Barrowford photographer Phil Hargreaves wins top prize for dog portrait

Phil Hargreaves, whose dog photography business Phil Hargreaves Photography is based in Higherford Mill, won in the Studio Dog Portrait Category at the recent Xperience Group Portrait Awards.

Phil was one of eight overall winners at the annual awards event, which received more than 5,000 entries.

“I specialise in photographing dogs, so to win the Studio Dog Portrait category in this prestigious competition is very pleasing, especially as the standard of entrants is extremely high. I’m looking forward to photographing more lovely dogs in 2023!”

Xperience chief trainer Mark Cleghorn developed the awards to challenge members of The Xperience Group, made up of almost 70 photographic studios from across the UK and Ireland, to make the photographers “step outside their comfort zones and get even more creative every day with clients”.

Mr Cleghorn said: “Combine Smart phone technology, a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis and you would think the professional photographer was an endangered species, but it’s amazing how even everything which has been thrown at them has made our photographers create even more amazing photographs once again to be celebrated for generations. Everything we do is to inspire our clients more than ever to embrace our mastery of light and imagination to give them unique wall art for their homes.

“Every year the standard of entries is amazing, but this year surpassed the last. The winning portrait was unanimous with the judging panel”

All of the winners will now have their work displayed on promotional material and the website throughout the year.