An image of a boy preparing for his first Boxing Day Gombey performance is among the winning entries in the British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award.

Meredith Andrews, the photographer, said it was a “real honour” that her work was chosen.

The Littlest Gombey shows Kenroy Taylor Jr, then aged 2, as he waited to perform with the Gombey Warriors in 2019.

Ms Andrews said she was "a little bit surprised“ to be told she was a winner.

She explained: “I guess in a way because it was a picture I took some time ago.

“I’ve always loved that image. I just feel like there’s such strength in who he is as a young person.”

Ms Andrews said: “I was quite struck on the day by how small he was — this was his first Boxing Day performance — but also how everyone was sort of rallying around, getting him ready.

“His mom was getting him ready, there was also a gentleman who was a Gombey who was helping him to get ready.

“In a weird way it like he was almost on the sidelines of a stage about to go on, so that moment of that bravery I just thought is in his face, that’s what I love about the image.”

She added: “I love celebrating what the Gombeys represent for the people who are actually practitioners of that culture, because I feel it is such a special thing.”

The photographer said she had been “nothing but welcomed in” by documenting the tradition.

She added: “I feel like year on year it’s becoming a more empowering and important thing for the community.

“I think seeing this vision of the future of it and really the strength of character he has as a young person, and as a Bermudian, and to be dressed as a Gombey, I think is so cool for people to see, all over the world.”

The photograph is one of 20 single-image winners which will all be shown at Seen Fifteen gallery in London in November.

The publisher of the BJP, 1854 Media, said on its website: “For more than 15 years, BJP’s International Photography Award has taken the temperature of society through images and this edition is no different.

“With depleting available resources and increasing political divisions across societies, we need to forge a path to exist together.

“The examples we see here of shared identity, community or spirituality from Malawi to Wales to Bermuda, are forces with the power to unite.

“This year’s winners portray a shifting international landscape where history and tradition hold renewed significance in the face of change.”

Ms Andrews said yesterday: “British Journal of Photography is like an industry standard. They’ve been around for a long time.”

She added: “It was a real honour to be chosen.”

Ms Andrews said: “I’ve been part of different exhibitions in the past before but with the stuff I’ve shot in other places.

“Being firmly established back in Bermuda and to have work of Bermudians being featured on a world stage just so they can see who we are and the strength of who we are — that, to me, is the big win.”

She explained that the award was a “prestige prize” alongside the exhibition opportunity and not a monetary reward.

Ms Andrews added: “The people I’m exhibiting alongside, that also really, for me, just feels like a great win.”