FEP YPA 2025 – Introducing our judges
The FEP Young Photographer Award is a competition celebrating the finest contemporary photography from the next generation of image makers.
For each edition of the competition, our Chairman Jim Lowe consults his list of judges nominated by the FEP member associations in order to find the best possible mixture or expertise within Europe.
This year, the pool of judges consisted of 3 international judges, whom we would like to introduce here in alphabetical order.
We would like to thank all of our judges for the hard work they have done to complete their task. We couldn’t do this without you!
Jim Lowe, Chairman, United Kingdom
Qualified European Photographer – QEP
Jim, has been a professional photographer for many years. After graduating from Swansea College of Art, he was employed as an in-house photographer by the Ministry of Defence in London, then worked for six years in the photographic section of Portsmouth Polytechnic leaving as Head of the Department, finally joining the Westinghouse Brake and Signal engineering company, part of the Hawker Siddeley Engineering Corporation as Chief Photographer, which involved assignments in Hong Kong, Zimbabwe and America.
He started his own commercial/advertising photography business in partnership with his wife, Sue in 1985 and has specialised in architectural photography for the last 25 years. becoming a recognised expert in architectural photography. Photographers Institute Press, an English publishing company commissioned him to write a book; ‘Architectural Photography, Inside & Out’ which sold out worldwide in 3 years.
Jim is also well known for his large format analogue black and white landscapes for which he uses traditional film, hand printing them to exhibition quality. These have been acquired by collectors as far afield as Japan, India, South Africa, Canada and The Republic of Ireland as well as the UK. Jim has had exhibitions of his B&W landscapes and architectural photography throughout Europe, London, Moscow, Bath, Wiltshire and Cornwall. The majority of his images are now captured using digital technology.
From 2007-2018, as well as continuing with his other activities, Jim, was a senior lecturer at Falmouth University, Cornwall on The Marine and Natural History Photography Course and was made Head of the course in September 2012. During his time teaching at Falmouth University, he achieved a Master’s Degree in Education and Creative Academic Practice and became a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy. He is also currently an online tutor in Architectural Photography for the UK based company Learning with Experts and has taught students worldwide.
He was President of the British Institute of Professional Photography (1999/2000) and a director for some years, a Vice-President of the Federation of European Photographers from 2000 to 2010 and has been judging for the FEP for 24 years and is currently the Chairman of the FEP Qualifications Jury and Chairman of the FEP’s Young Photographer Award. He has also acted as a judge for many European photographic organisations and competitions.
Cecilie Hatløy, Norway
Master Qualified European Photographer – MQEP
The Norwegian photographer, Cecilie Hatløy, has since 2010 worked as a professional photographer, both in social and commercial photography. As a mum and photographer, she feels a responsibility to raise awareness, using her visually strong voice, through her photographs. By publishing her personal photographic projects, with an intention of provoking and engaging the viewers, she seeks to raise awareness for acceptance of human diversity in our society.
Cecilie has received several national and international awards for her photographs.
In 2017, she was the first Norwegian to receive her QEP (in Portrait Photography) from FEP. In 2018 she won the portrait category in Norway’s national competition, and in 2019 she won the Commercial category. For several years she has been among TOP 10 in the National Competition. In 2019 and 2020 she was also part of the Norwegian national team in the World Photographic Cup (WPC), previously she was the national team captain.
In 2022, she was the first Norwegian photographer to receive The Master Qualified European Photographer (MQEP) Certificate.
2022 has been a good year for the Norwegian photographer, also receiving her “certificate of apprenticeship”/svennebrev with the best grade possible. She`s also among TOP 10 best European photographers in the prestigious competition FEP Awards in 2 categories (sports and reportage category) and got two 6th places in total and with 14 individual awards.
In Norway’s national competition she has won several awards as well. She won Nature category in 2022, Wedding category in 2021, Commercial category in 2019 and Portrait category in 2018. The last years she has been a part of the Norwegian national team in the World Photographic Cup (WPC) before that she was the national team captain.
Hatløy has a lot of jury experience from both national and international competitions and qualifications. She is currently the only Norwegian jury member who can judge at the highest level within FEP.
Friedrich Michael Jansenberger, Austria
Qualified European Photographer – QEP
Specialities: Commercial, Advertising
Friedrich Michael Jansenberger is an advertising photographer in Vienna with a passion. On the second educational path, the meanwhile internationally awarded product photographer opted for the classical apprenticeship with a final master craftsman’s examination. And with 25 years of experience as a conceptual image designer in the field of product photography and advertising, he is an absolute professional and counts among the “old hands”.
Jansenberger’s image worlds stand for creativity, flexibility and commitment to the customer. Adherence to deadlines and first-class image quality are a matter of course. Studio equipment is state-of-the-art and allows for modern photography of unsurpassed precision and quality. Friedrich Jansenberger not only works in his photo studio in Vienna, but is also on the road for his clients throughout Austria and abroad.
Franck Lecrenay, France
Master Qualified European Photographer – MQEP
Specialities: Portrait, Wedding, Sports, Commercial, Illustrative, Fine Art, Landscape, Digital Art
Franck Lecrenay lives and works in Condé sur Sarthe, Basse-Normadie, France. He’s specialised in Portrait and Wedding Photography, with more than thousand couples photographed in his region.
Franck is also active in many other areas of photography such as corporate photography, reportage and school photography. He has his own photo lab and is ready to answer any image-related questions from his customers.
Franck has won many National and International Photography Awards.
