Geography Department Photography Competition

Students and staff captured their experiences on research field trips, offering descriptions of the captured moment's meaning in their own words.

To find out more about the Geography department's field trips, and explore more winning entries from the competition, click here.

Winning entries

Banteay Srei

By Sophie Lindsay
Captured in Cambodia

"This temple dates back to the 10th century and has seen centuries of change in use and regulation. The site suffered from decades of unregulated tourism and looting; many ancient statues have been decapitated and their heads sold to private collectors. This was one of the first temples in Angkor to be restored. What the photograph cannot capture is the awe-inspiring atmosphere that the ornate walls provoke."

Guiding Smile

By Jonathan Greenall
Captured in Mumbai, India

"This photo is from the second-year field trip to India, in which I opted to depart a week earlier to travel southern India by train. The starting point for this journey was Mumbai, where this photo is taken,marking the start of a 22 hour, 1100km+ journey to Bangalore, passing through the northern tip of the Western Ghats and across the Deccan Plateau. The onward journey from Bangalore culminated in Kochi where I met up with the arriving King’s tutors for fieldwork."

Intimate Contact

By Yifu Zhang
Captured in the Red Sea, Southern Egypt

"The picture shows that a diver carefully approaches a large coral reef to take a photo. After landing, the photos will be burnt into discs for sale. In the Red Sea, coral reef tours provide a fortune for coastal residents in Southern Egypt. In addition to economic gains, coral reefs also have unique ecological benefits. However, due to global warming, a growing number of coral reefs around the world have been damaged. These changes not only endanger the oceanic ecosystem, but also directly threaten the lives of coastal residents who depend on tourism for their livelihood."

Seafood

By Ye Qiang
Captured in Copenhagen

"The night market in Copenhagen."

Tidal Island

By Ye Qiang
Captured in Penzance, Cornwall

"Some of Britain's most famous coastal landmarks will be radically changed or even lost because it is no longer possible to hold back rising seas and coastal erosion, according to the National Trust. The castle of St Michael's Mount off the coast of Cornwall could alter dramatically. Residents here could lose their low-tide causeway permanently and have to move to homes higher above the tide-line."

Untitled

By Lok Lam Wong
Captured in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

"Tens of thousands of ethnic Vietnamese live on rafts and houseboats in floating villages, which were improvised ghettoes after the mass killings and forced deportations of the Khmer Rouge era. The huge majority of Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese are undocumented, having no right to own or live on land. Tour guides describe the villages as curious products of an indigenous lifestyle."

Vibrancy of The Young

By Aaron Chong
Captured in Lorca, Spain

"An annual religious festival in Lorca, Spain where youth join hands through the city and pass the key from one end to the other."

Overall Winner

Colours of Nomadism

By Ye Qiang
Captured in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

"For the time between summer and autumn, the Inner Mongolian grasslands seem like a giant palette. The landscape of the prairie shows a gradual change from green to yellow. Cows, sheep and horses make it livelier."