News

The winning images from The Press Photographer’s Year 2009 competition – which showcases the best press photography taken for and used by the UK media – have been revealed and are on show at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank until 31 August 2009.

The Photograph of the Year award went to Rosie Hallam for her shot (shown above) of a carer at the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya looking after a baby elephant. The elephants are hard to care for, and often die of a broken heart, but the centre has devised a round the clock programme of care that greatly increases their chances of survival.

© Clive Mason/Getty Images

Clive Mason of Getty Images won first prize in the Sports Specialist Folio category for his documentation of Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 F1 season. Hamilton is shown here celebrating his F1 championship win following the final race of the season at the Interlagos Circuit, Sao Paolo, Brazil on 2 November 2008.

The fourth annual Press Photographer’s Year competition, sponsored by Canon UK, was open to professional photographers working in or for the UK media during 2008. It attracted a total of 7,788 photographs entered by 323 photographers based in over 20 countries across Europe, plus entries from China, Thailand, India, Australia and the USA.

First prize in the News Folio of the Year went to Peter Macdiarmid (Getty Images); the Live News category was won by Daniel Berehulak (Getty Images); News by David Bebber; Features by Jeff Overs (BBC); Photo Essay by Bruce Adams (Daily Mail); Portraits by Leon Neal (Agence France Presse); and The Arts category by Mark Waugh (Manchester Evening News).

The most prolific winner was Tom Jenkins (The Guardian) who took first prize in four categories - Sports Folio of the Year, Sports Action, Olympic Folio, and Olympic Singles. The Royalty and Entertainment section was won by Mark Stewart; Sports Specialist Folio of the Year by Clive Mason (Getty Images); Sports Features by Warren Little (Getty Images); and the Multimedia category was won by Abbie Trayler-Smith (Panos) for a piece on refused asylum seekers in the UK.

© David Bebber

Photographer David Bebber won the first prize in the News category with this image of politician Ken Livingstone visiting Ken’s Café on Green Street, east London, after unveiling a new campaign poster at the West Ham football ground during London’s mayoral elections, 30 April 2008.

The entries were judged by a distinguished panel of photographers who included Brian Harris (former chief photographer of The Independent newspaper); noted documentary photographer Homer Sykes; Neil Turner (vice chairman of the British Press Photographers’ Association); and Bob Martin (a three times winner of Sports Photographer of the Year). Judging took place over two days with every entry submitted online being judged as part of a slideshow or as a hard copy print.

The exhibition currently being held in the Lyttleton foyer of the National Theatre on London’s South Bank features an edit of 146 pictures from the overall entry. Admission to the exhibition is free and it is open from 9.30am until 11pm from Monday to Saturday every week until 31 August 2009.

Canon UK is the major sponsor of The Press Photographer’s Year 2009.