Plum hair dye helps photographer win national award

The striking image of his mum dying her hair taken by Clynt Garnham, from Bawdsey, has been chosen as one of100 winning images in the Portrait of Britain 2021 competition and will now appear in the British Journal of Photography.

The awards have been running for four years and Mr Garnham, who has been a professional photographer for 30 years, said he entered every year.

The 60-year-old said: "I have entered it every year and it's the first time I was lucky enough to be chosen which is very good."

The photo Clynt Garnham took of his mother that will feature in the photography journal (Image: © Clynt Garnham)

In the image, his mum is seen using the rich L'Oréal 316 Plum hair dye and he said: "My mum is 84 now and even when she was 40 she used to say she never wanted to have grey hair. The colour she uses is etched on my memory because every six weeks she says 'Can you pick me up some hair dye?'.

"One day I was there with her while she was doing her hair and I said 'Oh my God, it is all over your forehead' so I just got my camera and took a picture of it."

Mr Garnham said he found out he was shortlisted for the awards in late November and was told he had won a place in the journal in December.

Portrait of Britain is one of the biggest annual photography exhibitions and Mr Garnham's work will now be visible to millions of people as it will be shown on 1,000 JCDecaux screens throughout airports, high streets, train stations and bus shelters.

This is the first photography award Mr Garnham has won, despite travelling around Europe working for different publications over the course of his career.

"I did a lot of work in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain, I spent a lot of time in Romania and Bulgaria and sold pictures to different magazines and newspaper.

"Now I still do the same thing but the pictures go into a stock library and that is how I make a living."

To see all the winning photos visit the Portrait of Britain's website.