A Belleville photographer’s shot of a wall with four pots taken in Fes, Morocco has won the top award for the SPARK Photo Festival’s 2024 juried exhibit.
Lola Reid Allin, an airline transport pilot and an internationally acclaimed photographer, author, educator, and keynote speaker, won the “best in show” award for her photo in this year’s juried exhibit, which had the theme “texture.”
“Wool” by Robert Beninger of Carrying Place won second place, and “Duchesnay Falls Roots” by Emma Taylor of Curve Lake took third, with two photographs tying for fourth place: “Onward and Upward” by Laura Berman of Castleton and “Veins” by Corin Ford Forrester of Carnarvon.
The winning photographs were announced at the sold-out SPARK Photo Festival opening reception and juried awards event on Sunday (April 7) at the YMCA’s Balsillie Family Branch in Peterborough, with cash prizes awarded to the winning photographers.
More the 76 photographers from across Ontario submitted 216 images for the juried exhibit. Three jury members — Ash Nayler of Peterborough, Charles van den Ouden of Toronto, and Isabel Veldhuis of Port Hope — evaluated each image for technical merit, composition, and originality and for how well the image represented the theme.
A two-stage individual and collaborative judging process winnowed the 216 entries down to the top 25 photos, including the five winning photographs, which are all on display for the month of April at the YMCA Balsillie Family Branch. The YMCA is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the week and from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekends.
In addition to the in-person exhibit of 25 photos, festival organizers have created the SPARK Selects Virtual Exhibit which features an additional 32 photos they feel deserved special recognition.
Running for the month of April, the SPARK Photo Festival includes 26 exhibits in 22 venues in the city and county of Peterborough, Northumberland, and the City of Kawartha Lakes with almost 750 print images featuring nature and wildlife, abstracts, fine art photography, black-and-white photography, digital compositions, architecture, and urban and streetscapes.
For the list of exhibits and associated events during the festival, visit www.sparkphotofestival.org.
