Spot Valley High's Milton Hanson collects his top award from Jamaica National Foundation board member Jennifer Martin.
Spot Valley High School of Rose Hall, St James, emerged with top honours at Jamaica National (JN) Foundation's Resolution Project awards ceremony, held at Liberty Hill Great House in Lime Hall, St Ann, last Thursday.
The school's entries in the photography contest earned top spots in Advocacy Campaign, Triptych and Best Photo categories, with Milton Hanson's entry, 'Latrine Courtesy', emerging with the award for best photo in the Individual Photo category.
Spot Valley emerged the only multiple winner of the 32 schools entered, with Hanson topping the list of 165 students.
"I'm ecstatic," Hanson told The Gleaner after collecting his award. The 11th-grader said he has been taking pictures from a very early age and chose the particular photo to promote the rights of children. He said he was unsure of the model of the camera he had used but said the brand was Kodak at 7.5 megapixels.
Shamar Allison of Bull Bay All-Age finished second and Toni-Ann Blake of Knox College third in the Individual Photo category.
Spot Valley's 'Change through a camera lens' won the Advocacy Campaign category ahead of Guys Hill and Hampton, and their 'Mama and son' the Triptych ahead of Cedric Titus and Mile Gully.
The Gleaner's Youthlink Photojournalsim Award went to Ascot High School for the entry 'Where I call home', and was presented by Youthlink writer Latoya Campbell.
Excelsior Community College was awarded Best Narrative.
The resolution project is an evolution of Youth Zoom, which JN launched in 2004.
"Resolution project is a youth photo advocacy; it's about creating an atmosphere where young people can have a voice and have their issues heard," explained JN Foundation General Manager Saffrey Brown.
In this year's competition, the overriding theme has been poverty, she added.
"I think this year, more than ever, we have poverty as the overriding issue; in the past it was a lot of things around youth and health, this year it's poverty, both in terms of youth poverty and senior citizens' poverty, and then homelessness. A lot of the kids who entered, a lot of the images are from their lives."
Brown said JN was very happy and very proud of the young people who entered the competition.
The entries will be taken on an islandwide road show/exhibition.
In the meantime, JN is preparing for its annual summer camp, set for August 10 to 14 at Mico University.
Milton Hanson's award-winning photo entry, 'Latrine Courtesy'.