BIOGRAPHY

Peter Adams’ images from his People and Places and Colour and Passions portfolios made him a worthy winner of the first Travel Photographer of the Year award and set the benchmark for future years. They demonstrate the range of ability and the consistently high standard that the award was designed to recognise, combined with original ideas and a creativity that makes his work distinctive.

Travel Photographer of the Year 2003, Peter Adams, originally studied Land Management at Southampton. He tried working as an estate agent but did not fit the groove! An independent spirit and a good photographic eye prompted him to start his own photographic business in 1986 with the help of a £40 per week government Enterprise Allowance grant. Initially he worked for design studios, advertising agencies and corporate clients.

A great love of the countryside and of travel inspired a move into travel photography. Despite having no formal training, Peter gradually built up an income and is now in the enviable position of being able to dedicate himself to full-time travel photography.

Specialising in stock photography, Peter now has an extensive photo library and has travelled to over 40 countries. His shots are regularly seen as poster prints, cards, CD covers and in books, magazines and calendars. He has produced calendars for such companies as Canon and SmithKline Beecham.

BIOGRAPHY

Chris Charnock’s images of Venice and the Venetian islands were one of the first entries received in 2003 and are of a remarkably high standard. His shot of Florian’s café is outstanding and would grace the pages of any book. At just 15 years old he demonstrated great potential and the talent to merit the award of Young Travel Photographer of the Year.

Chris, from Wigan, England, was 14 years old when he took his winning images, but has been a keen photographer since the age of 10. The son of professional photographers, he had already won an impressive batch of regional photographic club awards, but the title of Young Travel Photographer of the Year was his greatest success to date.

Chris hones his skills taking photographs of local football club Wigan Athletic in action, and is a regular photographic contributor to the sports pages of his local newspapers, the Wigan Observer, Wigan Reporter and Evening Post, where he hopes to work as a photojournalist in the future.

He took his winning images of Venice and Burano on a borrowed Fuji.lm S2 Pro, ironically, the same model he went on to win as part of his Young Travel Photographer of the Year prize.