14th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition & Exhibition

In its 14th year, the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) provides both amateur and professional photographers the opportunity to showcase their interpretation of the unique character, people, places and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians. The categories include: Adventure, Blue Ridge Parkway, Culture, Our Ecological Footprint, Flora/Fauna and Landscape.

Each year AMPC organizers select a panel of professional photographers to review all submissions and select those images that will be accepted into exhibition. Our judge’s photographic backgrounds vary considerably from fine art to photojournalism. In general, they look for images that relate a unique perspective of the subject and that evoke interest and/or emotion.

Over 900 entries were submitted and the jury panel selected 48 finalist images to be on display in the Mezzanine Gallery. Rich Campbell associate director of Appalachian’s Outdoor Programs says, “We are excited about the images this year. We are particularly thrilled about the number of ASU students who had images selected this year for the highly selective competition.”

Categories for the competition include:

• Adventure – Imagery depicting mountain sports such as climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, etc.
• Blue Ridge Parkway – A Place to Play – Each year, competition organizers select a theme for photographers to follow in their representations of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Competition organizers are excited to announce this year’s Blue Ridge Parkway Category theme, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and Nikon Professional Services, which is “Blue Ridge Parkway – A Place to Play.” Photographers are encouraged to document how the Parkway offers many opportunities for folks of all ages to play outdoors…. challenging the photographer to capture how they see the park as a source of recreation and to capture the connection to our fun and its natural bounty.
• Culture – Imagery depicting the people, their customs, traditions, architecture and ways of life unique to the Southern Appalachian region.
• Our Ecological Footprint – Imagery documenting environmental concerns in Central and Southern Appalachia. Photographers submitting images to this category should include a paragraph explaining where the image was taken and the environmental impact you are illustrating.
• Flora/Fauna – Imagery of plants and animals common to the Southern Appalachians.
• Landscape – Scenic imagery capturing the rich diversity and natural beauty of the Southern Appalachian region.

$4,000 in cash and prizes are made possible through the generous support of the Mast General Store, The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters, and Appalachian Voices.

AMPC Winners

Category winners

• Lynn Willis
  Boardwalk in the Fog
  Adventure
• Ryan Davis
  Summer Days
  Blue Ridge Parkway
• Candice Corbin
  Granny’s Got a Gun
  Culture
• Lynn Willis
  Top Burden Valley Fill
  Our Ecological Footprint
• Ronald Kevin Combs
  Eternal Beauty
  Flora and Fauna
• Robert Stephens
  An Entrance to Winter
  Landscape

About the jurors

Andrew Caldwell

In addition to his role as an Assistant Professor of Commercial Photography at Appalachian State University, Andrew Caldwell is a practicing commercial and contemporary fine art photographer. Prior to moving from California to Boone in 2015, Andrew and his wife and photographic partner Anjula, spent the past thirteen years photographing across multiple professional disciplines including: commercial/advertising, architectural, weddings, portraits, nature, and contemporary fine art. His work has been published and exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Ann Pegelow Kaplan

Ann Pegelow Kaplan is an assistant professor at Appalachian State University, a member of the University of North Carolina System of Higher Education. Kaplan teaches in the Department of Cultural, Gender, and Global Studies, serves as core faculty in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, and is a faculty affiliate of the Department of Art and Interdisciplinary Studies. She earned her MFA focusing on photography and digital technology from Clemson University and terminal MA in ethnography / folklore from the American Studies program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kaplan’s exhibitions include tête gallery, Berlin, Germany; the Peace Studies Program of De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines; FORMAT Gallery for cross-cultural understanding, Washington, DC; Department of Art, University of Texas at San Antonio; North Carolina Museum of Art; Southeast College Art Conference; International Juried Exhibition of the Society of Photographic Education; and SOHO20 Gallery Chelsea, New York, NY. She has been awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the F/Stop Festival für Fotografie, Leipzig, Germany.

Her chapter, “Global Lens, Feminist Lens: Examining Media Critique by Visual Artists in the 21st Century” will be published in the upcoming anthology Feminist Media Research in the 21st Century. Kaplan continues work on her series Conversations & Confrontations, which follows her own autobiographical threads to explore modern day instances of oppression. She is also currently working on a book project critically exploring the implications and affordances of photographic technologies within the contemporary era.

Additional resources

• Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition
• Outdoor Programs
• Virtual Blue Ridge
• Vote for the People’s Choice Award