Hornsea's answer to Helmut Newton wins prize

Gavin Prest, from Hornsea, whose stunning picture was shot on the town’s Promenade, was the winner in the “Overall All-Round Photographer of the Year” awarded by the Guild of Professional Photographers.

The award was given to the photographer, who scored the highest points, after submitting six images a month for eight months. The Guild received over 12,000 entries last year.

Mr Prest, 53, who says his greatest influences are the Vogue photographer Helmut Newton and the man said to be his UK answer Bob Carlos Clarke, was a plumbing and heating engineer for 35 years before rekindling his love of photography.

“I had a bit of a change in lifestyle and picked up the camera again,” he said.

On just one website his pictures have had 238,000 hits in just over two months.

“I find inspiration from anywhere; I like to keep a bit of ambiguity in my images.

“Black and white has always been my medium - you are not distracted by colours. I adore storytelling in pictures.”

Mr Prest, also a Hornsea Rescue coxswain, was also winner in the People category, and runner up in the Open category.

Director of the Guild Steve Thirsk said: “The judging is undertaken by a panel of internationally recognised experts from a variety of photographic backgrounds so Gavin should quite rightly be delighted with his extraordinary achievement.”