A nine-year-old girl is believed to be the youngest person to have had a print accepted for the Royal Photographic Society?s International Print exhibition.

?Self Portrait?, by Warwickshire schoolgirl Raphaella Philcox – captured when she was just eight – is among the 125 prints selected from 2,200 entries in this year?s exhibition.

?Her photograph was taken on a digital camera bought two years ago using money saved from Christmas and her birthday,? said a spokeswoman for The Kingsley School in Leamington Spa where Raphaella is a pupil.

Raphaella likes to ?stage set? many of her shots, capturing up to 70 images in a session, explained her mother Theodora who added: ?She recognised this photograph as being something special and when a friend suggested we enter it for the RPS print exhibition, we thought ?why not???

?I don?t think she thought it would get anywhere and she was stunned and nicely surprised when she learned it had been accepted.?

Judges for this year?s competition included renowned portrait photographer Terry O?Neill.

The competition was won by photography enthusiast Richard Merritt. Click here for details:

Amateur triumphs