Oldham teenager's images of foxes win prize in competition

A striking series of images of red foxes have won the runner-up prize in the Portfolio category of the prestigious RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2020. 

The pictures were taken by 16-year-old Ben Harrott, from Oldham, whose photos were picked from a record 11,000 entries this year.  

Youngsters aged up to 18 years old had been invited to capture the animal kingdom on camera or on a mobile device for this year’s RSPCA Young Photographer Awards.  

Commenting on ’Red Fox amongst the buttercups’, one of the five pictures in the winning series, Ben said: "When I first found the Red Fox family in early May I decided to sit and observe the movements of the vixen and the dog fox and keep a good distance. This is when tracking them I found they would go through a huge buttercup field every night without fail.

"For a few nights I waited there but failed as they would choose another path through the field at a distance from me. Finally, by total surprise one night I saw the vixen running through the buttercup field straight towards me. When she was about 10 metres away, she stopped and stared at me." 

This year’s awards were blind-judged online by a panel of experts in wildlife photography, including photographer and TV presenter and RSPCA Vice President Chris Packham.

Also on the panel were award-winning wildlife photographer and filmmaker, BBC drone pilot and new judge, Sam Rowley, wildlife photographer and former competition winner Catriona Parfitt, professional wildlife photographer and photographic guide Ellie Rothnie, nature photographer Julian Cox and the RSPCA’s multimedia manager Andrew Forsyth and also new for this year, senior photographer Emma Jacobs.  

Judge and awards host Chris Packham said: “The quality of entries this year as the competition celebrates its 30th anniversary has been astounding.  We felt that the lockdown ironically worked in all the young photographers favour; they really did enter fantastic pictures.  

“I’ve been judging the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards since they started. It’s exciting to have seen it move with the times, with new options regularly being introduced.  This year we introduced a new category called Small World. We didn’t want our young photographers to feel limited by lockdown, so we devised this to inspire them to record what was close to home. We needn’t have worried though, as lockdown saw our entrants’ creativity and imagination soar. 

“We’re also pleased that the Mobile Phone and Devices category continues, because as no separate camera is required, this has really opened up the competition to almost anyone.

“The RSPCA Young Photographer Awards is a true celebration of the animal kingdom and one I feel honoured to be involved with. Every person shortlisted should be proud of their contribution to a world that’s kinder to all animals.”

The winning images across nine categories, including three different age groups and an Instagram category, were announced during an online awards ceremony hosted by Chris Packham.

The ‘Overall Winner’ was chosen from the nine categories by the judges. Earlier this year, a special social media ‘Instagram’ RSPCA Young Photographer Awards category took place online and in addition, a selection of photos from this year’s Mobile Phone & Devices and Picture Perfect Pets will be put to the public vote in the spring of 2021 to decide the ‘People’s Choice Award.

Reflecting on the strength of the competition this year, Chris added: “I’m really pleased to see everyday, overlooked animals given some leverage here. It’s a new take on something very familiar that normally gets a bad press. From a wonderfully commanding image of a woodlouse that looks like an alien to the dynamic composition of two pigeons, one with a scabby foot, it’s nice to see so many creative photos of a range of wildlife and people’s pets in such a strong competition.

"It needs real imagination to make commonplace species interesting, and demonstrates that the photographer has been really innovative. Top work to all the finalists and thank you for sharing and inspiring us with your passion for nature and photography.”

For a full gallery of the winning images, visit https://young.rspca.org.uk/ypa/home