How alumni donations have inspired student photographers on campus for the past decade
This World Photography Day (19 August), we’d like to celebrate a donation from alumna Dame Teresa Graham DBE to set up a student photography prize in memory of her godson, Anthony Hall.
19 August 2025
To mark World Photography Day this August, and to celebrate a decade of support for budding student photographers on campus, we caught up with donor and Class of 1977 graduate, Dame Teresa Graham DBE (pictured).
About Anthony
Anthony was a loving son, a joy as a godson and a loyal friend. I have known his mum, Diane, since we were teenagers, and it was a privilege to watch him grow up.
Anthony was artistic and creative from the get-go. In his teens, he was a budding musician – playing piano and the decks – but he soon discovered his greatest passion: photography.
Alongside his career as an accountant, Anthony would photograph weddings to raise money to pursue his creative projects. It was a core part of his identity, which is why, when Anthony died suddenly at the age of 36 in 2015, Diane and I chose to commemorate his life through the Photography Prize at Newcastle University. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength.
Anthony’s legacy
Since 2015, we’ve hosted the annual Anthony Hall Photography Prize on campus in collaboration with Newcastle University Photography Society (NUPHS). Members of the student Photography Society are encouraged to submit photos based on a changing theme each year with the opportunity to win a cash prize of up to £350, as well as seeing their work exhibited. Past themes include ‘home’, ‘freedom’, ‘landscape’, ‘your favourite thing’, and poignant for the 2020 prize (when the exhibition was held virtually), ‘isolation and connection’.
Getting to know the Photography Society and all it offers Newcastle students has been wonderful. Year-round, their members benefit from workshops and studio sessions to help them develop their photography skills, as well as social events like photo walks and pub quizzes!
Pictured: Maria and Fisa, our winner and runner up in the 2025 Anthony Hall Photography Prize (credit: @nuphotographysoc)
This competition allows us to reflect on Anthony's life and to see his passion for photography reflected in the entries and stories and faces of the students. We are so happy that we persevered with the competition as the entries over the years have become much more professional, much more studied, and much more exciting.
Stand-out entries over the past decade include ‘Leap of Faith’, which showed a squirrel mid-flight, and ‘Red Rose’, where the student had handmade the rose and the lighting effects.
This year’s theme was ‘nature/landscapes’ and the winning photograph was entitled ‘Durham Bridge’. In a statement, the winning student Maria (pictured above) said that she wished she had joined the Photography Society in her first year instead of her last. This, more than anything, is why we encourage the students to enter and share their work with us all.
This competition allows us to reflect on Anthony's life and to see his passion for photography reflected in the entries and stories and faces of the students.