Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
I was flattered to find an email land in my inbox the other day congratulating me on being selected into the 2011 PDN Photo Annual Contest. Word on the street has it over 3,000 photographers applied? I was happy to be one of the chosen.
The project awarded was The Island project I’ve been working on. It’s always great to have your work acknowledged
but it’s even sweeter when it’s a personal project shot on film that means a great deal to you.
Here are some scans from the project that I’ve yet to share. I hope you enjoy them.
To see a full edit of the project so far see the gallery on the fine-art section of our website.
I was happy to receive an email in my inbox earlier this summer from the Magenta Flash Forward competition letting me know that I was chosen as an honorable mention for one of their 2010 Emerging Photographers for my Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars project. There’s some great talent on the winners page of their site. Congrats to all the winners.
A trailer of the video portion of the project was also screened for the first time at the LOOKbetween festival we blogged about earlier. I’ll try to have that up to share with you all soon.
A few outtakes from the project. See more at the Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars section on our website.
By now I know well enough that you can’t put a lot of weight in contests, but we all know they’re good for keeping our name out there. I was happy to be included in the Communication Arts Photography Annual for my Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars project. Communication Arts dedicated a full two pages to the project and the reproduction was spot on.
Contest season is practically upon us again and this will be the first year where I no longer focus my efforts on photojournalism contests and make the shift towards contests seen by more art buyers and magazine photo editors. One thing I’m going to miss about the PJ contests is how dirt cheap they are compared to a lot of the fine art and glossy magazine contests out there. Entering 15+ images for a mere 40 bucks seems like such a bargain now.
The project on the Communication Arts website:
The New York Photo Awards released their list of nominees yesterday and I found myself on the list with a lot of talented folks including Jenn.
The contest is also my slow departure from what I consider my traditional photojournalism roots. This has been the first year that I’ve primarily focused on contests that are seen outside of the newspaper world. It’s been a slow and gradual progression, but over the past year I’m finding myself growing more distant from my PJ roots. That’s for a different post though.
I’m a nominee in the editorial series category for my prison project, which after months of struggling to find a name Jenn and I finally have a title we like; Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars. We’ll see how it plays out, but considering the talent that populates the list I’m happy to be a nominee. Now only if I could find a way for the project and website to produce itself.
An image from the prison series:
Chasing A Dream
Comments Off
I am one step closer to the goal I set out for myself when I first picked up a camera – to have a book published by the of age 35.
I received word the other day that I am a finalist for the the Center of Documentary Studies First Book Prize. While I may not win, I am just excited as in the next couple of weeks, one of my dreams has the possibility of becoming a reality.
