Venus Zine’s 1st Annual Photo Contest: Portrait
Issue #45
By Venus Zine Staff
Published: November 1st, 2010 | 12:00am
For our first annual Photo Contest, Venus Zine received over 1,500 entries from talented photographers all over the world. Our esteemed panel of judges selected one winner from each of five different categories—street fashion, music/concert, travel, portrait, and food—which we present in our winter issue (on newsstands now!), along with our readers’ choice and staff favorites.
Since we didn't have room to print 'em, we decided to pull 30 of our favorite runners-up in the portrait category and share them here. Take a look, and let us know what you think! We'll give our favorite (constructive!) commenter a prize.
photographer: Jami Lin
“My best friend doesn't like getting her photo taken-- here was one way around it!”
photographer: Ali Donohue
“This is a digital photo take of my friend in a fabric shop in LA's fashion district.”
photographer: Laura Ward
“This is a portrait of Laura Kidd of 'She Makes War' having her make up and hair done by Sammm Agnew for a promo shoot. It was taken in early 2010, on a freezing cold day.”
photographer: Des'Rae L. Stage
“Tori Amos poses for a guerrilla portrait outside her dressing room in the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center on December 7, 2009.”
photographer: Jennifer Avello
“This is a self portrait I did this winter. It was kind of to show all my models that I too will do anything for a photograph even going outside in a dress with no shoes on in bellow zero degree temperatures during a snow storm in the middle of the night to make this photograph. I love it.”
photographer: Melissa Clark
“Best friends at a wedding.”
photographer: Melissa Clark
“Sam in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA”
photographer: Melissa Clark
"Sam and Soda"
photographer: Matthew Schwerin
“This is a photo of my roommate and his cat on our back deck on an overcast, lazy Saturday morning. Taken with a bulky 4x5 view camera, getting the cat to pose took a little work, but we got the shot!”
photographer: Matthew Schwerin
“I took my friends Jake and Taylor in to Morse Beach, dressed in specified clothing with the hopes of achieving a sort of old-timey classic feel. The light and color on that day were perfect and I was pleased with results.”
photographer: Alexa Viscius
“Matt and Mary. beers at the lake, life doesn't get much better than this. taken on Fuji 35mm film on a Minolta XD11.”
photographer: Volodymyr Zaytsev
“Character of an individual can come in many forms and flavors. If grungy-fun could be classified as an official adjective, it would probably be well suited for this photo.”
photographer: Volodymyr Zaytsev
“Runaway shows are a microcosm of beauty and creativity, but I always wondered what actually happens backstage when no one is watching? I find shooting models before they are put on the spotlight, intriguing and fascinating. It's the moment when their appearance and personality are in a limbo, and the mesmerizing transformation takes place right in front of your eyes.”
photographer: Alexa Viscius
“A self-portrait taken in the bedroom I grew up in.”
photographer: Emily Maehl
“This is from a series I titled "Beautiful Mess." I wanted to bring to life the idea of wearing your heart on your sleeve while considering it might be messy. The mud represents the things festering inside of us that we bury deep away and would prefer to keep that way. In this photo, I wanted to be honest and real by showing I may look presentable on the outside, but obviously not okay. This is something everyone can relate to.”
photographer: Kate Yang-Nikodym
“This is Jesse Hughes. He fronts a band called Eagles of Death Metal. He's smooth, real smooth. This double exposure was taken with a Polaroid Spectra camera. Toronto, 2010.”
photographer: Kate Yang-Nikodym
“At this point, I've submitted about three hundred billion photos and I'm sure the judges want to throttle me. I could tell you the location of this photograph, but then I'd have to kill you. Polaroid Spectra diptych, 2008.”
photographer: Kate Yang-Nikodym
“Jamesious, hard to beat. Drugstore film, 2010.”
photographer: Azarah Eells
“Film, expired in 1992. Double exposure at an abandoned amusement park taken with a Pentax k1000”
photographer: John Ruwet
“This portrait was taken with a Jack White Special Edition Holga Camera, and tells my simple story.”
photographer: Stephanie Land
“Portrait of a couple”
photographer: Dylan Murphy
“Self-portrait”
photographer: Courtney Bell
“This is a self portrait I did in 2009. I wanted to illustrate how I was feeling at the time.”
photographer: Alexander Mo
“We took this on our vacation to Chicago one winter. I thought the architecture looked cool, and the model staring to her right gives it a mysterious flare.”
photographer: Nele Geerinck
"Sleeve face project."
photographer: Ana Martins
“Self portrait, my eyes and my heart, and a glass.”
photographer: Krista BonAmour
“Asjiona again. I got very lucky with this photo, which was taken outside my back door. I had my camera out for just a couple of minutes, and wound up getting this shot- one of my most favorites I have ever taken.”
photographer: Alvelyn Alko
photographer: Alvelyn Alko
photographer: Alvelyn Alko
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Check out more photo contest runners-up in the following categories!
Food
Music/Concert
Street Fashion
Travel
Comments
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Alison (about 1 year)
Yay Melissa Clark!!!! Awesome photos!!!