Title: Snowing Again, Storm #4
Location: Somerville, MA.
Judge’s comments:
“This artist photographs the New England landscape from her roof deck in Somerville, Massachusetts. She does it with a bit of whimsy. In a winter of 10-foot snowdrifts, she captures the falling snow that makes this photograph so special. She uses the camera’s built-in flash, which fashions the flakes as large as snowballs and adds some magic to the capture.”
Photo Credit : Mary Kocol
While these days anyone with a smartphone can take a photo, only some possess the patience and the eye to create an image that tells a story, or inspires us to look at the commonplace as if seeing it for the first time. This year’s winners of Yankee’s annual reader photo contest do just that. A blanket of snow descends on a Somerville neighborhood, and Mary Kocol’s lens finds a quiet world apart from anything, and anybody. We can only imagine the lives inside, the residents peering out at snow that deepens by the minute. Aleksander Baba-Vulic’s storm rushes toward an island harbor, and it feels as if nature’s power is leaping straight at us. In contrast, Mim Adkins lets us breathe in the ease of a summer evening settling down in Maine.
Our guest judge, Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts, along with Yankee’s art director, Lori Pedrick, and photo editor, Heather Marcus, sifted through hundreds of reader images to select these three top choices.
“My New England” is expressed visually in so many different ways: perhaps in a portrait, or a moment caught on a bustling street, or a seascape at twilight. What connects every image we saw was New England’s hold on the imagination—its raw beauty, its sense of roots and tradition, its characters, even its sudden shifts of weather. It’s enough to make anyone want to walk around and start looking.
— Editor Mel Allen
1st Place Winner | Mary Kocol
2nd Place Winner | Aleksandar Baba-Vulic
3rd Place Winner | Mim Adkins
Honorable Mentions
About Our Guest Judge:Paula Tognarelli is the executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts. She has juried and curated exhibitions around the world and is on the advisory board of the New England School of Photography in Boston.griffinmuseum.orgSee previous photo contest results: 2015 “My New England” Photo Contest | Winners & Runners Up
Heather Marcus
Heather Marcus is the photo editor for Yankee Magazine. As photo editor, she works closely with the art director and a large group of contributing photographers to add color and style to the magazine's pages. Living in New England, she is inspired by the people, the landscape, and the wonderful visual opportunities the region affords.