Photographer of the Year - B+W Magazine

In August 2010 I was thrilled to win the international B+W Photography Magazine’s Photographer of the Year competition for some of the animal portraits in my Behind the Eyes series. And in addition to this, I was also the magazine’s Digital Printer of the Year, which I am also really pleased about, as printing is such an important part of a finished art work and it takes a lot of time and practise to get it right.

The winning images were Lion’s Stare, a portrait of an African Lion, who held my gaze for a remarkably long time while I was photographing him; Regard, which features a mature Orangutan gazing straight into the camera; Portrait of an Elephant; and Watching.

The Behind the Eyes series is my very first portfolio of wild animal portraits and I was interested in studying animal consciousness and asking the question: what do these animals think or feel as they look back at the viewer?

Both animal and human observer may actually have far more in common than either of them realises…

I am grateful to all the judges for selecting my “Behind The Eyes” animal series for the Photographer of the Year award and the “Lion’s Stare” print for the Digital Printer of the Year award. All photographs are printed on Hahnemühle 308gsm Photo Rag fine art paper, using the Canon Pixma 9500 Pro, Mark II, printer.

The winners’ art works were exhibited at Hooper’s Gallery in London and it was great to meet everyone at the awards ceremony on launch night. Browse the series.

Best wishes,

Paul