Photo by Philip McCabe of Paducah
“Untitled #2”  
Color print, 2003
2006 First Place Winner

Originating in 1975, The Paducah Summer Festival Photo Competition has grown from a fledgling contest to the region's most prestigious annual
photographic event. It is open to all without restrictions on size or content. It provides photographers with an outlet for their art,
encouragement for growth in their vision and presentation and cash rewards for works of exceptional merit.

Each year from the hundreds of works submitted, 60 to 80 images are selected for exhibition by a highly qualified juror, with 8 to 10 of them receiving cash awards.

There is an opening reception for the annual show with free food and beverage, a juror's critique and awards presentation. There have been recent winners as young 8 and as old as 80.

Now's the time to print and frame your best recent photos and to join in. Who knows... you might just be this year's $500 first place award winner!

2008 Juror: Chris Walker

Chris Walker grew up on a small farm outside of rural Croswell, Michigan where his parents instilled in him a near-reverent appreciation for the land and its natural inhabitants.  Today we find in Chris a rare blend of artist and journalist with deep concerns for social anthropology and our ever-changing environment.

He has photographed for clients ranging from The Associated Press and “The New York Times” to “Scientific American” and “Camping Life” magazine, where he was their regular photography columnist for five years.  In 1995, the Ernst Haas Awards named Chris to their annual list of the world‘s top 100 emerging photographer.

Walker served five years as a general assignment photographer for “The Blade” in Toledo, Ohio, where he covered assignments ranging from hostage situations and food illustrations to professional sports and the epoch spring movement of sandhill cranes along the Platte River.  As a photojournalist, he was part of a three-person team that won a finalist spot for Investigative Reporting in the 2000 Pulitzers.

Chris left “The Blade” in 1998 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in photography at SIUC.  After receiving his degree, he taught as an adjunct for several colleges and has recently begun his first full-time assignment as an assistant professor in Auburn University’s Department of Communication and Journalism.

Chris’s solo exhibitions include “Six Nights a Year,” a social documentary exploring the coming of age for rural Midwesterners under the lights of the region’s myriad, rural county fairs; “Spiritual Extractions,” a collection of landscape details; and “Civil Twilight,” a work in progress examining 19th-century grain elevators as icons of socio-economic evolution in rural America.

Paducah Summer Festival Photo Competition 2008 Calendar:

Receiving

Entries will be accepted (hand delivered or shipped) from April 28 through July 7, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm at the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce located in the Commerce Center, 401 Kentucky Ave., Paducah, KY 42001. Please note that the Chamber office will be closed on Memorial Day, May 26 and Independence Day, July 4.

Awards:

Up to $1,800 in cash will be given by the juror.

Awards will be made in the following amounts:
First Place $500
Second Place $400
Third Place $300
Fourth Place $200

The juror may award at his discretion
award up to four Honorable Mentions
of $100 each.

Exhibition

Tribeca Mexican Cuisine
127 South Second Street • Paducah, KY 42001
Hours: Monday - Friday 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
& 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm,
Saturday - Noon - 10:00 pm

Sales

Sales will be encouraged where works are offered for purchase. No commission will be charged on any works sold from the exhibition.

Notice

Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, Tribeca Mexican Cuisine and the Paducah Summer Festival will take all due care in the handling of entries but cannot accept any financial liability for loss or damage of any entry.

Disclaimer

The Paducah Summer Photo Competition is a juried competition. All entry fees are nonrefundable. There is no assurance implied that any given entry or group of entries will be juried into the show and included for display in the exhibition.

For more information contact

Robyn Shapiro • René Advertising Specialties, Inc.
270.441.0050 • info@paducahphoto.com