(Above) Matthew Fox's Eden Project was the Action category and overall winner of the Museums at Night 2010 photography competition. "This is a beautiful image which captures the playfulness of outdoor adventures and exploration at night," said Culture24 Director Jane Finnis.
A fizz of shimmering neon light bolts racing up a wooden forest walkway at Cornwall’s otherworldly Eden Project, a pop art-perfect cupcake sampled at Newcastle’s Shipley Gallery and a fleet of grounded, burnt-out helicopters in Weston-Super-Mare have provided the winners for this year’s hotly-contested Museums at Night Flickr competition.
The 2010 campaign’s photography face-off saw Perspex art installations at the Late Shows, dance experiments at the Ragged School Museum and the twilight splendour of Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum provide the cultured subject matters of choice.
“The competition isn’t about celebrating technical excellence, it’s about happenstance, citizen photography, getting out there and snapping away,” said Culture24 Editor Richard Moss, who judged entries from across the UK with Culture24 Director Jane Finnis and Gordon MacDonald, the Editor of Photoworks magazine.
“As a result we have a selection of photographs that encapsulate the Museums at Night weekend. Congratulations to the winners and everybody who entered.”
Check out the thoughts of the judges and winners...
Action runner-up: Collaborative Dance Experience by Anna Faherty:
Anna is, apparently, also a member of groups including the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition and the 2010 General Election. Both of which are arguably less dramatic than this shot from the Ragged School's theatrical Museums at Night outbreak.
Objects winner: Late Shows Weird or Wonderful by Paul J White:
"Weird seemed to be a recurring theme at various events during the Late Shows, in a nice way of course," said one observer of this shot of an onlooker entranced by a Perspex case at the Shipley. "It's my favourite image from the Late Shows weekend of cultural happenings around Newcastle after dark," says Paul.
Objects runner-up: Late Shows Cupcakes at the Shipley Gallery by Paul J White: The curator of this year's Brighton Photo Biennial may never know his part in the decision, but the judges fell for the Shipley's confectionary thanks to this photo's Martin Parr feel.
"I'm not sure what flavour these are, but tequila cakes were available as a live band played in the normally staid Victorian art gallery," says Paul. "I'm not really a cake person – I was more interested in the wine."
Nightscapes winner: Boneyard 1 by Snapping Platypus: "This encapsulates something very moody and mysterious," says Culture24 Director Jane Finnis, surveying the wreckage of two Westland WG 30 Series 100s and a Wessex from the Helicopter Museum in Weston-Super-Mare. "It's not your usual shot of museum objects, but a boneyard of careful abandon."
Nightscapes runner-up: Kelvingrove Dusk by Gajtalbot: "My photography is pretty much what I see and what I like," says the Glasgow-based snapper, who reckons he's "not an ace photographer at all."
Visitors to the group disagreed, variously praising the shot as being "well Transylvanian", "really fairytaley", "spooky" and comparing it to revered illustrator Jan Pienkowski's silhouette books.
Thanks to all the museums, galleries and members of the public who shared photos of the fun they had during Museums at Night – you can see the full online archive of images in the Flickr group at the Museums at Night 2010 pool.
