International prize for talented King’s Ely photography student

King's Ely Sixth Form student Luna Guo has been crowned 2019 ILFORD PHOTO International Student Photographer of the Year.

In April, Luna was announced as being ILFORD’s UK Student Photographer of the Year, but the talented 18-year-old has now gone on to win the International prize with her stunning print, entitled ‘If you don’t help them who will?’.

In what is now the competition’s ninth year, school, college and university photography students from across the globe were tasked with creating a black and white (B&W) image that encapsulates an inspiring line from a book, film, poem, quote or song. The image had to be shot on ILFORD or Kentmere film and printed by the student themselves in a darkroom.

Luna shot her image on ILFORD HP5+ and printed it on ILFORD MULTIGRADE IV RC Pearl. Her clever image was inspired by the work that Women and Men Against Child Abuse undertake in South Africa. The organisation fights for the rights of children and to end child abuse.

Luna said: “I wanted to create an image of the situation that people are facing today when they cannot find someone for help or help others. The sole figure standing out of the crowd in my photograph represents the many who suffer abuse and violence. I had a strong vision of how I wanted the image to look with scale in mind and long shadows. I find using the darkroom very therapeutic and rewarding as I am able to work without the safety net of image enhancing software and learning traditional photographic skills.”

It is the second year running that King's Ely students have shone in the competition as Sixth Form student Orla Simpson was crowned last year's UK winner.

Head of Photography at King’s Ely, Antonio Longo, said: “I’m thrilled for Luna! Her win builds on our success which saw Orla Simpson being the UK winner of 2018. The competition was set as a live project for GCSE and A Level Photography groups in conjunction with their Foundation learning where they undertook darkroom practice as part of their course. I encourage all students to shoot film and use the darkroom to investigate a range of different processes and materials ranging from Chemigrams to B&W printing. I believe that traditional B&W processing and printing are still a valid educational tool and a must for all students to have access to.”

To discover more about opportunities at King’s Ely, please visit: www.kingsely.org