About the Photographer

Christine Widdall FBPE MPAGB EFIAP APAGB HonLCPU

I was brought up taking pictures and learned how to process them in the darkroom from the age of about 5, but embraced digital technology in the 1990s. My aim is very simple – to try to capture places, people and moments in time and make them as beautiful and interesting as possible. Some of my images are “competition” pictures, others just an expression of my enjoyment of a day, an area or a subject.

I love to capture my beautiful local area of Saddleworth, especially its hills and waterways and, in recent years, I have added wildlife photography to my interests.  In my creative work, I try to go beyond the objective recording of fact and to use self-expression to provide an interpretation of my subjects. I love experimenting to see what I can achieve with blends of images from different times and different places.

Photographic Biography

I hold the EFIAP (The Excellence Award of the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique) and the MPAGB (Master of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain), which just over 100 people in the UK had achieved at the time and I was the second woman in the North West to do so. My MPAGB set is available for viewing here. In April 2015, I was awarded the Fellowship BPE (FBPE), the highest award for Photographic Exhibition work in the UK…and was the 22nd person to do so. My total tally was 667 images accepted in British Photographic Exhibitions and 123 different images that had received awards in those exhibitions. I’m glad I don’t have to do it all again!

Honorary Awards

Hon LCPU (Honorary Life Member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union) awarded 2016 for services to the Union and its member clubs.

Awarded the APAGB, the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain’s Meritorious Service Award, (given for “meritorious service worthy of national recognition over a period of 10 to 25 or more years”) in October 2019. I was delighted to be honoured along with Phil and Gwen Charnock. Report here.

Clubs and Organisations

Initially a hobby, photography has now become a major part of my life, as a lecturer, exhibitor and judge. 

Having been on the L&CPU Lecturers and Judges list for many years, I was appointed to the Photographic Alliance (PAGB) judges list and greatly enjoy judging at national and international level, throughout the UK and have been very fortunate to have also been invited to judge in France, Belgium and Malta, where I have found working with judges of other nationalities to be educating and enjoyable. I’ve also judged in the Isle of Man and Ireland, closer to home.

I am a member of one of the oldest surviving photographic societies in the UK, Oldham Photographic Society, which was founded in 1867 when photography was in its infancy. I have held most offices there over the years. In 2016-2017 I was proud to have served my fourth term as President to co-incide with the society’s 150th anniversary. To celebrate this anniversary, I wrote a history of the society, “A Victorian Society”, putting it in context with the growth and decline of the cotton industry in Oldham. This book is available to view and buy at Amazon. In September 2020 I was proud to become President Elect again.

I have also published “Saddleworth, through my Lens”, a book of photographs of Saddleworth, which is now out of print but raised money for the Manchester Christie Hospital.

I enjoyed three years with Wigan 10 Foto Club from 2013 to 2016 and was one of the team that won the FIAP World Cup for clubs in 2013 and 2014.

I joined the Executive Committee of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union in 1999. Offices held: Minutes Secretary, General Secretary, President 2010-2012, Lectures and Judges Secretary, Mentoring Secretary up to March 2020, when I retired from the committee.

In 2011, I was accepted as one of now about 12 Lecturers in the UK who are supported by PermaJet.

After a long career in the NHS, I was a partner in a photographic business for seven years, until retirement. I still provide images to one of the big UK stock agencies. A large selection of my stock photographs is available for rights managed and royalty free licensing at Alamy via the link below.