Hadrian’s Wall Trip (Classics Dept) Photography Competition

There was a competitive edge to the recent highly successful trip to Hadrian’s Wall. The Classics Department ran a photography competition in which each pupil was entitled to enter his/her best three shots. All round Housesteads Fort, at Vindolanda, and on the classic three-mile stretch between Houseteads and Steelrigg, pupils could be observed patiently and painstakingly considering photographic possibilities. Mr. Vanstone kindly agreed to judge the competition.

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Winning Entry (Niamh Allum, Form II)		Runner-up (Niamh Allum, Form II)		3rd Place (Eden Wood, Form I)
What stands out about this photograph is its conscious artistry. The photographer has visualised the shot, where most of us, armed with our cameras, could not have done. Additional strengths are a feel for colour and texture (a close study of the photograph reveals a considerable variety of colours among the apparently uniform grey stone). The rhythm and the sloping diagonal flow of the lines are assured, and a sliver of blue sky in the top right hand corner breaks up the wall’s relentlessness, and places it in a wider context. A worthy winner.		A very different kind of photograph from the winning entry: this shot captures the isolation of the milecastle on Hadrian’s Wall, and the isolation of the men who occupied it, even at the height of the Roman occupation. The photographer’s vantage point allows her to give the viewer a powerful sense of just how impressively the Roman civilisation built, even on the periphery of empire.		Too close to being a calendar shot to win, but a very good photograph nonetheless. The photographer has chosen a superb stretch of the wall, and shown real awareness of rhythm and lines.