Resolution

The 2005/2006 winner of the Award is Charlie Stewart, who is now in his final year of a B.A.Hons in Photography at Nottingham Trent University.

Never heard of Nias?... Well why should you have? It is one of 17,000 islands in Indonesia and a speck on the other side of our globe. Over the course of the last twelve months, like many of the islands in the North-West of Indonesia, Nias has been ravaged by the effects of the shifting Indian-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. However, dissimilar to its neighbours, Nias’s rehabilitation has been severely hindered by a range of unique problems. Through a combination of landscapes and portraits, accompanied by revealing texts, Charlie’s project provides an educating insight into the spectrum of issues. He has avoided taking a stereotypical approach on post-tsunami Indonesia, but rather he has focused on the consequences of the less well-documented, on-going natural disasters that occur there. Charlie’s investigation into the current desperate socio-economical situation emphasises the importance of continuing the support of charities working in this region.

Financial and Company Assistance for the Project

Charlie was awarded £1600. However, as the budget for his project was £2227, PIC looked to industry companies to help sponsor him with the product he needed.

The following companies were very generous in giving products or services: Canon, for the loan of a EOS ID camera; Leica, for helping to service a R4 camera; Fuji, for 45 rolls of different film types; Hasselblad, for the special price 80mm lens and Polaroid back; and Noritsu for all the processing and printing.

The Judging Panel

We are grateful to the following volunteer judges: Gerry Dingley, PIC Chairman of the Directors; Siobhan Woods (the daughter of Jack Jackson whom the Award was originally was set up to honour); Sue Bromfield from Noritsu; Dr Bill Gaskins, FCSD, FRPS, FBIPP representing HEAD (the charity which administers the Award) and John O’Neil, MBE, FRSA, FAE, FNSEAD representing HEAD.

Presentation of the Work

Charlie Stewart will present his work to members of the photographic and imaging industry and trade press on Tuesday 10 January 2006 at the Copthorne Hotel, Slough.

The work will also be on display at Focus on Imaging, NEC, Birmingham from 26 February – 1 March 2006 (courtesy of Mary Walker Exhibitions Ltd).

Charlie plans to exhibit the project in London, Nottingham and Windsor during 2006.

Winner’s Project

“At 0758 local time on 26 December 2004, 30 kilometres below the seafloor, a 1200km stretch of the Indian tectonic plate was thrust 20 metres up underneath the Burma plate raising the seafloor by several metres. A magnitude 9, "megathrust" tremor was released with an energy level equivalent to the explosion of 23,000 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. Waves up to 10 metres high travelling up to 800km/h descended on the idyllic shorelines of thirteen countries leaving at least 500,000 injured, 1 million without means to make a living and 5 million homeless. 297,000 died.

These statistics are by no means new. In fact, for the first two months of this year it was rare to come across a newspaper's front page that didn't contain such details or slight variations. A year has passed and still the consequences of the earthquake are impossible to accept. Unlike most incidents, it is the scale of the devastation that makes this disaster so impossible to fathom.

During the first week after Christmas 2005 I was fortunate enough to do some work experience on the Picture Desk of the Sunday Times Magazine. My duties were to follow the breaking news story in detail, so I was asked to spend the large portion of my days trawling through the specialist network picture libraries for images they could use. The thousands of brutal, uncensored images were mentally suffocating and left my heart cold and sad.

The Sumatran coastline (Indonesia) was the worst affected area and it was soon teeming with a range of charity organisations determined to return some sense of normality to the landscape. March 26 2005 saw the official end of the relief phase and the start of the recovery and reconstruction phase. However, two days later at 11.09pm (local time) the people of Indonesia were terrorized once again by an earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.7. The worst affected area was the island of Nias, off the West coast of Sumatra, where the seismic waves ripped through the island causing widespread destruction, panic, infernos and fatalities. 80% of the island's largest city, Gunung Sitoli, was completely flattened. There are the obvious issues of structural and socio-economical damage, but the island’s problems are numerous and complex.

Nias has experienced tremors on a daily basis since December 2005. Most are minor but several have been severe enough to cause structural damage and chaos. The most recent being the two earthquakes (reaching 6.1 and 6.3 on the Richter scale) on 28th November 2006, whose epicenters lay directly beneath the island. The UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs has published statistics that state that every islander has been affected in some way by the recent disasters. When people have lost and suffered so much and continue to be threatened by ‘earth’s wrath’, it is easy to understand why many Niasers have given up hope for the future or tried to leave.

Nias has received little aid from the Indonesian government and has relied heavily on the support of the forty charities that have bases on the island. They are still largely responsible for food distribution, providing healthcare, rehabilitation, providing temporary accommodation, rebuilding water systems and sanitation as well as many other responsibilities. It was only until I was working on this project in Indonesia that I realised my four-times-great-uncle had once visited the island. He wrote in his journal of its affable inhabitants and rich and prosperous culture. Nias will never be the same as it was in 1820 but NGOs are working in Nias to build for a better future.

I flew out to Nias at the end of August 2005 following extensive communication with the charity, ‘Save the Children’. They were kind enough to let me utilize their facilities, translators and transport (at a price) and my assistant and I camped within the walls of their base. (Due to the continuing tremors, it is the charity’s policy for staff and guests to sleep in tents.) I joined the staff on their activities in the field, had meetings with other NGOs and spent a lot of time at the UN OCHA station. The combination of theses experiences made me realise not only the extent of the suffering but also helped me get a better understanding of the complex issues that continue haunt the island’s population.

I returned to England in October, educated and carrying a strong body of work that I have now edited down to selection of twenty-five prints. They range in style from landscapes to portrait images that are linked because each photograph individually tackles a specific issue. Every image will be accompanied by text that will describe the location details, personal details or a relevant story, followed by an explanation of one of the island’s relevant major issues. The exhibition is not only meant to be visually intriguing and educational but fund-raising as well; there is huge potential to raise a lot of money and all profits from the exhibition will go to ‘Save the Children’. I currently intend to tour the exhibition to three locations in England in 2006: London, Nottingham & Windsor.

I am extremely grateful for the Photo Imaging Council’s generous award and the industry sponsorship. Without this help, this fund-raising project could still be a idea in my mind.”

The Winner’s Contact Details:

Charlie Stewart
23A Heathcoat Street,
Nottingham, NG1 3AG.

Mobile: 07869 122876
Email: csimages@hotmail.co.uk

Images can be sent to the press on request for the purpose of promoting the Award and the winner’s work.

1. Presentations on 10 January 2006

The presentations are at 13.45 hours at the Copthorne Hotel, Slough. Press members are cordially invited to lunch at 13.00 hours and to a presentation on trends and branding in the Industry by You Gov which follows immediately after the student presentation.

2. Applications

About £1,600 is awarded each year, as one or several lesser sums according to the applications received. Applicants, who must be full-time students on higher education courses in any discipline of art and design, need to present a brief written scheme with a budget proposal showing detailed costings plus a statement from their college or university in support of their application. Thus the Award is NOT a photographic competition as such (ie it is the project that is judged as no photographs are submitted).

Application forms are available by e-mail contacting tracey.newton@ntu.ac.uk, and from the PIC web site – www.pic.uk.net - or by writing to the HEAD Trust, The Nottingham Trent School of Art and Design, The Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham. NG1 4BU enclosing a stamped addressed envelope. The closing date for applications for the 2006/07 Award is 1 May 2006.

A judging panel made up of representatives of PIC and the HEAD Trust meet soon after the closing date and prizewinners are notified early in June so they can make the necessary arrangements to carry out their projects.

The prizewinners provide a brief written report and two sets of a portfolio of 20 photographs – one for the HEAD Trust and one for the presentation and exhibition - by the end of November. Prizewinners are required to give a formal presentation to PIC members and the trade press and may have the opportunity of display their work at the Focus on Imaging exhibition in February.

3. History and Purpose of the Prize

The Prize was established in 1992 by the former BPIA, whose members now form part of PIC, when all companies agreed to pay substantial capital funds to establish a scholarship scheme. PIC represents businesses distributing a wide range of photographic and imaging equipment and materials and its member companies vary in size from multi-nationals to small specialised concerns (see contact details of members and their products on the web site: www.pic.uk.net ).

The Award was known as the Jack Jackson Award until January 2004. Jack Jackson was a well-known and highly respected member of the photographic industry who died in 1991 after many years membership of the BPIA. The Award recognised his vitality and encouragement of young people. As fewer people now remember Jack, it was decided to rename the Award as the Photo Imaging Council Award, in recognition of the many who give their time and efforts to serving the Council. The Prize is unique because it promotes no brand labels, being generically funded by the industry. This gives singular freedom to prizewinners to develop projects in the way they see best.

The scholarship scheme is administered by the Foundation for Higher Education in Art and Design (HEAD Trust). The HEAD Trust, a registered Charity, is dedicated to the improvement of visual education and to supporting students of art, craft and design. The value of the scheme was augmented by a government grant through the Business Sponsorship Incentive Scheme (BSIS) and the resulting income enables about £2,000 to be awarded each year, as one or several lesser sums according to circumstances. The scheme has been kept deliberately simple so that the overwhelming majority of the monies generated by the capital funds are paid to the beneficiaries rather than lost in administration costs.

The scholarship is available to students undertaking higher education in any discipline of art and design to fund a project “where the use of photography would make a difference” (there are over 20,000 students in nearly 70 colleges who are eligible to apply). PIC members deliberately did not make the scope of the project more specific, believing that the use of photography helps to highlight project situations.

4. Recent Previous Winners

• 2004/05 winners were Rebecca Dearden, who produced a series of life-size, full-body portraits of blind and partially-sighted people and worked with a range of organisations to explore ways of making tactile portraits from these images, and Christopher Davis who worked with the Mother Teresa Society and its maternity clinic in Pristina, Kosovo

• 2003/04 winners were Belinda Lawley whose project was on telemedicine – bringing heart care to the poor in rural India - and Fiona Campbell whose project took a look at the world of masters athletics showing mature athletes who had reached their goals irrespective of age.

• 2002/03 winners were Marcello Bonfani - whose project was to document the world’s biggest ship breaking complex of Alang, on the Indian coast of Gujarat - and Aubrey Wade, whose project concerned The Buddy Scheme – Holland’s programme to integrate unaccompanied juvenile refugees.

• 2001/02 winners were Harjeet Kaur, whose project Dark Tales at Bedtime looked at perceived women’s roles in society by reflecting on the nature of narrative using old fairy myths, and Tina Stallard who depicted children with a range of disabilities, of different ages and from different social backgrounds.

• 2000/01 winners were Ikuko Tsuchiya for a photographic documentation of therapeutic community life in Botton Village, North Yorkshire, home to UK adults with learning difficulties and co-workers from all over the world and Marc Newton whose project was on Bondway, a London housing shelter for homeless men.

All prizewinners went on to develop their interest in photography, some embarking on a photographic career, others using photography as an adjunct to their career. Work has been placed in the Sunday Times Magazine, the New Statesman, the Photographic Journal and the British Journal of Photography among others and several have won further scholarships such as the Jo Spence Fellowship. All presented their work to company representatives and to the trade press and all made useful contacts for their careers through winning the Prize.

5. Further information, contact:

Pam Hyde
Photo Imaging Council
Orbital House
85 Croydon Road
Caterham
CR3 6PD
Tel 01883 334497
Fax 01883 334490
Email pic@admin.co.uk
Web www.pic.uk.net

The Photo Imaging Council

was formed in January 2002 from the merger of the four lead organisations for UK manufacturers representing the interests of importers, of exporters, of UK based manufacturers and of those involved with photo waste. PIC represents a wide spectrum of the supply side of the industry with around 110 leading companies together with several of the major trade and professional organisations ranging across camera, film, chemicals, minilabs, accessories and specialist services.

PIC aims to promote the interests and deliver services to photographic and imaging supply businesses based in the UK. Its work includes lobbying government and other authorities as appropriate. It aims to promote the industry through generic activities such as student awards and educational events. It provides a forum for companies to discuss matters in common and runs general statistical and survey services. Companies are kept up to date on legislative, technical and other new or proposed developments which could affect them (consumer, environmental, technical, chemical...). It organises attendance at and obtains grants for trade exhibitions overseas and facilitates display opportunities for non exhibiting companies. PIC also has close ties with other national associations in Europe.