We were simply overwhelmed by the amount of entries for this year's competition. Whether it was the quality, the thought or stories behind the photographs, the exotic scenes or the beautiful simplicity of deeply personal photographs, the judges found reaching decisions very hard indeed.
Once again assembled at the Cow, Tom Conran's restaurant in west London, the judges advocated their favourites amid heated discussions. Photographer John Reardon said: 'I'm looking for photographic quality and things that I haven't seen before.' He wanted something original, something with some thought behind it. 'I hate looking at pictures that are lazy. I don't like it when someone's looked through their pictures and thought "that looks interesting" and sent it in, instead of really thinking about the shot they're looking for.'
The judges were assigned the different categories ('food and people': photographer Harry Borden, The Observer's picture editor Greg Whitmore and OFM's Anna Bassett; 'food glorious food': Nigel Slater, Practical Photography magazine's editor Andrew James and OFM editor Nicola Jeal; and 'food for thought': Olivia Cheng from Seeds of Change and John Reardon). Many of the panel loved the unexpected bright colours of the rural Chinese tabletop in Jason Lowe's photograph 'Lunch in China', and also the quiet simplicity of a lone man having his breakfast in Rio taken by Robert Huggins.
Photographs that were particularly favoured by the judges were those with a story behind them - like 'food for thought' winner Dean Chapman's photograph of his family eating dinner in Japan which John Reardon admired for its 'reportage qualities' and David Thurston's photo 'Breaking the Fast' which perfectly captured a moment. 'Is He Dead?' by John Roberts generated a huge amount of discussion. OFM editor Nicola Jeal said: 'This made me laugh out loud. I think it's brilliant and original, and I love the colour and humour in it.'
Although each judge had a favourite, our winning picture, 'Widow in Her Kitchen' by Ikuko Tsuchiya, was agreed upon almost unanimously - Nigel Slater was 'incredibly moved' by the photograph, while Nicola Jeal thought it was a fantastic example of portraiture photography. The three winning and the 36 short-listed pictures can all be seen at the.gallery@Oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, London SE1, until 10 September.
