RAF Photo Exhibition To Kick Up A Storm
The winning images from the Royal Air Force’s Photograph of the Year Competition will be on view to members of the public at the RAF Museum from 16th January 2010.
Start date: January 16th
End date: April 16th
Entrance: FREE
The Royal Air Force is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain this year and, as their finest visual communicators prepare for their skills to be in high demand covering a summer of national activity, the RAF Photographers are showing off their latest winning pictures at a unique exhibition of RAF Photography at the RAF Museum in North London opening on 16th January.
The Royal Air Force currently has approximately 180 trained photographers all of whom have undertaken a 28 week training course at the Defence School of Photography at Cosford, which provides them with the skill and expertise to gain an NVQ Level 3 standard in Photography.
RAF Warrant Officer Andy Whittle, said: “These men and women have superb technical ability and take great pride in their role, striving to attain the highest standards of work in areas as diverse as aerial reconnaissance, portraiture, video, digital imagery, and ceremonial as well as completing tasks in support of the police, post crash management, engineering, medical and dental branches.”
Subject categories range from ‘The Royal Air Force Experience’, production of a single photograph that depicts personnel conducting their day-to-day work to ‘Equipment’ which gives photographers the exciting opportunity to display their skills by capturing the Royal Air Force’s world-class kit. The ‘Sport’ category reflects the Royal Air Force’s commitment to provide opportunities for personal development, leadership and teamwork through both social and competitive sports. There is also a category for the amateur military photographer.
More than 1400 images were entered in the 2009 Competition which made the selection of winners extremely difficult. Judging this year was conducted by Mr Adam Sorenson, Daily Mirror Photographer, Mr Dennis Nicholls from Nikon UK and Mr Stan Stabler, a retired Royal Air Force photographer. All were unanimous in their appreciation of the very high standard, quality and diversity of work produced by both Service and civilian photographers. In total over 50 photographs will be on display in the RAF Museum, electronically beamed onto glass screens located in the ‘RAF Today’ area of the Milestones of Flight Gallery. The exhibition will be on show at the Museum’s London site until 16th April when it will then transfer to the Museum’s Cosford’s site in Shropshire.
The Royal Air Force Public Relations “Photograph of the year”, the picture which best represents the image, reputation and profile of the Royal Air Force, was taken by Cpl Scott Robertson of the Mobile News Team, Headquarters Air Command. His photograph reflects the recent deployment of the Tornado GR4 in support of operations in Afghanistan.
“It’s fantastic to win the most coveted award of the competition! It’s not every day this happens but you aim for it every day. You want every photograph you take to be Photograph of the Year. It’s good feedback for what we do at Headquarters Air Command as this is our bread and butter.”
Presenter of the awards, Air Vice-Marshal Carl Dixon: “The imagery is inspirational. The RAF is a Service which is opportunity rich in potential and all areas of RAF life have been well represented.
They have clearly spotted the moment and grabbed it through their lenses – my message to them is “keep them coming” because photography is one of the most important ways of keeping today’s RAF in the public eye.”
Entry to the Royal Air Force Photographer of the Year Exhibition is free of charge to visitors; as is entry and parking to the Museum. The exhibition will be shown daily from 10am to 6pm until April 16th. For further details please visit www.rafmuseum.org/whatson or dial 020 8205 2266.