People’s Choice winner Brian Baldeck, a web content manager for Marketing & Creative Services, took this photo of Stage Harbor Lighthouse in Chatham, Mass.

Awards

From Frost-Covered Mongolian Mountains to a Chatham Lighthouse: the Annual Global Programs Photo Contest

Competition showcasing BU’s worldwide adventures and experiences drew more than 800 submissions this year

The two winning entries in BU Global Programs’ 14th annual photo contest were polar opposites: one captured frost-covered mountains in Mongolia, the other a star-filled sky above Stage Harbor Lighthouse in Chatham, Mass. Yet both stood out to judges and the BU community, earning top honors.

Open to all BU students (including those enrolled in BU Academy and the Evergreen program), faculty, staff, and alumni, this year’s contest showcased the adventures of Terriers across 87 countries, territories, and island nations, and 33 US states. The 807 submissions came from every BU college and school, as well as from several administrative offices. 

For 14 years, the BU global community has shared images from around the world through “interesting and thought-provoking lenses,” says Willis Wang, vice president and associate provost for Global Programs. 

“We are delighted to build on this incredible collection of creative expression,” he adds, “and to celebrate our community’s reflections of human connection, discovery, and learning for this year’s contest.”

Brian Baldeck, a web content manager for Marketing & Creative Services, won the People’s Choice award for his photograph of a starry night sky above Stage Harbor Lighthouse. Built in the 1880s at the entrance to Stage Harbor in Chatham, the lighthouse is stationed at one of the foggiest points on the East Coast, where it has guided ships safely for more than 50 years. 

A first-time entrant, Baldeck says he captured the image late last summer while camping nearby. Though he had never visited the lighthouse before, he carefully planned out his shoot, waiting for a moonless night with clear skies—the perfect conditions to create some dazzling astrophotography. Using a wide-angle lens, he framed the dark sky, the lighthouse in the foreground, and the Milky Way stretching above it.

“Boston has a lot of light pollution, but the Cape has much better conditions because you’re looking out over the ocean,” Baldeck says. “In my photo, though, the view is over Nantucket, and that greenish glow near the horizon is actually the light pollution from the island.”

He says he was shocked to win, never thinking he’d have a chance among such a strong group of seasoned finalists.

The winner in the judged category this year is Mingyang Wang, a film and television major and one of last year’s finalists. Wang (COM’26) submitted a photo of vast snowfields coated in heavy ice, with horseback riders in the foreground.

He took the photo during a 2026 Lunar New Year road trip across northern China with his family. Early one morning, he followed the family’s local guide to the top of a mountain and saw the scene that would become his winning shot.

“Even our guide, who had lived in the region for over 40 years, told us it was only the second time he had ever witnessed such an extensive scene of frost,” Wang says. As he took in the vista, a local horse herder appeared on the slope. 

“It was nearly minus 30 degrees Celsius, and I could feel my hands shaking from the cold,” Wang says. “Since I was shooting on a film camera, I had very little room for error. I quickly estimated the exposure and focus and carefully pressed the shutter.” The final image is only minimally adjusted, he says, and the colors remain very close to what he saw.

The moment held additional meaning for him: this year is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, “and it feels meaningful that the awarded photo also features a horse,” he says. 

“For me, photography is about recognizing that opportunities are fleeting,” Wang says. “It takes patience, observation, and the decisiveness to act at the right moment.”

Winners of this year’s contest could choose between a Meta Quest 3 VR headset or a GoPro Hero 13 package.

This year’s 14 finalist photos include one of a man handling pigeons in Belgium, one of beachgoers warily enjoying the rough surf in Crete, and one of a small cabin perched on stilts above the water in Thailand.

View the gallery of finalist images below.

Brice Herda, QST (Undergraduate), Alaska, Katmai.

Katherine Krug, (Faculty), Buenos Aries.

Maylada Kanokchoteworakarn, QST (Graduate), Thailand, Mae Hong Son.