2nd International Photography ExhibitionTop 5 Winning Photographers

Below are the biographies and/or artist’s statements for the top 5 winning photographers along with their websites and/or emails.

Please visit the 2nd International Photography exhibition page and contact the artists directly for purchase inquiries or to see more of their work.

Congratulations again to all the winners and thank you for sharing your talent with us.

Best in Show
Dale O’Dell

Dale lives in Prescott, Arizona and is a professional photographer and digital artist. He studied photography and philosophy in college and was granted a degree in 1982. Since 1979 he has exhibited in over one-hundred group and solo shows, his works have been published internationally and he’s written for most of the leading photographic magazines and journals. He is a consummate experimenter and innovator and works with diverse subjects in a variety of styles. He has published fifteen art books and is currently hard at work on number sixteen.

These images are part of an ongoing series of Surreal Landscapes. I have chosen to use the ‘real’ or ‘straight’ landscape as foundation and starting point for the creation of my own fictional places. Instead of documenting a place which is truly best experienced with all five senses, my photo-digital surreal landscapes exist outside the laws of physics, logic and normalcy.

I believe we’ve reached a critical mass of beautiful, straight, landscape photographs and I don’t wish to add more to what’s already been done. I am interested in things I have not seen before. In order to create a fictional space I use bits and pieces of reality, rearranged via the computer to create places that I’d like to visit, yet don’t exist. I am only able to do this because of digital image processing technology. The post-surrealist era was ushered in by Adobe Photoshop in 1990.

These works come to fruition by both pre- and post-visualization. Photography for me, instead of a final destination, is more a ‘mining expedition’ to collect bits and pieces for later rearrangement. I reject the stifling seriousness of contemporary fine-art photography and interject subtle humor into some of my images which are best described as ‘photo/digital’ artworks and are not photographs.

Having come to digital art from photography my imagery is photographically composed and contains many of the visual cues found in ‘traditional’ photography such as figure-ground composition and depth of field. Although I began creating this type of imagery long before the ‘digital revolution’ of photography the computer provides a more direct link between the image in my mind’s eye and the image on paper. ‘Digital’ is a new medium. These images could not be made without modern digital technology and they are a true hybridization of old and new technologies.

Please visit Dale’s website if you are interested in purchasing this award winning piece or to see more of his work.

 

2nd Place
David Herholz

For over three decades, a passion for the visual has been David’s default emotion. After years working as a paramedic, massage therapist, waiter, and bartender, his eye has always led him back to capturing the world around him with an almost magical ability to see what others cannot.
​
In college, he studied design and art but was restless and unfocused. As the years went by he realized that he not only saw the world most clearly through a lens but that his happiness and fulfillment was wrapped up in translating his vision to formats that others could see and appreciate.
​
Now, in his late forties, he is maturing into what was always inevitable, a photographic artist. The desert and its magnificent vistas and miniature wonders suited his growing passion. He left Ohio ten years ago and moved to Palm Springs, CA. Since that move, he has grown as a landscape artist, and has developed an uncanny ability to see the universal in the mundane. His photos of individuals, graffiti, solitary scenes, and his ability to capture mood and tone, have allowed an increasing demand for his work.
​
His pictures have been featured in exhibits and local publications, and in the homes of many discerning and creative southern Californians, as well as finding an audience with visitors from around the country. In addition, his work with architectural and real estate photography and portraiture has made him a recognized member of the local arts community.

To see more of David’s work, please visit his website.

 

3rd Place
Steven Manolakis

STEVEN MANOLAKIS is an international photographer based in North Canton, Ohio in the United States. At the young age of 18, he moved over to beautiful Sydney, Australia where he discovered his love for photography and travel. He focuses most of his work overseas, drawn towards places of cultural difference and natural beauty.

An adventure seeker attracted to the outdoors, he is always on the lookout for the world’s most beautiful landscapes. His passions for travel have already taken him through the Himalayas in Nepal, the Sahara Desert in Morocco, and to other great places such as Jordan, Israel, Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia.

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Steven’s work, please visit his website.

 

4th Place
Luna Ciesla

Luna Ciesla is a french creative artist and photographer, born in Paris in 1992. Since 2013, she developed nature-related series, enlightening sylvan silhouettes and dreamlike earthscapes of France. Inspired by fine arts past eras and mysterious atmospheres, her pictures tell unique stories where the codes of classical painting are reflecting. Between fantasies and reality, she portrays timeless scenes of nature, instilling her chimeras on the surface of the common world.

“ I use the medium of photography as a mirror to transfigure the realm of my dreams. I wander into the wild in search of moody environments echoing a strange melancholy that has always been inside me. Nature possesses a spiritual force which gives me the feeling of existing within a whole ; a place where I can finally meet my inner self. ”

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Luna’s work, please visit her website.

 

5th Place
Tatiana Lind

Tatiana Lind lives in the moment, and that philosophy shines through her work. She desires to capture the on the spot moments. Lind hopes to highlight and preserve important moments in time that most seem to miss. She does this by always looking for the moments that often pass us by. While studying at the College of Western Idaho, where she took a few photography courses, CWI displayed some of Lind’s work. She hopes to continue her education Brigham Young University of Idaho, where she will minor in photography.

To see more of Tatiana’s work, please email her directly.