The Landscape Photographer Of The Year awards started their photography exhibition this week at London Waterloo. This is the first of many stations to host the exhibition.

Network Rail will be using several stations, such as Edinburgh and Leeds to provide a setting for the displays.

Featuring 148 images, London Waterloo is the first stage of the exhibition tour. This is also a FREE exhibition.

The exhibition includes the winner of this year’s Network Rail ‘Lines in the Landscape’ award. Taken by Jon Martin of a train crossing Barmouth Bridge in North Wales.

As the winner of the award, Jon receives an exclusive visit to the Forth Bridge in Scotland. He will be able to take photographs from behind the scenes. Weather permitting, he will be able to go in the engineers lift to the top of the bridge.

The free exhibition will run for twelve weeks at Waterloo, closing on Sunday 4 February. The exhibition will then tour the UK.

What did they say?

Commenting on his win, Jon Martin, said: “I was thrilled and stunned in equal measure on discovering that I had won the Network Rail Award. The bridge across the challenging terrain of the Mawddach Estuary at Barmouth is extraordinary. My favorite viewpoint was on a hill above the estuary looking down on the curves and lines in the landscape. I just had to wait for the next train to pass to get the shot I wanted.”

David Biggs, Managing Director of Network Rail Property, said: “Our desire to surprise and delight our customers using our station spaces in unexpected ways is just one way we are making stations destinations in their own right. This is the fifth year Network Rail has hosted this unique exhibition in our managed stations. It has always proved to be a hugely popular event for station users. Yet again, the standard of the images in the exhibition is extremely high, and we hope that millions of visitors and passengers who use our stations will enjoy them.”

Awards founder & judge, Charlie Waite said: “The absence of sky in Jon’s image makes the scale ambiguous, giving the impression of a small train within a vast landscape, and the juxtaposition of the straight lines of the rail bridge with the sinuous curves of water on the sand is very pleasing. It unquestionably demonstrates the ability of railway engineers, both past and present, to meet the challenges of difficult terrain and I am in such admiration of their ingenuity in providing the links that are so vital to us today.”

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