Whether it be at a mosque in India, atop a mountain in Polynesia or inside a church in Italy, Ohio State students and faculty have set their eyes on more than a few amazing sites.
The 2009 International Photography Exhibition is bringing those sites back to campus with its eighth annual display in Bricker Hall.

The display features 31 photos submitted by students, faculty and staff from their travels around the world. The exhibit contains the top three photos from three separate categories, as well as a Best in Show photo and 21 photos receiving honorable mentions.
Contestants can submit up to three photos, one in each category.
 

“This year [the categories were] People, Places and Food,” said Victor van Buchem, a spokeman for the Office of International Affairs. “We’ve had the People and Places categories for a number of years and the third category is frequently changed, so this year it was the Food category.”
 

A three-person panel judges the photos each year. The panel is made up of one faculty member, one staff member and one student judge.
 

“The photos are judged on originality and artistic interest,” van Buchem said.
This year’s judges were faculty member Susan Melsop, an industrial and visual communication design professor, Kevin Fitzsimons, a university photographer and Paula Gaetano, an international student in art education.
 

“We ask the judges to score all the photos on a scale and then the highest scoring photos come to top and we arrange them into the categories,” van Buchem said.
 

This year, just over 100 contestants submitted 238 photos to the exhibition. A graduate student, Senaka Goonewardena, won the Best in Show award for his submission, “A Praying Fisherman,” taken in Sri Lanka.
 

The ten winners all receive a place in the exhibit as well as gift cards to Barnes and Noble.
 

“A Praying Fisherman,” as well as the other 50 photos in the exhibit, will be on display in Bricker Hall Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. All photos in the exhibit will be considered for a traveling exhibition that will be shown throughout the country.
 

For more information about the contest or the Office of International Affairs, visit their Web site at oia.osu.edu.