A total of 734 works, a record, have been submitted by 93 participants for the 43rd Open Annual Exhibition and Competition of Photographic Art 2008.
A spokesman for the Malta Photographic Society said 253 photographs were chosen to be displayed at the exhibition. The images will consist of 60 monochrome prints, 84 colour prints and 109 colour projected images/slides.
The photographs were judged by a panel headed by America's Wade Clutton.
The MPS Gold Awards went to Charles Grixti for his monochrome print Ninu Ta' Tikk and to Joe P. Smith for his colour print The Bar Lady. The MPS Silver Awards were won by Charles Pace for his monochrome print The Veteran and Martin Scerri for his colour print Vittoriosa. In the colour projected images/slides category, Alfred J. Zammit received the MPS Gold Award for his work A Vivid Whirl while Martin Scerri won the MPS Silver Award for his image Eyeing The Ball.
The monochrome ISF Diploma was awarded to Christian Fenech for his print Sewing My Life Away and Christopher Azzopardi was awarded the ISF Diploma for his colour print Moses.
Joseph Grixti was awarded the ISF Diploma in the colour projected images/slides category for his work The Eagle.
Ronald Balzan, Paul Azzopardi and Keith Borg were each awarded Honourable Mention certificates for their monochrome prints Fisherman's Rest, Mexican Lady and Derelict respectively.
Honourable Mentions the colour prints category were awarded to Alfred J. Zammit and Christopher Azzopardi for their work Għajn Tuffieħa Rainbow and Farmer And His Vegetables, respectively. Mr Azzopardi was also awarded an Honourable Mention for his colour projected images/slides work Touching Look.
The Pentax Award for best work with a local theme was given to Noel Harmsworth for his monochrome print Gambli.
The Tony S. Mangion Award for the best portrait work went to Louis Agius for his colour projected image Colourful and Charles Pace won the Hasselblad Award for the Best Experimental Work with his colour projected image Hot Chilli Fire.
The exhibition, to be held at the Italian Cultural Institute, Valletta under the patronage of Images Sans Frontières, will be launched on June 5 and will be open to the public between June 6 and 20. It will be open Mondays to Wednesdays from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m.; on Thursdays from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2.30 to 6.50 p.m. and on Fridays from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The exhibition will not open on Saturdays and Sundays.
www.maltaphotographicsociety.org