Judges Comments

The apple on the head is funny and creatively illustrates a story on food insecurity for students. We like the composition with the sides out of focus and giving a sense of that other kids that are the audience for the comedic moment. It feels like the girl is discovering the comedy of an apple on her head. The black and white deportation protest story is good but has maybe two too many images. The images mesh well together with anger in one photo and silent prayer in a different photo. The different crops and different lens choices make for a nice variety of images. The protest signs and words are secondary to the primary focus of emotion and human interactions. It’s refreshing to see protest images that aren’t about the signs but about the people in front or behind the signs. The use of black and white helps remove distracting colors from clothing and signs and flags that are common at protests. In the third-place concert photo the photographer had to wait for a good composition to line up for an interaction between the fans with phone cameras and the subject. The photographer left the photo pit to get more than just the artist singing.