Judgement Day
After deliberating over 900 entries to the Duracell photography competition, judges whittled down a shortlist of 10 runners-up and an overall winner
EXCITEMENT, ANTICIPATION AND SURPRISE.
For the judges who had the seemingly impossible task of picking a winner in the recent Duracell "How Do You Recharge Your Batteries?" photography competition, these sentiments kept cropping up in conversation.
"The quality of entries is fantastic, "said the former supermodel and leading photographer Huggy Ragnarsson, while debating with her fellow judges over which image should come out on top. As the name of the competition suggests, the brief was to present an image that encapsulated the idea of "recharging your batteries". Not an easy ask. And yet, the judges were bowled over by the quality and creativity of the entries that flooded in.
"People are far more adventurous with their photography nowadays, and this was reflected in the quality of the entries," said Alex Ortiz, who works as a picture editor for The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine and other top titles. With over 900 entries painstakingly whittled down to 260 for the final round of judging on 13 August, the challenge was to decide on one overall winner. Whoever came out on top would get a Canon SLR camera and £2,000 worth of cutting edge Canon equipment. They would also get an opportunity to shadow a professional Getty Images photographer, a day on The Independent picture desk and have their work featured in an exhibition of the best shots at the Getty Images Gallery in London.
Among those images that caught the judges' attention was the shot of a man asleep on a park bench, taken by Caroline Bonarde Ucci; the picture of a woman playing the drums in the middle of a field, taken by Lisa Gilby; and the black and white portrait of a man smoking a cigarette, submitted by Robbie Khan.
the overall winner was a shot of an elderly couple catching up over coffee, taken by Tim Mitchard. "It's so wonderfully candid," said Louise Garczewska, director of the Getty Images Gallery. "It's one of those lovely photographs where you feel as if the camera wasn't even there. "See the finalists" outstanding work over the following pages.
The winning image, 10 runners-up and 39 other images that caught the judges' collective eye, will be on show at the Getty Images Gallery for four weeks, from 29 September. You can also view them HERE