We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2020 C20 Society Harry Page architectural photography competition. The award was established in 2013 in memory of photographer and dedicated C20 Society member Harry Page and we would like to thank all 77 entrants for submitting their total 143 photos to the competition, and well as the staff and volunteers who have helped make the competition possible.

The winning photograph is by David Valinsky for his image of the Astra Zeneca HQ in Cambridge.

The judge, Tim McCoy-Page, said: “this is a very timely photo, being of the Astra Zeneca building. The photo does immense justice to the outline of the building. It is very cleverly composed to ensure all the vertical strips are in exact descending perspective, they almost look like pipes in a futuristic organ. The sky is cleverly subdued in grey to make the building pop out, and the overall lighting give the picture an illustrative effect, almost as if it were a book cover. The reflections in the building’s glass, with clouds absent in the sky, is also a very clever touch that makes the photographic detail of the architecture very relevant”

David received the Harry Page Photo Competition trophy, a book of his choice from our e-shop and a Paul Catherall x C20 Society tote bag as a prize.

In response to his award David said: “It is a real honour to have my work recognised by the Twentieth Century Society in this way. I captured this image during an exploration of the developing Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Two years later it is a reminder that buildings can accrue meanings that were not imagined by either clients or designers: in the intervening period world events have made Astra Zeneca a household name and no doubt this meaning will become richer over the next year or so.

The building section is formed by the simple repetition of mono-pitch bays, but the combination of this with the oval plan leads to a view that is always subtly changing as one moves around the curving  exterior of the building. The precise crystalline form seems to realise Bruno Taut’s dreamlike vision of an Alpine architecture and the photographs that I captured of this then-unfinished superstructure now take me immediately to the Alps; the jagged peaks rising above a reflected cloud bank feel like a gift of Alpine landscape from Herzog & de Meuron’s Swiss home to one of England’s flattest counties.”

Tim was very impressed with the overall quality of photography and quantity of submissions. The three runners-up were:

• Charlotte Swindell, with her photo of the KPMG building in Canary Wharf

The judge’s comments were: “love the Inception style nature of the composition and building layout. Clever take on what is probably a much photographed building in Canary Wharf.”

• Pamela Jones, with her photo of the Sydney Opera House

The judge’s comments were: “a stunningly dramatic version of a classic – the light on the roof aspects is brilliantly accentuated by the drop off of darkness in the surrounding more utilitarian aspects.”

• Peter Barker, with his photo of the Kunstmuseum, Aahrus, Denmark

The judge’s comments were: “a very welcome colourful entry – great composition and brilliantly captured with reflections and the city vista – and a lovely moment in time with the kneeling friends.”

All four photographs will be published on our social media channels @C20Society and in our next Magazine issue.