King’s Ely wins national photography competition for third year running!

Talented King’s Ely Sixth Form student, Paige Newell, has been crowned the winner of this year’s ILFORD PHOTO UK Student Photography Competition – making it the third year running that a King’s Ely student has won the contest.

For this year’s competition, photography students from across Britain were invited to choose one word to complete the sentence, ‘A sense of…’ and to create an image to encapsulate that.

Paige, who is in Year 12 and lives with her family in the Ely area, chose the word ‘vulnerability’ and portrayed this using ILFORD HP5 Plus film. Her striking image was printed on ILFORD MULTIGRADE IV RC Pearl paper.

Antonio Longo, Head of Photography at King’s Ely, said: “I am over the moon for Paige! Both the image and the print quality were of an exceptionally high standard. The Department also had several other students who were in the final judging again, which highlights the strength of traditional film and darkroom practice. To win the competition for three years running is an amazing feeling – I am so proud of the students.”

Paige’s success comes after King’s Ely Sixth Former, Luna Guo, was crowned both the UK and International winner of the competition in 2018/19 and Orla Simpson won the UK competition in 2017-18, when she too was a Sixth Form student at King’s Ely.

A spokesperson for ILFORD PHOTO said: “Paige’s win marks an incredible three-year streak for King’s Ely and tutor Antonio Longo, Head of Photography. It once again reinforces the school’s reputation as a hot bed for emerging photographers and shows how they have benefited from integrating the competition into their GCSE and A Level curriculum. The school continues to explore all elements of film and darkroom printing processes, from Chemigrams to B&W printing. We hope that despite the disruption with her course this year, that Paige and everyone who participated will go onto have incredibly successful futures in photography.”

To find out more about photography and other opportunities at King’s Ely, please visit www.kingsely.org