It was another visual spectacle at this year’s Photographer of the Year, held at the Braise Building, Palawan Beach on Sentosa during the weekend of 16-17 Mar. Organised by SAFRA Photographic Club, this biennial competition, which has been a fixture in the local photography scene for the past 28 years, aims to find and develop Singapore’s budding talents.
In its 14th edition this year, the competition attracted 728 entries from 297 enthusiasts competing in three categories: Open, Monthly Challenge, and the brand new Youth Challenge created for young photographers 18 years and below.
Winners were announced at the prize presentation ceremony on the first day. In the Open category, Low Soon Leong took home $1,000 cash as well as various camera equipment prizes. In the Youth Challenge, Mohammed Haydhit won $500 cash and other prizes. Finally, for the Monthly Challenge, top prize went to Lee Hin Mun, who received $300 cash, camera equipment and a Sentosa Islander Membership.
Indeed it was a hard fought competition as participants had to tackle tough challenges as a result of the contest format. Contestants had to take on a series of six mini competitions over several months when fielding the Monthly Challenge before they could submit images for the Open category. Each mini competition had its own unique theme, namely “Motion”, “Sand”, “Fun”, “Wow”, “Night Light” and “Red”.
The final test at the end of the six mini competitions was to assemble a set of four photographs from the submitted entries to be judged in a set. The winners were then selected based on how their photographs combined the best of creativity, freshness of perspective, subject matter, and harmony of colour and style.
Finally, the weekend was capped off by informative workshops and photography sharing sessions on the second day of the event, including a coaching session by Desmond Teo, a SAFRA Photographic Club committee member who showcased his top travel photos. A social media video workshop was also held by NUPhoto for guests.
Kudos to the winners!
