Midwest – September 2019 – Photo Story/Essay

Judges Comments

Some of the entries here could have benefited from a tighter edit. Not just to weed out a photo or two that weren’t as strong, but also to correctly order the images with a sense of progression. We felt that many of the stories suffered from lack of depth – we wish the photographers had spent more time, possibly done more multi day stories as opposed to covering something in just a few hours. Many of these would have also benefited from some sort of narrative arc. Without that we found too many pictures that felt repetitive. 1st place: UAW strike. This series told the story with a nice variety of images that, while different, all tied together. The photographer clearly thought through their intent and was willing to take risks to find a unique shot. 2nd place: Skateboarding. This series had a nice variety of images. They were well shot. 3rd place: Steak Fry. This series achieved its goal of capturing a particular slice of American political life. We wish that some of the photos were more obvious in illustrating the candidates

Judges: Jay Capers/Freelance, Khadejeh Nikouyeh/News & Record, Jen Hughey/Freelance