Arts & Entertainment
Vote for your Favorite Photographer at Heritage Fest
Public to decide winner of amateur photography exhibition July 2 during the Kent Heritage Festival
As part of Kent’s Heritage Festival, Standing Rock Cultural Arts will host a daylong contest for the public to select the winner of Photogs, its first amateur photography exhibition.
The gallery, located at 257 N. Water St., will open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Saturday with ballots at the door for visitors to vote on their favorite photographs. Seventeen amateur photographers locally and from states around the country submitted 42 pieces to the exhibition.
"It’s been cool," Standing Rock President Tina Puckett said. "We had one fellow show up with an armful of photographs who said he’s never exhibited his work before. It’s fun to see people excited about it."
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Puckett, who also is an amateur photographer, was one of four judges to select the top 25 pieces for the exhibition. Puckett had the idea for a similar exhibition in Kent after winning a people’s choice award at a photography contest last year in Stark County. Other judges included Cass Mayfield, owner of the ; Debra-Lynn Hook, a Kent journalist and photographer; and, Cheryl Townsend, a local photographer.
"You’re looking for something with good composition and nice use of light, and something that’s kind of above the ordinary, not mundane," Mayfield said. "We were looking for some originality, something creative. Some just stood out above the others. There was a nice variety."
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Minimum prizes of $25, $10 and $5 will be given to the first-, second- and third-place winners of the People’s Choice Award.
"I didn’t even know who submitted until after I chose the pictures that were my favorite, and then afterward I looked at the back of the pictures," Hook said.
Of the pieces submitted, about a dozen "really jumped out at me," she said.
"It amazes me how much talent people have that they don’t always get to express. I’m just really glad that we’re doing things like this in Kent," Hook said.
The Photogs exhibition will run from July 2 through July 30. Gallery hours are 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Saturday. For more information, go to the Standing Rock Cultural Arts website.