Our traditional photo contest, FOTICMAB, is already a consolidated activity and receives every year a high participation. This year, we had three categories: scientific, artistic and «ICMAB moments». The artistic category was the one with the highest participation (48 photos), followed by our most favourite scientific category (19 photos) and the recovered «ICMAB moments» with 10 photos.
The winner of the scientific category is the photo you can see above; «Photonic leaf» by Cristiano Matricardi. «Rainbow«, by Laia Soler won the artistic category, and «¡Con una sonrisa se trabaja mejor!» by Adriana Kyvik won the «ICMAB moments» category. The three winners are all PhD researchers at the Institute. The winner of each cateogory received a smartbox to enjoy a dinner for two.
Let’s see the story behind each one of the winning and finalist photos:
Scientific Category
First prize: Photonic leaf, by Cristiano Matricardi
«We printed photonic nanocrystals based on cellulose on the skeleton of a leaf. The picture is done with a normal camera. The rest of the leaf is removed with sodium hydroxide, and the different colors are obtained by the different geometry and spacing of the photonic crystal nanopattern, which interacts differently with the incident light.»
First finalist: The city, by Cristiano Matricardi
«This photo was a little bit of an accident. It is done with an optical microscope. We place a thin film of silica nanoparticles (5-8 nm) mixed with gold nanoparticles (50 nm) forming like a gel. We then place a glass on top and when the gel starts drying, it cracks, forming these curious pattern, which look like streets of a big city.»
Second finalist: Lava flakes, by Francesco Silvestri
«My picture is an AFM image (5 um size) representing dendritic islands of pentacene covered with a dopant molecule, a fullerene derivative.»
Artistic Category
First prize: Rainbow, by Laia Soler
«La muntanya de Vinicunca es troba als andes peruans. L’arc de Sant Martí el dibuixen diferents minerals sedimentats separadament d’acord amb el seu pes al llarg de 24 milions d’anys. Havia estat un indret inexplorat fins fa tres anys, per arribar a aquest punt cal una caminada d’un dia a 5000 metres d’altitud!»
First finalist: La unió fa la força, by Bernat Bozzo,
«Quan veiem castells casi sempre ens fixem amb l’enxaneta i poques vegades amb la pinya. La barreja de caos aparent de mans i l’ordre geomètric que guarda la base del castell, és fotogràficament parlant, tant o més potent que el castell en si. La foto ha estat presa a la Plaça de Sant Domènec de Manresa, durant els actes del diumenge de rams d’aquest any.»
and Sunrise in the horizon, by Carles Llavina
«This photo was taken with my compact camera when the sun was rising over the horizon in a remote spot of the northern Scotland, in a solitary beach of Collieston. Being a morning person has its rewards!»
Second finalist: Bada-boom!, by Bernat Bozzo
«El correfoc de Manresa és sempre un espectacle de llum, soroll i pólvora assegurat. Un dels moments més esperats és l’arribada a la Plaça Major, on s’encén una traca espectacular. Veure-la avançar cap a tu encara ho fa encara més impressionant! La foto és de l’edició 2018 d’aquest correfoc, dins dels actes de la Festa Major de Manresa.»
ICMAB moments category
First prize: ¡Con una sonrisa se trabaja mejor!, by Adriana Kyvik
«This image portrays the daily life in our office; in this case we have a visit of an exmember of the office, who is inspired and decides to take a picture of us. We smile when seeing him almost laying on the floor trying to focus our image through the handle of the mug. With no doubt, working is better when smiling!»
First finalist: Metastability, by Judit Tomsen
«This photo was taken in an improvised way, at lunchtime in ICMAB dinning room. Small moments of relaxation before going back to work! (…Or maybe there is a hidden message and it represents the «TO DO» list of a predoc student…?)»
Second finalist: Shadows, by Anna May-Masnou
«I see these shadows everyday at work: the figures from the MATGAS building, watching us all day, checking our behavior, our acts. It was a sunny day, indeed, and I decided to immortalize them in a picture, so it’s me who can watch them now every day.»
Thank you all for your participation! Take a look at all the final votes at the FOTICMAB website, and enjoy the pictures! See you next year!
