Creative, commercial photographers.

Shot Up North – The SUN awards 2010

August 27, 2010

Since 1988, Shot Up North (SUN) has showcased the top commercial photography that the northern regions of the United Kingdom have to offer. The showcase exhibition is an annual judged photography competition, which provides the event organisers with the opportunity to reward and recognise exceptional commercial photography. Commercial photographers from the northern regions of the country are eligible to enter the competition if they work in the field of design, advertising, editorial or fashion photography.

The SUN awards originally began as a one-off open exhibition, with no judging, for northern members of the Association of Photographers. In subsequent years a judging system was introduced where all members of the Association of Photographers were invited to a viewing day and given the opportunity to select the images in order of preference – the most popular 60 photographs then made up the exhibition.

In 1993 production began on the SUN book, which contained the 50 winners’ photographs from that year’s exhibition. A thousand or so copies were then distributed to agencies and other creative companies across the country. The judging also became increasingly formal with a panel drawn up from leading photographers, art buyers and designers.

This year many a creative photographer from Leeds, Manchester and surrounding northern cities will enter the SUN awards, which are run by photographers for the shared benefit of the industry as a non-profit event. The SUN continues to be an important source of reference for all commissioners of photography, whether they are agencies, creative, or corporate buyers.