The Northern Ireland Photographic Association

2019 Audio Visual Festival

Report by Raymond Hughes

Photos by Gordon Gray and Lilian Webb.

The NIPA AV Festival got underway in The Courtyard Theatre Ballyearl on Friday 22nd February and we were delighted to welcome Ian Bateman back as the judge. This was Ian’s rst visit since 2006.

As usual the festival opens on Friday night with the judge showing their own work. We were treated to a wonderful collection of Ian’s AVs. It is always a treat for us out on the fringes to see top quality sequences.

Saturday is competition day and Ian had busy morning and afternoon sessions judging 34 sequences. There is the Open Competition restricted to NIPA Club members with a Novice section. This year a separate Photo Harmony Competition was introduced as opposed to previous years when it was a special award within the main competition.

We also compete in an All-Ireland Competition which allows for our friends from the Irish Photographic Federation in the Republic of Ireland to compete with the members of NIPA. Ian made constructive comments after each sequence which were appreciated by the authors present. Who says we don’t work our judges hard?

It was pleasing to see four new Novice entries, all rst-time entrants. One entry was titled Cymru which I’m sure was not an attempt to inuence Ian. But The Traveller by Brendan Gillan took the Novice award. It is an imaginative interpretation of a poem using a number of miniature gures progressing through everyday objects.

The Photo Harmony section saw a variety of interpretations of the genre with landscape, colour blending, and the life cycle of Sunowers amongst the offerings. The winner was a complete sequence lasting several minutes from apparently one image of an Iris ower using the computer to take it through continually changing Kaleidoscope type images that nish with the Iris ower.

In the main NIPA ‘Open Championship’ Raymond Hughes’ sequence His Wonders to Perform., the story of John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, was awarded the PAGB Bronze medal. Between Sea and Sky, a sequence on the Faroe Islands by James Hamill won Silver.

In the All-Ireland competition Shangri -La was judged the winner. This is a story by Liam Haines AIPF (pictured top right) about how an area in Tibet has exploited the Shangri-La theme from the James Hilton novel ‘Lost Horizon’ for tourism.

For the third year in succession Judith Kimber DPAGB (pictured middle right) took Gold and the NIPA Trophy with Safe, a wonderfully crafted sequence in Judith’s own style, that is rapidly gaining recognition, telling the story of her Great, Great Grandmother’s struggles during the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. It is beautifully photographed in monochrome with the soundtrack music composed and played by Judith herself. No doubt AV News readers will get an opportunity over the next year to see this sequence for themselves.

After dinner with the judging complete there was an evening showing a selection of the sequences seen during the day including the award winners. The awards were presented by Mollie McConaghy who was celebrating her 93rd birthday. Mollie is a previous IAVF Grand Prix Winner and twice NAVC Champion and is still an active member of the RPS AV Group (Ireland).

There was an opportunity for Mollie McConaghy to present James Hamill ARPS (pictured right) with his 'DPAGB in Audio Visual Certicate'

The Festival Committee Chairman Ross Mulholland thanked Ian for his judging and comments. He also thanked Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council for their continued support of the Festival.

The Festival was brought to a close by the NIPA President Vittorio Silvestri.