2019 Exhibition

In January 2019, for the first time, the Society ran a week-long event at the Old Truman Brewery in London’s Shoreditch, exhibiting the 28 winning images from Capturing Ecology 2018. Never before had the images from our annual photographic competition had been exhibited outside of our Annual Meeting.

This exciting new event, held from 21 to 27 January, welcomed over 800 visitors throughout the week, with over 300 attending on the Saturday alone.

Capturing Ecology has achieved global traction over the past 2 years, with the number of submissions received increasing from 396 in 2017 to 468 in 2018, as well as our highly commended images increasing from 3 in 2017 to 12 in 2018, due to an increasingly high standard of submissions. The level of coverage both online and in print has also increased, with Capturing Ecology being featured in 23 pieces of coverage in 2017, and more than tripling to 86 pieces in 2018.

The 2018 winners were featured in a both national and international publications; on news websites in countries such as Spain, Russia, Iran and Germany, as well as by the Guardian, IFL Science, The Daily Mail, and The Scientist. We were also delighted to see UK newspapers (the Times, the Daily Express, and the Telegraph) cover the competition in their broadsheets. The event was also picked up by London Live, a London television channel, who interviewed the BES Engagement and Education Manager on the first day of the event.

Evening reception

As well as the daytime exhibition, an evening reception was held to publicise the event and as an opportunity to thank some of our key members. This specialist event held on Thursday 24 January included drinks and canapes, a short prize-giving ceremony and, most notably, talks from 3 of the competition winners outlining the background behind their images and their current research. The reception was attended by a range of associates, including representatives from BBC Earth, BBC Wildlife, Nature, New Scientist and the Ecologist.

Guests were welcomed at the door and then had the opportunity to walk around the venue and view the images with drinks and canapes (supplied by Tiny Leaf – an organic, zero waste, vegetarian caterer). The evening talks were opened by our CEO, Hazel Norman, welcoming all our guests, in particular our photographers. We then heard from 3 of our winning photographers, Ed Hall, Lydia Gibson and Alex Edwards, who presented how their images were taken and their own backgrounds in both photography and ecology.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the winners from Capturing Ecology 2018, whose incredible photography enabled us to celebrate the wonders of ecology to the wider world!

You can see all our 2018 winning and highly commended images here. 

Evening reception photographer: Oscar Yoosefinejad

Evening reception caterer: Tiny Leaf