Prisoner of war camp photos win Google competition

A photography competition run by Google has been won by Daniel Halasz from Hungary, whose entry featured images of a secret World War Two prisoner of war camp in Watten, in the Scottish Highlands.

As well as prize money of £5000, Halasz will see his work exhibited at London's Saatchi Gallery, and be invited to spend a day with British photojournalist Martin Parr. His pictures, alongside those of five other entrants, will be available for users of the iGoogle homepage service to select as a background theme.

Google launched the competition to find talented student photographers in collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery, and received over 3,500 entries from 82 countries, including Australia, India, Ghana, France, Chile, Peru, the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia.

"I did a lot of research before taking the images because I wanted to concentrate on this history of the place," Halasz explained. "The photos depict the location of a former Second World War camp for prisoners of war, where some of the most high ranking Nazi officers were held for re-education. The existence of this former camp was only revealed two years ago. I thought it was important to remind everyone of what happened in the war, because there is still so much hatred in the world towards people from other countries."

A public vote selected the top six entries, and Daniel was chosen from the finalists as the overall winner by a jury of photographers and art critics, including Martin Parr, Idris Khan, Michael Hoppen, Tim Marlow, Susanna Brown and Mariella Frostrup. The jury also awarded an additional jury's commendation prize to Aliyah Hussain from the UK.