As a natural lead up to Inter-Faith Week, which takes places from 15th- 21st November, the Multi-Faith Centre organised a Photography Competition which was open to the general public on the subject of “Faith and Spirituality” in Derbyshire. The brief was to convey “something one can see but which seems to point beyond itself”- being Transcendent. At the awards ceremony on Monday (16th) evening Professor Jonathan Powers gave an interesting talk on the notion of “transcendence” and the concepts which inspired the competition challenge. It was always going to be a difficult notion to capture in a photograph, and each person, approached it quite differently – the photos below demonstrate that – from religious symbols, to ancient stones, nature, structures, and the mysteries of the human face.

Perhaps it is one of the defining attributes of humanity that we can see, understand and imagine, beyond the thing that we are looking at?

The competition was divided into under, and over 18s, and was  judged by Chas Andrews-Roberts ( University of Derby Head of Media) and Peter Bonnell ( QUAD Curator). All photos are being exhibited at the Multi-Faith Centre during this week. The winners were:

Over 18
Dean Davis – 1st
Rob Boler – 2nd
David Vowles – 3rd

Under 18
Adi Sacker – 1st
Olivia Heardman – 2nd
Vivian Ma – 3rd

All photographs are copyright the creditted photographers.

‘Arbor Low Stone Circle- Finding Faith in our Landscape’ by Keely Jennings

‘Arms Open Wide’ by Olivia Heardman

‘Covenant’ by Adi Sacker.

‘Dharamsala- a place of faith’ by Chris Calverley.

‘Face at Arbor Low’ by Keely Jennings.

‘Gone to a higher place’ by Marion Toft

‘Have faith in my helping hands’ by Chris Calverley.

‘Hindu God’ by Sarah Stanton Longdon

‘Hindu Temple’ by Dean Davis.

‘Hindu Temple’ by Rob Boler

‘House of the Holy’ by Olivia Heardman

‘Jamia Mosque’ by Rob Boler

‘Lest we Forget’ by Olivia Heardman

‘Love & do love the Madonna’ by Sarah Stanton Longdon

‘Nine Ladies Spiritual Experience’ by Kevin Taylor.

‘One God, many forms’ by Chris Calverley

‘Rev Donald McDonald’ by Dean Davis

‘Rev Geraldine Pond’ by Dean Davis

‘Rising from the Mist’ by David Vowles

‘Shabbat Shalom- A Peaceful Sabbath’ by Adi Sacker.

‘Shaft of Light’ by David Vowles.

‘Sikh Temple’ by Rob Boler

‘Spiritual Sun Rays’ by Sarah Stanton Longdon

‘St. Clement’s Church’ by Richard Palmer.

‘The Bridge’ by Astrid Barresi

‘Vacant Seat’ by David Vowles

Vivian Ma

Vivian Ma

Vivian Ma

‘Wishing Tree’ by Keely Jennings

David Westwood.

David Westwood.

David Westwood.