Media award for Kells DCU student

Meath student James Foley was the winner of a prestigious Oxygen.ie National Student Media Award at The Mansion House in Dublin on Wednesday night of last week. The successful event was attended this year by over 600 students and national media personalities, and hosted by Kathryn Thomas and Dáithí O Sé. Geraldine Kennedy, editor of the Irish Times; Noirin Hegarty, Sunday Tribune editor; Niall Stokes of Hot Press and Micheál " Meallaigh (TG4) were among the highly respected judges for the 33 categories rewarding excellence in student media. A 20-year-old student at Dublin City University, James is from Kells and won the Photographer of the Year award, sponsored and judged by the Irish Examiner. He was praised by Irish Examiner picture editor John O'Donovan, who said his images were "of a uniformly high standard" and that he has "a very good future in professional photography". James has contributed to both Campus magazine and The College View newspaper in DCU, and participates in student media because he wanted to do something that would keep him involved with clubs and societies and at the same time allow him to develop his skills. He has also contributed to local and national newspapers over the last few years, worked for sports agencies covering GAA, covered events in Europe, and recently travelled to Kenya where, amongst other projects, he undertook his thesis photography project. His photographs have been used by automotive companies, aviation companies, engineering companies, charities, adventure companies, politicians, modelling agencies, as well as smaller businesses and organisations. He has held two exhibitions of his work, Nocturne Skies, which he started when he was 17. The Kells student is currently working on a collaborative collection of images with illustrator Arlene Caffrey as well as working on preparations for future projects and clients, and definitely sees himself working as photographer in the future.