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Tuesday 27 Aug 2013

National Railway Museum to exhibit best of landscape photography competition entries

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National

For the first time, all winners and commended entries from the Landscape Photographer of the Year Award’s special railway category will be displayed in a new exhibition at the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York, this November.

Network Rail has supported the competition for four years and more than 40 photographs of the national rail network have been commended within the Lines in the Landscape special award since 2010; all will be exhibited at the NRM. The museum will also be the first to exhibit the 2013 Lines in the Landscape winner before it is showcased with all the other category winners at the National Theatre in London in December.

Ruth Leach, Interpretation Developer at the National Railway Museum commented: “Photography and rail go hand in hand and we’re proud to be hosting this exhibition at our museum this year and to be the first to showcase the winner. These images convey a sense of momentum and speed – fitting in a year that has seen the museum celebrate the anniversary of Mallard breaking the world speed steam record. Entry is free and we’d recommend that anyone who has a love of art, photography or the rails to pop in and have a look.”

David Higgins, Network Rail chief executive said: “This year, we’ve already taken the Landscape Photographer of the Year exhibition on the road into five of our biggest and busiest stations, so that we could share beautiful images with the millions travelling through. The National Railway Museum exhibition will be yet another opportunity to share Britain’s railway at its very best, from treasured Victorian structures to modern stations and speeding trains. I am in no doubt that visitors will be inspired to travel and pick up a camera by seeing all the winners and runners up from four years of our ‘Lines in the Landscape’ Award for the first time; I am very much looking forward to seeing it myself.”

Founder of the Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards, Charlie Waite added: “The help that we have received from Network Rail over recent years has allowed the competition to bring landscape photography to an enthusiastic and increasingly wider audience. The exhibition at the National Railway Museum is the perfect complement to our exhibition at the National Theatre in London. Our entries come from all over the country and beyond and it has always been my dream to exhibit the winning images more widely; a dream that our relationship with both Network Rail and the National Railway Museum is helping to realise.”

The exhibition will open on the 23^rd November 2013 and run until 6^th May 2014. Entry to the Museum and the exhibition is free.

• The winners of the 2013 Landscape Photographer of the Year competition will be announced in late October 2013.
• The National Railway Museum in York has the largest collection of railway objects in the world and attracts over 700,000 visitors per year. The collection includes over 300 locomotives and rolling stock, 628 coins and medals, 4899 pieces of railway uniform and costume, railway equipment, documents, records, artwork and railway related photographs. A world class collection of Royal trains, including a collection of Royal carriages, from those used by Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II, are housed at the Museum. Admission is free. www.nrm.org.uk

• Take a view, the Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards, was founded in 2006 by Charlie Waite, one of today’s most respected landscape photographers. The aim of the competition is to bring landscape photography to a wider audience and to showcase the talents of photographers from Great Britain and beyond, whilst celebrating the beauty and variety of the UK’s landscape. With a total prize fund worth £20,000, plus an eight-week exhibition at the National Theatre and the publication of a full colour book of best entries, Take a view is an important annual competition for photographers of all ages. www.take-a-view.co.uk