Last Friday I had the absolute honour to attend the Amateur Photographer AP Awards to receive the Unsung Hero Award.
The Unsung Hero Award is a new award ‘designed to celebrate the hard work and community spirit of people who are using photography for the benefit of others or to help make the world a better place’. The award was in recognition of my work on 47 / A Life With Cystic Fibrosis. Needless to say it’s a huge honour for me to pick this up.
The prize
I have a feature spread in this week’s Amateur Photographer Magazine focussing on my work. Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine if you see it! In addition, the award sponsor Ripe Insurance have kindly donated £1,000 to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The donation is a fantastic addition to the amount already raised from sales of the book.
You can also find a copy of the feature on the Amateur Photography Magazine website.
The AP Awards Ceremony
We attended the AP Awards ceremony at the (incredibly posh) Bvlgari Hotel in Knightsbridge. It was a real treat to have the opportunity to speak with some incredible photographers and industry professionals.
I chatted with Caron Steele who was picking up the Amateur Photographer of the Year award. Her wildlife photography is fantastic – I suggest you check her out.
I was also lucky enough to speak to Keith Wilson and Britta Jaschinski. They picked up the Power of Photography award for their incredibly powerful book Photographers Against Wildlife Crime. The book documents the horrific realities of the global illegal wildlife trade.
Finally, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Tom Stoddart who was picking up the Exceptional Achievement Award. This year he’s celebrating a 50 year career as a photojournalist. Tom has photographed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the siege of Sarajevo and the wars in Iraq. He has an incredible body of work to show for it. He had some really kind words to say about my work which was pretty humbling. Plus, he’s a Northerner so gets extra points.
A few photos from the event
You can visit the AP website to see a list of all the winners from the night plus a full gallery of images from the event.
What is 47 / A Life With Cystic Fibrosis?
If you’re not familiar with it, you can read more about 47 / A Life With Cystic Fibrosis. I also wrote a fairly mammoth blog post reflecting on one year since its publication which explains in more detail the amount of work that goes into a project like this.
This has been the most rewarding project I’ve ever been involved with and it’s been such a privilege to be entrusted to share these stories. It’s an incredibly personal project so it means the world to me to pick up the Unsung Hero Award.
I want to say a huge thank you to Nigel, Geoff and everyone at Amateur Photographer Magazine for making us feel so welcome.
