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The Photo Contest: "Digital Collage"

In this contest, entrants interpreted the theme in two distinct ways. The first was as a "paste-up" of different images which do not form a single, unified image. These images form a rhetorical device that seek to convey a message to the viewer. It is, I suppose, the traditional interpretation of the word collage. But a collage can also go further than that, especially in the digital age. The assemblage of several disparate images that then make up a new image, in a sense the whole becoming more than the sum of the parts, is a wholly different media of artistic expression.

No other image in this contest's submission met this latter criteria better than "Levitating Lily" by Richard Cook. Here you have the sense of an empty computer canvas being filled with images to form a coherent work of art that transcends the meaning of the individual parts. As on a canvas, Cook used data in the form of other images, as well as the effects available in many good image editing programs, as the paint of his artistic expression. The result is a captivating image, well designed in the arrangement of compositional elements, as well as the use of an appealing color palette.

Our runner-up for "digital collage" was Claude Barras's "City Life." In more of a traditional application of the term "collage," Barras has combined a series of photos as rhetorical elements to express his message regarding city life. The result here is that we are completely aware of the methods used to combine the image, but they nonetheless, form a visually interesting composition that effectively conveys the various aspects of city life.

Click on each image to see larger version.

All images copyrighted by the individual photographers. All Rights Reserved. These images are for your viewing pleasure only and not to be downloaded for any other purpose.

 

	Grand Prize Winner "Levitating Lily" Richard Cook USA
	First Runner-up: "City Life" Claude Barras Canada
	Honorable Mention: "Time Out" Friedrich Rolle Germany
	Honorable Mention: "The Game" Ken Deitcher USA
	Honorable Mention: "India in Mind III" Jackie Weisberg USA
	Honorable Mention: "Great Egret and Me" Maureen Zwier USA
	Honorable Mention: "Kastania Road" Merrill Mack USA

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