April 23 was the day that the UK jury members came together to review all the submissions for the Young Creative Chevrolet national competition. With 35 students involved in 15 entries across the three categories; video, visual arts and photography, there were strong opinions, leading to fantastic debate.

The UK jury members included an award winning documentary film maker, a fashion and arts blogger, a remote control car artist, a classic car photographer and a digital strategist from VBS.tv. With a broad range of experience between all jury members, across many disciplines, the debate was lively and comments productive – all members of the jury were keen to see new work, particularly those of young budding artists.

The reviewing kicked off with the video category with some divided opinions in the group leading to the chance for real discussion about the merits of each piece against the brief. Visual arts was a more straightforward category to award a winner, as there was a clear piece of work which stood out beyond the others – it was really felt this winner could go far in the European finals!

Photography, the UK’s most popular category, had a large amount of entries and meant there were many discussions around which piece responded closest to the brief. Interestingly though the winning photograph won the hearts and minds of the majority present, and was a clear winner from the outset.

On May 10, the students received their prizes at an awards ceremony at the Whitechapel Gallery in  London.

Here are the UK’s winners:

Photography

1. Lyndsay Eaton, Kerry Baxter, Hayley Brooks, Rachel Astle
2. Stephaine Gilbert, Luke Buckless, Joanne Cooper
3. Gabriel Hutchinson, James Mayou, Valentino Brindley, Mitch Rigby, Eliot Day

Video

2. Priya Mistry, Mark Boam, Shameena Kauser
3. Stephen Middleton, Ben Whitmore

Visual Arts

1. Charlotte Saunt