Communication Arts Photo Annual Judging!

I had a lovely and surreal weekend as one of 5 judges for the Communication Arts 52nd photo annual. This is a shot taken of the small tiles that serve as a voting mechanism for each judge. They have had these tiles for the past 50 plus years as part of their system. So much history held in one little cup! My tiles were orange which thrilled me. As a group we culled just over 10,000 images down to 150-200 images. The work was spectacular, the process was incredible and visually exhausting. The other judges (Leslie dela Vega from Fast Company Magazine, Robert Krivicich from Weymouth Design, Steve Mitchell from Hunt Adkins Ad Agency and Jerry Takigawa of Takigawa Design) were all very passionate about photography in addition to their creative positions as art director, designer and photo editor. It was such an honor being part of this panel and being surrounded by so much creative history housed in the uber cool Communication Arts offices in Menlo Park, California. The front conference room features a library that houses every single issue since the magazine's inception in 1959. The magazine owners, Patrick and Jean Coyne, were lovely hosts from start to finish. And I finally had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca Bedrossian, the managing editor who is responsible for my being on the CA radar! The photo annual hits the magazine racks in August. I'll be as surprised as everyone else to see who made the final cut. A little piece of photo history.