Dalmation by Andrew Fox

Crufts, the worlds largest dog show, at the National Exhibition Centre.

The show runs for four days inside a series of huge, interconnected hangars off the M42 near Birmingham. The dogs are paraded by their owners for the judges around squares of green carpet and are mostly illuminated by old tungsten orange “sports hall” lights. A nightmare for photographers, who also have to battle a ubiquitous green and yellow background of advertising for a dog food company.

I was having to use fast film at perilously slow shutter speeds for moving animals. And then I found this oasis of sunlight. For some reason, in this arena, there were one of two skylight panels in the roof. The sun was flooding in on to one parade ring creating shadows where the Dalmations and owners were strutting their stuff. I’d guess the sun lasted no more than half and hour, before moving on, plunging the ring back in to murk.

This photograph made the front of The Independent the next day and went on to help me win the Nikon UK Features Photographer of the Year. It also featured in a supplement celebrating the best photography of 25 years of The Independent.