Photography Contest

We asked Nashville’s amateur photographers to send in their favorite images for our first Nashville Arts Photographic Competition. We were flooded with responses, some good, some great, and some caught us totally by surprise. A few we just couldn’t print for fear of ending up in jail!

Judging the images proved to be a challenging endeavor, as a lot of questions were raised by our panel of top Nashville photographers. Before the judging could begin, the judges had to collectively decide the criteria for what constitutes a photograph—a seemingly easy question made very difficult by the advances in digital technology. We won’t bore you with details of the debate, but suffice it to say a consensus was reached after an hour of heated discussion.

The judges, Jerry Atnip, Anthony Scarlati, Bob Schatz, and Lawrence Boothby, however, were all in agreement that the overall quality of the work entered far exceeded their expectations.

Here then are our judges’ top picks:

First Place

Winning Photo by Stanton Tubb

Some photographs transcend the surface and take you to a place that is at once intense with texture and feeling as well as filled with clues to its meaning. This image, “Wishing for a Brighter Day,” does that masterfully.

-Jerry Atnip

Everything about this photo is brilliant—the depth, composition, lighting. There is so much there, every time you look at it there’s something new to experience. It’s a photo that can speak to you for a lifetime.

-Anthony Scarlati

Stanton found an already compelling image, nicely composed, and added more drama in the treatment of the sky and increased contrast overall. I would have liked it if a little more attention was paid to the intersection of the sky and bridge.

-Bob Schatz

A strikingly haunting photograph with tremendous depth and bold black and white tones. With so much going on within the frame, I can look and study the image for a long time. It raises many questions.

-Lawrence Boothby

I normally don’t take pictures of people. I usually take pictures of landscapes and buildings, but I’m glad I took this one.”

-First place winner Stanton Tubb

Second Place by Kevin Schlatt

Third Place by Julie Dowd

Runners-Up:

(in no particular order)