One of JP Hanekom's winning images from his self-promotional portfolio, entitled 'The Cover Shot', |
JP Hanekom won the Self-Promotion sub-category with a Gold Award, while picking up an additional Silver and Two bronze awards in the Music/Theatrical and Fine Art sub-caegories. Angelique Martins also managed to share the top spot for the Fine Arts category while achieving an additional bronze award in the Music/Theatrical sub-category.
Additional Vega winners include Jonathan Wood (Bronze: Editorial/Photojournalism), Lury Fourie (Silver:Self Promotion), Jaco van der Walt (Bronze:Portraiture) and Christi Boersma (Bronze:Music/Theatrical).
The students currently attend the Vega School of Photography, an institution which provides students tutoring in photography with a particular emphasis on photography related to marketing, advertising and brand communication.
The Sony Profoto Awards, originally created in 1989 as a platform for African photographers to show off their skills, has grown into one of the most prestigious and influential competitions on the continent. Hanekom's and Martins' portfolios were selected out of a pool of almost 4000 images submitted this year for review.
According to the Professional Photographers of South Africa president, Pieter da Ras, the Profoto awards offered students and professionals alike the chance to be judged by a panel of their peers, which consisted of four international judges and specialists in various fields.
da Ras highlighted that this competition was different in many ways, and in particular shone focus on the changes undergoing professional photography - the focus on image manipulation and whether an image should be judged on the technical skill required to achieve an unedited image or the final impact and result of the image, regardless of manipulation.
Vega is extremely proud of their students achievements, and look forward to garnering the same, if not more, recognition in the Profoto Awards 2009.
Those interested in seeing the winning Profoto Award images can visit the Banking Mall Court at Sandton City from the 21-28 April, while Capetonians will have a chance to from 26 May-1 June at the Upper Stuttafords Court at the Canal Walk.
