Clean Coasts were thrilled to announce the winners of the 13th edition of their Love Your Coast photography competition during an in-person award ceremony in the Smock Alley Theatre, in Dublin.
After a two-year break, when the awards were held in a virtual ceremony, Clean Coasts and the photographers who were shortlisted, were happy to be back celebrating the beauty of the Irish coast in person.
For the past 13 years, the Love Your Coast photography competition has been inviting photographers to capture the uniqueness of our coastal landscape, heritage, wildlife, communities and more, and to submit their best shot across five categories – Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People & the Coast, Wildlife & the Coast and Creativity and the Coast – for a chance to win prizes from a €5,000 prize fund and plenty of exposure opportunities.
This year, we receive over 1,100 entries and the 50 best images were shortlisted and displayed at our event at Smock Alley.
Piotr Machowczyk with the image titled “Doonagore Castle in Doolin” taken at Doonagore Castle received the third place prize in the Coastal Heritage category. Piotr commented: “The location is well known to me and with the right weather conditions you can take an interesting shot of this historical place on the Atlantic shore. To take this shot, I used a drone that gave me the freedom to move around and find the right frame.”
Moreover, with his “Hags Head, Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare”, Piotr was also shortlisted among the top ten in the Coastal Landscape Category. In addition, “Stormy Wave Rider” by Joe Silke, taken in Fanore, and “Nice Day for a Dip” by Tim Beach taken in Doolin were shortlisted in the top ten for the People and the Coast Category. Finally, “Basking Sharks” by John Collins was recognised among the top ten images in the Wildlife and the Coast Category.
Working with communities on the ground, Clean Coasts’ mission is to help foster pride in our coastline, supporting Clean Coasts communities, groups, and volunteers to tackle issues affecting their local area. This competition provides an opportunity to view the coast and our waterways that the Clean Coasts programme works to protect from a completely different perspective and see the beauty captured therein.
Coastal Communities Manager Sinead McCoy said: “We were delighted to be able to celebrate in person again both the beauty of the Irish coast and the talent of the photographers who entered our competition, after a two-year break.
Over the last 13 years, the competition has been very successful and very well received. For Clean Coasts, this is more than just a photography competition: we are an island nation, and our coast and marine environment are incredibly important to us. Clean Coasts has over 1,800 volunteer groups who are doing amazing work when it comes to managing and protecting our marine environment, so these photographs are a way for everybody to appreciate and celebrate our coast and be inspired to get involved too.”
