MANCHESTER Cathedral’s ‘Capture the Cathedral 2015’ has announced its winners. The competition is now in its third year. Over 250 photographs were submitted in various categories and the winners are shown on this page.
This is a candid shot - the figure striding across the nave is not an actor or a model
The Cathedral is often bypassed or ignored by Mancunians, it is easily one of Manchester's very finest buildings. People on trips to Chester and York will always take in the cathedral yet on a zillion shopping trips to Manchester city centre will ignore a truly exquisite late-Medieval gem - a building that lies at the heart of the Manchester story.
Details in the Cathedral include woodwork as good as it gets anywhere in the nation with carved scenes full of wit and charm from five hundred years ago. The Cathedral can even claim the widest nave in the UK (ok, that involves a bit of jiggery-pokery) plus angelic musicians, stunning stained glass and the most moving poem carved on a wall in the North West.
There are leaflets and booklets about the building in the Cathedral. The editor of Manchester Confidential’s own book describes in detail the structure as well – click here.
'Evening - Light from Cathedral Approach' - The winner of the Cathedral at Night category was Kenneth Rowlatt.
This image of the Cathedral at twilight is very striking, beautifully exposed, it cleverly captures the diminishing light of day and the Cathedral lights and street lighting, well balanced and good depth produce a great shot.
'Peace' - The winner of the Something Different category was Mark Barnes. Mark clearly knows how to photograph our building in a way that appeals to the judges as he also won the Architecture and Stained Glass category in 2014.
The judges loved the serenity and depth of this image. A beautiful rendering of the flowers leading through to the soft focus of the window in the background. This image again shows very good control of exposure, a creative eye has produced an image which draws the viewer in with it’s almost three dimensional quality.
'Light of History' The Cathedral Overall Winner and winner of the Architecture and Stained Glass category - The winner of the Architecture and Stained Glass category and the overall winner was David Anderson.
This image really caught the judges’ eye, a nice low angle view showing the reflections in the new cathedral floor, very good control of exposure, capturing the light streaming in from the right and the beautiful stained glass window on the left. The people in the shot adding a sense of scale and helping lead the viewers eye through the photograph. This is a striking yet peaceful image which was also voted as the overall winner.
As winner of the competition, David will be ‘The Official Photographer for Manchester Cathedral 2015’and will be invited to photograph events at the Cathedral.
David said: “For this competition I set aside a day to spend just in the cathedral and its grounds. This particular image was chosen because, as well as having strong compositional elements, it also made me feel an emotion; and all good photos should make you feel something. The majority of the photo is monochrome to highlight the beautiful light in the nave, and the Fire Window in the Regimental chapel is in colour to draw the eye.
I mainly shoot street photography and I brought a lot of this methodology to my shoot in the cathedral. The most vital element to me is the fact that this is candid shot - the figure striding across the nave is not an actor or a model, he is a member of the public just making his way naturally across the floor. This means that his body language and pose are more ambiguous and this lets the image be interpreted a number of ways."
A selection of photographs, including the winning entries, is on display in the Cathedral until Saturday 12 July. Whilst the exhibition is on display, members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite photo. Once the results have been collated, the Cathedral will announce the People’s Choice winner.
You can view these here.
