Premiership sponsor Barclaycard has launched the search for the nation’s best football photographers in the second annual Football Photographer of the Season Awards.
The two awards – Barclaycard Football Photographer of the Season and Barclaycard Shot of the Season – recognise the importance of photography within football and celebrate those who best capture the passion and emotion of the game.
Last year the competition attracted entries from m0re than 100 photographers vying to become Barclaycard Photographer of the Season.
Eddie Keogh of The Sun won the award with a portfolio of five photographs.
Sam Bagnall of the Sunday Mercury won the first Shot of the Season award, with his image of Darius Vassell challenging Wayne Bridge being judged to best encapsulate the 2002-3 Barclaycard Premiership season.
The awards are open to all photographers from national and regional picture desks, photographic agencies and freelances, who can submit entries in the two categories, with a total prize of £15,000 of photographic equipment up for grabs.
The closing date is Thursday, 15 April, 2004, and the winners will be announced in May, at the end of the current season.
The awards panel includes Eamonn McCabe, four-times Sports Photographer of the Year; Martin Tyler, Sky Sports commentator; Peter Reid, former Sunderland manager and England player; last year’s winner, Eddie Keogh and Barclaycard sponsorship director Nic Gault.
Entries for the awards must be submitted as PC-compatible Photoshop files on a CD compressed to JPEG format and sent to: Gareth Griffiths, Barclaycard Photography Awards, Lexis PR, 8 Bolsover Street, London W1W 6AB.
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