Editor's Choice : Fraction Magazine

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

“The judging experience was enjoyable due to the interesting variety of work. We faced the biggest challenge in the final round, because it was so hard to choose just six entries for the winners and honorable mentions. There was some very good work that just missed the cut. Once we got our selection down to those final six, it was also difficult to select the actual winners, because at that point, all of the work was very strong and deserved recognition.

We gave the top prize to Jamey Stillings for his work on the Colorado River Bridge. These pictures are epic and poetic at the same time. Stillings recognized what a great visual story the building of this bridge could be and then committed to it, making lots of good photographic decisions along the way. These awe-inspiring images deliver the thing photography does best – a documentation of a moment in time that won’t be repeated.

Second place went to Alinka Echeverria for her strikingly elegant portraits of elderly Cubans. Her soulful portraits of the veterans of the 1959 Cuban Revolution are filled with history and character. These classical compositions convey a fine appreciation of the humble integrity of these Cuban sitters as well as their interiors.

Third place went to Joyce P. Lopez for her powerful still lives 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.

The Honorable Mentions were also terrific:

Andrea Stern’s work deserves recognition for being such a smart and well seen documentation of contemporary subcultures of children.

Francois Robert’s chillingly composed still lives of bones are iconic and arresting images that speak to war and violence in a crisp and powerful way.

Michal Chelbin’s sophisticated portraits of inmates in Russian and Ukrainian prisons are rendered in a way that is both hard-edged and dreamy. The grace of each sitter’s pose, combined with the muted palette of their clothing and the interiors give these pictures a quiet power.

1st Place - Jamey Stillings