First place winning image. Espadin © 2022 Chris Suspect.
This past Sunday at MetroBarDC in Washington, DC, I took first place in the annual Focus on Story’s presents Photoworks at Glen Echo’s Annual Photo Slam Competition. This is an open call event in which participants are asked to submit 5 photos and 1 best photo for a total of 6 photos. The first 5 photos for each submitter are then presented in 4 rounds, with the judges selecting the top 3 in each round. If you make it through that, then the best photos from the top 12 go on to the final round with the judges presenting the top 3 winners.
This year the judges were Noe Todorovich, Executive Director for Exposed DC, Farrah Skeiky, Focus on the Story Board Member, Lou Jacobson, Photography Critic for the Washington City Paper, and Sharon Farmer, former White House Photographer.
When asked what my winning strategy was I told them that I approached the first 5 images as a cohesive series and that my best shot was a single that could stand on its own. At the top of this post is my best shot. It’s a conceptual work about climate change anxiety from a much bigger project that I am working on. The other five photos (below) come from my Mexican silhouette series that I have been working on for a number of years.
All 3 winners and an audience favorite will get to be exhibited at PhotoWorks in 2023.