From London, to Copenhagen, to Crete, to Glasgow, and finally to the south coast of Dorset – it seems this year’s FEP “Golden Camera” Landscape award turned into quite the pan-European effort in order to get to me.
But here it is, having arrived safely this morning; following last week’s (somewhat unexpected) win, that I’d managed to watch live from my balcony in Crete.
Combined with what must be the world’s most impossible-to-clean trophy (yes, there are gaps between each and every one of those individual sheets that are joined together!) – it was quite the box of goodies that I unwrapped now back at home.
The FEP is Europe’s overarching body – representing over 50,000 professional imagemakers from the qualifying associations within each member state.
As the Federation of European Professional Photographers, it celebrates each year with a pan-European competition held across 12 categories and genres, culminating in an international awards ceremony; this year held in Copenhagen.
Unfortunately (in many ways!) I was in Crete during this year’s awards, but the good news is the entire event was live-streamed from Denmark as the announcements were made.
As someone who’s not entered images in any previous FEP awards, I have to say I wasn’t too familiar with what to expect, or see and hear – but clearly this was a bigger “thing” than I had in mind as the evening unfolded, with well over 3,000 entries in this year’s competition.
“Live from Copenhagen” was met with “live from my balcony”, as the Greek wine (ahem, wine-“ish”) flowed, and overrated Dubai chocolate was consumed. Not quite the same level of party, but hey – I had the sunshine and sunset on-side.
And to be honest, it was mostly on in the background. Especially as my category progressed – announcing those who came 10th, 9th, 8th and so-on.
3rd place was announced – very nice images, well done.
2nd place was announced – more fantastic photography, great stuff.
(Ah well – time to go and get some…. Oh…)
1st place was announced – the Golden Camera Award for Landscape – Paul Reiffer.
Well that was a little unexpected, it seems my face doesn’t lie in the case of a surprise announcement.
But what to do? I hadn’t recorded a video message (I didn’t know I’d need one!), and I was sat 1,500 miles away from the event.
And this is where the Glasgow element kicked into gear – as luckily, Barrie, one of my fellow directors at the BIPP, had flown in for the event to quickly to leap into action and play “pretend Reiffer” for a few moments on stage (on the right).
And yes, we’re going to do some work on his “blue steel” over the coming months…
What images won?
The FEP system takes the top 3 image scores for your category, placing entrants in order of those combined marks. Original (raw) files are required for verification, and judging is performed with a panel that spans several countries across the continent.
I’d entered others, but it was these three as a collection that managed to catch that top spot for 2025:
So, we’ve done it again!
Being a board director of the BIPP, I can no longer enter the UK awards (for obvious reasons), but this was a great opportunity to see how some of our images would do in a wider European field.
The fact I’ve come away with the Golden Camera for Landscapes on my very first year of entry – well that was quite the welcome surprise!
Of course, as photographers, one of the things we enjoy the most is seeing our own (and other people’s) work in print.
The FEP produce a beautiful book of all the winning images, as a celebration of the incredible photography that each and every finalist produced.
Having the Young Photographer Award combined into the same collection, it’s a fantastic read – spanning all genres, showcasing some of the great work that people have produced over the past few years from all across Europe.
With those three being celebrated, I must say I felt a little sorry for the remaining 4 that just missed the cut-off with “merit” scores – each with its own unique story and meaning; for me as well as others who enjoy seeing the places they represent.
To ensure they’re not left out – here they are too…
But in fairness, it was actually 3 of some of my very favourite prints that won the award at the end of the day – a collection of striking views across three different countries.
New Beginnings
St Paul’s Cathedral from the Millennium Bridge, London – UK:
Beyond
The Badwater Basin salt flats in Death Valley, California – USA:
Søbad
Kastrup’s sea-bath changing structure, Copenhagen – Denmark:
And that’s our win for this year!
Big thanks to Barrie Spence, as above, for not only standing-in on the night, but also carting my goodies back to Scotland and then getting them safely to us all the way down here.
Big thanks to Luis, the country’s favourite Parcelforce driver, for managing to get that crazy trophy to me in one piece.
Big thanks to the judges and organisers at the FEP – I (quite literally!) couldn’t have won this without all your time and effort.
Big thanks to those who’ve been with me along the way to those locations – it’s not always easy to shoot empty scenes of iconic places(!)
Finally, a huge thanks to each of you – my commercial clients, print customers, workshop attendees – for enjoying the artwork that I’m lucky enough to create.
And as for Crete, the temporary host to my little Greek adventure?
Well…
Eggs? Sigh.
Wine? Bigger sigh.
“COLA”? Can I leave now?
In fact, the only thing keeping me going for the 5 days we were there, was the chicken truffle crepes I’d managed to find at a little place nearby…
…and of course, they’d be closed on the final day I wanted one to celebrate.