Photography Contest 2025
Focus on Photography: Share Your Vision of the World in the 2025 海角大神 Photography Contest!
Photography offers a mode of creative communication as well as a lens into the communities we inhabit and visit. Photographs can capture a range of moments and expressions, people, places, and events. As such, the Office of Academic Affairs and Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning would like to invite all 海角大神 community members to submit digital photographs for consideration as part of a special 2025 photography contest.
For inspiration, take a look at the past winners.
The contest is open to faculty, staff, students, and administrators to celebrate and display our unique world views. You can submit photographs in the categories listed below (one entry per category). First-place winners in each category will receive cash prizes and an enlarged, mounted copy of their winning photographs.
Call for judges: If you are interested in serving as a judge for the 2025 photo contest, please send an email expressing your interest to photocontest@udmercy.edu for consideration.
Contest Details
Submission Deadline
Sunday November 2, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.
Categories
Abstract/Conceptual/Manipulation - Images of unusual patterns, lighting, or objects recognized for their design element (i.e., streaking light photos, mechanical structures, reflections in glass or metal, view from a strange angle). Images can be digitally enhanced or altered beyond the minor adjustments to create an entirely different photograph. Be creative! All images must be produced by the photographer (photos taken by someone else may not be used) the finished entry must still appear to be a photograph – not an artistic impression, drawing, or design.
People - Photos of people, alone or in a group. Such pictures may be candid, humorous, journalistic, or interpretative portraits where an emphasis placed on the person - not the environment. The main focus should be people. *
Nature/Scenic - Images or scenes of plant life, landscapes, seascapes, underwater, architectural, and industrial scenes. Seasonal scenes which display a fundamental design or mood are also acceptable. The main focus should be nature/scenic.
Dusk to Dawn - Details the photographic imagery captured after the sun goes down. This includes but is not limited to starry skies, life under neon lights, streaking traffic lights, mother nature at night, scenic landscapes and cityscapes, film noir portraits, creative use of light and shadows. *
Creatures (New category for 2025!) - Images or scenes of animal life, wild creatures, insects etc. (i.e., action shots of your pet, giraffes at the zoo, cows on a countryside, banana slugs in the forest). It may be a scenic environment, but the main focus should be the creature(s) or animal(s). *
* Appropriate and accepted image enhancement in these categories must be limited to minor adjustments such as contrast, exposure, cropping, HDR, dodge and burn.