Potato Photographer of the Year 2020: Winning photo for Martin Parr-judged prize features spud getting a haircut

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Ailis Brennan27 July 2020

The inaugural Potato Photographer of the Year prize has announced its first ever winner – and it goes to a spud getting a haircut.

Launched during lockdown to raise money for a food bank charity by digging up the best potato photos the UK has to offer, the new photography competition has now revealed its winning smash-hit photographer.

Ray Spence took first place, praised by judges for his photo "End of Lockdown", which depicts a potato taking a trip to the hairdressers to get its sprouts trimmed.

"This picture manages to introduce a topical lockdown obsession to the brief of photographing a potato," said judge Nigel Atherton. "It takes a great imagination to see a sprouting potato as a head covered with hair, and there is a lot of humor in the way the picture has been executed."

It may sound light and fluffy, but the serious competition featured acclaimed documentary photographer Martin Parr among the judging panel, while all proceeds raised have gone towards food bank charity The Trussell Trust, which has worked to support vulnerable people during the coronavirus crisis.

Organisers of the prize were inspired by Kevin Abosch’s photo of a potato (Potato #345 (2010)) sold for £750,000 in 2016, which organisers said “just goes to show there’s an appetite for potato-based photo-art”.

Winner Spence will receive more than £1,000 of prizes, including a Fujifilm XA-7 camera, a year of membership to the Royal Photographic Society, a one day workshop with Brain’s Foto Guides, and three years of master-level subscription to Photocrowd.

“We didn’t quite raise a million bucks I had secretly hoped for,” said competition organiser Benedict Brain, “but the few grand we did raise will go a long way to help provide much-needed food for the Trussell Trust. And there seems to be a healthy interest in running another competition next year.”

Spence's photo was joined on the shortlist by William Richardson's 'Frites en Bruges', which depicts a portion of chips dolloped with mayonnaise, and Jodie Krause's 'Apple of the Earth', which shows two models channelling biblical duo Adam and Eve while holding a potato.

For more information on Potato Photographer of the Year 2020, visit photocrowd.com

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