Mid-Atlantic – October 2016 – Photo Story/Essay

Judges Comments

1st: The substance of the story is very strong — knowing his background, you’re able to connect with the subject and understand why this is important to him. The photographer was thoughtful in their compositions. Did a great job of getting a variety in only one day. Would’ve spaced out the two photograph detail shots. 2nd: We loved this story. We wanted to award this story first for some really memorable frames, but the edit is just too large and redundant in moments to merit first place. Not to say that any of these photos are bad — they’re not — the story would just be stronger overall with a tighter edit. Really love the frame of Phil walking through the rows with the skyline and him singing the national anthem. 3rd: Overall, it was a very small category, but we thought this should take third given some nice compositions and moments in the story. That said, needs context in captions to make this more of an essay — we can tell this is a strong community from the photos, but tell us why in words too.

Judges: Chelsea Purgahn/Kalamazoo Gazette, Bryan Bennett/Kalamazoo Gazette