Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year is back in Ludlow from 30 August to 5 October as part of the Ludlow Food Festival celebrations. This unique global celebration of food photography by both amateurs and professionals, young and old travels to only a few places outside London each year.
The free exhibition will showcase over 60 shortlisted images at the Assembly Rooms. Beth Heath, Operations Director of Ludlow Food Festival said: “We are delighted to have such a renowned exhibition in Ludlow, it really is something special and well worth a visit.”
Judges over the last three years have included Alex James, musician-turned-cheese maker, Martin Parr, documentary photographer, Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens, Antonio Carluccio, Dr Nathan Myrvhold, award-winning photographer, chef and scientist, and James Averdieck, founder of Gu Chocolate Puds.
With a prize of £5000 for the overall winner, the awards cover fourteen categories, ranging from Food in the Street, Food in the Field, Food Portraiture and of course, young categories in three age groups. There is also a documentary and non-documentary category for Food in Film sponsored by unearthed® and a celebration of all things vinous with the Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year categories.
The exhibition, or rather The Pink Tour was launched a couple of years ago as a result of requests from food festivals and galleries up and down the country. Since announcing the 2014 winners in April this year, the exhibition has already graced the red carpet at the European premiere of the new movie CHEF and the winning shots from the Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year categories were recently on display at Olympia.
“The idea of a competition came to me a few years ago,” says director Caroline Kenyon. “What inspired us,” she says, “is the proliferation of wonderful food photography in a huge variety of applications. It’s everywhere, from eye-catching advertising hoardings, to sumptuous editorial features, from tempting food packaging to daily blogs. The awards celebrate this magnificent diversity in what is truly, the stuff of life.”
The competition for 2015 launched on 1 July – we hope the exhibition will inspire you to photograph the food around you and deliver your best shots into the competition. The closing date is 8 February 2015.
The categories, devised to show the culture and production of food in all its variety will include two new categories for 2015, Food for the Family, seeking everyday scenes of families across the world eating together, and Bring Home the Harvest for images of gathering in food, from cropping lettuces, cutting guava, to shopping in the local supermarket.
The entries will be judged in March 2015 by a highly distinguished panel of experts, ranging from picture editors to publishers, retail directors, chefs and photographers. For 2015, Anglo-French culinary legend Michel Roux Jr., Emily Luchetti, Chair of the James Beard Foundation, USA, and George Motz, Founder and Director, Food Film Festival NYC are joining luminaries of the judging panel such as Jay Rayner, Chair, (The guardian, Observer, BBC’s The One Show), David Loftus, Jamie Oliver’s photographer, Sanjeev Kapoor, India’s culinary superstar and Chris Beetles, of Beetles & Huxley, one of the world’s leading galleries specialising in photography. The winning images will be displayed at the world-renowned Mall Galleries, London SW1 in May 2015.