Queenstown photographer Mike Langford N.Z.’s bestQueenstown’s Mike Langford is this year’s winner of the prestigious Epson/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards 2006 which was announced at a Black Tie dinner in Christchurch on 4 September. The winner of both the Corporate/Architecture and Landscape sections, Langford’s portfolio was described by Chairman of Judges, David Paterson, as extremely strong across the entire portfolio. “Langford’s Landscape portfolio was a clear-cut winner. Each of the seven section winners had two and possibly three strong entries out of the four in their portfolio, but he was strong across the board. He displayed a strong technique, the images were not too heavily crafted and his entries really captured the photographer’s ‘eye’ for a shot,” he said. Paterson was extremely impressed by the quality of the entries overall, especially the gold and silver medal winners, which he described as being up with the best in the world. Jason Boa, NZIPP President, said that this has been an exceptional year in both quality and quantity of entries. In all there were 17 gold medals and 208 silvers presented compared with four gold and 95 silver in 2005. “There has been a significant increase in the number of awards given, which I think can be attributed to the fact that many photographers entered the Awards for the first time last year, and gained a tremendous amount of knowledge which has enabled them to up their game this year. It is clear that the standard of professional finishing in terms of both image and print quality has increased, which are important factors in assessing the images. The calibre of work on show is truly world-class, and we look forward to making a selection of the images accessible to the public through a national exhibition which will tour the country in coming months,” he said.
The award winners were: Photographer of the Year : Mike Langford (Queenstown). Overseas Photographer of the Year : Peter Rossi (Cairns, Australia). Highest Scoring Colour Print: Jo Grams (Christchurch) Highest Scoring Monochrome Print: Jackie Ranken (Queenstown) Tertiary Institution of the Year : UCOL (Palmerston North) Category Winners: Advertising : Deborah Aspray (Christchurch) Corporate/Architecture : Mike Langford (Queenstown) Editorial/Illustrative: Esther Bunning (Featherston) Landscape : Mike Langford (Queenstown) People : Sue Bryce (Auckland) Self Promotion/Still Life : Lucy Gauntlett (Auckland) Student Assistant : Ashley Sturt (UCOL, Palmerston North) Wedding: Jo Grams (Christchurch) | 
