LSE Photo Prize
Discover this year's competition
Welcome to the LSE Photo Prize competition webpage.
The LSE Photo Prize is a competition open to all LSE students, staff, and alumni. It is designed with the aim of sharing thoughtful, beautiful, and surprising LSE moments and celebrating creative talent across our community.
The 2026 competition
The winning theme from the 2026 community vote was "LSE 130: past, present, future." During LSE's 130th anniversary year, we encouraged participants to reflect on where on campus or in London past, present, and/or future meet.
Thank you to all who submitted images to this year's competition, and congratulations to our winners (as selected by our judging panel)! The first, second and third place photographs can be found below.
First place
"Facelift" by Louis Allport - Double exposure of the Centre and Old buildings, illustrating the past and present through architecture, taken on 35mm film
Second place
"Reflected Futures" by Giulia Livieri - With the Shard rising in a rain puddle beside older houses and bare branches, the photo turns an ordinary pavement into a layered image of London where past, present and future meet.
Third place
"Looking Through the Window" by Peiyu Wang - People’s position in Tate Modern and St. Paul’s Cathedral standing across River Thames shows contrast between present and old times in London, showing the changes throughout history thus providing space for us to think about the future of London.
People's Choice Award
The winners have been announced for the 2026 Photo Prize, but the LSE community is now invited to choose their favorite image from the next 20 top scoring submissions (displayed below).
The ballot can be accessed here will be open until 1 June.
People's Choice Award 2026 Candidates
- 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 2 March 2026 to 23:59 BST on Monday 6 April 2025. 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 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 via 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 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 "4. Contributing to the website" in ). 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.
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?
The competition for the 2027 will be announced in Winter Term 2027.
- What information do you need from me?
To submit an image, you will need to provide your name, contact information, an image title, and a one-sentence explanation of how your image is related to the theme.
- Who are the judges?
The judges are a slate of photography enthusiasts from all over the LSE community.
- What makes a good photo?
Our judges are considering aspects like composition, originality, photography techniques and connection to the theme when making their selections.
- Who gets awarded a prize?
There will be three awards - 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize. The judging begins after the closure of the submission period. The award winners will be announced in May, and the winners will be contacted privately via email to arrange delivery of their prize.
There will also be a People's Choice Award. The winner of this prize will be voted for by the LSE community from a shortlist of 20.
For further questions and/or concerns, please contact arts@lse.ac.uk.
For more information about the 2025 competition, please see 'Home at LSE'.