Juror's Statement:

I truly understand the emotional risk of submitting your heartfelt work to the scrutiny of someone else. If a juror selects your piece, he or she is an awesome judge. If your work is not selected, “What do they know?” But if we decide to bring our work into the world, and as we take the step to push our vision in new directions, two good things can happen regardless of whether we win or not. First, we get to explain our vision to others. To friends as we agonize over the selection, and to the viewer if our work is selected. It is often true that an image should rest on its own merits, but it is also true that being able to talk about your work brings clarity to our path. And second, if we are open, we can learn how to get better. There will always be people that just don’t get what we are doing, but there are often times when our vision is rough or our craft is not perfected. Putting work next to others is a way to better understand where we are on the creative journey.

I did my best to approach the submitted images with open eyes and an open mind. I love all kinds of photography, way outside the realm of what I personally create. I was looking for images that made me go “WOW”, and especially, a quiet “wow”. I responded to images that resonated about a place or conveyed a feeling. I appreciated images where the craft of photography was integrated into the finished piece.

These fifty-eight images are an exciting mix of what people with vision can create. They have made the first important step in creating the image I saw represented as a digital file. Now they get to make a beautiful print, the time-honored second half to photography. I look forward to seeing their efforts.

Eddie Soloway

Juror: Eddie Soloway

Eddie Soloway’s photographs are an expression of his passion and commitment to the natural world. His eye has developed during a lifetime of exploring the earth’s wild places. Former positions in educational workshop design, wilderness program development, and custom fine photographic printing have further honed his expertise. In 1998, Eddie was the first recipient of the Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award presented by the Santa Fe Center for Photography, and in 2011 Photo District News named Eddie one of the country's top workshop instructors. Today he divides his time between making fine-art prints, teaching, speaking on creativity and the photographic life, and furthering photographic publishing projects. He is the author of the book, One Thousand Moons, and the instructional DVD, A Natural Eye Workshop.