The winners of Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018 have been announced – and an image of Glen Coe nets the big prize.
From dramatic storms and raging seas to the quieter joys of misty woodlands and close-ups of nature’s fascinating details, the winning photographs in the ‘Take a view – Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards’ not only display the talent of their creators but also inspire visitors to explore and discover the wonders of Britain’s countryside.
Sharp shards of ice on a bitterly cold February morning added a distinctive element to Pete Rowbottom’s image (header, above) of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, making him the twelfth winner of the overall title: Landscape Photographer of the Year and the £10,000 top prize. The judges chose Pete’s composition from thousands of entries celebrating the richly diverse landscape of the UK.
Pete received a call from Charlie Waite, one of Britain’s leading landscape photographers and founder of the Awards, telling him of his success:
“And then he told me I had won the entire competition; I just could not believe it – I’ve won a category? – No, the full thing. I was absolutely ecstatic, in fact far beyond that, I can’t even put it into words. The call ended with Charlie congratulating me again and I don’t mind admitting I did a good few laps of the kitchen shouting for joy and some serious fist pumping. It didn’t seem real; dreamlike even. It is so hard to take in, and it really was one of the best moments of my life. Utterly overwhelming, and simply amazing.”
Speaking of Pete’s winning image, Charlie Waite said:
“The numerous strong diagonal lines of the ice fractures in Pete’s image echo the shape of Buachaille Etive Mòr in the background and have peaks of their own. You can’t take your eyes away from the relationship between the mountain and the ice; it is visually very strong and has a mathematical precision.
The cold of the mountain and ice together contrast well with the amber of their surroundings. This is an image where you can hear and feel the landscape, as well as see it, so it is emotionally strong and involves the viewer on multiple levels.”
Blizzard in the High Peak, Derbyshire, England by John Finney – Winner, Classic view 2018
Fisherman, Porth Nanven, Cornwall, England by Mick Blakey – Winner, Living the view 2018
Buttermere Bloom, The Lake District, Cumbria, England by Stuart McGlennon – The Sunday Times Magazine Award Winner 2018
Congratulations also go to the winners of this year’s Special Awards. The Network Rail ‘Lines in the Landscape’ Award goes to Alan Courtney for his night view of a train speeding across Holes Bay in Dorset, and ‘Buttermere Bloom’ by Stuart McGlennon wins The Sunday Times Magazine Award. Will Milner wins the Adobe Prize for the second time, with his photograph of the Daymark beacon in Devon; Edd Allen receives the Fujifilm Print Prize for his storm wave at Newhaven in East Sussex, and Ceri David Jones’ Oxfordshire woodland is awarded the LEE Filters Prize.
See the full list of 2018’s winners and commended images here.
“A Winter Dream” – a lone mountaineer traversing the Beinn Eighe ridge in immaculate conditions by James Roddie – Commended, Living the View
Morning Woodlands, Woodcote, Oxfordshire, England by Ceri David Jones – Winner, LEE Filters Prize
The exhibition of winning entries will again be held on the Balcony at Britain’s busiest station, London Waterloo, giving thousands of visitors the chance to see the very best of the British countryside in the very heart of the capital. Opening on Monday, November 19th, the exhibition is hosted by Network Rail and will run for twelve weeks, closing on February 3rd, 2019, before heading off on a tour of selected stations countrywide. Admission is free.
All the winning and commended photographs from the competition can be found in the Awards book Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 12 by AA Publishing, which is available now.
take-a-view.co.uk
Header image: Ice Spikes, Glencoe, Scotland © Pete Rowbottom – Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018
