A photography graduate of Leeds Arts University has won the overall prize in the Fine Art category at this year's British Photography Awards. Jackie Slater, who completed her BA in Photography in 2020, took the award for Still, Life, a series built from hundreds of photographs made over three years at a local hospice, where she provided a portrait service for people living with life-limiting illnesses.

The awards celebrate the best in UK-based photography across 20 categories. This year's shortlist held 500 images, with winners chosen by a judging panel alongside a public vote for the People's Choice Award. The winners were named at a gala on Sunday, November 1.

Slater's winning work is a wall display drawn from the wider series. The photographs were printed onto acetate and held in film carriers, each one accompanied by words from the person pictured. Presenting the images in that form led Slater to reflect on the project as a whole, and on the role printed photographs can play as memorials for the dead, a theme that sits at the heart of the work.

Since graduating, Slater has continued to develop long-term photography projects and has been building her skills in filmmaking. She is now in the early stages of a second documentary. She described the win as an incredible recognition of a project that has mattered deeply to her, and said she approaches her 70th birthday next year with plenty of ideas and enthusiasm for the decades ahead, crediting her lecturers, fellow students and the university with helping her move from a previous career in banking into creative work.