LSE Photo Prize 2020
The LSE Photo Prize 2020 winners are now announced. Please see below for this year's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Once again, we thank all those that have submitted their photos.
In addition to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, we will also be giving out a People's Choice Award for the LSE community's favourite photo. The online gallery allows you to view the photos and the People's Choice Award winner. This year's People's Choice winner is Hanzhi Lu for the image "Welcome to 2020".
Congratulations to all our winners!
1st Place Winner:
A New George IV by Suzanna Varrichione

2nd Place Winner:
Endurance by Sharif Kazemi

3rd Place Winner:
50 Years of LSE Memories by Gareth Morgan

Every year, LSE Arts holds a photography competition for LSE staff, students and alumni. In the past, the competition theme followed that of the Literary Festival. This year, the competition took place from Monday 9 March to midnight Friday 17 April.
In light of the current climate, we have amended this year's theme to 'Celebrating our Community’ to focus on our students, staff, alumni and friends. How can we still come together during this time, support each other and stay connected to feel #partofLSE?
LSE Photo Prize has now become an independent event with the aim of sharing thoughtful, beautiful and surprising LSE moments and celebrating creative talent across the School community.
This year's prizes include Fujifilm Instax Mini 11, Lomography ActionSampler Clear, and Cell Phone Camera Lens Kit!
For more information about the competition please contact arts@lse.ac.uk.
Pop-Up Events and the Popular Choice Award
Due the current circumstances, we will no longer be hosting pop-up exhibits for the People Choice Award around campus, as done in previous years. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Terms and Conditions
- By participating in LSE Photo Prize, the participant has agreed to have his/her entry featured on the LSE’s website and other online platforms. If featured, the photo will be credited to the person, who uploaded the entry.
- There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.
- The competition will commence at 09:00 GMT on Monday 9 March to midnight on Friday 17 April (extended date). LSE accepts no responsibility for any entries that are incomplete, ineligible, corrupted or fail to be submitted by the relevant closing date for any reason. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entries via agents or third parties are invalid.
- To enter, entrants must use the submission form on the LSE Photo Prize 2020 website. All entrants must provide their name, contact information, title their images and agree to the Terms and Conditions.
- Entrants to the competition should ensure their image is appropiate for viewing
- This competition is only open to current LSE students, staff members or LSE alumni
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners will be selected by our panel of judges and contacted privately email to arrange delivery of their prize.
- The winner of the People’s Choice prize will be the photo that receives the most votes online by the competition closing date.LSE Arts will create a shortlist of images for voting based upon image quality and relevance to the theme. Not all submissions are guaranteed to make it onto the shortlist.
- LSE’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
- Prizes are non-transferrable and no cash alternative will be offered.
- Prizes are subject to availability. In the event of unforeseen circumstances, LSE reserves the right (a) to substitute alternative prizes of equivalent or greater value and (b) in exceptional circumstances to amend or foreclose the competition without notice. No correspondence will be entered into.
- The winner agrees to the use of their name and image in any publicity material. Any personal data relating to the winner and any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current UK data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party.
- By entering this competition each entrant confirms that their submissions are their wholly-owned creations and that, to the extent that such entries make use of any third party materials, these have been fully cleared unless they are no longer protected by copyright or other intellectual property rights.
- By submitting an entry, each entrant grants the University a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to edit, publish, translate, modify, adapt, make available and distribute the entry throughout the world in any media now known or hereafter invented.
- Each entrant also confirms that anyone depicted in an entry has given their permission for the inclusion of their image in the entry and the use of the entry including their image by the entrant and LSE.
- This competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by or associated with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. You are providing your submission to the LSE and not to any other party.
- 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 as well as alumni. Entries will not be accepted if submitted by photographers who are not currently employed or a student at LSE or who are not alumni of LSE.
- By submitting your photo to Photo Prize, your entry will be automatically submitted to LSE perspectives, an LSE arts online photo gallery. Any Photo Prize submissions will only appear in LSE perspectives after the pop-up exhibition in May.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Am I eligible to take part?
If you are a current LSE staff member or student, then the answer is yes! We also accept submissions from LSE Alumni.
- How many photos can I submit?
You may enter up to 3 images.
- When will submissions be accepted?
Submissions will be accepted from 09:00 GMT on Monday 9 March to midnight on Friday 17 April (extended date).
- Who are the judges?
Martha Ojo - LSESU Education Officer 2018-2020
Sue Donnelly - LSE Archivist
Jonathan Ing - Design Unit, LSE Communications Division
Nigel Stead - School Photographer
- Who gets awarded a prize?
There will be three awards - 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize.The award winners will be announced on Monday 4 May.
Prizes include:
First Prize: Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 Instant Camera - Take credit card sized instant photos!
Second Prize: Lomography ActionSampler Clear - Take photos in a fun way with a 35mm camera, which snaps up 4 sequential images on one frame.
Third Prize: Cell Phone Camera Lens Kit - Take micro, macro, and fisheye styled photos, all on your phone!
There will also be a People's Choice Award that will be announced on Monday 1 June. This will be voted from 15 shortlist winners commencing at 9:00m GMT on Monday 4 May to midnight Friday 29 May .
People's Choice Award: To be announced.
- Where can I find the photos?
We will be showcasing all submissions an online gallery. Unfortunately we are no longer able to to host pop up exhibitions around campus.
The online gallery will also be accessible to the public.
- For further questions and/or concerns, please contact arts@lse.ac.uk.