Last night we had the very great pleasure of seeing our new friend Billy Law take second place in the inaugural Shutterbug 07 competition for non-professional photographers with his Pumping Iron series.
Billy got behind the scenes at the National Amateur Body Building Association competition to capture the real theatre and humanity — and humour! — of this event.
You can see more of Billy’s work on his Flickr stream, including his Mardi Gras set. Actually, take the time to check out all of Billy Law’s sets.
If you’re quick, you can see all of the images from Billy and the rest of the ten finalists at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington tonight.
Oh, and just for the record, Jeremy Wilmotte won first prize with some astounding surf photography — including several images which took it outside that often-cliched genre. (I’m not sure if that link goes to his competition work, but it’ll give you an idea.) And Wacharachat (‘Oat’) Vaiyaboon came third with a series of waterscapes — a bit too “postcard” for my tastes, but very finely crafted.
[Update 29 March 2007: I’ve added links to Oat’s work. I seem to like it better tonight than I did at the cinema last night. Maybe I’m seeing it in its own right now, as opposed to comparing it to some very distinctive material.]