Year 9 student Luke Hudson has become the winner of a National Photographic Competition after beating hundreds of other students to claim his prize at the Royal Geographical Society in London. 

Luke was one of 30 students who participated in the Colliers Green Focus programme, which enabled children to explore their environment through the medium of photography. They were given the opportunity to spend a day with a professional photographer and geographer to discover the changing urban landscape in Leeds city centre. Armed with digital cameras, the group visited the area along the River Aire where they captured representations of Leeds and considered the contrasts between old and new.  It was a brilliant opportunity for the students to experience geography in a fun yet meaningful way.  The pupils were able to contextualize the urban and local geography they had seen in the classroom with many being able to make connections between the factors that led to the growth of Leeds and the recent developments in the city. 

They were led on their field trip by Richard Chivers, a professional photographer and Gyles Morris, a geography leader.  Richard said: "The students seemed to really enjoy the photography aspect of the day showing a real keen interest which was reflected in their photographs."

The students were asked to enter their top five photographs and a short list was chosen to be displayed at the Photographers’ Gallery in London during September.  Olivia McDermott, Laura McMullen, Kelsy Wharton and George Rainford were amongst the finalists who enjoyed a visit to the RGS for the national awards ceremony.  The judges had a difficult decision selecting a winner from the high standard of entries, but ultimately declared (a very modest!) Luke Hudson the winner.  The judges commented on the exceptional composition of the image that fully embraced the aims of the fieldtrip.