The Judges

The Chairman of the Judges for 2008 was Mr. Alan Brooking.

There were two judging groups this year representing Personal and Commissioned work. The Judges for the 2008 Awards were:

Russell Appleford, Richard Bull, Cordell Burke, Julian Cave, Christine de Blangy, Pete Denton, Brian Griffin, Sophie Hinds, Charlotte Holmes, Kathy Howes, Alyson Jones, Lucy McDowell, Nick Meek, Paul Miles, Lisa Pritchard, Stella Pye, Andy Regan, Karen Robins, Coral Stafford and Will Webb.

The Chairman of the Judges

A new position for 2008, the Chairman of the Judges, was introduced to Chair the 20 other judges and to make the judging process as fair and transparent as possible. The main purpose of the role was to uphold the briefing guidelines given to all the judges and to monitor and deal with any conflicting opinions from the judges so that every voice could be heard.

The Chairman’s role was particularly valuable during the second round of judging for the Awards 2008, when many discussions and differences of opinion were brought to the fore. The Chairman encouraged fair and definitive decision making during this process and where necessary chaired an open vote where the majority ruled.

The Chairman of the Judges for The Awards 2008 was Mr. Alan Brooking, who has been in the photography business for nearly 60 years. A photographer and art director, Alan was a major driving force behind significant changes at the AOP and the Awards nearly 20 years ago which makes him perfect to fulfil this inaugural role.

Alan Brooking in his own words:

“So I arrive into the 1928 world of Sydney, Australia. My folks love the place - but I don’t. No worries. At 18, I stow away on a UK-bound steamer. I swap race-car design for typography - then art-direction. Suddenly, its the 60’s JFK and the Beatles and I’m invited to join London’s top agency - CDP. After five glorious years there, I make the break and open as a smudger. I nearly skint myself turning down crap commissions, by hey - great ads reap top awards. I join fledgling AOP and ten years on, I’m Chairman - striving for our own office, own gallery and a funky magazine. Now, after thirty years, one Pregnant Man, A bit of A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (plus a bit of a sheep in Levi’s clothing), I can sit back with a gorgeous family (plus Miles, Fagen and Ravel), reflecting on a pretty jammy career - (‘Some blokes—eh?’)”

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The Personal Judges

Richard Bull

Richard Bull developed a relationship with photography at an early age and has been gathering momentum ever since. After spending five years studying at Chelsea School of Art and an additional four years with Stylorouge, Richard formed Yacht Associates in 1996. Seven years later he saw the formation of Generation Yacht Publishing which showcases unsung contemporary photography. In 2007 he introduced Yacht Film to the group, which as Creative Director he currently runs along side the commitments of Yacht Associates. His relationship with photography is an all encompassing, as commissioner, producer, art director, editor and on occasion photographer.

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Julian Cave

Julian Cave entered the world of advertising to explore how creative ideas influence the way people think and behave. He spent several years in client service working across a wide range of accounts before joining BBH in 1994. Since then he has moved into project management and art buying and has helped to shape high-profile campaigns for clients as diverse as Selfridges, Barclays, Vodafone and British Airways. As an Art Buyer, he likes to keep up-to-date with trends and techniques in commercial photography, across all genres. He enjoys witnessing the formation of big, potentially famous ideas and contributing to their development and realisation. At BBH, Julian has worked in partnership with some of the best creative brains in advertising, and still gets a buzz from it after more than 10 years.

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Christine de Blangy

As Senior Art Buyer at Leo Burnett, Christine de Blangy deals with photographic imagery on a daily basis doing everything from commissioning photography to buying stock imagery and illustration. She fell into the photographic industry after working in fashion and has not looked back since. Having been a part of the photographic industry for twenty years, she has witnessed the shift from analogue to digital and the invention of e-mail. Christine thrives off the industry’s intensity and enjoys its challenges but still cites her greatest achievement to be, having her son Elliott in a long lunch break!

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Brian Griffin

Since graduating in 1972 from the Manchester Polytechnic School of Photography Brian Griffin has become one of the most influential photographers of our time, with examples of his work in the collections of the V&A, The Arts Council of Great Britain and the National Portrait Gallery. Throughout his 35 year career so far, Brian has won numerous D&AD awards, a nomination as Photographer Of The Decade and the Photographic Book Award of the Primavera Fotográfica in Barcelona. He believes it takes a very brave person to undertake a career as a professional photographer and is grateful to be part of an industry that enables him to be creative on a daily basis.

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Sophie Hinds

Sophie started her career on the picture desk at ‘The Face’ and ‘Arena’ where she was inspired by great photographers and their work. She moved on to Saatchis where she spent 6 years, until moving to Publicis where she is now Head of Artbuying. Surrounding herself with photography on a daily basis, Sophie is constantly looking for new talent and always looks outside advertising for inspiration. She loves working with fantastic photographers and has particularly enjoyed working with people like Rankin, Marc Hom and Peter Rad. Sophie hopes that by giving photographers work in advertising, it enables them to work on personal projects and loves working in a role which allows her to constantly meet talented people and be constantly surrounded by great imagery.

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Charlotte Holmes

Charlotte Holmes currently works as the Assistant Curator of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Prior to joining the V&A, Charlotte worked for Nottingham City Museums and Galleries running several community outreach projects encouraging local teenagers to explore their culture, identity, and heritage through film and photography. Charlotte sees photography as a wonderfully expressive, yet accessible medium that has the power to evoke and create memories and emotions within people. At work she finds great joy in discovering rare prints and showing original photographic images to eager students.

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Alyson Jones

Alyson started her career within publishing where she spent over 12 years commissioning illustrators, designers, and photographers. Her career has spanned academic publishing - her first editorial job was at Cambridge University Press - educational publishing, and consumer and charity magazines where she has worked as contributing writer and deputy editor.

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Lucy McDowell

Lucy, who runs Swerve Photography, began her career working for advertising photographer Peter Lavery. Production assisting on global campaigns, she realized a love for the industry and found work in Art buying with Abbott Mead Vickers moving onto Maconochie Photography, before deciding to side-step into TV Commercials. After five years in TV production she was keen to get back to her first love, and so in 2005 Lucy set up Swerve. Representing six talented photographers, Swerve continues to go from strength to strength.

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Nick Meek

Nick Meek moved to London in 2000 where he met his agent, Siobhan Squire and together they began to shoot advertising campaigns for some of the city’s most esteemed agencies. Since then, Nick has worked on some of the biggest projects in advertising with clients including American Airlines, VW, D&AD, CNN, IBM, The Times and Playstation. Nick has received photography awards throughout Europe and the United States and takes great pride in being asked to judge the photography of others. Nick’s career has allowed him to explore not only the world abroad, but the world in front of him and around him, giving him great pleasure on a daily basis.

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Andy Regan

Andy Regan joined Iris in 2005, bringing with him twenty years of advertising and integrated experience. He has worked for DMB&B, IMP, Highway One (in San Francisco) and Publicis, picking up over fifty awards along the way. Describing himself as ‘competitive’, Andy will challenge anyone who says different.

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Coral Stafford

Coral Stafford has been working in the photographic industry for 10 years. Starting in design, she went on to work at Van Hauen Moore as a photographer’s agent. After five years, she moved on to Leo Burnett to be an art buyer. Coral now works as a freelance Art Buyer, where she has the opportunity to work with many different photographic talents. She loves that each project brings new challenges and that her job always offers new experiences to learn more from.

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Will Webb

Will Webb has been a freelance Art director and designer since 2006, working mainly for clients in the publishing industry in the UK, Netherlands and Italy. Prior to this he was the Design Director at Bloomsbury Publishing for 11 years. Working with images on a daily basis, Will commissions photographers, Art directs shoots, and is involved with picture editing and picture layout.

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The Commissioned Judges

Russell Appleford

Russell's skill and appreciation of visual media has seen him work as a freelance visual effects supervisor and animation director for just over a decade. During this time he has contributed to the production of numerous commercials, on-air brandings, documentaries and feature films. In 2004 Russell devised the on-air idents for the Channel 4 re-brand campaign. He then spent the next three years overseeing every aspect of the project for which he has now been awarded one Gold and two Silver D&AD pencils. He is currently in pre-production as the writer and director of a short film entitled "40 years."

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Cordell Burke

Cordell Burke is currently the Executive Creative Director of TEQUILA\ London, managing a department of 30 on and offline creatives. Prior to this his experience includes; producing TV, press, posters and Direct Marketing for clients such as American Express, IBM, BT, Royal Mail, BP, Prudential and Carbon Trust. Having won many awards for his work, Cordell has also been a regular on judging panels and was Chairman of the Campaign Direct Awards in 2006. He enjoys the challenge, excitement and energy that comes from working across the broad spectrum of Advertising, Direct Marketing, Digital and Design and sometime this great variety makes him feel like he is back at Art College.

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Pete Denton

Pete Denton asks what else could he have done with a passion for drawing and daydreaming but pursue a career in Art Direction and Photography? After studying Graphics and Photography at Leeds College of Art his first job and first 48 sheet poster at Brunnings Yorkshire involved putting the X in Halifax with a flight of ducks. He moved to London and spent more than a decade working at a variety of agencies including Y&R and HJSW on a raft of high-profile clients including BT, KLM and American Express picking up national and international awards along the way. Pete decided to move back to Yorkshire in a moment of blinding clarity following the arrival of his children. The next fourteen years were spent working as a freelance photographer and art director with clients and agencies including Getty Images. He now works for Propaganda where he can combine both along with his love of conceptual thinking/daydreaming. He still considers himself a student and says despite having worked in the industry for thirty odd years, his pilot light’s still on.

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Kathy Howes

After receiving a degree in Graphic Design, Kathy began her career as an art director working for a variety of publishing companies. While working as an art director she was introduced to the world of art buying and has not looked back. She is currently working at CHI & Partners and loves the excitement and creativity associated with her job. Recently, Kathy has been part of a team at CHI who have created a website for the ‘No More Landmines’ charity which includes an online exhibition displaying works by some of the world’s most celebrated photographers. Her negotiating skills and appreciation for photography have helped her find success in the creative industry.

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Paul Miles

Paul Miles has been an Art Director for the last 16 years, working at Leo Burnett, BBH, and Saatchi & Saatchi. Since 2006 Paul has worked at Ogilvy where he constantly commissions cutting edge photography on the various projects that come through his office. Consistently surprised and inspired by the work he sees, Paul cites working with Sir John Hegarty as one of his great professional achievements and refers to him as a genius, a true gentleman and a legend.

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Lisa Pritchard

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Stella Pye

Stella Pye sees the visual image as one of the most fundamental forms of communication we have, because it is the most emotive and memorable. After graduating from Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design in 1987, Stella has worked as both a Graphic Designer, and an Art Director before becoming a photographers agent in 1993. Currently she represents photographers Giles Revell and Nick Jell. Her clients include Nike, Sony, Sony Playstation, VW, Audi, Volvo, Mercedes, Honda, Land Rover, Adidas, Cannon, Olympus, Levis, Guardian, Channel 4, Royal Academy of Arts and Design Council. After twenty years in the industry, Stella continues to be blown away by the difference a great photographer can make.

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Karen Robins

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