Young Photographer Competition National Final, 2024

Budding photographers from across the country have put their skills and creativity on show for this year’s Rotary Young Photographer competition.

The theme for the 2023/24 competition was ‘Rebuilding’.

Rebuilding lives and rebuilding communities are aims and threads which run through all elements of Rotary’s service activities.

Creativity is at the heart of the Rotary Young Photographer competition, with each participant given the scope to interpret the broad brief in a way that is meaningful to them.

The participants in the national final, aged 10 to 17, have come through local and regional heats, all with the support of sponsoring Rotary clubs, keen to give young people opportunities to shine.

This year’s entries were judged by Aaron Yeandle, an award-winning fine art documentary photographer and member of the MAP6 Collective, a contemporary collective of visual artists. "I have really enjoyed looking at all of these amazing images and it has been a real challenge to pick one winner for each of the categories.” said Aaron.

“I selected entries which I feel have photographic merit, technical skills and an interesting interpretation of the theme of Rebuilding.”

JUNIOR CATEGORY - UP TO AND INCLUDING 10-YEARS-OLD

Runner Up - Thomas Burrows, sponsored by St. Ives Rotary, Cambridgshire.

While nature was the star of the show for some photographers, Thomas chose to focus on the impact of man-made industry with his photograph of a steam engine.

Thomas said: “I saw this amazing steam engine being rebuilt when I went for a day out at the North Norfolk Railway. I researched the engine and found that it has been rebuilt several times since it was first made in 1925. It was even sold for scrap in 1964 before it was rescued and rebuilt for the first time. It is very lucky to still be operational and is having a lot of work done to rebuild and preserve it for many more years.”