The Royal Photographic Society is pleased to announce the Award winners of The 152nd International Print Exhibition.  The exhibition has been supported by international legal practice Allen & Overy LLP for the second consecutive year, and they have again provided a prize fund, this year totalling £6,500 for The Society's Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners as well as the Allen & Overy prize for the image that best reflects their theme of ‘New Horizons’.
  
Almost 2,000 prints were submitted from over 500 photographers worldwide and 121 were selected for the exhibition. The selection panel was chaired by The Society’s Exhibitions Committee Chairman, Roy Robertson FRPS Visual Art Photographer, and included Lewis Blackwell, Author & Creative Advisor and former global creative head of Getty Images, Caroline Hyman FRPS Fine Art Photographer, Lord (George) Robertson Visual Art Photographer & Author and joint founder of The Parliamentary Photographic Group, and Tim Rudman FRPS Fine Art Photographer, Printer & Author.

The Allen & Overy Award image was selected by Eileen Kelliher, partner, Allen & Overy, from a shortlist compiled by the selection panel from entries to this category.
 
Roy Robertson FRPS said: “The final exhibition fully represents the diversity of work submitted, and reflects the desire throughout to promote new and individual images, and to display outstanding Award winning images. We are delighted to be working with Allen & Overy again this year." 

Lewis Blackwell commented: "When we finally came to make our award decisions, after extensive reviewing and discussion of all the selections, we somehow achieved a good representation of the range of content without ever having forced it. The winners emerged and while strong cases were made for different favourites, we really resolved our discussions and came behind the final decisions." 

To view all images in the exhibition go to http://www.rps.org/international-print-exhibition/The-152nd-International-Print-Exhibition-2009

Awards – Gold, Silver and Bronze

GOLD – Allen & Overy prize of £2,000 
Michael Birt for ‘Lindsay Duncan’  (UK)  View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50897.jpg 
Michael Birt said: "Lindsay Duncan has a face for the world, luminant eyes, a perfect hue and a graceful form. The tousled hair partly covers her eye to disturb what is a symmetrical face. The cropped head to the right adds tension and anchors the image to the frame, to entertain the eye.
Lindsay eased her way into a busy studio, elegantly and with purpose. The minimal makeup was expertly applied and we began the portrait.  What a sitter gives is as important as what the photographer extracts. Her gaze bestows a physiological acuity, which partners Lindsay’s beauty inspiringly well." 

2 x SILVER – Allen & Overy prize of £1,000 each 

Bill Jackson for ‘Pinhead’    View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50898.jpg
‘Photography is often associated with ‘instant’ moments and capturing single elements of time. In my work I am attracted to the ‘passing of time’ and the ‘travelling of light’ over objects, working with long exposures that capture many ‘instances’, both inside and outside the studio. Pinhead was created from the sister image called Paperhead, where I ‘constructed’ a head made from tissue paper. When the ‘deconstruction’ took place, all that remained was Pinhead – a seemingly iconic image filled with many interpretations.’ 

Toby Smith for ‘The Pier’ (UK)  View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50895.jpg
‘The remains of Brighton's West Pier had a rare coat of reflective snow in February.  The highlighted skeletal frame is contrasted against the smoothed surface of the then choppy sea. Typifying my own personal approach, I  used an extremely long exposure to change the dynamics of tone and colour temperatures to beyond what the human eye can perceive.  Using a long lens from the water’s edge has compressed the two structures to an almost graphic nature. I do not use digital modification which allowed the Guardian and Sunday Times to use the image as a metaphor for Britain's climatic and economic collapse. ‘  

3x Bronze – Allen & Overy prize of £500 each
 
Max Catterall for ‘London’ (UK) /Photography student (aged 18yrs). View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50893.jpg
‘I visited the City of London in early November to photograph people against the architecture; this was a personal trip to explore my style. Noticing a lot of buses and taxis passing the wall of the Bank of England Museum, I waited for an hour to get a shot of them without any other vehicles. When I saw the two people walking out of shot I repositioned and with a bit of luck they walked in step and everything lined up.
I am currently studying photography at Alton College in Hampshire and I am hoping to study commercial photography at the Art Institute of Bournemouth next year.’ 

Amanda Bollini for ‘Two Peas in a Pod’ (UK) View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50896.jpg
‘The setting for this shot was in my garden during August a few years ago.  My identical twin daughters Honey and Poppy were helping me tend to the vegetables.  They insisted on opening the pods to collect the peas.  Never wanting to miss an opportunity to document their interaction with myself and each other; I reached for the camera.  The girls are used to me photographing them at every opportunity.  Normally I use a Fuji S5 Pro; on this occasion I used the twins’ Sony DSC-V1.’ 

David Maitland FRPS for ‘Who eats Who?’ (UK) View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50894.jpg
‘A critically endangered Morelet’s tree frog, Agalychnis moreletii, battles for its life with a cat-eyed snake photographed in the canopy of Belize’s Chiquibul Forest Reserve. The snake has missed its target and is locked in a stale-mate battle with the frog. If the snake wants to swallow the frog it will have to let go first and of course the frog might escape…. I stayed with the action for about 3 hours but had to leave the battle unresolved because we (my wife Pamela was holding the flash guns for me) were exhausted. Canon Eos 1Ds MKII.’ 

Allen & Overy Award - Allen & Overy prize of £1,000
Yoshikazu Hayashi, ‘Construction Site’ (Japan)
The theme of this year’s Allen & Overy Award was ‘New Horizons’, chosen to reflect three themes central to Allen & Overy’s business – global growth, emerging markets and innovative thinking.   View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50900.jpg 
Yoshikazu Hayashi said: "In November 2008, I was passing through a construction site in Shizuoka Prefecture. The building materials were being lowered from a height, being passed from person to person, to ground level.  Seeing the construction work taking place for the first time, the picture was taken with a really fresh mind. To emphasise the figures, I lightened them, made the building darker and reduced the colour tone." Eileen Kelliher, partner, from Allen & Overy commented: "The print's literal interpretation of the brief combines an innovative use of perspective with an exploration of the mechanical nature of construction in a global context."
 
Under 25s Gold Award – Olympus E520 DSLR
Sean Lamoureux for ‘MO1:Persistent Jury’. (USA)
Another highlight of the 152nd exhibition is the Under 25s Gold Award. Introduced 2 years ago, in celebration of the print exhibition’s 150th anniversary, the award is designed to encourage and reward young photographers at the start of their careers.   
This year’s winner is 23-year-old Sean Lamoureux from USA, for his print ‘MO1:Persistent Jury’. Sean will receive an Olympus E520 Digital SLR, kindly donated by Olympus. View here http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/50899.jpg 
‘This work is part of a series of photographs responding to personal experience, and physical sensations associated with visual and auditory responses to cinema and written narrative. His body of staged portrait photography endeavours to create dramatic stills, elevating commonplace emotions to the cinematic stage.’
 
Four other photographers under 25 are represented in the Exhibition.
 
Caroline Hyman said: "It was so encouraging to see the talent displayed by the Under 25 entries. This was a hard category to judge as there were so many powerful and excellent images." 
Tim Rudman commented: "It was especially gratifying to learn after the judging that seven images were accepted in the under 25 age group and that one of the Society’s medal winners is just 18 years old. I hope this will encourage young people with an interest in photography to submit work in future." 
For further information, please contact Lesley Goode, The RPS Exhibitions Manager, on +44 (0)122 532 5720 (lesley@rps.org)  
 
·         The Society’s International Print Exhibition is the longest standing exhibition of its kind in the world, having been staged almost every year since the founding of The Society in 1853.  During its long history it has built up a worldwide reputation for its exciting breadth of genres and styles, from the artistic to documentary, from portraiture to natural history.  Innovative, cutting edge work can be seen alongside traditional prints, and this is what makes this exhibition so unique within the photographic world. 

·         The inaugural showing of the 152nd International Print Exhibition will take place at Allen & Overy premises at One Bishops Square, London, E1 6AD, from 20 May – 30 June 2009.  Opening hours: Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm; Weekends 10am-5pm. 

·         After its London run, the exhibition will tour the following UK venues: Atkinson Gallery, Somerset (7 Sept – 17 Oct 2009); Wingfield Barns, Wingfield, Suffolk (25 July – 30 August), Smethwick Photographic Society, Oldbury, W Midlands (22 Oct – 26 Nov 2009); Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, Lancs (5 Dec – 3 Jan); and Victoria Art Gallery, Bath (9 January - 7 March 2010).  Further venues may be added. 

·         Full listings of the successful photographers and the tour dates and venues are available on The Royal Photographic Society’s website, www.rps.org, under the heading ‘Exhibitions’.

·         A full colour catalogue of the exhibition will be available from the RPS from 19 May 2009.