AN Okehampton photography graduate has been delighted with the positive response to a year and a half-long project 'The Militarisation of Dartmoor' — winning a prestigious award in the process.

Nicholas White, who studied at Plymouth College of Art, started the photographic project on Okehampton Battle Camp, then continued the study into his final year of his degree. He spent the year photographing training areas on Dartmoor and since completion, he won the South West Photography Prize 2013.

Nicholas said: 'I grew up visiting Dartmoor and got more and more interested in photography.

'When I started studying it, I fused my interest in war photography with my interest in landscape photography. For the project I was looking at land affected by war and that shifted into land affected by military training.

'I spent a year photographing the Okehampton, Willsworthy and Merrivale training areas in an attempt to embrace the military history as part of Dartmoor's cultural heritage, while also highlighting the environmental impacts inherent with these military practices.'

His work has also been exhibited at the Free Range graduate show in London, and the project won the Magnum Photos Showcase in association with IdeasTap.

The work was also shortlisted down to the final 12 for the Millennium Images' international photographic competition 'Peaches and Cream', also exhibited in London.

While exhibiting in London, Nicholas said he gained a lot of attention for his work, and from that, his work has featured in various magazines and Millennium Images had offered him a contract.

'Obviously when I was creating the project it was for my degree — I wasn't thinking about how it would be received.

'When I finished the project I started to see my images cropping up all over the internet and in magazines.

'It is really nice to see that people are interested in my work, and have got new work off the back of it.'

For winning the South West Graduate Photography Prize, Nicholas won a commission to shoot a new body of work of his choice in Bristol, which will be his next project.

There is also a possibility that he could spend some time working for an English speaking newspaper in Libya, taking photos to accompany stories and features.

Nicolas' collection of images from 'The Militarisation of Dartmoor' will be on show at Green Hill Arts in Moretonhampstead from May 2 to June 25 next year. This will coincide with the release of the images in book form.

For more information about Nicholas' work, or to keep updated on when his book will be available, visit http://www.nicholaswhitephotography.co.uk">www.nicholaswhitephotography.co.uk