Fly baby fly: Walking on air wins national 'Postcards from the Park' photo competition
Barbara Pendergast from Warrington’s photo of Walton Gardens has been chosen as the overall winner of the nationwide ‘Postcards from the Park’ photo competition.
Photo above with caption: People at Play winner (Barbara Pendergast)
The photo, entitled, “Walking on air”, impressed the judges who included celebrated photographer Mike McCartney (brother of Paul), Angela Nicholson from Amateur Photographer magazine and Tim Kerr from the Press Association. Barbara’s photo also won the competition’s People at Play category.
Celebrating our parks
The ‘Postcards from the Park’ competition celebrates public parks and the £1.2billion invested in parks and the environment by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Big Lottery Fund (BIG). Now in its third year, this competition has been organised in partnership with parks charity GreenSpace and has encouraged thousands of people across the UK to capture what they love most about parks in an imaginative way.
Chris Packham announces winner
The overall winner of the competition was announced and presented with their £1,000 prize by Chris Packham, TV presenter (Springwatch), wildlife photographer and environmentalist, on Friday at the Café Gallery in Southwark Park, London. All regional, country and category winners’ photos have been professionally curated and displayed in an exhibition there. The winning photos have also be turned into postcards which will distributed at Lottery-funded venues across the UK.
National winner, Barbara Pendergast, said:
“I’m delighted to have won this competition and it’s so rewarding to have my photo exhibited in a London gallery. I spend a lot of time at Walton Gardens, mostly for getting fresh air and playing with my son. I was inspired to take this photo by the pure joy my son gets when daddy tosses him in the air. I wanted to capture this moment and felt Walton Gardens was the perfect park to do this in!”
Professional photographer and main judge, Mike McCartney, said:
"This competition has continued to really capture the public’s imagination and we’ve had over 1,000 more entries than last year, with not only an increase in quantity, but also in quality. It’s wonderful to see people out and about enjoying their parks and photography. Barbara’s photo is just one of many great shots that demonstrate the popular appeal of parks.”
Chris Packham said:
“We’re so lucky in the UK to have such wonderful and varied green spaces which not only offer massive benefits in terms of health, quality of life and well-being, but also offer brilliant opportunities to get up close and personal with nature. It’s essential we keep on investing in them as there is still plenty of work to be done to look after them all properly. Every community deserves to be near a great park!”
Carole Souter, speaking on behalf of HLF, BIG and GreenSpace, said:
"Parks are vital places that give people an opportunity to escape the daily hustle and bustle and enjoy the fresh air. The huge number of photographs that were entered for this competition shows just how popular they are right across the country. That is why HLF and BIG support parks with such a massive investment of our funding.”
A long-standing commitment to all things green
Since 1994 the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded more than £525million for the restoration of more than 500 historic public parks across the UK, while the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has invested more than £700million in environmental initiatives. Together, HLF and BIG have been investing an additional £150million* in regenerating and improving people’s enjoyment of parks, putting them firmly back at the heart of community life.
gallery of the winning photos is available at www.postcardsfromthepark.org.uk
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