September 15, 2021

Winners of the 2021 Photo Contest

In a year where most of us barely left our homes, it was so encouraging to see that ARTA members didn’t lose touch with their creative spirits. Many entries found fresh new perspectives on the sights we take for granted every day. Others reached into their photo archives to tell a story that hadn’t yet been brought to light. To everyone who submitted, thank you for sharing the unique way you view the world. As always, it was so challenging to choose winners from a group of such talented photographers.

This year, for the first time, we separated entries into two categories: masters who have won in the past and novices — those who either haven’t submitted to the photo contest before or haven’t had their entries chosen yet. The idea was to encourage all members to submit, regardless of their perceived skill level or how well they feel they stack up to the rest. To the winners of our master category, your consistency and talent continues to amaze. But watch out. Next year, you’ll be competing against this year’s novice category winners, and their skill certainly isn’t to be taken lightly, as you’ll see in our judges’ selections.

As in prior years, we kept the Nature and Travel categories as we continue to receive the most amazing photos of our members’ travels and nature interpretations. We introduced two new categories this year: Comfort and Landscapes. From images of curling up with a book in front of a fire to warthogs lying in warm dirt, the comfort category provided some interesting interpretations. Of course, the submissions to the landscape category did not disappoint, as we received beautiful images of cities, mountains, and fields.

A special thanks to our judges, Virginia Quist and Jon Havelock, for judging this year. Virginia is ARTA’s own Creative Designer and a professional photographer, and this is Jon’s fifth year judging. He is a well-known photographer and more recently, a news&views author.