighted with this year’s entries: “There was a great diversity of imagery, and all were judged on the same criteria - artistic merit, good use of lighting, composition and print quality - all the winners were of a very high overall standard. Winning a BPP Award is a huge honour for any photographer and I hope each winner uses their award to help further their careers.”

In what is turning out to be an extremely successful year, Doug has now bagged 5 major awards in the last few weeks. Speaking after the event Doug said the family portrait award came about after well known local couple John & Pat Fitt threw down a challenge to photograph their entire family in a way that reflected their interests and lifestyle. Everyone lived in different parts of the country so each section of the family had to be captured at different times. As each family turned up for their sessions at, Style Photography in Herne Bay High Street we started to get very excited about the whole project. Individuals reflected a diverse set of interests which included golf, equestrian sports, surfing, dog shows, rugby, gardening and sailing. The sessions which took place over a period of two months were then joined together to form a most original family portrait of family members and dogs. The winning Family Portrait along with the winning Event image will now form part of the BPPA exhibition which will travel to Focus on Imaging at the Birmingham NEC in February 2009 and then on to Las Vegas for the WPPI Convention and from there touring the Far East.