UCOL students snap up 52 awards for photography

Wednesday 10 August 2011

UCOL students have won a record 52 awards at this year’s Epson/New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers (NZIPP) Iris Professional Photography Awards, including the award for top student.

Second year Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging student Aimee Thompson, won the Student/Assistant category, beating out competition from other leading New Zealand tertiary institutions.

As well as Aimee’s award as top student, UCOL students on the BAVI and the Diploma in Photographic Imaging took four Gold awards, two Silver Distinctions, seven Silver Awards, and 39 Bronze Awards.

Senior Lecturer Ian Rotherham says the result is “absolutely outstanding and represents a record number of awards for UCOL students even compared with the excellent results achieved in previous years at the Iris Awards.

“It reflects the high quality, creativity and commitment of our students and the success of our Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging and Diploma programmes in fostering achievement in the real world.”

Staff on the BAVI programme also featured in the list of award winners. Senior Lecturer Kaye Davis was named Creative Photographer of the Year and also took a Gold Award and Silver Distinctions.

A total of seven Silver Awards were won by Lecturers Paul Gummer (3), Ian Rotherham (2) and Anna Kernohan (1), with a further 16 Bronze Awards earned by Lecturers Tricia Falkner (2), Anna Kernohan (6), Ian Rotherham (2),Paul Gummer (3), and Kaye Davis (3).

Paul Gummer and Anna Kernohan were finalists in the Landscape and Creative Portrait categories: Anna Kernoham, who won the Student/Assistant category last year, was also awarded Associate membership of NZIPP.

Two of last year’s BAVI graduates, Kevin Bone and Miho Tsumakura, were awarded NZIPP Associate membership.

UCOL has been named Institute of the Year for six years running at the Iris awards: this year there was no category for this award “possibly because it was becoming a foregone conclusion”, says Ian.

UCOL’s Executive Dean of Humanities and Business Clive Jones says this year’s results are clear proof that UCOL’s Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging programme is, and remains New Zealand’s leading tertiary qualification for training successful professional photographers.

“I congratulate the students and staff for their magnificent achievements against very determined competition from throughout the country.”

All award winning photographs are on display in the Block 2 Gallery in Queen Street at UCOL.

ENDS

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