DETAILS
Take Your Best Shot: Youth Digital Photo Contest
Opening reception Saturday, June 16 from 3 to 5 p.m.
Artists will be in attendance, and awards will be presented
Admission by donation
Until Sunday, August 12
Musée Héritage Museum
St. Albert Place, 5 St. Anne St.
Call 780-459-1528 or visit www.museeheritage.ca for more information.
What does St. Albert mean to you? Well, if you ask some of the city’s best and youngest photographers, they won’t tell you. They’ll show you.
Take Your Best Shot is an annual exhibit of photographs by city youths. This year’s theme was ‘My St. Albert’, the results of which are now on display at the Musée Héritage Museum.
Entries were divided into three age groups for students in grades 3 to 6, grades 7 to 9, and grades 10 to 12. Among the photographs in each category, a winner was named with prizes by McBain’s Camera. A jury chose three winners from each category based on the choice of subject, photographic creativity, the quality of the photo, and the photographer’s accompanying written description of why they chose the subject for their image. Honourable mentions were also judged.
It resulted in dozens of responses with winners and other notable entries from each category. Over the last several years that this contest has been offered, approximately 300 students have had the opportunity to show their photographs professionally. The works of this year’s winners are all now on display, along with their first names only.
Sierra, a Grade 8 student, said that her photograph of kids stomping and splashing in a puddle, shows how her St. Albert is about her street and her neighbours. "I took this photo because it really shows the fun we have had growing up in my neighbourhood. Our neighbours have become our friends. What a great place to grow up."
Grade 10 student Addison said of her orange-hued late day photo, "I chose to take a picture of this because Lacombe Lake is one of my favourite places in St.Albert. It’s beautiful and peaceful, especially at sunset."
For her kaleidoscopic work of a tree with multi-coloured leaves, Grade 6 student Emily said, "My photo might simply look like a tree with neat coloured leaves but it is more than that by far. It’s interesting [how a] change of colours is equivalent to our wonderful city because of our beautiful ecosystem. It is not in every town you find such a delicate plant in the backyard off of the main road. Speaking of roads, look at the unusual indents running up the birch tree. Don’t they look like roads throughout our city? Everyone who drives on those roads either for ballet or hockey practice, work, or to the gym – everyone is a part of our ever-growing St. Albert family. St. Albert is home."
Accompanying the youthful exhibit is a selection of photographs taken by Victor Post, which come from the museum’s own archives. Post was a prominent local photographer who also worked as the official photographer for the Government of Alberta. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society of England and served on the boards of the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. He is still fondly regarded and missed by many in photography circles and throughout the community.
