Mid-Atlantic – June 2018 – Photo Story/Essay

Judges Comments

There weren't enough entries for sure in this category. All the photos were very repetitive within each story. The photographs have no regard for one another. We have a collection of photos made on one assignment, a picture package, but none are successful as a photo essay or story because they don't build on each other. A successful photo package needs variety - significant details, overalls, characters and moments. Funeral has a chronological progression, lots of emotional frames, and some variety of lens choice and camera angles, but many of the frames are repetitive. The military story is also a collection of images on one assignment where the distance to subject is similar, the photographer gets low twice, but otherwise not using lensing or intentional choices to tell the story. The ballet story also has the same content over and over. There has to be more intention of what you're wanting to communicate about this rehearsal. We want a gallery of images in a digital-first world, of course, but give me a five picture package instead of a collection of outtakes. Things need to be crafted. You need to ask yourself why you want to take this picture and get deep into that reason and work to make it. It can't be "I was there for two hours and I shot the crap out of it".

Judges: Julia Robinson/Freelance, James Gregg/Austin American-Statesman