Otago Wildlife Photography Exhibition Opens This Weekend At Otago Museum

The Otago Wildlife Photography Exhibition is ready to open again at Otago Museum. The result of close to 1900 entries to the Otago Wildlife Photography Competition (OWPC), shortlisted entrants and winners are all being exhibited in the Museum’s Beautiful Science Gallery, which will open to the public at 12pm, Saturday 1 August.

The entries were blind judged by a panel of expert local photographers and film-makers from Otago. Shanaya Allan, Otago Museum’s Exhibition Designer and judge has been leading this year’s display. “We had over 900 entries for our new category the First Time Entrant’s Prize this year. It was wonderful to see so many people who had not taken part before enter the competition. Every year it is great to view all the entries, and see the amazing amateur photographers we have throughout the region.”

Finalists to the exhibition are invited to the private opening ceremony on Saturday morning where the winners will be announced. “There were a lot of tough decisions to make” said Ms Allan, who is busy preparing prints for display.

This is the twenty-first year of the competition, and for the first time the People’s Choice Award votes will be exhibited on the big screen in the Beautiful Science Gallery. Andrew Charlton, Developer, Systems and Interactive Media at Otago Museum has designed an interactive touch screen, which will allow each image voted for to be displayed on a 3-metre tall screen. “I think it will be great to allow people to see their images up there” said Mr Charlton, “technology is wonderful when it can engage people in the experience more, so it has been a fun project to develop”.

The exhibition has a range of supporting events, from children’s photography workshops, to a PechaKucha evening where a range of photographers will be showing their work.

The exhibition is free, and is open until Thursday 1 October.

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