JUDGES 2025

Larry Angier
Photographer, Jackson, California

An “Amador Lifer” and graduate of Ione High School who grew up in the streets of Ione, Calif. 

​The son of Laurence and Evelyn Angier, Larry grew up in the rural town of Ione, California and got interested in photography when his older sister, Lauren, took a photo class at the nearby Delta College in Stockton, Calif. as part of her art degree. He dabbled with the hobby and soon attended Ione High School shortly buying a used camera as his interest continued.

​Within a couple of weeks of that purchase, a fire that destroyed the historic Ione High School and his photos were front page news on the Amador-Progress News where he soon found his calling. He delivered the Sacramento Bee daily and was involved in many community service projects. While a member of 4-H he became a County All star. As a Boy Scout he achived the rank of Eagle Scout. His involvement in the Ione Picnic Association resulted in a partnership with his Ione High history class to produce and publish Ione, Our Home Town, a book and calendar commemoration of Ione’s history. In 1976 he was award the President’s Gold Medal the “Young American Award” from the California Newspaper Youth Foundation. He attended Delta College and the University of California.
Beginning in his teens, he was mentored by Calaveras teacher and principal John Hofstetter along with West Coast photographers Al Weber, Steve Crouch and eventually Ansel Adams. He continued photographing his community, news, weddings, portraits, social events, wineries, businesses and anything that would pay the bills. After dabbling with electronic imaging since the 1980s, in the new century Larry started commercial and editorial work with the new digital photo technology. In 2003, he was chosen to photograph for the all-digital America 24/7 project resulting in a 53-volumne record of America during one week in May 2003. His work was featured in both the Nevada 24/7 and California 24/7 books.
 
At his Jackson, Calif., studio he electronically crafts his photographs into both fine-art photographs and canvas/fine-art giclée works in his digital print lab. He travels rural America enjoying landscape and cowboy photography and Europe’s Mediterranean, Balken and Slavic Regions photographing the people, the faith and the cultural landscape of the ancestors of Amador County’s ethnic communities.
His work spans more than six decades, over two centuries, and is based in the California Gold County.

  • Larry’s editorial photography appears in Jackson’s newspaper Ledger-Dispatch, and the magazines RANGE, and VIA. Sutter Health Care, Amador Council of Tourism and Amador County Fair feature his commercial and promotional photography.
  • Recent books showcasing his work include A New Allegory, Serbian Christian Heritage of America, Tales from Out There, and Icons of Jackson’s St. Sava Church (2019),  The Marble Tombs That Rise on High, Humor, History and Hallucinations of Quinlan and Jones, and Colors of Orthodoxy (2020), The Long Trail Home (2021), 125 Years of Jackson’s Gem (commemorating St. Sava Church’s 125th anniversary) and Face to Face with the American West featuring many local cowboy families (2022), Cowboys, Dogs & Horses (2023), Colors of Orthodoxy–Greece, Colors of Orthodoxy–Islands of Greece, and A Candle for Father Triva (2024).
  • Larry’s work is in the collections of  St. Sava Church, Jackson, El Dorado Savings Bank, the University of the​ Pacific in Stockton, National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, the Museum of Northeastern Nevada in Elko, Nev., the Father Serra Museum in Petra, Mallorca, the Olympus Camera Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, and the National Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade, Serbia.
Please click on images to enlarge

Laurie Sylwester
Documentary Photographer

BACKGROUND
  • Started shooting with 35 mm in 1969.
  • Slide photography 1979-2007.
  • Black and white photography 1982-1992.
  • Photos on ceramic work 1983-1984.
  • Photolithic B&W photos, 1985.
  • Digital photography 2005-present; Canon 20D and Canon 40D, 7D. 


EXPERIENCE 
Professor of Art, Columbia College; Ceramics, Art History, Drawing and Photography-Elements of Design.

Adjunct 1989-1999
Full time 2000-2019
GREAT PHOTO GIGS
  • Political Activist documentation from Desert Storm through present day, 2024.
  • Photographer for Cinco de Mayo, Columbia 2023-2024; grant funded.
  • Photographer for Martin Luther King Celebrations, various years.
  • Photographer on a National Endowment For The Humanities, ​researching Etruscan Art 2015 in Italy, and documentary photography.
  • Photographer for Strawberry Music Festivals 1993-2015; published in calendars and online.
  • Fire incident photographer 1997-2004, photos published in news publications and utilized as evidence to prosecute arsonists.
  • Photo shoots for Valley Views in 2006.
  • Photos utilized in scores of posters designed by Gail Segerstrom -thousands printed.
  • Photos on cover of three Real Estate brochures: 50,000 printed each edition. 2008.
  • Photo cover shot Columbia College Spring Review 2006, 2007, 2008.
  • Photography for Mother Lode Fair, 2004-2005. Published in books and periodicals in the 1980’s.
  • Cover of California Archaeology, 2011. 
  • Travel photography: 48 of the United States, Peru, Portugal, Croatia, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Oaxaca, Mexico, England, Scotland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China, Canada, Turkey. 

EDUCATION 
Instructors: Ed Doell, Charles Moore, Jeff Nixon, John Senser. 

SHOWS
  • Peruvian Textile Show Tuolumne County Arts Council, 2012
  • photography & research Photography of stained glass windows shown at Central Sierra Arts Council, March 2008
  • Photography of Oaxaca Mexico displayed in Tradewinds (retail), Sonora 2007
  • Photos exhibited annually in Columbia College Faculty show.
  • In Focus Annual Juried Competition. Photography juried in majority of its first 20 years; various awards.

AWARDS
  • In 2013 I won the Charles Moore Award of excellence in photography.
  • Gallo annual Spring show and Lodi Art Show in the 1980‘s.
  • Modesto Mistlin photo show, first place 2006. 

18375 Hershey Road;Tuolumne, CA. 95379
(209) 928-3423
[email protected] 

Kent Porter
Pulitzer Prize Winner & Storm Chaser

I have been at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat going on 38 years.  My career started at the Lake County Record-Bee in 1983, from there my first professional photojournalism job took me to Midland, Texas where I worked until 1987, eventually taking the job in Santa Rosa. My experience runs the gamut of photography, from professional sports to portraiture, fine art, landscape, still life, disaster coverage and nearly everything in between. I’ve been published in nearly every major news magazine and newspaper, including National Geographic, the New York and London Times.
I’ve won hundreds of awards of which highlights include the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting for coverage of the 2017 Tubbs Fire; National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) small market Photographer of the Year in 2022; seven time winner of NPPA’s Photographer of the Year for its West Region, including the last three years in a row.
 
I’m an avid storm chaser, spending nearly a month each year crisscrossing the Great Plains photographing severe weather, working to document our rapidly changing climate and the effects on our society. My main beat is documenting fires in Northern California. I listen to music, swim, lift weights and hate bad food.
 
I’m currently divorced and have a son who is a captain at a local Sonoma County Fire Department.
 
kentporterphotograph.photoshelter.com
Twitter: @kentphotos
Instagram: @kentporterphotos