‘Silent Tears’ wins award
A Palmerstown photographer beat off stiff competition from a camera club in South Africa to win Best Overall Image in a recent photography competition.
Palmerstown Camera Club entered Suzanne McMahon’s portrait photo ‘Silent Tears’ into a photo challenge against the highly-esteemed Hibiscus Photographic Society of South Africa in recent weeks.
‘Silent Tears’ wowed the judge, Jane Lines, a UK photographer and member of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain, who awarded it Best Overall Image.
Palmerstown Camera Club and the Hibiscus Photographic Society of South Africa each submitted 25 mono photographs and 25 colour photographs taken by their members for the contest.
For Suzanne, who is originally from Chapelizod and has been a member of Palmerstown Camera Club for ten years, winning Best Overall Image came as a welcome surprise.
“I was delighted,” she told The Echo. “The images from the other club in South Africa were unbelievable, so to beat them…I was a bit chuffed, to be honest.
“I was shocked when I won because, for that competition, the club selected what photos went forward so I didn’t know ‘Silent Tears’ had been entered until the night of the competition. I was absolutely gobsmacked.”
‘Silent Tears’ is a delicate portrait photo that Suzanne took of model Lulu Lockhart during a day of shooting.
The photo eschews a number of the typical rules of photography, such as the placement of Lulu in the bottom corner of the photo and the liberal use of negative space.
“Lulu is a beautiful model, she’s so gentle,” said Suzanne. “The photo was kind of a lucky accident.
“I did a whole photoshoot that day, but with that photo, I thought there was something grief-stricken in it.
“Normally, in photography, we don’t put people in the bottom corner of a photo.
“And not everybody would be a fan of negative space – but I just loved how it looked.”
While Suzanne initially took up photography to take better photos of her sons Jake, 23, Luke, 19, and Aaron, 15, when they were children, her involvement in Palmerstown Camera Club has seen photography become a mainstay of her life over the years.
Her confidence behind the camera has also grown, with her most recent win serving as a sign that she should trust her instincts.
“It’s given me the confidence to do what I like and not worry about the rules,” Suzanne explained.
“You do tend to take photos with the ‘right way’ of doing things, but now I think I’ll trust my gut more.”
Palmerstown Camera Club’s meetings are held between 8pm and 10pm on Wednesday nights, and you can email secpcc@mail.com for more details, or visit www.palmerstowncameraclub.com
Membership for one year is €110, however you can attend one or two of the camera club’s meetings for free before deciding to purchase a membership.
