NESCol students flying high in Harbour Board photography competition

December 18, 2019

When the North East Scotland College photography department was approached four years ago by Aberdeen Harbour Board with an interesting project, the team were delighted to help. This led to an exciting challenge being issued to all photography students at the College to come up with images that could feature in the Harbour Board’s next calendar.

Four years later, and for the first time, the winning students have the opportunity to display their successful photographs in a unique exhibition at Aberdeen International Airport, as well as featuring in the Aberdeen Harbour Board Annual Review. Twenty images have been selected and are on display near the baggage reclaim area at the airport.

This year’s challenge was set as follows:
• Category one – inspire visitors and residents alike by photographing some of it’s ‘hidden gems’
• Category two – capture a creative interpretation of the existing harbour to feature as the front cover of the Aberdeen Harbour Board Review

Michelle Handforth, Chief Executive of Aberdeen Harbour Board, and Steve Szalay, Managing Director of Aberdeen International Airport were invited to help with the difficult task of selecting this year’s winners from around 450 entries. They joined Chris Bain, External Relations Director at Aberdeen Harbour, Claire Cormack, owner of Raven Red, and College Lecturer Steve Smith in the unenviable task.

Mrs Bain said, “We are delighted that the competition has proved to be so popular; it really seems to have captured the imagination of the students. The quality of the work has remained incredibly high across the three years – and this year has proved to be no exception. A special thanks goes to our guests judges this year, who found time in their incredibly busy schedules to help us select our winners. Their contribution is greatly appreciated.”

Steve Smith said, “I am delighted that we have winners representing each level of photography study at NESCol this year – from NC, HND 1st year, HND 2nd Year and also students who graduated in the autumn. In total, we have 12 winners, whose images will be seen by many at the airport. We are hugely grateful to the Harbour Board for their investment in this project and for giving our students such a fantastic platform to showcase their work.”

The exhibition will run until Easter 2020.