Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen have teamed up with CABE to launch a photography competition inviting readers to capture the beauty of England’s urban environment for the chance to win a Holga camera.

To enter the competition take a photograph of a cityscape, building or detail in England and submit it with a few lines of explanation.

Competition closes 5pm Monday 11 October 2010. The winning entry will be published on Dezeen.

See the competition website for more details and to submit your entry.

Photo © iStockphoto/Huchen Lu.

The information that follows is from CABE:

There are 35 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England. But 90% of us live in towns and cities and most people rarely get out and visit them. So CABE is supporting a photo competition to find ‘Areas of Outstanding Urban Beauty’.

The idea is to focus attention on the quality of urban areas and to find out what people love about the places where they live.

You’re invited to take a picture. Write a few lines. And submit an entry. It could be a single building, a cityscape, a park or a detail like a paving stone. It needs to be in an English town, city or village. It must be somewhere that is beautiful to you.

The project is being run with with Dezeen, the online architectural and design magazine, with support from The Photographers’ Gallery in London.

The competition is not designed to find areas which should get a special planning designation, like the UK’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The idea is to think about the places all around us. Look at them critically. See what’s special. And value it. For inspiration, watch this short video of people in Sheffield talking about what they think is beautiful in their city.

The closing date for entries is 5pm on Monday 11 October 2010. A shortlist will be published following the deadline and one week later the overall winner will be announced.

The winner gets a Holga camera with two rolls of film. This chunky, plastic camera will “reawaken your vision, fill you with joy and make you see beauty when you thought it had disappeared forever”. Prizes for the other shortlisted entrants will be announced shortly. The winning entry will be publicised by Dezeen and The Photographers’ Gallery.