News Students Snap Up Photography Prizes 15.12.2020

The Theme Green group at St Margaret’s Church Warnham, recently ran a photography competition for young people from around the Horsham District, as part of their eco and environmental work. The competition “Nature – The Way I See It” encouraged enthusiastic photographers from the area to capture the natural landscape during the summer months. Students from the photography department at Collyer’s entered the competition in the 14-18 age category. Two Year 2 students were lucky enough to be placed in the top three of winners announced by Reverend Jules A. Barnes and judge Sean Collins. Tanya Forbes achieved 3rd place for her photograph ‘The Bee Jar’, with Holly Longdon winning the category for her photograph ‘Under The Leaves’.

Tanya said: “I’m really happy about how well I’ve done in this competition, it was lovely to get feedback from Sean and I’ll definitely try to take more bee photographs in the future.

“I took my photograph in my garden as I wanted to capture the beauty in the detail of a bee in flight and found the perfect opportunity when taking one outside”.

The judges were impressed with this great photograph of a bee rescued from the house, before being released into the garden.

Holly’s winning photograph was taken during the summer at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, Devon which is where she captured the spectacular plant. She says “the photograph was all about showing a new perspective that many wouldn’t have noticed whilst passing this plant. The low angle was intentional to make the leaves seem to be towering over you almost as if you were experiencing the wildlife as a small animal.

“photography is such an amazing way to capture the world in the way that I see it, and I am so pleased that others see my work in such a positive way and that I am able to show others my perspective”.

Both students are currently completing Photography A level at Collyer’s. Head of Photography at the Ofsted Outstanding Sixth Form college, Laura Andrews said: “We are so proud of both Tanya and Holly’s achievements and were thrilled to see their work was picked.

“Congratulations to all the young people who entered the competition, we hope that they will continue to photograph and choose to study photography at Collyer’s! Thank you to Jo Browse, team Theme Green and everyone who gave their time to organise this fantastic competition”.

Rob Hussey (Vice Principal for Quality and Curriculum) was thrilled: “Holly and Tanya are an absolute credit to our outstanding Photography department.”