Each year, we invite five distinguished local photographers and creatives to serve as special judges for our annual photography show. They review all of the winning images, and each judge chooses one image to receive a Best in Show award, which comes with a $100 cash prize. We’re excited to announce this year’s guest judges are Astrid Riecken, Briana A. Thomas, Candace Dane Chambers, Carol Guzy, and Colin Winterbottom. Get to know our judges for this year’s show below and check back here to see the winners announced this week in the lead up to our opening celebration on Sunday, June 4 at Lost Origins Outside in Mount Pleasant.
Best in Show Winner Announcements
- “Baby on Board” by Don Harris – selected by Briana A. Thomas
- “Draw the Curtain” and “Delta Solar” by Angela Napili – selected by Colin Winterbottom
- “Daikaiju at Slash Run 2022” by Chris Suspect – selected by Astrid Riecken
- “Gallery Girls” by Prescott Lassman – selected by Carol Guzy
- “Metro Jam” by Matthew Steaffens – selected by Candace Dane Chambers
Judges
Astrid Riecken
Astrid Riecken is a 2022 Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, based in Washington, D.C. Since 2016, she has taught at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design of George Washington University and since 2020 at the School of Communication at American University. She has won numerous awards in Picture of the Year International, National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photography and the White House News Photographers Association competition in which she was named “Photographer of the Year” in 2014. In 2022, nominated by The Washington Post, she won as part of a team the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the coverage of the assault on Washington on January 6, 2021. Her news event coverage includes the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the presidential campaign and election of former President Barack Obama, the refugee crisis in Germany in 2015, the impeachment trials of former President Donald Trump, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Her personal work focuses on the lives and struggle of aging jazz musicians in the U.S. Equally comfortable in English and German, she frequently freelances for international publications including Getty Images and The Washington Post. Her work has been published by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, The Guardian, and Die Zeit, among many others.
Briana A. Thomas
Briana A. Thomas is a Washington, D.C.-based historian, journalist, and tour guide who specializes in African American research. She is the author of the local Black history book, Black Broadway in Washington, D.C. Briana has been published in Washingtonian Magazine, the historic Afro-American newspaper, and the Washington Post throughout her journalism career. Her educational neighborhood history tours have been featured on television networks such as ABC, NBC, and CBS. She earned a Master of Journalism degree from the University of Maryland-College Park and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Communications from Greensboro College. She is the assistant pastor of a Maryland-based church Open Bible Ministries.
Candace Dane Chambers
Candace Dane Chambers is a Washington, D.C.-based visual anthropologist and photographer seeking to represent a rich, nuanced record of the Black experience free from stereotypes and respectability. From that foundation, she’s specifically interested in documenting how we create change & community through cultural expression. She specializes in environmental portraiture using natural light to create honest images that capture the richness of daily life & the connectivity of our shared experience. She’s also drawn to architectural structures as spaces for self-reflection, encouraging us to consider our own unique form and function. Candace has recently earned a master’s in photojournalism from George Washington University and currently serves as the Inclusion Committee Chair for Women Photojournalists of Washington.
Carol Guzy
Carol Guzy was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and lived there until 1978 when she completed her studies at Northampton County Area Community College, graduating with an Associate’s degree in Registered Nursing. A change of heart led her to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida to study photography. She graduated in 1980 with an Associate in Applied Science degree in Photography. While at the Art Institute, she interned at The Miami Herald and upon graduation was hired as a staff photographer. She spent eight years at the newspaper before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1988 where she became a staff photographer at The Washington Post through 2014. She is the first journalist to receive a fourth Pulitzer for coverage of the Haitian earthquake in 2010. Previously she was honored twice with the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for her coverage of the military intervention in Haiti and the devastating mudslide in Armero, Colombia. She received a third Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for her work in Kosovo. She has been named Photographer of the Year for the National Press Photographers Association three times and eight times for the White House News Photographers Association and has earned many other prestigious awards in her chosen profession of photojournalism. She specializes in long-form documentary human interest projects, news, and feature stories, both domestic and international and is currently a contract photographer with ZUMA Press.
Colin Winterbottom
Colin Winterbottom is a fine art photographer with an interest in architecture. He is particularly motivated to discover “new takes” on monumental and iconic subjects. Colin seeks out unusual points of view and unexpected juxtapositions. Favoring atmosphere over accuracy, his photography evokes emotional undercurrents in the built environment. Colin’s penchant for unique perspectives drew him to historic preservation projects in which construction equipment like scaffolds and scissor lifts give access to rarely accessible views and proximity to ornamental details usually experienced from a distance. He has documented preservation work at the Washington Monument, National Cathedral, Union Station, and Trinity Church Wall Street, among others. His work has been exhibited at the National Building Museum, The Phillips Collection, the Kreeger Museum, and galleries in Washington, D.C. and is in numerous collections such as the Smithsonian Institute’s Photographic History Collection, the Supreme Court, The Carlyle Group, and the Federal Reserve Bank.