Beyond the Frame 2024 winners announced

Event photography: Denisa Ilie

Beyond the Frame is an international photography competition open to students in Secondary or Further Education (ages 11-19). This is the competition’s seventh year, and saw an incredible level of participation, with over 600 young photographers submitting their work.

Judges Ian Hippolyte, Emily Salmon and James Smith were overwhelmed by the quality of work on show and were hard pushed to select just five winners.

Both age group winners were awarded with an EOS R50 camera with RF-S 18-45mm lens, courtesy of event sponsor Canon. ‘People’, ‘Places’ and ‘Things’ category winners received a prize selected by the judge of each category.

Winners were announced at a ceremony held at Norwich University of the Arts’ Duke Street Riverside building, after which winning and shortlisted photographers were invited to view their work in the Beyond the Frame exhibition at East Gallery.

Before the reveal, judges Ian Hippolyte and Emily Salmon gave talks about their work and development as professionals in the photography industry. After this, current BA (Hons) Photography student Rowan Collinson gave a presentation about her work and photographic practice. Rowan is Canon’s first ever Student Representative, and makes work about the landscape and natural spaces, experimenting with sustainable analogue processes as well as digital photography. Rowan then joined the judges for a panel discussion about generating and developing ideas.

Winner, 11-15 Age Category

Emily Freeman – King’s Ely

James Smith, course leader of BA (Hons) Photography at Norwich, said of the 11-15 Category winning images: ‘The judges picked these images due to the interesting use of colour and tone. The green and red mixed with deep shadows, the use of pattern that obscures the subject, which adds a sense of mystery and enigma.’

Winner, 16-19 Age Category

Evelyn Baldry – Hellesdon Sixth Form

Smith commented that the 16-19 category winner ‘produced three very different images; each is very highly produced creating different narratives around each subject. The technical control we felt was matched by the creative vision.’

Winner, ‘People’ Category – Chosen by Ian Hippolyte

Oana Gabriela Babenco – Multi Rivers Academy Trust

‘I was really captured by the narrative surrounding the subject; the props and the styling really elevated the images, and the lighting was bold, creative and controlled.’ – Ian Hippolyte.

Winner, ‘Places’ Category – Chosen by James Smith

Alina Akram – Philips High School

‘I chose this image because of the intriguing framing, the juxtaposition between the foreground and the background, I really like the bold, saturated colours, the gold against the dark blue of the sky makes a really impactful image.’ – James Smith

Winner, ‘Things’ Category – Chosen by Emily Salmon

Finnian Stroud – King’s Ely

‘The way these images were lit and shot was not only is impressive in itself but the contrast and the dark shadows blended so nicely with the background and the dark subject matter within the image itself. I loved the composition and the silhouette effect that it created as well.’ – Emily Salmon