Winners of the Crossness Nature Reserve - Photo Competition Announced

      • 3rd place: Jim McMahon ‘Horse’s Eye’. Close-up of a dark horse’s eye, slightly to the right of the frame. The glossy eye reflects the photographer and a faint landscape, surrounded by dark hair and gentle eyelashes. The overall mood is calm and intimate
      • 2nd place: Ursula Keene’s ‘Little Egret’. A small white Little Egret stands in calm water under a blue sky. Its dark beak points downward, and its reflection mirrors it perfectly. The lake’s surface ripples gently, distorting reflections of reeds and sky into abstract blue and gold lines around the bird.
      • 3rd place: Jim McMahon ‘Horse’s Eye’. Close-up of a dark horse’s eye, slightly to the right of the frame. The glossy eye reflects the photographer and a faint landscape, surrounded by dark hair and gentle eyelashes. The overall mood is calm and intimate

      1st place: Richard Winston’s ‘Eurasian Green Woodpecker’. Close-up of a Eurasian Green Woodpecker’s head, showing its red and grey feathers dusted with frost and fine webbing. Its dark, slightly open beak points forward, and its pale eye stares directly at the camera against a soft, blurred background.

      We are delighted to announce the winners of Capture the Marshes: Crossness Photo Challenge. 

      Thank you to everyone who took part and shared their inspiring photographs celebrating the unique landscape and wildlife of the Crossness marshes.

      Congratulations to our winners: 

      1st place: Richard Winston’s ‘Eurasian Green Woodpecker’

      2nd place: Ursula Keene’s ‘Little Egret’

      3rd place: Jim McMahon ‘Horse’s Eye’

      The winners were chosen by a jury consisting of Sarah White, photographer, and Karen Sutton, Manager of Crossness Nature Reserve. 

      The winners will receive vouchers to be redeemed against photography workshops at the Lakeside Darkroom in Thamesmead. 

      The competition celebrated the photography exhibition ‘a small call for an ever’, which was on view at Thamesmead Library between 26 June and 19 September 2025. The exhibition that brought together photographs by artist Sarah White and deep knowledge and care of Friends of Crossness Nature Reserve. It featured photographs produced through a series of visits, walks, events and conversations during Beneath the Pavement, the Marshes programme. 

      The exhibition was part of Beneath the Pavement, the Marshes, a three-year artistic research programme bringing together artists, ecologists and activists, with local ecological and community groups working in north Bexley, to explore the ground beneath our feet.