Swansea: Photographer with two years' experience snaps up top award

Joann Randles was awarded first place in the portrait category press photographer of the year competition

A press photographer in Wales who took up the profession two years ago says she is "overwhelmed" after winning a prestigious award.

Joann Randles, 34, from Swansea took first prize in the portrait category of the British Press Photographers' Association's (BPPA) photographer of the year competition.

The former film and television producer saw all her work dry up during the first Covid lockdown and started to experiment taking pictures.

"It became increasingly difficult to express myself creatively," she remembered. "I started taking pictures, mainly of Gower [wild] ponies."

Joann got her start taking pictures of a the Cefn Bryn ponies, a wild herd on Gower

After honing her skills on horses, Joann said her interest turned to capturing people.

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Her first break came after a photoshoot with the Rother Bobbers, a group of women who swim in Langland Bay.

One of her snaps of the women won a Daily Express photo award in 2021.

Joann's first photography award was for this picture of cold water swimmers in Swansea

"It ended being exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was just surreal," she said.

"I was able to transpose my skills from TV and put them into photography, because really it is all about telling stories," she said. "It's just with photography the story in a single frame."

Joann's winning entry included "Brilliantly British", a cold water swimmer in Swansea dressed up for jubilee celebrations

Joann got her press card in 2021 and started working as a freelancer for a photo agency.

Like most journalists, she said, her "brain is working 99% of the time coming up with ideas".

Another photograph in her award winning collection was of Elvis tribute artist, Darren 'Graceland' Jones, 50, from Pontypool

It also means dropping everything when a storm rolls through Wales or a big story breaks.

But her passion is portraiture.

"It's really important to get the backstory... the personalities and anything you can add to the photo about who they are as a person," she said.

The portfolio of six portraits that won top honours at this year's BPPA competition includes a snap of Darren 'Graceland' Jones, a well-known Elvis tribute artist from Pontypool.

"I wanted to photograph him in his home environment away from spotlight," she said. "He's still in the spotlight but in his living room."

Another of Randles' pictures shows Olha Boyko wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered dress as her family celebrate Ukraine Independence Day

On winning a top award after just two years in the business Joann said: "It's been overwhelming.

"I'm really proud, but I never expected to receive the recognition I've had so rapidly."

Joann captured Carmarthen coracle fisherman Alex Hughes about to launch on the River Towy

"Working alone you are not seeing what you are doing," she said, explaining that her confidence has grown with her peers appreciating her work.

Her goal is to do more UK-wide and international work in the next two years.

This portrait of a traditional Welsh folk dancer was taken near Ammanford, Carmarthenshire

For aspiring photographers, her advice is to "just pick up a camera" but she warns there is a "phenomenal" amount of hard work to do.

"Don't expect them to come to you, you have to get yourself out there."

This portrait is of the Ukrainian refugee and ballerina, Kateryna Andrushyna, 12, demonstrating her skills

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