New England – September 2017 – Photo Story/Essay

Judges Comments

This category was probably our toughest judging challenge. We madethe difficult decision not to award any winners. Most of the 6 entrieswere just a collection of images, and not successful photo essays.There were a few entrants who had a single strong image and wouldhave been better advised to enter it as a single in a different category.There was a story about horse racing that seemed to have all the visual elements of a traditional photo essay; setting the scene,establishing shot, a portrait, a few details, but it lacked uniqueness and most importantly emotion.The story about a family in limbo living in a camping tent had the potential to be a strong photo essay, but seemed incomplete and the story line disjointed. It was so confusing we could not make heads or tails of what it was trying to convey. We read each caption many times and still sat perplexed. But the photographer had some good images that drew us in. We suspect the help of a good editor could have made this a winner.

Judges: Anita Baca/Associated Press, Leslie Mazoch/Associated Press, Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press, Dario Lopez­Mills/Associated Press