2008 Woodie Awards
Students exhibit prize-winning photography
By: Brian Stuckmeyer
Issue date: 4/6/06 Section: LifeStyle
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The 38 photographs, taken by 14 Webster University students, were on display as part of the annual Juried Photography Show.
Bill Barrett, director of the May Gallery, said the juried show serves as a way to showcase and award student photographic work.
"It's open to any student in the university," Barrett said. "The 'best in show' is a purchase award and 'best in show,' first, second and third place get gift certificates to Schiller's (a photography supply store)."
This year's submissions were judged by Ellen Curlee, owner of a photography gallery in downtown St. Louis, and Kim Humphries, the project manager of Arts in Transit, a community partnership program of Metro.
Humphries said he was impressed with the quality of this year's submissions.
"Good work flows to the top," Humphries said. "This is a very good program, so it wasn't hard to pick out an exhibition to flesh out the space (in the gallery). It's good to see even among some people who are still learning that they have sparks that are going to drive them forward."
Humphries added less than 50 percent of the total submissions they reviewed were chosen to appear in the May Gallery as this year's finalists.
This year's winners included Best in Show, senior Ashley Gieseking, 1st place senior Tod Thayer, 2nd place senior Alyson Wagner, 3rd place junior Jennifer Spencer and honorable mention for senior Jesi Bevis.
As the "best in show," Gieseking's winning photo will be purchased by Webster and put on permanent display alongside the previous "best in show" winners in the May Gallery. Gieseking, who didn't attend the show, also won a $125 Schiller's gift card.
Senior photography major Tod Thayer, who won a $100 Schiller's gift card for his collection of four studio portraits, said he found out about the existence of the juried show only days before submissions were due.
"I was glad I got up on the wall in the first place," Thayer said.
Senior photography major Alyson Wagner, who "mystified" the judges with her overhead shot of a building and courtyard in Prague, won a $75 Schiller's gift card. She said she spent between four and five hours removing roughly 40 people from the shot for her Digital Imagining 2 class.
"I was very surprised," Wagner said. "I wasn't expecting to win."
Junior photography major Jennifer Spencer, who was
awarded the Nancy Bell $2,000 scholarship in addition to winning a $50 Schiller's gift card, said this was the second time in two years she had won 3rd place in the juried show.
"I feel very lucky for sure," Spencer said.
The finalists and award-winning photos from the 2006 Juried Photography Show will remain on display in the May Gallery, located on the second floor of the Sverdrup Building, through May 5.