Photomarathons have proved popular across Europe, with regular events in Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France and Russia as well global event in Vancouver, Cape Town and Toronto. The first UK Photomarathon was held in Cardiff in the summer of 2004 when 120 people took up the challenge. Last year, on June 12th 2010, the sixth UK Photomarathon saw 400 entrants taking part.
Last year marked the UK event’s first time as a fully digital competition and the event will now continue as a digital only event. At 10am on the day of the Photomarthon, each entrant will have their camera and memory card checked and verified and then will be issued with the first set of 4 topics. They have the next four hours to shoot one image per topic, in the same order as the topics are listed. Four hours later at 2pm the next set of topics are released. Each entrant must personally collect the set of topics from the HQ, and have their entry card stamped to prove attendance. This process is repeated again at 6pm. The HQ will then receive the completed entries – via direct download from your memory card – from 7pm until 10pm.
The topics are kept secret until revealed every four hours. They will offer plenty of room for interpretation and creativity.
After the Photomarathon day, all the images are collated and printed, before our panel of judges meet to decide the winners. All the photos – yes, all of them – then go on show in a free public exhibition in Cardiff’s Old Library on The Hayes. It’s quite a collection.
