Congratulations to all the student finalists in CCA’s third annual R.A.W. Photo (real artists @ work) contest, which featured the theme “I Belong at CCA.”

Contestants were challenged to submit images that depict a project, moment, mood, or other quality of CCA life taken from a student perspective. As expected, the results were as varying as the students themselves!

The Winners

First place: Jocelyn Chang, Graphic Design
Second place: Arash Fayez, Graduate Program in Fine Arts
Third place: Virginia Carazo, Graphic Design
Audience Award: Eden Pieper, Photography

A six-person jury composed of faculty and staff members judged the submissions. A point system was used to determine the winning selections. (Students used an online voting form to determine the Audience Award.)

View all the student-submitted photos in this year's contest »

CCA Director of Marketing Clay Walsh noted, “This year we saw increased participation by adding the option to submit via Instagram and Twitter using CCA's hashtag #ccaraw12.

"And for the second year, we included the entire student body with the Audience Award category. I’m so happy with this year’s level of participation -- the result is a creative and wide range of fun photographs taken by the CCA student body, across all majors. It was great to see how students showed everyone how they belong at CCA.”

About the Winners

FIRST PLACE
Jocelyn Chang, a third-year Graphic Design student, took highest honors for Making a 16-Foot-Long Book, which captured one of her classmates very carefully removing a long strip of printed images -- one that was many times her height -- from the printer. This colorful action-in-the-making shot, highlighting the light-filled studio, made this image a true winner.

Said Chang: “People sometimes think that graphic design is only done working alone behind a computer. The R.A.W. Photo contest was a good opportunity to show another side of graphic design. This photo captures an active, collaborative moment -- a bookbinding workshop for a project where 24 of us in the Graphic Design Program each contributed a panel to create a 16-foot-long book.”

This winning photo was also a huge hit among students.

SECOND PLACE
Graduate Program in Fine Arts student Arash Fayez placed for Hoopertown Workers at Night. “I took this photo inside my friend Phil Maisel’s studio," shared Fayez. "Some of us were working inside our studios late at night in Hooper 3. I was tired, so I went to my neighbor's studio to chat. He was standing on his table, fixing the light bulbs, then . . . he jumped.”

We jumped for this image, too! Congrats, Arash.

THIRD PLACE
Graphic Design student Virginia Carcazo's Style was taken on a Sunday afternoon she spent with friends. She explained the photo was spontaneously taken as she was drawn to the style of dress the model was wearing.

“CCA’s R.A.W. Photo contest was a fantastic experience," she explains, "because it opened the door to new ideas about photography that I didn't explore before. It helped me be more creative and realize many of the details that are always around us, and which most of the time we don’t see.”

Jessica Ingram, chair of the Photography Program, noted the photo was taken by a dynamic student and that it was a captivating, stunning portrait.

Audience Award

Third year Photography major Eden Pieper’s Eden Fire Hooping was a clear favorite among students.

According to Pieper, “The R.A.W. Photo contest sounded right up my alley, and I thought it was a great way to expose the CCA community to some of the photographs that I take as a photographer. My photo is a long exposure shot that I took of myself fire hooping." She quickly added, "Fire hooping is a hula hoop that has attachments on that you light on fire.”

Additional student comments about the Audience Award-winning photo:

“There is a sense of energy inside of this photo; I can clearly see the movement of the light.”

“I picked this photo for its creativity; it's a very cool and unusual photo. It's a long-exposure photo, so the technical ability is definitely there. It also fits the theme perfect -- not only is it a great photo of fire hooping but also is performance art.”

“Very pleasing composition, strong technical ability, great display of CCA culture and spirit. Eden definitely belongs at CCA!”

R.A.W. Photo Contest 2013

Have an idea for next year’s theme for the R.A.W. Photo contest? Send your ideas to Clay Walsh.

Related

Read about last year's R.A.W. Photo contest »
Review this year's pool of submitted photos »