We were really inspired judging this category. Oftentimes the portrait category can be a slog, with frame after frame of really nicely lit, but painfully mundane, subject matter rendered blandly. Perhaps the pandemic has led to a renaissance of portraits. Or, maybe we just got lucky. Whatever it was, the vast majority of entries were, at a minimum, interesting to look at. Use of light was overall strong, poses were interesting, and the storytelling aspect worked. First place really jumped out at us though. The photographer really, really, surprised us. The portrait is non-traditional, and not for any cliche reason, just for pure creativity. Credit is due for taking a risk. The assignment probably called for an entirely straightforward portrait and instead we get some abstract artistic expression that probably drove some editor a little crazy (or, if not, then bravo to the editor). This panel is not generally a fan of portrait series. Mostly because in far too many cases they suffer from too many poor examples watering down a few good examples. Second place this round was NOT such a case. We really enjoyed the double exposure effect, wondered exactly how it was achieved, and applaud the idea. One one of the set suffered a little because the bag overlay effect was not as communicative as all the others. Third place was the most conventional of the top three, but we really liked it from the moment we saw it and even after falling for the others in the top two we came back to this portrait of the artist and her work for the dramatic use of the high key light and the great symmetry.
Judges:
Sean D. Elliot/The Day, Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
Judges Comments
We were really inspired judging this category. Oftentimes the portrait category can be a slog, with frame after frame of really nicely lit, but painfully mundane, subject matter rendered blandly. Perhaps the pandemic has led to a renaissance of portraits. Or, maybe we just got lucky. Whatever it was, the vast majority of entries were, at a minimum, interesting to look at. Use of light was overall strong, poses were interesting, and the storytelling aspect worked. First place really jumped out at us though. The photographer really, really, surprised us. The portrait is non-traditional, and not for any cliche reason, just for pure creativity. Credit is due for taking a risk. The assignment probably called for an entirely straightforward portrait and instead we get some abstract artistic expression that probably drove some editor a little crazy (or, if not, then bravo to the editor). This panel is not generally a fan of portrait series. Mostly because in far too many cases they suffer from too many poor examples watering down a few good examples. Second place this round was NOT such a case. We really enjoyed the double exposure effect, wondered exactly how it was achieved, and applaud the idea. One one of the set suffered a little because the bag overlay effect was not as communicative as all the others. Third place was the most conventional of the top three, but we really liked it from the moment we saw it and even after falling for the others in the top two we came back to this portrait of the artist and her work for the dramatic use of the high key light and the great symmetry.