Photo Contest

FOW Announces Winners of 2008 Photo Contest

Indian Statue by Melvin Chappell

The Friends of the Wissahickon announced the winners of its 2008 Photo Contest at a reception at Valley Green Inn on November 12, 2008. The winners were:

Grand Prize: Melvin Chappell of Mt. Airy for “Indian Statue”

First Prize Structures: Ronald Rothman of Germantown for “Thomas Mill Road Covered Bridge”

Second Prize Structures: Diane Diffenderfer of Wyncote for “Walnut Lane Bridge”

First Prize Landscape: Berenice Linck of Center City for “Wissahickon Creek”

Second Prize Landscape: Darius Majer of Roxborough for “Tree and the Rock III: Wissahickon Valley Park”

First Prize Wildlife: Kate Patsch of Ambler for “Feeding Frenzy”

Second Prize Wildlife: Kate Patsch for “Delicate”

First Prize People in the Park: Berenice Linck for “Nick in Front of Kelpius Cave”

Second Prize People in the Park: James Sherman for “Walkers in the Snow”

Junior Photo Prize: Joseph Rilling of Fort Washington for “Wissahickon Creek”

People’s Choice Awards: Berenice Linck of Center City for “Wissahickon Creek” and Kate Patsch of Ambler for “Feeding Frenzy”

The winners were chosen through blind judging, including the People’s Choice Awards, chosen by those who attended the reception. Judges for this year’s contest were: Morna Livingston, Associate Professor of Architecture at Philadelphia University; James Stewart, nature photographer, whose most recent work appears in Wissahickon: Worth Preserving (WVWA, 2007); and Doug Wechsler, nature photographer, author, and Director of Visual Resources for Ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Special guest Ron Tarver, staff photographer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, delivered a brief presentation and was on hand to discuss photography with guests at the reception. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Life, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and Black and White Magazine. He is also the co-author of We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans (Harper Collins, 2004).