A curious bear forages at dawn, silhouetted towards snow-capped mountains. A pair of researchers gather tidepool samples at sunset in Morro Bay. A harbor seal pup nuzzles its adoring mom close to Elkhorn Slough. Such are a number of of the treasures among the many winners of the 2024 Stanford Doerr Faculty of Sustainability picture contest.
Every year, the college’s picture contest showcases the outstanding expertise of the Stanford group – not solely as visible artists and storytellers, but additionally as students working to make the world extra sustainable – all whereas highlighting nature’s struggles to outlive.
“I believe pictures, when it is performed effectively, can talk about sustainability in a really profound means that you would be able to’t with phrases or some other medium,” stated this yr’s visitor decide, George Steinmetz, ʻ79 Geophysics, a photographer recognized for his hanging photographs of the world and the occasions wherein we stay.
“Total, I used to be impressed with the range of material and with the expertise among the many contestants who’re, in any case, primarily taking footage at their workplaces. That’s not simple, even for knowledgeable,” Steinmetz stated. “So, congratulations to all of the photographers on that rely. It was an important honor to be invited to be a decide and an effective way for me to reconnect with this college that has meant a lot to me.”
One-hundred-forty Stanford college students, postdoctoral students, college, employees, and alumni submitted 409 images to the 2024 picture contest – probably the most submissions within the contest’s historical past.
Judges chosen a dozen finalists and a handful of honorable mentions. A fast scan of the pictures supplies a deeper appreciation of all that’s at stake ought to sustainability efforts fall brief. There is no such thing as a lack of magnificence and energy, awe and cuteness among the many winners, however there’s additionally a bittersweet sense of all that has been misplaced already.
The judges evaluated photographs in 4 classes reflecting the college’s give attention to cultivating deep information and high-impact options to urgent planetary challenges: Motion and Affect within the Subject; Motion and Affect on Campus; Magnificence in Nature; and The Challenges We Face.
Analysis, fieldwork, and collaboration on a world scale are showcased within the Motion and Affect within the Subject class. First place winner Paul Summers, a geophysics PhD candidate, took high honors together with his picture of fellow PhD candidate Danny Could heading out for fieldwork on Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica.
Photographs within the Motion and Affect on Campus class painting Stanford changemakers, researchers, and college students at work on campus. Physics doctoral pupil Bernardita Ried Guachalla topped the class together with her analog selfie in entrance of a filter for the world’s largest digital digicam at SLAC Nationwide Accelerator Laboratory.
Images entered within the Magnificence in Nature class current wildlife and landscapes of their ever-changing glory. Class winner Kate Bradley, BS/MS ‘24, Earth Programs, captured an austere scene of a lone soul standing atop the ridge of a sand dune at dawn in Oman’s Āl Wahībah Dunes.
Submissions within the last class, The Challenges We Face, draw focus to wildfires, ocean plastic air pollution, drought, and different environmental challenges. Matt Flores, a employees member within the Workplace of Growth, received the class with a stark black-and-white picture of fire-ravaged timber towards a somber sky in Santa Rosa, California, following the Tubbs Hearth.
Judges ranked photographs on inventive deserves together with coloration, composition, and lighting, in addition to on content material equivalent to topic, emotional affect, and class match.
First-place winners obtain an annual cross for U.S. Nationwide Parks and federal leisure lands and a Stanford Doerr Faculty of Sustainability water bottle. All awarded photographers, together with honorable mentions, obtain a certificates of recognition and the chance to have their work displayed at Roble Arts Health club through the Spring Arts Honest on April 26, at Stanford’s Redwood Metropolis campus, and within the Mitchell Constructing’s Hartley convention room.
