Oakham photographer Ady Kerry highly commended at Landscape Photographer of the Year awards
A professional photographer has won recognition at a national awards for two stunning images.
Ady Kerry, from Oakham, won two commendations at the 15th Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards. The photos will now feature in an exhibition and book showcasing the winning and commended entries.
His black and white image 'Perfect Imperfection' was highly commended in the Coast category.
It shows the backwash of a wave retreating to the sea after washing over broken sea defence groynes at Folkestone Warren beach.
The stretch of beach, served by a railway halt during Victorian times for London tourists, has been largely forgotten.
Ady took the photo with a hand-made wooden LeRouge66 pinhole film camera which uses a pinhole instead of a lens.
“It’s amazing that an image taken with a low-tech camera can be placed in a photographic competition of this stature," Ady said.
"It strips photography back to its very basic origins, akin to a camera obscura.
“ I have always had a fascination with the sea and using a camera almost as far removed as you can get from those I use professionally is the perfect way to develop a different vision for my personal work."
The awards gave Ady's work belated exposure.
"This image formed part of a collection taken over an 18-month period, and was meant to feature in an exhibition," he said.
"But the pandemic meant that never happened so it’s great that it has been selected by the judges in this competition.”
Ady was also commended in the Urban Life category for 'Dreamland'.
It depicts the art-deco frontage of a Margate cinema reflected in a puddle, and was taken while Ady was trialling a new colour film made from cine film stock.
He rotated and flipped the image so the reflected text read the correct way round for the viewer.
The images will form part of an exhibition at Paddington Station, in London, from next Monday (October 31) before touring to other stations including Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central and Birmingham New Street.
They will also feature in the Landscape Photographer of the Year hardback book, out on Thursday (October 27) through Ilex Press.
