Athlone resident scoops top prize in Hot Press photojournalism contest

An Athlone-based photographer has won the top prize in a prestigious Hot Press photojournalism contest which attracted hundreds of entries from all over the country. As her prize, Strand Street resident Emilia Krysztofiak will now spend much of the summer photographing concerts by the likes of Snow Patrol and Florence and the Machine. Emilia was one of twelve photographers who were shortlisted in the HTC One Hot Press competition last month. This group was then asked to photograph and take video footage of an intimate gig in Dublin by the band Royseven. When their work from the concert was assessed, two overall winners - Emilia, and Sean Conroy - were chosen. "I was really surprised when I won and asked Liobhan from Hot Press 'Are you serious?' about three times," said Emilia. "There was also some jumping around involved!" Some of Emilia's work from the Royseven concert has already been published in the Hot Press magazine and she won tickets and photo passes for the recent Forbidden Fruit festival, as well as the Electric Picnic, Snow Patrol and Florence and the Machine gigs over the coming months. A selection of her photos from Forbidden Fruit can be seen on the Hot Press website. Emilia expressed her gratitude to local musician Anthony Doyle who helped her to edit the video footage she had recorded during the Royseven gig in Dublin. A native of Poland, she has been living in Athlone since 2006. She is a self-taught photographer whose interest and involvement in the practice has flourished since she came to Ireland. Last year she established her own company, Rua Photography. "I decided to call it that because rua is the Irish word for redhead, and also because most people can't pronounce my last name!" said Emilia.