‘Spirit of the Area’ Photo Competition Awards Evening – by Jayne Nicholl

Left to right (from Back to front) – Amelia Tillot, Jim Willimott, Shelia Hobson, Mia Evans, Aya Moraity-Dorell, Samantha Roberts, Joshua French, Sophie Shaw, Kian Shaw

The winners of the BigLocal DY10 Photographic competition were announced at an award evening in St Ambrose Parish Hall. To see all the pictures click here. ‘The Spirit of the Area’ competition was the culmination of activities which began last summer with workshops conducted in the Big Local area of Horsefair, Broadwaters and Greenhill.
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Local residents of all ages were encouraged to ‘Capture the Spirit’ of these truly diverse neighbourhoods through the camera lens.

At the workshops, in St George’s annex and Springfield Park, Toni Charles & Corina Harper, both talented photographers/artists, were on hand to help people get used to using cameras and share some hints and tips on taking great pictures. Funding for this project was through The Big Local initiative which provides lottery funding to help local residents improve the areas in which they reside and make them a better place to live.

The standard of entries for the competition was very high, with many of the photographs reflecting the natural beauty of the area. From the many submissions a short-list of 10 photos were selected from: Sophie Shaw, Samantha Roberts, Aya Moraity-Dorell, Jim Willimott, Joshua French, Kian Shaw, Amelia Tillot, Mia Evans, George Simpson & Shelia Hobson.

The successful photographers ranged in age from 5 years to 70 years old! and in subject from a stormy sky to an ice-cream van; from a canal barge to the Horsefair horse. Over the last couple of months these short-listed entries have been on exhibition in various locations throughout Wyre Forest to demonstrate the variety of both talent and subject-matter to be found in the Big Local DY10 area.

The Big Local Steering Group invited all the finalists and their guests to a presentation evening at St Ambrose’s Parish Hall and there, the winners of the three categories were announced. The special guest for the evening was Eileen Stead, the Business and Enterprise Manager at King Charles 1 School and she presented each finalist with a mounted 16 x 12 vinyl block print of their prize-winning entry. In addition, the winner in each category received a digital camera.