LSE Photo Prize is back!
Every year, LSE Arts holds a photography competition for LSE staff and students. Since 2013 these competitions have been associated with the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival, following the same theme.
Photo Prize 2016 will again run alongside the Literary Festival theme 'Utopias'. The submission deadline has now passed. Please check back for details of the pop-up exhibition shortly. Winners are to be announced at the end of the Literary Festival on Saturday 27 February 2016.
LSE Photo Prize 2015
See all the submissions in an online slideshow!
Photo Prize 2015 followed the Literary Festival theme Foundations. Entrants were free to interpret this as they chose, and suggested areas to explore were 'Unity in Diversity', 'Place and Identity', 'LSE's Foundations' and 'High Culture and Heritage'.
All the Photo Prize 2015 submissions can be found in an online slideshow.
We have also created a special edition of LSE Perspectives showcasing the submissions to this year's competition. For the meantime, check out the winners of the competition below.
First Prize
The first prize for this year's competition was a trip for two to the View from the Shard, and was awarded to Benjamin Aw, a student in the economics department for his photograph - 'Windows'.
Do rectangles define the shape of a window, or do windows define the rectangular shape of this photo? Before we get lost focusing on minor differences in the windows, the facade of this architectural wonder reveals to us that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.
Second Prize
Second prize was awarded to Max Nathan, Deputy Director of the Centre for Local Economic Growth, for his photograph - Destroyed Room.
Accessible only by boat, Orford Ness is the site of the former Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (A.W.R.E.) and was used for the military testing of long-range radio, radar and nuclear bombs. In its military incarnation the site was active from 1929 to 1971. Today it is also a designated national nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, containing Europe’s largest single vegetated shingle habitat. The decaying bunkers and bomb testing sites sit among the shingle and scrubland. The size and shape of the spit fluctuates over time, making the true age of its formation hard to gauge. Before 1200 Orford is thought to have been a working sea port, although the town’s harbour is now blocked by a network of tidal rivers, mud flats and lagoons. Nature will eventually reclaim these military spaces too.
Third Prize
Third prize was awarded to Catarina Heeckt, from LSE Cities, for her photograph - Preserving the Past.
This photograph shows a worker at the Amber Fort in Jaipur, India removing layers of plaster to uncover ancient stone floors in the central square of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The photo relates to the theme by highlighting the importance of both literally and metaphorically preserving the foundations of Rajasthan’s rich cultural heritage.
For more information about the competition or the pop up exhibition, see the FAQ page. Suggested hashtag is #LSEPhotoPrize
Special Category: Ghosts of the Past
As part of LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2015 we ran another photography project which explored LSE's own foundations. The School photographer, Nigel Stead and our design team created some images merging photos taken from the LSE archives with images of today's students and campus.
Staff and students entered their own versions, using photo-shop to create images which juxtaposed LSE's past and present. First prize was awarded to Pawel Opaska, Postroom Operative, for his photograph - Ghost in the Library.
While this competition is now closed, if you're interested in glimpsing LSE's past, you can see a selection of images taken from the archives at the LSE Library Flickr stream: www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/sets/
Past LSE Photo Prize
LSE Arts Photo Prize 2014 was the seventh Photo Prize exhibition. To look at 2014's competition please click here. A selection of entries from 2014 can be found in an online gallery.
For more information, please email the LSE Arts Team, at arts.photoprize@lse.ac.uk
Just economics and politics? Think again. While LSE does not teach arts or music, there is a vibrant cultural side to the School - from weekly free music concerts in the Shaw Library, and an LSE orchestra and choir with their own professional conductors, various film, art and photographic student societies, the annual LSE photo prize competition, the LSE Literary Festival and artist-in-residence projects. For more information please view the LSE Arts website.
Terms and Conditions
By submitting an image for publication in LSE Photo Prize you are making a contribution to the LSE website. The LSE website's Terms of use therefore apply. You are advised to familiarise yourself with these before submitting any images as submission implies acceptance of these terms.
By contributing an image you agree to grant LSE a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use the image (see Contributing to the website). This requires that you own the copyright to the image and ensures that copyright remains with you as the contributor.
Privacy and data protection is important (see Privacy and data protection). This is especially the case when the image portrays somebody other than you as the contributor see Section 4.2.1 (a) under Contributing to the website).
This competition is only open to current staff and students. Entries will not be accepted if submitted by photographers who are not currently employed or a student at LSE.
By submitting your photo to Photo Prize, your entry will be automatically submitted to LSE Perspectives, LSE Arts online photo gallery. Any Photo Prize submissions will only appear in LSE Perspectives after the pop-up exhibition in February.