Announcing the Winners of the 2025 PhD Fieldwork Photography Competition!
The Department of Politics and International Studies is thrilled to announce the winners of this year's PhD Fieldwork Photography Competition! Each year, this competition celebrates the incredible visual work our PhD students capture during their fieldwork, showcasing the diverse and profound ways they engage with their subjects and the communities they work within.
This year, we received a truly remarkable collection of photographs, making the judging process exceptionally challenging. However, after much deliberation, our judges have selected three outstanding images.
Congratulations to all our winners and a huge thank you to everyone who submitted their incredible work. Your photographs not only tell compelling stories but also offer a unique window into the vital fieldwork undertaken by our PhD students.
If you have any questions regarding this competition please email our PhD Administrator, Hayley Askew (PhDadmin@polis.cam.ac.uk).
First prize
"Threads of Survival" by Amelia Amemate (Dela), PhD candidate, Centre for Gender Studies.
In the swampy village of Kpordui in Ghana’s Volta Region, women craft aba mats from the resilient ketsi plant—an age-old livelihood tethered to land, tradition, and survival. The process is painstaking: harvesting in wetlands, drying under sun, and weaving with precision between wooden frames. These mats are more than products—they’re currency, sustenance, and a form of agency for women supporting their families. Yet, this heritage faces quiet erosion. Colonial histories and the influx of cheap synthetic imports threaten to eclipse aba, branding it as outdated in urban eyes. Still, in moments like a host pausing her labour to offer water, the Anlo custom of welcoming guests, a deeper fabric emerges—of hospitality woven through hardship, and tradition enduring in an uneasy present.
Second prize
"A fisherman casts his net into the Pacoti River" by Daniel Rincon Machon, PhD candidate, Centre of Development Studies.
A fisherman casts his net into the Pacoti River at its pass by Caça e Pesca favela — in the urban periphery of Fortaleza. These traditional practices are still vital in the survival of such communities. Location: Caça e Pesca, Fortaleza, Ceará. Brazil.
Third prize
"A traditional hairdresser braids her model's hair" by Karen Dominguez Mendoza, PhD candidate, Centre of Latin American Studies.
A traditional hairdresser braids her model's hair during the Tejiendo Esperanzas (Weaving Hopes) competition in Andagoya, Chocó, Colombia. Black hair-care entrepreneurs are mobilising the black Colombian economy.