“Solar Lighthouse” won photography contest “Estonia AND the Nordic Countries—Estonia AS a Nordic Country?”

On 23 August the conference “Estonia AND the Nordic countries—Estonia AS a Nordic country?”, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Estonia’s re-independence, took place at the Art Museum of Estonia where the winners of the essay and photography contest of the same name were also announced.

The winner of the photography contest was Anne Aaspõllu’s photo “Solar Lighthouse” (“Päikesemajakas”). She writes about the photo: “The sun dictates life in the Nordic countries. We wake, work and rest to the rhythm of the sun. We plan our doings according to the sun in the white nights of summer and long dark winter nights, we enjoy the summer warmth and admire the artwork of frost in winter. The courses of the sun have given as four magnificent seasons.”

The winner of the essay contest was Finnish-Swedish writer Emma Juslin, who in her work discusses the current situation in Europe and how it affects Estonia as well as the Nordic countries. Through her family history she links the Stalin-era and modern day Russia and reflects on being human and staying human.

The patron of the contest is the President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves and the main prize—participation in the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo—was awarded by the Norwegian Embassy.

Second place in the essay contest was awarded to social scientist Mikko Lagerspetz for the piece “Paradox of the Nordic Values and Estonia”. Third place was awarded to Tui Hirv, Estonian musician and kindergarten teacher who lives in Iceland with her family, for the opinion piece “Constructing the Estonian Woman”.

First place in the student category went to Jasmiin Üpraus, second place was awarded to Helena Eharand and third place to Viktoria Ly Pell.

Anne Aaspõllu won second place with her photo “The Nights Here are White” (“Ööd on siin valged”) and the third place was shared by Theodor Kangur’s photo “Nighttime Mirror” (“Öine peegel”) and Rait Tuulas’ photo “Forward Together” (“Koos edasi”).

The public choice award of the photo contest went also to Theodor Kangur’s “Nighttime Mirror”, Iti-Marleen Plink’s photo “Quality Time with Family” won the special prize in the student category and Loreida Hein’s “Lightness of the Spirit” was chosen as the favourite of the UT Centre for Ethics.

View gallery of the photographs

36 essays and 33 photo series were submitted to the contest “Estonia AND the Nordic Countries—Estonia AS a Nordic Country?”. There were writers from Estonia, all the Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland–, and England; the essays were in Estonian, English, Swedish and Danish.

Additional information:

Mari-Liisa Parder, Project Manager of UT Centre for Ethics
59036319
mari-liisa.parder [ät] ut.ee