Nurse from St Joseph's Hospice scoops top photography award

Photography bug: Is She Local by Carolyne Barber

A Hackney nurse has won an international photography award, fending off competition from more than 20,000 entries.

Carolyne Barber, an Advancing Practice Nurse at St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, won the Best Newcomer Award in the New Shoots category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition.

Ms Barber, who has only been taking photographs for five years, scooped the prize for a picture called Is she Local, of two damselflies peering over a leaf in Lee Valley Park.

She said: “I know a little bush where the damsel flies hang out and had to get up in the night in the dark when they are still cold, and wait for sunrise. The timing is really important because as soon as they’re warm they fly off.”

Bringing the beauty of the natural world into the hospice, Ms Barber’s photographs are displayed on the walls inside St Joseph’s Hospice.

Her winning picture has been published in the International Garden Photographer of the Year book, and is on display alongside other winning entries, at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew until 6 April, and will then tour different venues around the world.

www.stjh.org.uk @StJoHospice