Winners named in city’s 17th annual photo contest

Published 1:00 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

VALDOSTA — Valdosta’s City Council joined the Turner Center for the Arts in celebrating the end of the 17th annual Valdosta People’s Choice Photo Contest, where winners were announced and prizes distributed.

The contest was created in 2009 as a way to get photos of the city through members of the community. What started as 37 submitted photos became a community event that celebrates the beauty in the mundane, a place for up-and-coming photographers and hobbyists looking for something to do to come together and make something special.

Now, after nearly 20 years of the contest, the city of Valdosta is turning the event over to the Turner Center full-time.

“I think the emphasis will be more on the arts and how photography is an art,” Dr. Sementha Mathews, executive director for the Turner Center for the Arts, said. “It’s another way of participating in the arts, so I think that’s what’s gonna make it different. We’re not just focused on getting photographs to highlight the city as a destination, but also actually celebrating it as art.”

Guests and participants were treated to a brief gallery visitation period, with all of the competing pieces hung up as its own section of the center’s exhibition. Food and drinks were provided, including alcohol, and guests were encouraged to mingle.

The ceremony was conducted by Mathews and Mayor Scott Matheson, who announced the winners of the event and their pieces. 

The winners are as follows:

• City of Valdosta Architecture: Elizabeth Conant, Azalea City Isle of Knowledge

“It’s a view that I’ve admired since I moved to Valdosta,” Conant said. “I first noticed it when I watched my children marching in one of the parades, and that view from the street looking down the aisle with all the palm trees into the fountain, it’s a gorgeous sight.”

• Main Street Events: Laney Havard, Smoke Show

“Some of my friends are the instructors here in the ceramics studio, and one specifically does Raku,” Harvard said. “I went one day and took photos of her Raku workshop in the Turner Center.”

• Valdosta Public Art: Rosetta Coyne, A Tulip’s Embrace

“I saw that they would make a beautiful picture in the way the leaves hovered over the flowers themselves,” Coyne said. “I could only think of the word ‘embrace.’”

• Youth Category: Bryson Stone, The Run Away

“A buddy of mine had a 1966 Mustang GT, and we were going around and taking pictures,” Stone said. “I found one spot that looked a little too good, and he did a burnout, and I got one of the best shots I’ve ever got.” 

Each winner earned a certificate from the city and a $200 cash prize, excluding the Youth category, who earned a $100 prize.