Clockwise from left: Jiehao Su, Ayumi Tanaka, Sebastian Collett

We are excited to announce the three winners of the inaugural Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Awards!  We reviewed over 2,000 submissions from all over the world in the categories of portraits, fine art and documentary. Our esteemed jury choose Jiehao Su‘s Borderland to receive the Grand Prize; Sebastian Collett was selected for his Vanishing Point series, and Ayumi Tanaka was chosen for her series Wish You Were Here.

© Jiehao Su

For Borderland,  Su returned to meaningful locations from years gone by, revisiting moments from his past by constructing landscapes and portraits that evoke a wistful sense of belonging. In including sites that merely resemble the place in which he grew up, he blurs the lines between the actual and the imagined, the real and the fantastic.

© Sebastian Collett

Sebastian Collett similarly addresses the theme of homecomings in Vanishing Point, a body of work chronicling his boyhood through portraits of youth living in his Ohio hometown. On a trip back for his high school reunion, he comes to terms with the young man he was and his experiences growing up gay, using modern-day students as surrogates for the manifold facets of his evolving sense of self.

© Ayumi Tanaka

Ayumi Tanaka takes perhaps the most literal approach to her own subconscious remembrances by reconfiguring her memories as photo collages. Merging found images and those drawn from dusty family photo albums with snapshots captured more recently, she creates three dimensional models and dioramas, which she then flattens within the photographic frame.

We will be doing an in depth feature on all 3 photographers but in the meantime, mark you calendar for March 5 for the opening of Developed: Three Emerging Photographers at United Photo Industries in Dumbo, Brooklyn on March 5 from 6-8.

We want to thank Squarespace for generously sponsoring this event.  Among other prizes, all three winners will receive a lifetime subscription to Squarespace, the innovative website publishing platform perfect for photographers. We want to also thank the master printers at Ken Allen Studios for generously printing the pieces for the show as well as our friends at United Photo Industries for hosting the exhibition. Many thanks also to our fabulous jury who took time out of their busy schedules to review the work.

Developed: Three Emerging Photographers will be on display at United Photo Industries GALLERY, 111 Front Street Suite 204 DUMBO, Brooklyn, Monday – Friday, 11am – 6pm, Weekends by appointment.