Arnold Despi is an Engineer on his full time day job and on his off-the-clock time he enjoys capturing images on the streets. Arnold is a self-taught photographer who is very passionate about capturing images of people, nature, and everything else in the environment. 

Despi says of his work,“I see the beauty of the environment and the people. If you just look closer and pay more attention you will see beauty anywhere and in any form, and I wanted to capture it in that certain moment, freeze them in my frame and let it live forever."

www.ardesphotography.com
www.flickr.com/photos/kulshots
www.instagram.com/rhythm_of_the_streets
 

Second Place winner Betzi Stein: "As a representational figurative painter, I tell stories in my work, often humorous or poignant, of what I observe about the people I choose to depict. While I don’t consider myself to be a “photographer”, the source of my paintings are the photographs I take of the people around me and the world in which they live, preferably unobserved by them. It is from these images that my narrative unfolds.

An ongoing body of work explores relationships between people, usually in groups of two or three, and focuses on the often charming similarities that invariably evolve out of regular interaction between family members, lovers, friends, and working partners.

In another series, I pay homage to my 29-year career as a Massage Therapist, including in the work my hands, the tools of my trade, in their capacity as healer.

In my most recent series, I am exploring the idea that hands tell as much about people as their faces, and have embarked on a series of hand  portraits."

Stein's latest exhibitions have included:
Distinctive Voices, Santa Monica Art Studios, LAAA 15th Annual Juried Open and Topanga Canyon Gallery, juried by Susan Schomburg

www.betzi@betzistein.com
 

"The Intellectuals" took Second Place in our 'Comic Relief' competition. Congratulations Betzi!

Briar Craig: "In the so-called ‘information age’ we have been conditioned to absorb and respond to ever increasing quantities of sensory information.  Whether we are walking down a street, listening to a radio, surfing through television channels, or reading a newspaper each of us will be individually drawn to specific things for specific and personal reasons. I am attracted to partial ‘bits’ of information – fragments of text, found imagery or objects, etc – things that provide just enough information that my imagination can fill in the rest and take my thoughts off in different directions. 
 
This body of digital photographs record (and combine) various objects I have found – messages left behind by others - all of which reveal something of the writer and their idiosyncratic orientation to the world."

Craig has a B.F.A. in printmaking and is currently an Associate Professor at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia (printmaking, photography, drawing). Craig has taught printmaking, photography and drawing at the University level and exhibited his photographic-based prints internationally for more than twenty-five years. His work has been exhibited in Poland, Japan, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Serbia, Bulgaria, New Zealand, China, Brazil, the United States, Japan, Estonia, Romania, Korea, etc .
 
Craig's research interests include: Contemporary printmaking theory and practice, photographic printmaking, popular culture, interactive installation, innovation sustainability and safe practices in printmaking, curatorial practices.
 
He is also the co-founder of the Okanagan Print Triennial (with Lubos Culen of the Vernon Public Art Gallery and Liz Wiley of the Kelowna Art Gallery).
 

Carol Sahley Ph.D. is an avid photographer who combines life on a farm in Ohio with a career in international development. Her primary passion as a photographer is capturing the distinctive personalities of her many farm animals. Her interests also include travel, nature and macro photography. 

Sahley says of her work: "My primary passion as to capture the distinctive personalities of our many farm animals. I hope my images will help people see that farm animals are unique individuals and sentient beings."

www.krop.com/goatpixel
 

Corinne DiPietro says of her work, "In the style of Film Noir, Neo Noir, and classic horror genres, Food Noir is a creative expression of a complex attitude towards food. Inspired by words, imagery and attitude from Stanley Kubrick, Raymond Chandler and Alfred Hitchcock these self portraits let me to share a dark sense of humor."

Corinne DiPietro is a photographer and artist living in Boston, MA. Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Corinne's professional experience spanned the film and fashion industry and fine art. 
 
Graduating with honors from the New England School of Photography, she has a studio in the SOWA Art District of Boston. 

Corinne has exhibited work in the Danforth Art Museum, Griffin Museum of Photography, Panopticon Gallery, Photographic Resource Center at BU and the Cape Cod Art Association in Massachusetts; as well as participated in group shows in ME, VT, CO, CA, Ireland and Canada.

www.corinnedipietro.com

Ellen Freyer is a fine art photographer with an extensive background in painting and film. She comes from a family involved in the arts and from childhood studied drawing and painting at The Art Students League and School of Visual Arts in New York City, visiting museums with her parents almost every Sunday. 

After receiving a BA with Honors in Art History from Barnard College she became interested in film, and attended New York University where she was awarded an MA in Cinema Studies. Freyer became a Lecturer in Film History and Appreciation at several New York City area colleges but left the academic world to become a filmmaker, eventually producing an award-winning documentary that premiered at the Lincoln Center Film Festival and was broadcast around the world. This led to her joining PBS as a production executive, and later to becoming an independent producer of award winning live action and animated children’s and family movies.

About 10 years ago, she became a digital photographer, returning to her roots as a fine artist, in a medium where her background in both painting and film informs and enriches her work. 

A member of Southern California Women’s Caucus for the Arts, her photographs have been exhibited at Photo LA and galleries in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, La Jolla and Ventura and published in various national and international journals.
 
Freyer says of her work, "As a photographer I try to connect with the viewer by capturing a moment of mystery or surprise, whether in a staged situation such as a portrait, in a traditional genre such as a still life or in simple street photography.  
 
In these street photographs I hope that the surprising combination of verbal and visual content creates a moment of delight in the viewer."
 

Arrow back to see more results