An emotive picture of children praying in east Africa – captured by a Lowestoft photographer – has been commended at the world's largest photography competition.
The works of Julian Claxton, from Oulton, has just been placed in the top 50 in the world at the Open Professional category of the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards.
With more than 227,000 entries from 183 countries received for this year's Sony World Photography Awards, Mr Claxton's stunning image – entitled Morning Prayer – was selected by the judges.
Mr Claxton's image – which was taken during chapel in a rural school in south west Uganda – was recognised as one of the highly-commended entries in the open category of the competition.
The editorial and documentary photographer, who also won the 2015 Travel Media Awards and was a category winner in the 2016 Event Photography Awards, captured the children praying during one of his frequent trips to East Africa, where he runs his project Give a Child a Camera. This sees Mr Claxton working with orphans, teaching them photography and telling their story through their images.
He said: 'I am really thrilled to be recognised again for the quality of my photographic imagery. I feel so fortunate that I make my living as a photographer, a job which forever presents me with a wonderful array of people to meet and photograph.
'I also feel terribly privileged to be able to run the Give a Child a Camera workshops in East Africa. The projects are funded by donations while personal and travel costs are all self-funded. I've met so many African children who have such a thirst for life and learning, it's a pleasure to work with them and an honour to be able to document their life.'
As a commended photographer, Mr Claxton's image will be shown alongside the awards' other commended and winning images at the Sony World Photography Awards and Martin Parr – 2017 Exhibition in London from April 21 to May 7. It will also be given a global audience as its published on the World Photography Organisation website.
Mr Claxton's work can be viewed at www.julianclaxtonphotography.com
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