Welcome to the 3rd annual American Photo Images of the Year Competition. This year's contest topped all others in the number of entries, which came to us from around the globe. As you will see, the imagery we looked at is extraordinary.
This photo contest differs from others in the breadth of the subject matter we call for -- from war photography to advertising work, from student work to nature imagery. Our contest also looks at work by pros and amateurs alike.
This year, for the first time, all the entries were received, and judged, online. The editors of American Photo did the first two rounds of judging. The final round was judged by three distinguished names in photography: veteran photo editor Laurie Kratochvil, based in New York City; Boston-based photographer and educator Henry Horenstein; and David Fahey, director of the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.
Winners in the six categories will share $10,000 in prizes. A Grand Prize winner will be announced at a special event in New York in December and here at PopPhoto.com.
Credits (clockwise from top left) Steven Meisel, Callie Shell, Chang Kyun Kim, Felix Hug, Walter Astrada, Mona Kuhn
Madonna has worked with a handful of photographers throughout her career to create a carefully calculated collection of iconography. Early on she collaborated with Herb Ritts, who polished her photographic image to a high sheen, establishing Madonna as a force in culture and fashion. Over the years, Bruce Weber, Mario Testino, and others helped her shape-shift her identity, always being careful to place her persona just outside the bounds of middle-class tastes but close enough so that her every move could be witnessed by her followers. Such is her genius. Her most notable -- and most interesting -- work has been done with Steven Meisel, who photographed her for the cover of her 1984 album, Like a Virgin, and for a series of projects in the early 1990s. The most infamous of those was the 1992 book, Sex, made at the moment when Madonna's persona was veering from neo-punk to neo-Marquis de Sade.
Reuniting for the cover of Vanity Fair's May 2008 Green Issue, the pair updated Madonna's cultural status once again, turning the 49-year-old soon-to-be single mother into a lingerie-clad warrior, guarding the globe through the sheer power of her sexuality. In Meisel's beautifully rendered pictures, the Material Girl becomes an Earth MILF, demonstrating again the power of imagery to create seductive fantasy. Environmentalism aside, the issue coincided with the release of Madonna's Hard Candy album, and readers were invited to explore the hardworking entertainer's personal high-wire act.
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