Hour Manchester

Hour Manchester started off to me one in a long line of photography competitions that are so readily used by various organisations for marketing (everyone from post hotels to local councils are on it these days it seems) that I see so frequently on flickr, twitter & facebook, I can’t remember what it was that made me look at this one more than all the others as it was several weeks ago and at the moment with my new job role everything seems to whiz by me at the speed of light, but something persuaded me to enter a couple. The premise of the competition was to create a book capturing the spirit of Manchester by documenting 24 hours of a day in Manchester in 15 minute segments (equaling 96 photos) to raise money for the Prince’s Trust. Out of the 96 in the book, a ‘Super 9’ were chosen by the judges – Mancunian world renowned photographer Kevin Cummins and Helen Weworia from the Arts Council. These would be printed onto canvas and sold/auctioned at the event to raise even more money for the Princes Trust. A few days before the competition deadline it was posted that they were looking for more during the wee hours, and I thought, well I must have something, so off I went to dig through my photos and entered a few more.

So off I went on my holiday to Prague and whilst there I still had access to emails and such and was delighted to get an email telling me my photo had been chosen for the book! It didn’t say which one but this didn’t quell the excitement, on logging onto flickr once i got back in the country I discovered a couple of friends also had been chosen, so the launch night at Kraak would be that little bit more fun.

Zombie Chippy (aka Zombie Apoccochips) © Karen Morecroft – Chosen for the Super 9

So when I arrived I found out that I had not one but five! photos in the book (more than any other photographer) and one of those was in the Super 9! Exciting or what? I won a meal for 2 at Simple in the Northern Quarter which the husband is looking forward to immensely. I have to say my Zombie Chippy photo picked for the Super 9 is one of my all time favourite photos I’ve taken, ever. And I’ve taken a lot of photos. The other four are below

Holy Fuck © Karen Morecroft

Spinning © Karen Morecroft

At the Bar – Pin Up Bowling © Karen Morecroft

Early Morning in Salford © Karen Morecroft

As I mentioned a couple of friends were also in the book, below Sue Langford’s gorgeous Cherry Tree at night taken in Moss Side – you can check out more of Sue’s photos by clicking here or clicking through the photo

Cherry Tree © Sue Langford

You can check out some more of the finalists on the Hour Manchester website or even better BUY THE BOOK!