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Regional press news - this story published 23 May 2000

Photography student is a class act

Student Matthew Swingler
is set for high exposure after scooping a top press photography prize.

He was named one of 10 Class of 2000 winners when judges focused on his work in a contest that attracted thousands of entries nationwide. He came top in the category for news.

Matthew (29) has been a pre-entry student at Sheffield Norton College for the past year and all the work was shot during that time.

It's a coup both for Matthew - who's hoping his work will gain a wide audience as he searches for a job when his course ends this summer - and for the college, which has now spawned a winner two years running.

All the winning pictures are being published in a 16-page supplement to the current issue of Professional Photographer and Digital Pro magazine, which ran the competition with sponsor Kodak.

Apart from his year at Sheffield, Matthew worked in Kosovo before the conflict there started in earnest, getting press accreditation as the official photographer for - wait for it - a radio station!

He said: "I postponed the course and went to Kosovo, selling some of my work to Reuters and AP - foreign correspondency is what I'm eventually aiming for.

"But I wanted to do the pre-entry course to get more knowledge and practical experience of the day-to-day working life of a press photographer."

His three winning pictures featured:

A hostage situation in Sheffield, taken when Matthew was getting work experience at the Sheffield Star;

Ken Livingstone at a London mayoral debate, taken while working for the Daily Telegraph;

Work to repair the Buckingham Palace flag pole after the flag became tangled.

Matthew has not had a lifelong interest in professional photography. A graduate with a civil engineering degree, he spent two years travelling before becoming a draughtsman in a heavy-engineering firm and then worked as a classroom assistant at a primary school before travelling to China...and taking lots of photos. The quality of his pictures made him realise where his future lay.

Look out for his name later in the year: he's been shortlisted for the Fuji Cool 2000 Awards on June 21 and has had some pictures kept back for possible inclusion in an exhibition to be run by The Sunday Times.

To see some of his work click here

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