Supporters gathered inside the Wheeler Opera House to see what shots 15 locally renowned photographers were able to capture within a two week timeframe for the second annual Aspen Photo Challenge contest.
Photographer Devin Pool took home two of the five awards presented under categories landscape and peer favorite.
“It like challenged me to… step outside the box and really push myself. It’s the most stressed I’ve been in like three years and it worked out,” Pool said.
Pool said his strategy involved a lot of hiking to get the shots he wanted.
“So I just try to make the extra push to get to places I’ve never seen people go before and get angles of things that I’ve never seen before,” he explained.
This year’s judging panel consisted of Anderson Ranch Arts Center’s photo director Andrea Wallace, photographer Peter McBride and Outside Magazine’s associate editor Jakob Schiller. The judges chose winners for each category based on consistency within the categories.
Local photographer Jeremy Swanson took home an award under the category of motion, which his collection of photographs captured.
“Partially, when I was thinking about motion, I was trying to think about things that were moving at like different speeds and in different ways,” said Swanson. “One of the pictures they chose was a picture of a skier covering the camera with slush, and so there’s a lot of pieces of slush flying through the air.”
Other winners were photographers Kristin Wright, for the category “light,” and Jeremy Joseph for “best image.”
But the competition is not over: Starting tomorrow, the crowd favorite category will be open. To vote within the next two weeks, go to aspenchamber.org/aspenphotochallenge.
