Kids photo comp highlights environment

 

BY JULIA WADE

A globally significant day encouraging worldwide awareness and protection of the environment has been honoured by Mangawhai children via Polaroid. 

In acknowledgement of World Environment Day on June 5, Mangawhai Beach School (MBS) students were invited to capture their ideas and thoughts around the world’s plastic waste crisis in the MBS World Environment Day Photography Competition. 

MBS teacher and Environment Unit holder for the school, Jackie Fanning, says the theme, chosen by the United Nations Environmental Programme who organise WED, encouraged the students to consider ‘how we can make changes in our everyday lives to reduce the heavy burden of plastic pollution on our natural places, our wildlife and our own health’. 

Entries were judged by local photographer Jonny Davis. 

“This is the second year running the school has had a photography competition to celebrate World Environment Day,” she says. “Certificates were presented on the night of June 5 at the Plastic Free Mangawhai and MBS Envirogroup's 'Waste Free Lunch Boxes' evening, and Plastic Free also donated t-shirts to the winners of each syndicate.” 

The school regularly holds initiatives concerning the environment to help students broaden their understanding of the impact of waste and people’s everyday choices, including a recent mufti-day Fanning says. 

“The brief was for children to wear pre-loved clothing, either hand-me-downs or items bought from an op shop, to acknowledge that 'fast fashion' is the second most polluting industry after oil.”




 


1: First place in the Junior School category went to 5-year-old Lara Lay with her compelling message in the sand. Davis says he chose the photo due to its ‘great foreground detail and depth’ and how the image was a ‘nice way of showing how to use the beach without showing people’.

2: Eight-year-old Keira Morris received first prize for her creations made from old bike wheels and bits of plastic. “These wheels help the environment because they have been made from bits of reused rubbish,” she says. “They spin in the wind and are very pretty.”

Davis agreed with Keira, saying the photo beautifully illustrated how ‘we can look after the ocean without showing the ocean itself’. He also said it had ‘great colours and movement… nice composition with the installation spread across the image’.

3: Senior School student, 10-year-old Sophie-Leigh Henderson, won first prize as ‘she totally got the brief’. Davis says Sophie-Leigh’s piece showed ‘great composition, capturing the problem and made the work location-specific and therefore relevant to us... as well as having ‘nice situated colours’.

4 & 5: Two students shared first prize in the Intermediate level. Minnie Stratton’s photo ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ was ‘conceptually strong, using reusable materials for the shot,’ and was a ‘nice artistic arrangement with strong contrast and lines’ and ‘gorgeous punchy colours’ Davis says. 

Twelve-year-old Scarlet Walker’s ‘It’s Your Choice’, won her equal first prize due to its relevance, ‘a very current topic, reusable bags’, Davis says. ‘Shows with clarity that we do have a choice and she captures one of these choices really well.’ Also ‘good colours and shows a nice time of day’.