Algorithmic Photograph shortlisted for the British Photography Awards 2019

Alex May’s Algorithmic Photography image Trails of Birds Over Merlin’s Cave was shortlisted for the British Photography Awards 2019 in the Birdlife category. Published on 26 November 2018, the announcement marked a moment when the series was being recognised within a photography context rather than only through digital art or technology-led frameworks.

The image was made during a visit to Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, drawing together five minutes of birds flying above the sea and the cave associated with Merlin in Arthurian legend. As with the wider series, the work does not isolate a single decisive moment. It builds a still image out of accumulated movement, turning repeated flight paths into a layered record of duration, atmosphere, and place.

That shortlist mattered because it positioned May’s computational image-making within a broader public conversation about contemporary photography. Rather than treating code as something separate from photographic practice, the recognition underscored how Algorithmic Photography expands what a photograph can hold, using software and recorded time to produce images that are observational, constructed, and temporal at once.