Quekex26 – The Barnard Photomicrographic Award (Still Images)
Quekex26, the Club’s annual exhibition, will take place on Saturday 24th October 2026 – 10:00am to 4:00pm at Elm Court Youth and Community Centre, 363 Mutton Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, EN6 3BP.
Entry conditions for the Annual Exhibition 2026
ENTRIES ARE NOW OPEN
Awards of Merit will be given to examples of excellent quality at the Annual Exhibition of the Quekett Microscopical Club, where they will be displayed for other members and guests to inspect, admire and discuss. By entering you agree that images may be shown on the Club website; they may also be reproduced for use at Club and outreach events. Copyright remains with the author.
This award is a celebration of photomicrographic art. It is intended as a showcase of microscopical and photographic technique, designed to encourage and inspire others in the field of microscopy.
Entrants have the option of entering their images into one of two categories:
Artistic – where the image will be judged based on artistic merit.
Technical – where the image will be judged on the scientific/technical merit.
The Objectives
- To recognise standards of excellence.
- To encourage Members to offer their best work for assessment and possible awards of a Certificate of Merit.
The Rules
Entry is open to all members of the Quekett Microscopical Club, the Postal Microscopical Society and the Iceni. Entry is also open to family members living in the same household as a Quekett Microscopical Club member.
A maximum of two entries per person is allowed.
Please note that, aside from cleaning, stacking or stitching, entries in the technical category should not have been subjected to significant post-processing using third party software.
Entry procedure
EACH ENTRY MUST be accompanied by:
- Confirmation of which category you wish to enter (technical or artistic)
- A title and a description of the subject
- Whether or not your subject is mounted on a slide
- Whether your sample prepared/mounted by yourself
- Some notes on the microscopy techniques used e.g. DIC, polarising etc.
- Information on the photographic equipment/techniques used
- Information on how long it took you to obtain your final image i.e. has this been a long project
Entries should be made in JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIF or TIFF format and submitted using the form below. Maximum file size is 10MB to allow passage through email clients. Please note that entries cannot be sent by Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, WeTransfer etc.
IMPORTANT
Include details under the headings above, but please note that each actual image file submitted must be sent as a separate attachment – NOT embedded in a Word or text document.
Each photographic entry will be assessed prior to the exhibition by an independent judge whose decision is final.
The closing date for submissions to the Barnard Award (Stills) category is 1st September 2026
Entries for the Artistic category should be sent to the [email protected], those for the Technical category should be sent to [email protected].