The Maynooth University Anthropology Society with support from the Department of Anthropology held its first annual photography competition in April. This competition also came in line with a very exciting time for all anthropology students and our prospective students with the establishment of the MU Visual Ethnography Lab led by Prof. David Prendergast and introduction of a new module in ethnographic film and photography to the anthropology syllabus in the 2019 academic year.
This competition was open to all postgraduate and undergraduate anthropology students who were given a choice of two questions in which to base their ethnographic photography in addition to a short narrative supporting their photograph. These questions were:
(1) Take a photograph of what you feel represents identity in today’s society.
(2) Capture an image that tells a story of cultural integration and/or diversity.
The competition received an excellent response with seven shortlisted images selected for exhibition in the University Library. The first and second prize winning images will be enlarged and prominently displayed in the Department of Anthropology,
First prize winner PhD candidate Miriam Teehan wrote the following passage about her thought-provoking image True Democracy for Hong Kong (see above above).
“This photograph was taken in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Revolution in 2014. The sign 'true democracy' was plastered over road signs in the financial district (Central Hong Kong). This image for me represents the free market ideals that the people of Hong Kong want to protect from China's one party communist rule. Many Hong Kongese use the number 689 as the moniker of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (Hong Kong's pro-Beijing chief executive). The crossing out of 689 in the sign represents a vociferous rejection of Leung Chun-ying ideals.”
The second prize was given to first year undergraduate student, Roxana Zaha and her beautiful ethnographic photography that captures the story of Fatima and the Two Colliding Seas:
“Where the beach sand of the Black Sea starts to fade into short grass and thistles, a sea of trash from the nearest resort town builds. The two seas collide and in the midst of the plastic waves, visible from the satellite, ten blue containers resemble strange metal anthills. These were the solution found by Eforie Sud’s City Council for sheltering some of the Roma they ejected from their camp in an action of land grabbing. After using bulldozers to pull down the old camp, 100 adults and 50 children were left without a shelter. Their cause was backed by multiple NGOs. Eventually the mayor of Eforie Sud devised an answer in the metal containers that he placed at the edge of locality’s landfill site. In one of these containers lives Fatima, a child from a small Roma community that settled in Romania near the Black Sea more than 500 years ago, but that is an old story. Now Fatima’s home is in the two colliding seas.”
To see the photography behind these narratives, please visit the exhibition in the University Library which will remain on display until Monday the 29th of April.