SELF-PORTRAIT: Congratulations to our Winners!

After two days of judging we are proud to announce the four 1st Place Prize winners of this year's Student Photography Competition. We asked the competition judges to tell us a bit about each winning entry.

1st Place in fashion goes to Brittany Cool a junior at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. Jennifer Pastore, Photography Director of Teen Vogue, said this about Brittany's picture. "When looking at the winning fashion image here, it is a good reminder that less is often more when starting out in fashion photography. It can take beginning fashion photographers years to assemble strong teams of stylists, models, hair and makeup so in the meantime, focus instead on creating an image with beautiful light and strong composition while simultaneously
learning to work with models. Often the most beautiful image is the most pared down and isn't encumbered by overly dramatic hair, makeup or styling." Brittany will be interning this summer at the studio of Sebastian Kim.



1st Place in portraiture goes to Allison Neckman a senior at Savannah College of Art and Design. Maxine Davidowitz, Editorial Design Consultant said "We are all instinctively, from birth, attracted to the human face. For infants it's a matter of survival, of course, but we adults continue to be compelled by the direct gaze of a human face. This portrait used well-placed dramatic lighting to emphasize the eyes, allowing us to feel that we were looking into this young man's soul."  You can see more of Allison's work at www.allisonneckman.com. Allison will be interning this summer at the studio of Mark Seliger.

 

1st Place in reportage/documentary goes to Ryan McBride, a sophomore at New England School of Photography.  Photography Director Jennifer Miller said "This one image imparts a great deal of information in regards to the subject's world. The load is heavy, it is dusty and hot, the man is bent with his labor. The camera observes and does not manipulate, true to documentary ethics. The viewer feels the weight, the dust, the struggle of the subject and is drawn in by beauty of the image."  You can see more of Ryan's work on his site at www.mcbridephotography.wordpress.com. Ryan will be interning this summer at the studio of James Nachtwey.

 

1st Place in still life goes to Anthony Bui, a sophomore at Parsons The New School for Design. Brenda Milis, Photography Editor at Men's Health said "This image was unique among the still-life submissions in its natural, unaffected, and loosely narrative composition: a refreshing presentation of objects in this genre. It will be very interesting to see how an internship with the very formally focused photographer Svend Lindbaek will affect this photographer's sense of light and composition. I believe that gaining the kind of technical skills that time spent working for Svend offers will be a huge boon to this student's work and the potential blend of technical gains with his/her unique environmental approach to still life is a very exciting prospect." Anthony will be interning this summer at the studio of Svend Lindbaek.




Congratulations winners, we hope to see you at SPD's 46th Annual Design Gala on May 13th, and to hearing from you this summer.

Thanks to our judges as well as the steering committee Kim Sall and Jason Lancaster.