The annual Capture the Cathedral photography competition returned this year for its fifth year with almost 300 photographs of our beautiful historic building submitted.
In August, it was announced that Belinda Hastie had won the competition with her image Holy Smoke.
Belinda’s photograph, along with a selection of entries was exhibited in Manchester Cathedral throughout the month of August and during this time members of the public were invited to vote for their favourite photo. This year over 1800 votes were cast by visitors to Manchester Cathedral and via our Facebook page.
The winner of the Capture the Cathedral People’s Choice 2017 is ‘Faith’ by May Fong Li.
On receiving news that her image had been voted the favourite by members of the public, May said:
“Any image for me is about creating a sense of emotion and the way I shot this image is the polar opposite of what I can physically see because I live day to day with R.P. (Retinitis Pygmentosa), so photography for me is like being able to see more. I wanted to capture as much of Manchester Cathedral’s greatness than can normally be seen. Just as faith enhances people’s lives and broadens the way they view the world, photography enhances my life by allowing me to see more of this beautiful world.
I am of course thrilled about winning People’s Choice, to know that so many people like Faith. I am so thankful to the people who have taken the time to come and have a look at the exhibition of the finalists as a whole, and chose “Faith” as their choice out of all the other amazing finalists.”
The Dean of Manchester, the Very Reverend Rogers Govender said:
“Warm congratulations to May on winning the People’s Choice in our Capture the Cathedral competition! Faith is in the DNA of the Cathedral’s life and witness and it wonderful that the people have affirmed this by voting for May’s photograph!”
