A double win for Jo
Katikati photographer Jo Bryant, who thought she did not stand a chance,” won a double prize at this year's ART Waikino competition.
Surprise and excitement were her words when she learned two of her photographs won both first and second in the ‘People' category.
“I did not expect it at all with the high standard of artists that I would stand a chance. I am so excited,” she said. Jo's first prize photo, The Violinist showing a little boy playing violin, has a story behind it.
“He was playing at the Pa¯pa¯moa market raising money for refugees, and children in Iran. He was so intense and soulful,” she says. Jo cut out the background and turned it into black and white.
“It took me three weeks to track his parents down to get permission to enter this photo at a previous contest — the TrustPower Awards — and I can't wait to tell them.
She says this photo has always tugged at her heart.
Judge Annette Johnston says it denotes the “quiet determination of this child; eyes shut, his hair partially obscuring his face, our involvement in the scene is however cemented by the inclusion of the slight hand movement on both bow and fret”.
Jo's second winning photograph, Guitar Man, showing a colourful “grungy and edgy” guitarist playing breaks the photographic codes, the judge says. It was “a compositionally challenging image”.
Jo says winning the awards is validation of her work.
“So many times you enter competitions and like art, it is subjective for people to like it or not. Many do not like what you do but winning two prizes in such a big contest made me realise this is what I want to do.”
Her passion for photography began during her teenage years but was interrupted while raising children. After they left home, her passion resurfaced, picking up her Lumix camera and training with her mentor at the time, Kiwi photographer and owner of Alspix.com, Alistair Boot.
“He was wonderful, encouraging and always said to me it is not the camera that matters, it is the eye of the photographer,” she says.
Jo has been running the Katikati A&P Show photo competition for several years and founded the Katikati Photographer group last year.