National – June 2017 – Photo Story/Essay

Judges Comments

Overall, some very interesting topics but execution and editing did not rise to the news­worthiness of the subject matter. Many of the entries would have benefited greatly from tighter editing and more focus. A couple of the entries were not much more than a series of photographs around a subject as opposed to a coherent story with a point of view. 1st­ A solid story, told with good moments and emotion. The opener tells us exactly what we’re dealing with – a man’s newly won freedom.Solid throughout but could have used a stronger closer. 2nd – Very intimate story that took a while to get going – needed a tighter edit in the beginning. But the photographer saw it through to the “end” and made some very strong, storytelling images in a difficult situation. 3rd – Not an “important” story, but a nice essay that could have been more intimate and “deeper.” But, it had several well­executed individual images and the closer made us smile.

Judges: William Snyder/RIT, Karen Cetinkaya/RIT