NIPA Annual Exhibition 2014

NIPA Exhibition 2014

To celebrate the end of a top class season of competitive photography in the Northern Ireland Photographic Association (NIPA) inter-club series, local camera club amateur photographers from around the province will converge on Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on Wednesday night (4 June) for the opening night and awards ceremony for the year end exhibition.

One hundred exhibition size framed colour and monochrome print images will be on display in Gallery 2 in the free exhibition that runs until 26th June. The images have been judged by Michael O'Sullivan FIPF FRPS the new President of the Irish Photographic Association.

The annual exhibition is one of the highlights in the NIPA series of events that run throughout the year and such is the breadth of the entries that all the clubs that comprise NIPA will be represented at next Wednesdays opening night. In addition to awards, there will be announcements about future national standard events.

This year’s inter-club series was one of the best ever. Overall support to the inter club series came from Camera Jungle with extra awards support also by Phaidon, Craft & Vision and Voluntary Arts (Dereliction round).

In the run up to the exhibition, Merville Newtownabbey Photographic Club recently hosted the adjudication of the top images of the year in the Camera Jungle supported inter-club series. The top images from the five rounds this year were judged to find the top Colour print, top Monochrome print and top Projected Digital Image.

Guest judge Tim Pile, MPAGB, from Birmingham made a first class adjudication on some one hundred and fifty images on display and the evening was a great opportunity for the audience to hear a critique by one of the top judges in the UK.

Images by the Finaghy based Catchlight Camera Club took first, second and third in the Colour Print section, first and third in Monochrome Prints section and second in the Projected Digital Images section. Hugh Wilkinson excelled himself with three top three awards with Bob Given lifting two awards and Ross McKelvey lifting one award.

Banbridge Camera Club took first place in the Projected Digital Images section with John Wright’s moody lakeside scene a hit with the adjudicator.
Fairhead Camera Club had one of their best results of the year with Peter Irvine taking third in the Projected Digital Images section with a ‘Dereliction’ image. Neighbouring Ballymoney Amateur Photography Club took a notable top ten in the Novice Mono Prints section.
North Belfast based Christian Brothers Past Pupils Union Camera Club took second place in the Monochrome Prints section with Damian MacDonalds image of ‘The Dark Hedges’ near Stranocum.
Twenty Seven clubs competed in the Inter-Club series with over 1500 images passed by the adjudicators over the five rounds throughout the year. Running in parallel with the main competition was a separate novice competition and the results also showed that many new photographers to the club competition scene are starting to make a mark for themselves. The efforts by all involved in the organising of the whole series did not go amiss in the address at the final round of the season.
In the end it was Catchlight that took the overall top club award having won outright the PDI and Colour Prints section and coming second in Mono prints.
Christian Brothers Past Pupils Union Camera Club took the second overall award having won outright the Mono prints section, coming second in the Colour Prints section and fourth in the PDI section.
Belfast Photo Imaging Club took third overall after taking sixth in Colour Prints, third in Mono Prints and second in the PDI section.
Ards Camera Club took fourth overall after taking fifth in the PDI section, fifth in Mono Prints and third in the Colour Prints sections. However, in Novice PDI they took a joint second and a third in Novice Mono Prints to bolster their awards.
Bangor and North Down Camera Club rounded off the top five overall after taking fourth in Mono Prints, seventh in Colour Prints and a strong result in the PDI section. They also scooped joint first in the Novice Colour Prints section

Information on all the NIPA member clubs, results to date and the images from all the competitions this year and previous years are all available on the new look NIPA Website www.niphoto.co.uk.

This incoming Wednesday night’s exhibition opener gets underway at 7.30pm at the Waterfront Hall (Gallery 2). The exhibition PDI selections will be shown at the opening adjudication evening of the 2014/15 Inter-Club series.