 "Photo:")
"We have a beautiful campus to photograph" -UTEP President Diana Natalicio
Diana Natalicio announced onWednesday evening the winners of UTEP's "Give Us Your Best Shot" photo contest on the lawn of the Centennial Museum
Natalicio said the photo entries provided many unseen perspectives at UTEP.
"Everybody does have his or her own slightly different vantage point, and way of looking at things," Natalicio said. "We don't stop to appreciate sometimes how beautiful our campus is and I love the idea that people are out and about and photographing the campus."
Over the summer, UTEP students, staff, faculty and alumni were asked to point, click and flash for cash. Over 150 people participated, and the contest collected more than 500 entries.
"The response suggests that there is a lot of interest in photography and that we have a beautiful campus to photograph," Natalicio said.
Participants were asked to send in their best photos with the UTEP campus as the primary theme. The contest was coordinated by university relations and was strictly electronic, which made entry for the contest easier.
"The contest was designed to capture UTEP," Beto Lopez, assistant vice president for university relations said. "On either cell or any other type of camera that a person might have."
Lopez said Natalicio came up with the initial concept for the contest.
"She recognizes that individuals on campus have different routes and see the campus differently," Lopez said. "She wanted the UTEP community to share their impressions and visions of UTEP."
More than twenty judges were brought in for the event. Criteria for each photo entry was based on technical quality, composition, stopping power/originality, subject matter and meaning.
"Overall a number of them were outstanding, they captured UTEP's unique feel," said David Flores, local professional photographer and one of the contest judges.
"There were many views of UTEP that I haven't seen before."
Lopez said entries mainly depicted many views of UTEP, such as campus life, flora, architecture and landmarks.
Due to the staggering amount of entries, the exhibition of the photos were split up into two galleries, the Centennial Museum and the Union Gallery.
"It's interesting to see what people thought were important scenes around UTEP to them or what to them represents UTEP," said Scott Cutler, curator of the Centennial Museum. "I think that comes out in the photographs really nicely."
Natalicio said the contest has provided UTEP with more than enough invaluable photos.
"We're going to keep these and use them for invitations or for other promotional material," Natalicio said. "It is much nicer to have photographs taken by our students."
Miguel De Santiago may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.
Be the first to comment on this article!