Photo contest honors Helen Levitt [PHOTO ESSAY]
Photographed by Claire Edkins
On Thursday Feb. 25 the Meryl Truit and friends gallery held the reception for the Helen Levit photo contest, as apart of the 6th annual A-Town Get Down Festival.
The photographs submitted where in response to the prompt of “why I love Savannah.”
SCAD photography professor and fine art and editorial photographer, Meryl Truit was among the events hosts.
“We wanted to name it after Helen Levitt to honor her and her achievements in documentary photography,” said Truit.
Levit passed away in 2009. Her work was exhibited at the Jepson Center for Arts in April 2014.
“We had from Savannah country day, Savannah Arts academy, SCAD, Savannah State, Armstrong [and] Saint Vincent’s,” said Truit in regards to where the submissions came from.
Students from all across the city, ranging from middle school to college, were featured in the exhibit.
“The interesting thing is some of the middle schoolers photographs are really wonderful,” Truit remarked.
The photographs were displayed on one wall of the gallery and together depicted a unique and eclectic image of what Savannah means to these contestants.
The subjects of the photos ranged from children in the streets to nature and each photo showed a different side of Savannah and represented the photographers take on what this city has to offer.
This year marks the second annual Helen Levitt contest. With two down and hopefully many more to go, Truit has a few plans for the future.
“We plan to continue the contest,” said Truit. “We had such a huge crowd and such a huge response to the submission that we might need to find a bigger place for the next time.”
Guests were invited to vote for the best photograph. Votes were cast at 8 p.m. and shortly after Parla Brigman was announced as the winner of the Viewer’s Choice award.
For more information on the Helen Levitt photo contest visit the website.
Written by Asli Shebe.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
