Mail photographer snaps up top award

MAIL photographer Tom Honan has been named Press Photographer of the Year at this year’s Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI) awards.

Out of the nine categories he also took home three awards – for Politics, Art & Entertainment, and Portrait. He also placed second in the Daily Life and People category.

The picture which won Mr Honan the Portrait award was entitled ‘Eskimo Boy’ and shows his son with a fur-lined hood being blasted by the wind. It was taken during the Beast From The East snowstorm last year.

The judges said that ‘using freezing wind, the photographer created this dramatic and isolated illustration’.

Another Mail photographer, Michael Chester, won the Sports Feature category. His photograph, entitled ‘Shower Power’, depicts the silhouetted figure of a woman using a shower after she had taken part in the Liffey Swim last year. The judges praised the imaginative use of light employed to create the image.

The PPAI awards took place in Dublin last night. An exhibition of this year’s award-winning works can be viewed at the Ballsbridge Hotel, in Dublin 4, until next Thursday, February 21. It will then be moved to the RDS.