A photographer from St Nicholas-at-Wade has gained international recognition by winning a clutch of awards with the Guild of Professional Photographers.
The Guild received over 13,000 entries to its Image of the Month Competition during 2023, from both photographers in the UK and overseas.
Each image is scored, and the scores from the year are then totalled to determine who wins one of the Guild’s Top 10 Photographer awards and goes on to become the Guild’s Photographer of the Year.
Chatham and Clarendon school music teacher Molly Hollman was named the Flora photographer of the Year -and runner up in the same category- the Natural World photographer of the Year and went on to win the top prize of All-round Photographer of the Year.
Molly, who lives with partner Ross and her two teenage boys, took up photography properly after her sons were born and later went part time in her teaching job, giving her more time to pursue photography professionally.
She now gives lectures, webinars and one to one lessons in photography and in 2022 published her book ‘Creative Flower and Plant Photography’ which is available worldwide.
The 50-year-old specialises in garden photography and has scooped numerous awards, including from the Professional Garden Photographers Association.
She said: “I find garden photography the perfect antidote to a busy teaching life – it forces me to slow down and de-stress.
“East Kent (and Kent) has some superb gardens – the ones I visit regularly are Goodnestone Park Gardens, Month Ephraim, Belmont near Faversham and Doddington – all the photos are either taken in these gardens or in my own garden in St Nicholas at Wade.”
Molly attended an awards ceremony at The Hilton, Etruria Hall this month to collect her trophies and prizes.
Directors of the Guild of Professional Photographers, Steven and Lesley Thirsk, said: “We are both proud and delighted that Molly has achieved this recognition after 10 months of submitting the highest quality images.
“The Guild has very demanding standards when judging photographic competitions. The judging is undertaken by a panel of internationally recognised experts from a variety of photography backgrounds, so Molly quite rightly should be delighted with her extraordinary achievement.”
Molly, who also writes occasional articles for magazines such as Amateur Photographer and exhibits regularly, is looking forward to a busy year ahead.
She said: “I hope to be running photography workshops at both Quex and Goodnestone this summer and details will soon be available on my website for these.
“ I am also currently working on a portfolio of photos that hopefully will be exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London this June.”
