Calling All Photographers!

The deadline is quickly approaching for submissions in the 10th annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition.

All photographs must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 16, by visiting http://www.appmtnphotocomp.org.

There are six categories contestants can choose from when submitting their photographs: Adventure, Weather on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Culture, Our Ecological Footprint, Flora/Fauna and Landscape. A winner will be chosen from each category, and one photograph will be awarded Best in Show.

Photographs will be judged by three local jurors, and the best 50 will be on exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. The exhibition runs from March 1 until Aug. 16. The jurors will select the winning photographs, which will be featured during the 17th annual Banff Film Festival Sept. 20-21, 2013.

This year’s jurors have diverse photography backgrounds, which AMPC director Rich Campbell hopes “will provide a strong and varied perspective from which to view the images” submitted to the competition.

Jamey Fletcher, a professional photographer, specializes in wedding, event and portrait photography. He lives in the High Country and travels throughout the southeastern U.S. for his work. He was taught the art of photography by his father, Jeff Fletcher, who retired recently from Appalachian State University. His love of the outdoors led to his passion for nature photography. He worked as a staff photographer for the Watauga Democrat at a young age.

Marie Freeman, a photojournalist, has worked for both The Mountain Times and Watauga Democrat. She is the university photographer at Appalachian’s University Communications team. She has won numerous awards and is published in state and national newspapers and magazines, including Our State magazine, the Washington Post, and The New York Times.

Chip Williams is assistant professor of technical photography at Appalachian. He has worked as an editorial and corporate freelance photographer. His work has appeared in national magazines, including Smithsonian, Kiplinger’s, and Parade. He has extensively documented the wildlife monitoring and naturalist education work at the Lake County Forest Preserve District in Illinois, before moving to the Blue Ridge.

AMPC encourages photographers of all ages and experience to submit their photographs. Last year, a young amateur photographer won in their category. This competition is meant to give all photographers a chance to present their idea of the Southern Appalachian, Campbell said, and more than a thousand photographs were submitted at last year’s competition.

According to organizers, this competition has created the most varied archive of Southern Appalachian photographs, as the AMPC is working toward dispelling stereotypes of Southern Appalachian life. Images of previous years’ finalists and winners can be found at http://www.highcountryphotos.com.

AMPC is presented by ASU Outdoor Programs, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. It is sponsored by Virtual Blue Ridge, an online resource for the Blue Ridge Parkway, as well as Appalachian Voices, Bistro Roca, Footsloggers, Peabody’s and Stick Boy Bread Company.

For more information about submissions, visit AMPC’s website at http://www.appmtnphotocomp.org, or call ASU Outdoor Programs at (828) 262-2475.