Amateurs to show their photos
Published 10:43 pm Thursday, August 11, 2011
Suffolk, as seen through the eyes of a couple dozen gifted amateurs, will be on display this weekend at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.
Participants in the Suffolk Photo Walk sponsored in the spring by Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church will learn during a reception tonight which photos were judged the best among the dozens submitted following the daylong event on May 28.
About 50 photographers signed up for the event, though somewhat fewer actually turned out because of bad weather that day, according to Will Lee, director of small group discipleship at the church. Lee was in charge of the event, held by Westminster this year for the second time.
“We put a high value on the arts,” he said recently. “And we’re looking at a variety of ways to engage with the SCCA, as well as the community. This was an opportunity to kind of partner with the Suffolk Center.”
A reception for the photographers and the public will be held at the SCCA tonight, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Each participant was allowed to submit a certain number of the photos shot the day of the walk for judging. The best photos, as judged by Virginian-Pilot photographer John H. Sheely II, will receive special recognition.
Participants were given maps on the morning of May 28 and directed to drive around various parts of the city, shooting anything that caught their fancy. They were allowed to enter the resulting photos into three different categories: landscape, abstract and people.
“As a church, we believe that God created the arts,” Lee said. “They’re His. All beauty points to God.”
The event also gives participating photographers a chance to connect with one another and to hone their skills, he said.
“At the same time, it’s a chance to people in Suffolk to see how beautiful the city is,” Lee said.
The photos will be on display at the SCCA through Saturday.