Images of Woodstock

9:51am Thursday 7th February 2008

The inaugural Art in Woodstock festival, a celebration of the visual arts, held in October, was a great success. Individual art exhibitions showcased 34 artists in 24 venues around the town and there was an exhibition of competition entries - photography, art and school competition - in the town's historic Town Hall.

The culmination of the week's events was a celebration and prize-giving party at the newly refurbished Marlborough Arms, where guests partied until the small hours.

During the very early planning stages for Art in Woodstock, it was decided that photography would be included in both the exhibition and competition sections of the event.

The theme 'Inspired by Woodstock' was chosen to stimulate interest from and to showcase local photographers, to see if there would be any interesting 'lateral' contributions and attract interest in Woodstock, the town and Art in Woodstock, the event.

Electronics giant Samsung, who have a strong presence in the field of digital photography, agreed to donate prizes for the competition. There were more than 50 entries of extremely high quality. The competition was judged by keen amateur photographer Canon Roger Humphries, area dean of the Woodstock Deanery, and an Honorary Canon of Christchurch Cathedral, and Susie Medley, of Fotonet South. Fotonet was set up in 1999 as a project to develop and promote photography in the southern region.

Paul Sansome is a professional landscape and wildlife photographer, based near Winchester, Hampshire. The inspiration for his photography comes from a love of both the tranquility and wildness of nature. His international reputation was greatly enhanced by an invitation from Agfa to feature a portfolio of his photography on their website - consequently his photographs now hang in many countries around the world. To see more of Paul Sansome's work, visit the website: www.pspimages.com

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