The Hartlepool student who has won a top accolade as a photographer - and here is the photo she achieved it with

Lauren Fletcher, a student at The Northern School of Art, has had one of her pictures included in the 2020 AOP (Association of Photographers) Awards Book.

The first year BA (Hons) Commercial Photography degree student was selected as one of the finalists in a category which celebrates student talent.

It’s all down to her eye-catching milk bath image.

Lauren said: “I never expected to be a finalist as I entered to get experience of what the briefs were looking for."

She said she ‘almost didn’t believe it’ when she got the email confirming the honour.

Lauren said nothing like this had happened to her before but she was ‘happy that people were going to be able to see my work’.

The awards from one of the world’s most highly regarded professional photographers' associations showcase the best in photography amongst students and aim to help ‘provide that all-important step up to the professional arena’.

The AOP Student Awards have been described as ‘an opportunity to get a first look at the potential stars of tomorrow’.

Lauren’s image features in the Finalists’ Gallery and she added: “The idea behind the image was to have a dreamy atmosphere to create a simple image that encompassed life’s imperfections frozen in time.”

Lauren added: “I chose to study at The Northern School of Art because it stood out against the other colleges and universities I visited, with the equipment available to borrow and use and the freedom to explore the style of photography we’re interested in right from the start.

“In the future I would love to be able to own my business or work in a magazine.

“My advice to anyone studying photography would be to tell them to keep shooting all the time, try out new ideas as you don’t know what images you could achieve from the shoot.”

The Northern School of Art’s photography course won its own AOP Award when it was named course of the year in 2017.

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