Renew competition is a family affair

27 May 2010

Three members of the same family have scooped the prizes in a photography competition sponsored by RENEW.  

The judges were the public and more than 3,400 people voted for their favourite photos. Which by sheer coincidence all came from a group of people sharing the same genes.

Called The People’s Choice, the contest was organised by architecture and urban design centre Urban Vision North Staffordshire. Entrants were told their work should, “appreciate, comment on and document the area’s rich heritage, or capture changes taking place in North Staffordshire.”

This call to shoot sent more than 250 people out armed with their cameras and much of their work is now up on the People’s Archive site.  

Angela Cooper, 53, from Kidsgrove, won the £500 first prize with her picture entitled: ‘I’ve got a gal in Kalamazoo’ which captured the wartime spirit.

Angela’s granddaughter Milly Cooper-Acun, aged seven and also from Kidsgrove, won one of two £250 runners-up prizes for her picture called ‘Mugged’ which showed shelves full of pottery ware. 

And Angela’s dad Ted Simpkin, aged 79, of Little Chell, was runner-up with his image entitled: ‘Broken windows, creative minds’ which showed artistic graffiti daubed at the rear of terraced properties. 

Ted, a retired engineer, said: “We were all thrilled to bits to have won prizes in the competition because our three pictures were very different. I love taking pictures. It has given me great pleasure for many years.” 

Martin Tideswell, who manages the People’s Archive site for RENEW, immediately interviewed Ted about growing up in Stoke on Trent so he could capture his memories for all time on the archive. “Ted gave us a very nice memory piece for the website. This is an example of how we pick up people as we go along and add them to our growing archive,” said Tideswell. 

Fiona Waddle, Urban Vision’s education projects officer said: “We were delighted with the public response to the competition. The standard of entries was very high.” 

Click here to see the winning entries.