“Our Foreign Skies” GRE Photography Competition: the Shortlist

The shortlist for the GRE Photography Competition: Our Foreign Skies has been announced.

The exhibition which was organised and run by the Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression aims to promote views of Scotland and Dundee as seen through the eyes of our international CLS community. Our Foreign Skies is the brainchild of Ana Agostinho, a student in Anton Gartner’s Lab who completed her PhD in 2013 and is now a postdoc at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Ana, herself a prize-winning photographer said,

“Through our Public Engagement activities the Centre has provided the public, in and around Dundee, with an understanding of the excellent quality of life sciences research being carried out here at the College of Life Sciences. Attendance at Doors Open Days and other public engagement events demonstrate the enormous public interest in our research.

“But I found that the human side of this story often remains untold. This exhibition aims to show a personal vision of each one of us of Scotland as we see it – away from work, enjoying the outdoors, or simply capturing a friendly face in a photo.”

Angus Lamond, also a keen photographer and film-maker, was one of the judges and said, “I was very impressed by the quality of the images and the depth of emotion innate in each picture; it was clear that each photographer felt a strong connection to his or her subject matter – and to Scotland. The range of subjects, styles and techniques was staggering.

“Of course it was a very difficult competition to judge. In the end we decided to award three top prizes in three different categories. I’m pleased that this competition is different from most other in that all the entries will be available to view; we plan to disseminate images through the GRE, CLS and PhD Programme websites so that each photographer has their work acknowledged.”

Deputy Director of the Centre, Sonia Rocha said, “I am very pleased with the results. The exhibition will highlight not just the photographs, but also the people behind the camera and their area of research. This is an attempt to draw people into engagement with Life Sciences who otherwise might not give it a second look. We hope that the Public Exhibition planned for the McManus Gallery next year will help us reach a whole new audience.”

The judges have shortlisted the following images:

The shortlisted entries are:

 

Airshow – RAF Leuchars, Aleksandra Tarkowska (GRE)

A city penguin welcoming RSS Discovery, Andrew Lim (BCDD)

Tarbert, Isle of Harris, Anne Seifert (GRE)

Untitled, Dhaval Varshney (MRC-PPU)

Loch Morlich, Janis Vogt (MRC-PPU)

The Dundonian Abbey Road Letizia Satriano (MRC-PPU)

Discoveries Sarah Lena Offenburger (GRE)

Power Kite Race on the BeachVillo Muha (CDB)

Untitled Ye Hong (GRE)

 

All entries were judged anonymously.

Owing to the range and context of the submissions our judges have decided to award three major prizes in the competition.

The winners will be announced at the Reception to mark the launch of the exhibition on Monday 28 October 2013 in the MSI Foyer at 4pm.

You can view the shortlisted images and the accompanying text on the GRE website at:

http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/gre/gallery/our-foreign-skies-photo-competition-shortlist