Hot Summer Photo Contest: Travel, Tourism, and the Environment

NiCHE is holding a Summer 2016 photo contest on the theme of “Travel, Tourism, and the Environment.”

The theme is timely, for summer is when environmental historians take to the field (and air-conditioned archives), set out on pleasure trips (quite possibly involving research or a conference), and visit family, friends, familiar places, and new ones too. What better time to contemplate – and capture photographically – some of the intersections between the environment, travel, and tourism?

Submissions are welcome from all NiCHE members. As with the Spring 2016 photo contest on energy landscapes, submissions will be adjudicated in two broad categories: “best historical image” and “best contemporary image.”

We invite submissions that relate to any aspect of the complex cultural, economic, and social connections between travel, tourism and the environment. They might be concretely material, such as the construction and maintenance of facilities for travellers, or their impact on animals, plants, and watercourses. They might be more intellectual, related to travelling and touring as ways of thinking about “Nature.” They could be about play, such as crowded parks and beaches, or the marketing of outdoor recreational equipment. Submissions might also consider topics related to work, such as migrations for service sector employment at hotels, resorts, and camps during their respective ‘high seasons.’ And remember: just because this is a summer photo contest, submissions don’t need to be about summer.

Entry is simple. In a single email, send photograph (as a JPG smaller than 12mb) and accompanying text of no more than 300 words in English or French (as a Word document). The text should explain the origin of the image and its relation to the contest theme. Send your entries to nichecanadawebsite@gmail.com Please indicate clearly whether you are submitting an image for the historical or contemporary category. Please also submit just one entry for each category. Contestants must ensure that they have copyright permission for the use of their images in this contest.

Contest closes September 1st. Some of the entries from each category will be showcased on the NiCHE website and tweeted about too. There will be two prize packages, with one awarded in each category. The prize packages consist of:

1. a copy of the new edited collection Moving Natures: Mobility and the Environment in Canadian History eds. Ben Bradley, Jay Young, and Colin M. Coates (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2016); and

2. a print edition of Histoire sociale/Social History #99 (June 2016), which is a special theme issue on Canadian Tourism History

NiCHE extends a special thanks to Ben Bradley, University of Calgary Press, and Histoire Social/Social History for supporting this contest.