This competition was organized by The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards (WPGA) is for women only and the award winning images will be published in Zoom Magazine, an Italian magazine.  WPGA partners with Save the Children, and a large portion of its revenue is donated to that humanitarian organization. The award winners’ work will be exhibited and sold in Buenos Aires in August 2011 as well as published in the book “The Julia Cameron Award 2010.”

Julia Margaret Cameron, 1815-1879, born in Calcutta to a British official of the East India Company, was a British photographer who photographed celebrities of her era.  She lived in India, was educated in France and later moved to England. Though she was not widely recognized during her lifetime, her portrait work had a big impact on modern photographers.  Her home can be toured on the Isle of Wight, where Alfred Lord Tennyson was her neighbor often bringing people to see her work.  Among her subjects were Tennyson, Darwin, Robert Browning, and many other greats.  Virginia Woolf was her grandniece.  Her work can be seen in the Getty Museum collection, the George Eastman House collection, and other collections.

Jurors for the competition were Mary Ellen Mark, Vanessa Winship and Kim Weston; Magnum Photos’ members Alessandra Sanguinetti and Olivia Arthur; Zoom’s Editor in Chief Rosanna Checchi, and the Curator of the San Diego Museum of Photography Carol McCusker.  Images were submitted from 45 countries.

My awarded work is comprised of three images of a female Cardinal from from my photographic series “The Trouble With Birds” in the Nature category.  I hope to be able to travel to Buenos Aires for the first time, for the exhibition in August 2011.

EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARD FOR THE CENTER COMPETITION

In a separate competition, these images were also awarded the Editor’s Choice Award in The Center’s (formerly the Santa Fe Center for Photography)competition and will be exhibited next month at Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon from Sept. 3-22, 2010.

My winning images were selected by  Kathy Ryan, Picture Editor, The New York Times Magazine &  Scott Thode, Editor-in-Chief, VII magazine (formerly of Fortune)

NEW WORK

My most recent work was taken during a relaxing stay in the North Woods of Wisconsin.  In a small secluded wooden cabin by a lake listening to the calls of loons and the rustling of enormous pines and oaks, I relaxed taking long walks in the woods and kayaking.  On long forest walks often completely alone, I listened to the quiet and notice bright spots of color amid the brown pine needles on the forest floor.  Lichen, mushrooms and fungi that I was seeing for the first time opened a whole new botanical world and a new series was born!

Joyce P. Lopez’s work, from the series “The Trouble With Birds”, calls attention to environmental issues concerning birds-the harbingers of our times-and can be seen in “fraction magazine” now on line.

Editor’s Choice

Kathy Ryan, Picture Editor, The New York Times Magazine
Scott Thode, Editor-in-Chief, VII magazine (formerly of Fortune)

The jurors comments:

Third place went to Joyce P. Lopez for her powerful still life’s of dead birds. The decision she made to photograph these unfortunate birds against black in a graphically stark and theatrical way imbues them with a sense of loss and alarm. They cry out that something has gone awry in the environment.

http://www.fractionmagazine.com/center/editors-choice/

The Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2010 International Award for women photographers has named Joyce P Lopez a finalist for her “The Trouble with Birds” series.  Julia Margaret Cameron (June 11, 1815 – January 26, 1879) was a British photographer and this award is named to honor her.

The Photo Review named me a finalist in the recently announced 2009 competition under “Some Creatures” award.

The Photo Review is a critical journal of national scope and international readership. Publishing since 1976, the Photo Review covers photography events throughout the country and serves as a central resource for the Mid-Atlantic region. The Photo Review quarterly journal has earned a reputation as one of the best serious photography publications being produced today.

Editor Stephen Perloff, a respected writer, educator and photographer, has been interviewed for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal.

While there, I received word from the Center (formerly the Santa Fe Center for Photography) that I was a prize winner in the Editor’s Choice Award. This was awarded by Kathy Ryan, picture editor of The New York Times Magazine and Scott Thode-Editor in Chief, Vll. Images from “The Trouble with Birds” series were the award winning images.

Thousands of images were received from 68 countries worldwide. The awards international Jury included captains of the industry from Magnum Photos, The Armory Show, Fratelli Alinari, Contrasto to Tate and Hamiltons in London who honored Spider Fellows with 84 coveted title awards in 28 categories. The judges reviewed the entries online for eight weeks before making their final nominations and Joyce P. Lopez’s “Begin To Question,” an exceptional image entered in the Abstract category, received a high percentage of votes overall.

You can view the 5th Annual Winners Gallery at www.thespiderawards.com

BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS is the leading international award honoring excellence in black and white photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in black and white photography.

Begin To Question

100,000 birds die annually on their bi-annual migratory flights. All the birds in this series are dead but beautiful biological specimens worthy of reverence, and visual contemplation.

Climate change is affecting migratory birds, others succumb to accidents, changes in available food, disease, etc. These birds are warning us about our impact on the environment, and to take responsibility.

In the illustrative, detailed style of Audubon’s paintings of birds, I chose to scan these birds for maximum detail of their bodies, some details difficult to discern with the naked eye. I am seeking to call attention to their plummeting populations and difficulties. All are archival pigment prints on Crane’s Museo Silver Rag paper.

This is the series that was selected for exhibition at FOTOWEEK DC 09.

My series of photos taken from The Forest Floor Series are on pages 138-141.

Zoos. I have very mixed feelings about zoos.  However, after reading a recent article that stated that 1/4 of all today’s living mammals will become extinct in the near future I now see zoos as conservators of their diverse collections of wildlife.  For many of these specimens, it is their only chance of survival with selective breeding and genealogical record keeping preventing in-breeding.  By exhibiting these exceptional creatures, the public is educated about the importance of saving these magnificent creatures that are harbingers of their fate as well as our own existence on earth.

Having the chance to observe and study these specimens, I am grateful that these animals and birds have given their lives to being in captivity.  Most likely, I would not have had a chance to watch them due to their indigenous location and distance.  Looking into the eyes of a gorilla or a Francois Langur monkey, reaching out with an open hand that I mirror on the other side of the glass partition, is a connection that touches deeply.

Without these repositories of living creatures, our world would be lacking the experience of remembering, recognizing and celebrating these individuals.