UPY 2025

UPY  British Waters Wide Angle - Highly Commended
'Suspended in Time'
Guy Trees

The slate mining industry was brutal, burdened by recession, war, strikes, and cultural and language barriers between Welsh quarrymen and English landowners. Intense financial pressure often resulted in these underground industries being closed down overnight, the pumps switched off, and the mines left to flood as the water table returned to ground level. Here, a chain ladder remains suspended underwater, deep in the mountains of North Wales. Quarrymen working here would make the descent down this precarious 15m ladder every day to reach the quarry floor. I wanted this photo to give scale to the ladder, and to provide a glimpse into the forgotten times represented by these pieces of human history. With no ambient light, 143,000 lumens of lights were carefully positioned around the enormous chamber to allow this shot.

Judge's comment: A very unusual image from British waters! I even didn't know that there are mines in the UK, which makes the image already fascinating. Very good idea of the photographer to have the ladder in the middle and adding the two divers with their lights on each side of it. I assume there is an additional, bigger light on the right which helps to illuminate the scenery. Only the blurry edges are a bit unfortunately to the overall image quality.

Tobias Friedrich