The Photography in Medical Physics (PMP) competition is held to celebrate our exciting profession and to show off visually stimulating aspects of the work of a Medical Physicist.

Starting in 2014 (and with only one year break in 2022), Australian and New Zealand medical physicists and their colleagues have been asked annually to submit their favorite images for a friendly competition. Images are invited in several categories which have evolved over the years and included “Professionals at work”, “My favorite piece of Medical Physics gear”, “Connect, Communicate, Collaborate” “Marco – Get up close and personal with Medical Physics”. And in one year the competition even branched out into paintings and GPS maps.

Images are submitted digitally via a dedicated website. Artists always retain the copyrights to their work; they give permission for the organizers to use the images within outlined rules to promote the profession and the PMP competition.

The submitted images are assessed by a panel of judges based on their visual impact, storytelling aspects, and technical quality. The international panel of judges includes award winning professional photographers, well-known medical physicists and local gallery owners. The images are also presented to the public and all are invited for a public vote.

Winning images are generally presented at the annual meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Medical Physicists digitally and in print. In some years the best images were printed on High Gloss Aluminum and auctioned with 100% of all proceeds supporting a good cause, the Asia Pacific Special Interest Group (APSIG) of the Better Healthcare Technology Foundation, a registered charity of the ACPSEM. Recently, a calendar of the selected images has been created and made available for purchase, again 100% benefitting APSIG. Images from PMP have been used on the website of ACPSEM and in publications.

PMP is organized by Joerg Lehmann and Alannah Kejda as a social activity of the New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory branch of the ACPSEM. May Whitaker helped start the competition in 2014 and has been involved in the first three years before other commitments pulled her away. PMP is grateful for many supporters every year that help make the competition possible, for the staff at the ACPSEM office, and for generous financial support from commercial sponsors Gamma Gurus and DTect Innovation. And, of course, we very much appreciate all image submissions, without which PMP could literally not exist. Thank you and keep them coming!

photographyinmedicalphysics.com

Joerg.Lehmann@newcastle.edu.au