Bryan Dooley, a final year photography student at the Royal College of Art (RCA) has won the AkzoNobel Photography Award for his use of colour as an aesthetic and rhetorical tool.
The competition, in partnership with the RCA, aims to engage with tomorrow’s talented artists and give them the opportunity to hone and develop their skills. Students avidly took up the opportunity to explore the concept and use of colour in greater depth and the resulting portfolio of works is very impressive.
When putting together his winning portfolio of images, Bryan focused on exploring the indexical nature of colour, investigating how colour can be used to alienate the object and abstract the form of the image. His colour pictures figure as ‘stand ins’ for the world at large, directing and focusing the viewers’ attention. He employed recognisable strategies of studio, documentary and abstract to define the viewer’s interaction, thus allowing the images to open out onto the world in a resonant way.
On presenting the glass trophy to the winner, Guy Williams, UK Country Director for AkzoNobel, said: “This was a fantastic and wonderfully, imaginative brief, which ties in with AkzoNobel’s work in chromatic exploration. I am delighted to have been involved in this project and the staggering variety of interpretation has provided me with a real stimulus. Colour is at the heart of everything we do as a business because we believe it really makes a difference to people’s lives; whether that’s transforming buildings and city quarters around the world with the ‘Let’s Colour’ project or capturing people’s imagination with inspiring art through our foundation*. I would like to congratulate each student for the remarkable results they achieved through the competition.”
Bryan Dooley, competition winner, said: “It has been a fantastic opportunity for me to be given such an interesting brief to explore. Working in the studio, I wanted to use objects you find in everyday life – cheaper, disposable items – and give them a second life using my knowledge and interpretation of colour from growing up. I’m delighted to have won the award. To get that recognition and the acknowledgement of the time and work that went into this project is a great building block for my career as an artist.”
Sarah Jones, Photography Tutor said: “Each of the shortlisted students has responded to this project in a thoughtful and often exciting way. The exhibition at the Royal College of Art for the AkzoNobel Photography Award demonstrates just how diverse and fascinating our historical, cultural and personal relationship to colour can be. We are grateful to AkzoNobel for their generous support of this project”.
The competition was judged by a distinguished panel including well know author David Campany, the RCAs Acting Dean of Fine Art Olivier Richon, AkzoNobel’s Director of Corporate Communications John McLaren and Guy Williams, AkzoNobel’s UK Country Director.
The full judging panel is as follows:
| Olivier Richon | RCA, Acting Dean of Fine Art / Chair |
| Guy Williams | AkzoNobel, Managing Director, Decorative Paints UK & Ireland and AkzoNobel UK Country Director |
| John McLaren | AkzoNobel, Director of Corporate Communications |
| David Campany | Author |
| Hermione Wiltshire | RCA, Acting Head of Photography |
| Jo Stockham | RCA, Head of printmaking |
| Angus Hyland | Pentagram |
To learn more about AkzoNobel’s Art Foundation please see: http://www.artfoundation.akzonobel.com/index.php?lang=en