AG|WPJA The Artistic Guild of the WPJA

Judges Comment: Here’s an image that proves once again that the visual language of photography is infinitely capable of poetry, even if the scene is common. Perhaps that is an unspoken allure for anyone who picks up a camera in earnest - the potential of discovery that never fades. This image is like a dance with each compositional layer acting it’s perfect role on the stage.

Judges Comment: Symmetry often suggests distance, creating a scene meant to be viewed as an observer, yet this image through it’s clever “entry points” leads the eye to a simple feast of moments.

Judges Comment: The most simple image can extend far beyond the basic mandate to preserve and inform by drawing the viewer into the moment. The universal theme of anxiety in this photo makes us all think of a moment in our own life where we have been as equally anxious and determined.

Judges Comment: Silhouettes attract our photographic eye like ripe fruit on the vine but their reduction of detail often obscures the moment, reducing the image to its one dimensional existence when it could have been so much more. But this image reveals how reduction to light and shadow can often accentuate and enhance the moment. In this case the obvious elements of light and composition work in synchronicity with the moment of a simple greeting.

Judges Comment: The immediacy of the deadline - to prepare for the wedding represents the hurried and oft-harried world of modern society. Could there be a more apt view of the individual lives we lead among a crowded world? Each person in this photo is isolated from the scene yet somehow connected in tandem as though if one left all else would cease.

Judges Comment: The big curlers, the makeup, the crowded scene - the perfect angle and lens choice. Distortion was the order of the day.

Judges Comment: The composition of this photo combined with the chairs obviously pushed aside to make room for the event adds to the surreal of the moment. A man’s outstretched hand, hovering above her head while another looks on, all bathed in light, captures a moment as beautiful as it is challenging.

Judges Comment: The incongruent location isolates the bride and is further accentuated by the centered composition and vivid contrast of the photograph. Her gown appears resistant to the realities of the street, her face ironically shrouded - suggesting the power of tradition and ceremony over individualism.

Judges Comment: The cool blue tones act as a frame leading us to the warm yellows accent at the brides feel. The eye is then drawn to the bride as she plays with the curls of her hair, obviously as caught in her moment in the same way the image creates a visual experience for the viewer.

Judges Comment: The solemnity (or is it reverence?) of the moment is accentuated by good use of lighting and composition in this image. Black and white imaging is also used well in this photo by reducing the distractions of the background to the basic elements required for the image to “speak” more fluently.

Judges Comment: The bride is ready - or is she? Her attendant is smiling but she appears at the brink of a moment that will change her life forever. The church looms ahead of her. These thoughts and so many more exist within every pixel of a lovely image like this that waste no time or space bringing us to the moment before us.

Judges Comment: The softness of the high key lighting helps lead our eyes to a moment so subtle that it might fall from our grasp like the beads of fabric cascade from her veil.

Judges Comment: A delightful image that both reveals and shrouds the subject and forces us to consider the magic of a moment through light and composition alone.

Judges Comment: Even in fine dress a young girl is just a girl. Their rumpled clothing and casual sitting suggests the haphazard and careless attitude of youth watching the drama unfold before. Even better that the mirror reflects a blurred scene - thus inviting the viewer to focus on the dream rather than the details.

Judges Comment: Is it a friend or relative watching from the door as the bride looks in her direction? Is the bride even looking at the person at right. We can’t know for sure but ultimately realize that it doesn’t matter. It’s enough to feel a moment of joy.

Judges Comment: Ahhh, the travail of the common man today - well, actually any of us who find ourselves thrust into a circumstance that requires more knowledge than we possess. Howcast.com comes to the rescue. It won’t inspire memories of being taught by a loving father or older brother but, truthfully, none of use really care when the clock is ticking and we need to tie the damned bow tie. This is photojournalism’s essential elements at work - storytelling moments, stripped of photographer ego, that both inform and challenge us to think of our life. And... ahhh... look at its simplicity - the photo, not the process of tying the bow.

Judges Comment: It’s a common scene - the bride, the mirror and the essentials of an event that will ultimately end with most of it gone but for the memories of the moment. The gown and veil, the invitation, the introspection of youth poised at the brink of an unknown journey - all of it gone or stuffed into memory trunks and boxes - all of it but for the photos that remind us.

Judges Comment: There is an old saying in photojournalism about “getting the photo” or moment - “F8 and be there.” This is an example. The photographer was there with enough skills to focus and choose the right exposure settings. With the zeal of a “snap-shot” a fun moment is captured.

Judges Comment: The simple grace of symmetry and light transform what could have been just another “getting ready” image into a beautiful photo to behold. But there is more at work here. Notice how the expressions and posture, particularly of their right arm and wrist, appears as a clock frozen in successive moment - each revealing a moment within itself.

Judges Comment: The bride blends into the bright, white light of the scene as the attendant reaches out to her as if to rescue her or comfort her on the journey that appears to engulf her like the white wall behind her that has already blended with her dress. This is an image that propels a common moment to something more. Its composition alone beckons further thought.