A YOUNG photographer from Billericay is flying the flag for Britain in a prestigious competition.

Tom Parker, 21, will compete against emerging photographers from America, Russia, Australia, Hong Kong, France, Spain and Argentina in this year’s World Photography Awards Student Focus Programme.

He secured his place in the final with an eye-catching shot of a mountain of scrap metal at Southampton Docks, after being given a brief asking for an image symbolising contemporary consumer culture.

Tom, a final-year photography student at Southampton Solent University, said: “My work aims to introduce striking imagery while working with scale to produce large, frame-filled prints that are full of vibrancy and colour.

“Despite the truck moving, I managed to capture it at a point at which the sheer scale of this ‘mountain’ of scrap metal is revealed.”

The ten finalists, selected from 230 universities across the world, have now been asked to shoot a series of images which capture the unseen and undocumented outskirts of our cities.

The winner, who will be announced during a ceremony in London on Thursday, April 23, will win £35,000 worth of photography equipment for their university.