The International Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) has announced the results for its inaugural IGPOTY National Trust Calke Abbey special photo competition, ‘Captured at Calke.’ What’s unique about this free-to-enter photo competition is that all images were captured at Calke Abbey, a country house estate near Ticknall, Derbyshirt, England.
Calke Abbey is believed to have been founded as an Augustinian priory by Richard d’Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester sometime between 1115 and 1120. Over the centuries, it exchanged hands multiple times, with each new owner adding their own touch to the historic venue. Since 1985, Calke Abbey has been held by the National Trust, who now presents it as an historic English country house and maintains the surrounding landscape park, from which all of these images were taken in.
In its prompt to photographers for the competition, IGPOTY told photographers to ‘Look for recognisable scenes of Calke from the garden which reinforce the wider context of the gardens with flair and originality’ and to ‘Avoid out-of-context macro shots of plants.’
The first place winner is Anne Haile of the United Kingdom for their image ‘The Orangery.’ Haile says she ‘used a wide-angle lens to enhance the perspective and lead the eye through the building,’ which features fauna alongside path flanked by large windows and a glass dome. Haile also took home second place for her image ‘The Green Door,’ while Elaine Cox grabbed third for her image ‘Shadows,’ which is black and white photograph from the same room Haile’s ‘The Orangery’ photograph was taken.
The following gallery presents the first through third place winners as well as four finalists, two highly commended and three commended images.