Walton Arts Center’s Artosphere Festival has been connecting and bringing to life art, nature and sustainability in fun and exciting ways for the past 11 years. For the second Artosphere Photo Contest, Arkansas photographers were invited to submit photographs during March and April related to the “Beauty of Reuse.” These could include nature and landscape photos, images that depict environmental issues and other pictures that encourage people to be “green.”

Rebecca Drolen, assistant professor of photography at the University of Arkansas, judged the 30 images submitted from 11 photographers. All of the submissions were fantastic, but one stood out among the rest as the grand prize winner, and seven others were earned runners-up honors.

Grand Prize Winner

David Cagle is the grand prize winner of the 2020 Artosphere Festival photo contest with his “Milky Way Over Boxley.”

Cagle’s winning photograph features a stunning view of the starry night sky over a striking white chapel in Boxley Valley. His expert technique made details of the Milky Way visible that typically cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Cagle has been taking photos for 14 years. He started because he was looking for a hobby that would motivate him to get out and enjoy nature, and his favorite subject to photograph is waterfalls.

“I like to photograph waterfalls mainly because I enjoy being in the presence of the waterfall and listening to the water,” he said.

“This scene is a majestic and beautiful reminder of how we exist within much larger ecological systems that we must contribute to upholding,” Drolen said. “To see our land as ordinary or a simple backdrop that we control would be short-sighted. And if you are looking for it, sometimes the sky will open up to reveal the extraordinary.”

Runners-up

Drolen also recognized runners-up for their representations of the awe-inspiring and complex relationship that humans have with nature. David Orr’s submissions “Riparian Stick Serpent Right Cranial” stood out among the runners-up for his use of the forest as a site of creation.

For his entry, Orr photographed his land art Riparian Stick Serpent. The piece consists of vines and limbs cut and groomed over three months complied into an 80-foot stick serpent occupying space near a river in west Arkansas. The project sustained old-growth oaks, removed invasive non-native trees and shrubs and opened up areas that may benefit southern flying squirrels.

“I enjoy finding the story in a composition, whether told by a spring ephemeral or a monumental waterfall,” said Orr, a long-time photographer who has focused on his craft in retirement and interprets nature through photos.

Ponnusamy has been taking photos for about nine years and took this photo in southern India. He said his favorite thing about photography is going outside and feeding his thirst for nature photography. “You don’t need to look far to find a beautiful scene or book a studio and a model to take photos; just go outside and start clicking that shutter,” he said.

Harvey took this photo in the Botanical Gardens of St. Louis. Harvey fell in love with photography in 2013, but says she was interested in it years before then. “I first became interested in photography when my family was young and family photos became expensive but still very much wanted. I started posing my family and sons for photos including building backgrounds and settings,” she said.

Bolding captured this photo outside of his hotel room in the Gulf Shores. He notes that it looks like the bird is actually riding the fish in this image. Bolding’s love for photography was born out of his time up in tree stands. “In addition to all the mammals, I saw owls, hawks and bird I'd never seen before up close, so I started bringing my camera with me and got some really good shots of birds.” Photographing and identifying birds has become his main focus as a photographer.

Shelby Vaught is a documentary photographer who is interested in the issues of emotional, mental and physical connectivity as complex systems of navigating our society. Inspired by vulnerability, she uses her surroundings to emphasize the relationship between oneself and their environment. Vaught got her first camera when she was 12-year-old and has been capturing “sweet little moments of life” that she says never last long enough ever since. “Photography became the solution by forever capturing these beautiful scenes and allowing me to share these instances long after they were over,” she explained.

Konkle has been taking photos seriously for over 40 years, working mainly in black and white in his earlier days. Many of his photos feature the sky prominently. “I don’t see the sky as a subject'; I think of it as the atmosphere enveloping humans and human-made things,” he said. Konkle is interested in how the things humans make fit themselves into the sky, whether gracefully, intrusively, or magically. 

How to Celebrate Artosphere

While Artosphere’s in-person performances were canceled due to COVID-19, you can still celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra Saturday, May 23 on heARTs to homes. This weekly webcast produced by Walton Arts Center airs at 6 pm every Saturday on Walton Arts Center’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Episodes are available for 48 hours after they air.

Artosphere 2020 is sponsored by Walmart, Tyson Foods, Visit Bentonville and Experience Fayetteville. Support for Trail Mix provided by Bank of America and Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield. Support for Dover Quartet and Maestro Corrado Rovaris provided by Mary Ann & Reed Greenwood.