We had qualified to represent the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union in the PAGB Print Challenge held annually (this year at Blackburn). Our aim was to get to the Final, which would pre-qualify us to enter again next year. Usually the top eight clubs go through to the final out of about 37 clubs from throughout the UK. It would be our first attempt at this for more than 20 years and was a big ask. Members who were not regular print makers pulled out all the stops to provide us with a bank of 38 images from which to choose our entry.
This year we succeeded as one of 9 clubs selected to contest the final…we had used what we considered to be our strongest entry (given all the constraints of the competition) to get us to this position and, in theory, it didn’t matter in which order we came in the final because we would automatically be qualified to enter in 2026.
Each final club entered 15 prints – with at least 5 mono prints, 5 colour, not more than 4 nature and no more than 4 per photographer – each would be scored out of 15 by three judges. In the end we were placed in 8th position with an average mark of 13.33. Three clubs tied in first place with an average mark of 13.87. So close!
We are extremely proud of our members and thank them for their support. There were some fantastic images throughout the day and we should be very pleased with what we have achieved…something for us to build on for next year.
These are our 15 images that we used in the final
