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Department of Social Anthropology

 

The entries in this year’s “Images Fresh from the Field” competition were all of a very high quality and the judges, Professor Caroline Humphrey, Dr Matei Candea and Dr Yael Navaro, would like to thank all those who participated. The judges sought to evaluate the submissions according to the quality of their visual content, and the sense of human life and experience depicted. The judges have awarded the competition prizes as follows:

1st prize - Alexander Taylor
Fieldwork in Data Centres

There are People in the Cloud (Alexander Taylor, 2017) This entry breaks new ground both conceptually and visually, and the interaction between the two aspects is a particular strength. It maps new areas of anthropological research, matching them with innovative visual geometries. The images, beautiful in themselves, yet unlikely as ‘fieldwork photos’, enable us to visualise an alternative kind of anthropology. 

 

2nd prize - Ruiyi Zhu
Fieldwork in a Chinese Mining Factory in Mongolia

Handling chemical processing of fluorspar in Chinese Mining Factory in MongoliaThis entry is particularly engaging in the way it breaks with usual representations of Mongolia, while nevertheless managing to convey something profound about Mongolian realities. The images are varied, unexpected and extremely well-composed photographs, with a striking attention to diverse human/machine interfaces. The strong ethnographic texture of the description, provides a strong framing account.

 

3rd prize - Corinna Howland
Fieldwork in the Southern Peruvian Andes

Spectating in the Southern Peruvian Andes (Corinna Howland, 2017)These initially simple-seeming, yet profound pictures work extremely well in conjunction with the captions to portray sophisticated and layered analytical insights. A particular strength is the ability to picture the invisible, whether in terms of human-spiritual relations, or of the social, ethical and affective implications of everyday situations and actions.

 

Other Entries:

Priscilla Garcia: Fieldwork in Brazil

Helen Jambunathan: Fieldwork in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Katie Macvarish: Fieldwork in Kiev, Ukraine

Nurul Huda Mohd Razif: Fieldwork in Malaysia

Yi Qiao: Fieldwork in Kaifeng, China

Christina Woolner: Fieldwork in Somaliland