by Viclene Matthews 14.NOV.08

With his photo “Best friends”, Felix St Hill was adjudged overall winner in the Agency for Public Information (API) Independence Photography competition.{{more}}

At a prize giving ceremony which was held last Friday, November 7, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conference room, an elated St Hill expressed his surprise and said he was “quite proud” of his achievements.

St Hill thanked the API for hosting the competition and said he hopes that it would happen more often. For his accomplishments, St Hill walked home with EC$800 for placing first in the People and Culture category and a trophy for emerging the overall winner. Ray Victory was second in the People and Culture category with his photograph “People and Culture”, while Carenda Davis placed third with “Granddad Alone Time”.

In the Nature category, Samantha Ince took the first place with “See through glass”. She also tied for third with Andrew Burgin. Her third place photograph was “When the butterfly turned into a flower”, while Burgin’s was “Bamboo”. Patrick Hutchins placed second with “Bamboo”.

In the Architecture category, student of the St. Vincent Grammar School Keivi Howard placed first with “Stained Glass Windows”. Samantha Ince took the second position with “A Tale of two Cathedrals”, while Andrew Bramble was third with “Thatch Hut”.

All first place winners received $800, with $500 and $300 going to the second and third place winners, respectively.

Minister of Rural Transformation Selmon Walters commended the API for an excellent project and labeled the competition a “talent search”.

He said the photos displayed the “skills and talent that the people of this country possess”.

He described St Vincent and the Grenadines as one of the most beautiful places on earth and said he believes activities such as the photo competition would give us a chance to “look at it and appreciate it.”

Walters noted that if we do not take photos and document aspects of our heritage we will lose them as the years go on.

Chairperson of the National Independence Committee René Baptiste urged the API to host similar competitions in the future, along with an exhibition.

She said the exhibition could feature the “Then and Now” of St Vincent and the Grenadines so that persons would get an opportunity to see the changes that have taken place.

Baptiste, who is also Minister of Culture, stated that her ministry is documenting our history because many times they have had to source information on St Vincent and the Grenadines from either Jamaica or a Library in the UK.

She is hoping that the professional photographers “having seen this work” would be encouraged to form photography clubs in the schools. Baptiste also hopes “that out of this initiative we would be in position to get a fine selection to put on display at CARIFESTA in the Bahamas”.

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development Nathaniel Williams and Chief Judge Kingsley Roberts gave brief remarks.

The competition, which saw close to two hundred persons submitting entries, was held as part of our 29th Independence celebration under the theme “Yurumein, Land so beautiful”. (VM)