The 2018 North & East Midlands Photographic Federation (N&EMPF) Exhibition shows that it has been another great year for local clubs, writes Ashley Franklin
The 2018 N&EMPF Exhibition, which showcases the crème de la crème of the regional camera club world, has been a record-breaking year for Rolls-Royce (Derby) Photographic Society. Remarkably, Rolls-Royce’s 121 acceptances – the highest in the exhibition’s 63-year history – came from only 15 photographers. The club also won 39 of the 74 awards, including all three club trophies for Best Colour Print Panel, Monochrome Print Panel and Projected Digital Images.
Furthermore, Rolls-Royce member David Keep won both of the main individual awards: the Bolsover Trophy for the Highest Aggregate Score in the Print section and the Henson Shield for the Highest Aggregate Score in the Projected Digital Image section. David also won Best Monochrome Print and gained six other awards: the Individual Print Panel Award; two Selector’s Personal Choice Awards; two Highly Commended Awards and one Commended Award.
Three awards were for images that came from a photo project working with two leading amateur fight promoters. As David explains: ‘Myself and fellow photographer David Cudworth get unrestricted access on fight nights, and the fighters and promoters get good quality photos for free – everyone wins.’
David’s winning print panel – At the Mine – was also the result of a project, at the National Mining Museum in Wakefield.
Remarkably, it has taken David only three years to rise from beginner to award winner. His interest in photography was stimulated when he went on a cruise and borrowed his daughter’s camera to take with him. As David recounts: ‘After a while, I got a bit bored and found myself pouring through the camera manual. As a former electrical engineer, I was able to grasp all the technical aspects of photography, and as I was looking to do something different in my life as I eased into retirement and had always admired creative people, I thought I would try and be creative through photography.’
David says he owes a good deal of his success to the Rolls-Royce club: ‘I have been encouraged and nurtured all the way by so many inspiring photographers at the top of their game.’
One of those photographers is Brian Stephenson who won the Best Colour Print and Best Digital Colour awards. By an extraordinary coincidence, both images depict high jump athletes at the moment of their Fosbury flop over the bar.
Brian also won two other awards: a Commended in Digital Monochrome and in the Individual Print Panel.
It was another triumphant year for Rolls-Royce in the Nature categories, where six Rolls-Royce photographers won 17 of the 25 awards available, with Gianpiero Ferrari winning both Best Nature Print and Digital Image.
Indeed it was an outstanding year for all Derbyshire’s camera clubs. The eight other clubs in the county to win awards comprised: Bakewell Photo Club, Bolsover Camera Club, Castleton & Hope Valley Photographic Society, Chesterfield Photographic Society, Derby City Photographic Club, Long Eaton Camera Club, Matlock Camera Club, and Synergy. Congratulations!
An audio-visual of the exhibition is touring N&EMPF clubs throughout the spring and summer. See www.nempf.org for the list of clubs whose websites will show the screening dates.
