Rais Hasan has won first prize in Disabled Photographers’ Society Landscape Competition with his stunning black-and-white image, entitled Ortho Building. It was shot using a Panasonic G7 mirrorless camera fitted with a 20mm prime lens.
The judges for the competition were renowned photographers Charlie Waite, Susan Brown and Tim Rudman, who praised Rais’ work and were unanimous in their decision.
Speaking of the winning image Charlie said: ‘I think the geometric shapes and the repetition are rather good. A mixture of hardly any diagonals but all verticals and horizontals. There is a diagonal on the roof. A rather unusual and punchy contrast, often something which we have to keep an eye on but here it seems appropriate to have it so punchy. It’s great.”
Tim said why he chose this one as the winner. “I thought it was visually very striking, very unusual and showed great visual awareness on the part of the photographer, rather than being a popular scene taken by many. The exposure was handled well and I thought the composition was very good. It was a personal image and it came out very well.”
Susan had this to say: “I really enjoyed this. There is a lot of photographer input. Presumably taken at a long shutter speed, it looks as if the sky is moving and it fills the space nicely without being too cramped. It is a lovely graphic image. Well handled - the blacks seemed to have a little bit of detail on the whites so you could get texture. I thought it was a good image.”
Rais won the opportunity of a one-to-one webinar session with Charlie Waite and a beautiful image, printed on aluminum, from Susan Brown called “Going Up in Flames”.
Recovery through photography
Rais has been an active member of the Disabled Photographers’ Society for many years and always submits entries for its competitions and exhibitions. He particularly enjoys the Annual Exhibition, which as he says is always judged by an expert and gives members the chance to meet up to see each other’s work. “The DPS has some highly talented photographers, who are very inspiring for my own challenges. I have always found the Society to be very informative and ultra-helpful to its members”. As well as many other awards for his images, Rais has a Licentiate and Associateship from the Disabled Photographers’ Society.
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“Some years ago, I had a malignant cancerous brain tumor on my lower left lobe and was told by the surgeon that if I didn’t have an operation, my chances of survival were very limited,” Rais tells us. “After my major surgery, I lost my ability to read or write, experienced blurred vision and loss of memory. During my housebound recovery, my family gave me a little Fujifilm Finepix F450 camera as a birthday present. That was the start of my new learning curve into photography, and it played a key role in my recovery.
"My photographic journey since then has been exceptional. Photography gave me the opportunity to develop a connection with people around me, which greatly helped me to come out of isolation. I still feel surprised that my images have appeared in photography magazines and have been displayed in National and International Galleries.
More of Rais' monochrome work
My interest in fine art was inspired by one of the UK’s best fine art photographers, Les Forrester. This was the point when I set myself a new challenge to learn the basics of fine art and at the same time to improve my work with more practice and determination.”
The Disabled Photographers’ Society was set up over 50 years ago, originally to take a small group of disabled enthusiasts to a local camera club. It now has over 400 members nationwide, who are supported with advice, adaptations, studio days, holidays, awards, exhibitions, a quarterly magazine and much more.
The charity is run entirely by volunteers and is funded by donations of working, photographic equipment. Visit the DPS website to donate or to find out more the work of the Disabled Photographers’ Society.
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