Young Photographers' Awards 2026

Awards to winners of Haddenham and District Rotary's 'Young Photographer Competition 2026' were presented at a ceremony on Wednesday 21st October at St Mary's School Haddenham.

There was no defined theme for this year's competition – this was left to the participants' own creative thoughts and ideas.

Local professional and award winning photographer Paul Wilkinson hosted the presentations (for the 16th year in succession) in his inimitably engaging and entertaining manner. He also emphasised the quality of the award-winning images by superimposing each one as if used in a commercial setting, either as a book cover, a magazine cover or as a large wall-mounted display. Every image was clearly capable of being utilised credibly and to great effect in such applications.

A full list of all prizewinners is summarised in the PDF featured on this webpage.

Commenting on the continuing high standard of the entries and reflecting on the sheer joy that photography can bring, Paul gave generous encouragement to entrants and parents alike. His also provided a stimulating and insightful commentary on layout and format, and useful tips for improving techniques for future competition entries. His enthusiasm in encouraging youngsters to engage in photography was clear for all to see.

The prizewinners' certificates and monetary prizes were presented by Pauline Dichler, the current President of Haddenham & District Rotary.

In her closing comments, Pauline was keen to extend Rotary's grateful thanks to Paul Wilkinson for his key role in judging the images and highlighting their merits, and to St Mary's School for the use of the building. She also thanked the young competition entrants for submitting their wonderful images for this year's competition..

The full portfolio of prizewinning images is presented in the Galleries section of this website, together with photos of the young photographers receiving their awards.

Here are the links:

Prizewinners (or their representatives on the night)

Prizewinning images submitted in the Junior category

Prizewinning images submitted in the Intermediate category

Prizewinning images submitted in the Senior category