Mid-Atlantic – January 2020 – Feature/Single

Judges Comments

As one would expect, this category was a mix of found moments, the majority drawn from traditional general news coverage, and few of the more enterprising examples of the feature photo. The chances of capturing the truly compelling, storytelling moment out of a serendipitous hunt is remarkably low, and should be rewarded when it happens. The photojournalist who makes their own luck is even more rare, not because any of the entrants lack the interest in expending the “shoe leather” necessary to capture those moments that are often planned but rarely publicized, but because the contemporary newspaper environment spares little time for such endeavors. The best examples out of the pool of entries universally fell in the found moments drawn from general news coverage, and the creators of these winners do deserve credit for their eye for moment and skill at all the aspects necessary to make a compelling photo in such a situation. Sadly, the judges were less than thrilled with what we found. There were too many mundane general news images that fell short of being moments, and what few images that fell into the found category that lacked anything unusual or creatively presented. We liked the skater reflection for first because it was a clearly conscious compositional effort that caught the eye. The city hall flip was almost too dark to really read well, but was a nice moment. The barber in third was a nice moment, but poorly composed. The garbage can to the right was not needed to help the context and left distracting extra space that might have gone to the reflection in the mirror to the left that felt like an afterthought.

Judges: Sean D. Elliot/The Day, Peter Huoppi/The Day, Dana Jensen/The Day, Sarah Gordon/The Day