First Prize Second Prize Honorable Mention
Friends of Library (FOL) recognized three local amateur photographers for their pictures taken during National Library Week to celebrate the contributions libraries.
FOL awarded the $100 first prize to Aubree Williams, the $50 second prize to Tabatha Ragan, and cited Lexis Ryan for an honorable mention.
Williams photographed a young lady carrying a globe and holding up her library card at Wesson Public Library. Photography contest judge Bob Arnold, editor of Wesson News, said it “pictorially communicated that you can capture the world if you use the library -- the National Library Week message.”
Ragan photographed her two sons -- AJ and James -- positioned to run a race, starting at a “ready, set, library” sign with Co-Lin sports stadium in the background. Arnold said it “pictorially communicated that the two prospective runners were set to race from a venue of physicality -- the sports stadium -- to a venue of the mind and soul -- the library.”
Ryan’s photograph was a work of art full of symbolism, Arnold said. A shade of purple radiated comfort and a sense or royalty from a blanket to the subject matter -- fountain pens, two Christian Bibles, a book -- Happiness is Not an Hallucination . . . .It Is a Way of Life, a basket with an encyclopedia. The scene, Arnold observed, provoked thought: “Fountain pens and a basket -- old, but convenient technologies for recording and storing ideas and knowledge; Bibles -- sources of classic stories, timeless wisdom, guidance for living; a book about exploring the reality of happiness -- a lesson on living a meaningful and satisfying life; an encyclopedia in a basket -- ideas and knowledge neatly stored and readily available.”