The finalists this year were Anton de Jager, Zanda Grey, Johannes Welman, André Kempen, Leanne van Rooyen, Laetitia Velleman, Nadia Noome, Gustav du Toit and Frikkie de Lange who achieved two places amongst these ten runners-up. They each received a R100 Q-Photo gift voucher and a Fuji camera.

Another photograph by Laetitia Velleman was awarded third place and second place went to Camilla Rossi. They received Q-Photo gift vouchers worth R2500 and R5000 respectively. This year’s over-all winner, Gideon van Tonder, was presented with a Q-Photo voucher to the amount of R10 000 by UP Rector, Prof Cheryl de la Rey, and Eugene Naidoo, Marketing Director of Q-Photo, as well as a free Intermediate Photographic Course at Vega from Karel Smit, Vega Campus Navigator. The prize for the Best Progress Photographer went to Nanzelelo Mhlanga who received a Fuji 1800 camera from Fuji.

Vega college lecturer, Martin Short, and competition coordinator, Kobie van Jaarsveld, presented the four Saturday morning workshops throughout the year and adjudicated the students’ photographic submissions. This year about 200 participants attended the workshops, and Mr Short and Ms Van Jaarsveld had to evaluate almost 2000 photographs. Ms Van Jaarsveld stated that Gideon van Tonder’s winning photograph of the Mirage aeroplane in front of the Sci-Enza was chosen because it was “technically sharp and compositionally well-planned. The extra effort Gideon put in with the addition of a stick figure, created with light and time exposure, in exactly the right place on the bench made it stand out from the rest.”

Photographs generated from the workshops form part of a collection in the UP Archives and will therefore be preserved for posterity. They add what Prof Karen Harris, Director of the UP Archives, calls a “unique and refreshing dimension to the UP memory bank”. The photographs are also used in a range of publications and presentations representing UP. 

These highly popular photographic workshops will again be presented at UP next year. The scheduled dates are 26 February, 14 May, 30 July and 17 September. They are free and open to all UP students and staff. In order to participate, make a booking by sending an e-mail to [email protected] or visiting the UP Archives in the Old Arts Building Room 1-23 or phoning 012 420 2123.


Gideon van Tonder's winning photograph