Durham Geography Photographic Competition

Welcome to the Durham Geography undergraduate photo competition! Each year we receive entries from dissertation research and fieldtrips taken around the world and from across all levels of our undergraduate community.

2024 Undergraduate Photography Competition

In the 2024 competition we received 16 entries and you can view these here (with full descriptions) or in the slideshow below (with brief location details).

Our 2024 winner is Zoe Upcraft who submitted this image taken in Cappadocia, Turkey:

Description: Taken at 5 am, July 2023, capturing the ascent of hot air balloons over Cappadocia, Turkey, a region of extraordinary geological and historical significance. Formed 60 million years ago by the erosion of lava and ash from Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan, and Mount Güllü, Cappadocia's landscape features limestone caves and fairy chimneys. Human settlement dates back to the Paleolithic era, with the region later becoming a haven for Christians escaping Roman persecution. The balloons against this ancient backdrop highlight Cappadocia’s significance as a centre of early Christianity and a key junction of the Silk Road.

The runner up in our 2024 competition was Maria Allison who submitted this image taken in Jomblang cave, Yogyakarta, Indonesia:

Description: This photograph portrays the invasion of tourism in places of outstanding natural beauty. Selfie sticks, cameras and handrails are visible in front of a unique shaft of light permeating from the opening, disrupting the cave untouched for centuries. The image also depicts the grandeur of nature by contrasting the size difference between the humans and cave. Surrounded by over thousand-year-old stalactites and stalagmites, these tourists do not understand the fragility and remarkable nature of the surrounding geographical landscape. This image represents and acknowledges the importance of limiting the negative impacts of globalisation to prevent human disruption to the natural world.

You can also view all the entries to our 2023 Undergraduate Photography competition here. The winner of the 2023 competition was Matthew Fair, who won with his picture of "Peaks and Prayer Flags". Two entries tied for second place - Sophie Jones for her picture of "A Green Turtle Coming up to Breathe Above Seagrass Meadows in Abu Dabbab, Egypt" and Rachel Fry for her picture entitled "A beautiful Skye."