JOHN CRAVEN

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF GLORIOUS PHOTOGRAPHY

Celebrating 30 years of Countryfile’s photography competition and the ever-popular fundraising calendar.

Thirty years ago, a Norfolk gamekeeper called David Mason took a close-up photo of a hare, its alert ears poking above the undergrowth, and made a little bit of history. Along with nearly 6,000 other keen snappers, he submitted his picture to Photo 91, the firstever Countryfile Photography Competition – and won.

Three decades and at least half a million images later, the programme will this month reveal the latest winner in its annual contest, which is now one of the UK’s biggest draws for amateur photographers and whose end result is a much-loved, best-selling charity calendar.

Strangely enough, in the early days, it was viewers’ photos that helped save the show from being axed. When I was writing the introduction to Countryfile: A Picture of Britain – the recent book that showcases top calendar photos over the years – I discovered from a former

BBC executive that there had been pressure to take the programme (then 30 minutes at lunchtime on Sunday) off the air. But the bosses realised the competition gave Countryfile a broader connection with viewers and decided to let it continue. Thank goodness!

So how did the competition begin? Not long after I joined in 1989, viewers began sending in, without being asked, their own snaps showing their love of the countryside. This led to the idea of a proper competition with winning photos voted for by

John has been a judge of Countryfile’s photo competition since it began and is always astounded by the high quality of entries

viewers in a live programme, with prizes (including cameras and even foreign holidays) provided by Radio Times.

CALENDAR SUCCESS

Some years later, new rules banned the magazine’s involvement and since then the prizes have been more modest, but I like to think the kudos of winning has become even greater. That’s because in 1998 we launched the Countryfile Calendar, featuring the very best photos from the competition. From modest beginnings it has become something of a publishing phenomenon; the 2021 calendar sold 690,978 copies and raised £3,157,744.30 for BBC Children in Need. That was a record – will the next one do even better?

It is my good fortune to have been one of the judges since the beginning, and wildlife photographer Simon King was with me on that first panel in 1991 and he has joined me again in recent years. We are both staggered by the volume of entries – almost 46,000 this year – and by their quality. It was amazingly high in the early 1990s and now it’s even higher.

The subject matter has stayed much the same – you can hardly go wrong when you focus on the beauty of the UK countryside, its landscapes and wildlife, its moods and seasons – but what has changed is the level of ingenuity behind the camera. Always there are endless shots of robins, swans and ducklings, lambs, squirrels, badgers, puffins, bees and spiders, yet we never fail to be amazed at the many new and riveting ways of capturing them on camera.

And the biggest change over the years? The digital revolution, of course. In the early days, the Countryfile office overflowed with sacks of entries – we could hardly get in the door. Now it’s all online and some of the best photos are taken not with expensive cameras but on smartphones, which give greater scope for ‘grab-itbefore-it’s-gone’ pictures. Assessing those alongside carefully composed images is one of the great challenges, and joys, for the judges.

Our viewers are brilliant amateur photographers so the task gets harder for us every year – and that’s exactly the way we want it.

Watch John on Countryfile, Sunday evenings on BBC One.