The people of Bristol have chosen their favourite from amongst dozens of images entered into an exciting annual contest designed to encourage photographers to come up with creative and unusual views of the city.

Shafiq Zahar’s The Eye (attached) - a creative image of the new Cabot Circus car park – has been voted the winner of ‘Bristol a Second Look 2010’.

The competition, now in its third year, is staged by the city’s Second Look group of creative photographers. Over 560 members of the public who took part in the online vote and chose Shafiq’s image from a shortlist of 16 images drawn up by a panel of leading local photographers and editors. Some 70 images had been entered into the contest in total.

The brief for the competition challenged anyone with a camera, however experienced, to come up with photographs that showed:

unnoticed aspects of what we might otherwise pass by small things we might take for granted details with hidden interest or beauty places which people might not normally be able to see

Shafiq, aged 15 and from Filton, said: “My interest in photography started when I was given the Olympus E510 camera by my dad when I was 12 years old. Since then, I have become the family photographer. However, I am more interested in capturing captivating and unique moments that surround me. I am pleasantly surprised to receive news about this competition and it motivates me to explore photography further.”

Shafiq, a student at Patchway Community College, said his image ‘The ‘Eye’ was taken on a trip out with some friends to Cabot Circus. “Each time when my dad drives through the Cabot Circus car park, our focus is on getting a space to park the car but we do not bother to look up. I decided to ‘look up’ that day,” he said.

Shafiq’s picture was edited slightly using Picnik (http://www.picnik.com/) to emphasise the sense of symmetry and balance. “The glimpse of the sky provides some sense of focus in the midst of new buildings in which Cabot Circus stands,” said Shafiq.

Lisa Furness of the Second Look group said: “Thank you to everyone who entered or voted, once again we have been blown away by the response.”

The panel of judges that drew up the shortlist were:

Tamany Baker, renowned Bristol-based photographic artist who has exhibited widely throughout the UK and Ireland.

Justin Quinell, Bristol’s pioneering and internationally-acclaimed pinhole photographer

Phil Searle, owner/manager of Photographique, photographic printers & gallery in Baldwin Street, Bristol

Mark Simmons, leading Bristol photographer and author of the book Bristol Black & White

Steve Wright, art editor of Venue Magazine.

The competition was open from August 1st to August 31st. After the competition closed the judges made a short list of 16 finalists & it was up to the Bristol public to choose their winner.

The public vote ran from September 15th until October 1st. The finalists went on show at Photographique from September 24th to September 29th.

Below are the winners from 2008, 2009 and 2010. The links will take you to galleries of the finalists from each year's competition.