Press Photographer’s Year
A picture taken in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by freelance Nigel Dickinson helped him to the first prize in the features category of the Press Photographer’s Year competition for 2008.
It was from a travel feature on the railways of Cambodia. Nigel Dickinson wrote: “The journey from Phnom Penh to Battambang is the last working route. A passenger train operates only at weekends.
“Max speed is about 30kmh, often slower due to the track’s terrible condition. Carriages are dilapidated, with holes in the floor and spaces for windows.
“In rural areas, the track is a lifeline, and used for local transport on ‘bamboo trains’ powered by belt-motors, or pushcarts.
“In the city, the railway has a life of its own, where people live and work nearby or on the track itself.”
The Press Photographer’s Year — sponsored by Canon and the British Press Photographers Association — is in its third year as the premier competition for British photographers.
The one-time leading competition, the Picture Editors Awards, ceased this year, with the organisers saying it was no longer possible to secure the backing they needed.