Sam Howard’s catering team portrait wins Photography Competition 2021

There were a record number of entries for this year’s Photography Competition, aiming to find the most striking image representing our ‘New Normal’ following the global impact of COVID-19.

More than 80 photographs were submitted for the judging panel to consider, revealing a glimpse into our college members’ lives over the past year, as they navigated the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Thank you to everyone who took part!

Winner

The judges unanimously chose Sam Howard’s entry as their winner.

Sam’s photo shows the Green Templeton College catering team preparing for a click-and-collect lunch service in the Servery in May.

Hannah and Anton from the catering team are separated by a glass screen as they stand in the servery preparing food.

‘The catering team preparing for the click-and-collect lunches’ – Sam Howard

The judging panel said: ‘This photograph captured the theme of this year’s competition perfectly: people working as normal but this is what that the ‘new normal’ looks like. In the Green Templeton kitchens, staff prepare food for the day, as they’ve always done, but the with the addition of face masks, visors and sanitising wipes, safety products that have become so commonplace to all of us over the last year. Life may have changed, but our wonderful college catering team continue to produce the best food in Oxford!’

Sam said: ‘Thank you for choosing my photo. Despite the masks, fish and chip boxes and our team being split into two, we remain in good spirits, which I hope I have conveyed in this photo of Hannah and Anton preparing for our new normal of click-and-collect lunches.’

The judges’ decision was announced during Green Templeton’s second Giving Day.

Sam wins a £150 cash prize.

Honorable Mentions

The judges chose five further photos to receive an Honorable Mention, praising the high standard of entries to this year’s competition.

Each Honorable Mention wins a £75 cash prize.

An escalator on the London underground is adorned with warning signs about social distancing and COVID-19 as travellers in face masks stay distanced

‘Embracing the “new normal” and keeping safe!’ – Asmita Poddar

A washing line containing colourful face masks interwined with socks

‘The new washing line.’ – Tim Clayden

A cyclist in a tank top and pink helmet wears a GTC branded backpack as she takes a break on a long journey

‘Me and Ludivine from the college have been going on weekly bike rides around the Oxfordshire area while things have been closed down. Sometimes we just do breakfast in Eynsham but I snapped this picture on our 75km long bikeride to the Shilton Rose & Crown. This is right before we got caught in heavy rain.’ – Maya Lahav

Six different snapshots of a hand holding the rain gauge on the wettest October since records began at the RMS

’60 mm of rainfall observed at GTC on 3 October 2020. This was the wettest October day in Oxford since daily rainfall records began at the Radcliffe Meteorological Station in 1827. It was also the 6th wettest day overall, and the wettest day in Oxford for 47 years (since 27 June 1973). More details can be found here. Humanity has entered a ‘new normal’ associated with COVID-19. However, the effects of this ‘new normal’ will subside. Very soon, the virus will disappear, we will put our masks away and social distancing will come to an end. Climate change, on the other hand, isn’t a once in a hundred-year occurrence. The climate crisis is becoming an era. Its effects are already being observed, as shown in the photographs. The extreme weather that occurred in 2020 is slowly becoming the ‘new normal’ that poses a greater threat to our livelihoods than COVID-19. Humanity will have to deal with the effects of an increased frequency of extreme weather for many generations.’ – David Crowhurst

Long grey hair is brushed down over the face and a pair of glasses is placed on top

‘Lockdown locks.’ – Sophie Schirmacher

Theme

This year’s theme was ‘Celebrating the New Normal’.

It has been a strange and unprecedented year for all of us with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting almost every aspect of our normal lives. While acknowledging the difficult times many of us have faced, the judges wanted to use the opportunity of this year’s competition to find the most striking and original image celebrating the ‘new normal’.

Judging panel

Thank you to our five college members for giving their time to be on this year’s judging panel.

Thank you again to everyone who took the time to send us their photos – it was lovely to get a glimpse into your lockdown lives over the last year!

We will be sharing further entries from this year’s Photography Competition across our social media channels in the coming weeks, so please do keep a look out for those.

Created: 3 June 2021

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