Fairfield native Audrey Ryan was named student grand-prize winner of the Fairfield Museum and History Center's IMAGES 2013 juried photography competition and exhibition.
Ryan, a first-year student at the Hartford Art School, won the competition with her self portrait. She used a manipulation of two photographs overlaid on a transparency of herself, resulting in the imaged attached to this story.
"This award is awesome for me," Ryan told the Fairfield Museum and History Center. "I was surprised because I didn't think my self portrait would be striking enough."
The judges thought otherwise.
Ryan's work was striking enough to make her a finalist from a pool of nearly 1,000 entries from 500 entrants, according to a release from the Fairfield Museum and History Center. Then, it made her the grand-prize winner. She'll receive a professional portfolio review with one of the competition's judges.
Ryan hopes to become a photojournalist. She fell in love with photography after a class at Fairfield Ludlowe High School.
"I had some interest in photography before, but when I took Ms. [Michele] Hermsen's class, I fell in love with photography and decided to pursue it in earnest."
Most of Ryan's work involves some kind of human image, and she thinks she's taken thousands of photos over the past few years.
Fourteen other Fairfield and Southport natives join Ryan as finalists in the exhibition, which is on view at the Fairfield Museum and History Center through July 21. The work of 55 finalists is on display.
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