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The wonderful flood of entries to our annual Photo of the Year in Construction competition was overwhelming, both literally in our online entry system and emotionally in the spectacle and drama that many of the photos represented. This year’s judges, along with ENR Senior Art Director Scott Hilling and myself, sifted through nearly 1,200 images and chose just 50 winners that artistically capture the action of construction jobsites and the human spirit that is dedicated to creating the built environment.
This year’s hard-working panel included (pictured L to R): Nadine Post, Editor-at-Large Buildings, ENR; Martin Chandrawinata, Construction Director, Prescience, a Bureau Veritas company; Vera Galvez, Executive Vice President of Operations, Maspeth Welding; Aileen Fuchs, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Building Museum; and Belinda Butler-Knight, Chief Security Officer, AECOM Tishman.
Photo contest judges chose 50 winners from nearly 1,200 entries during a one-day meeting at the Empire State Building.
Photo by Scott Hilling/ENR
For the first time since before the pandemic, the entire jury met in person at ENR’s headquarters in New York, which added to the camaraderie.
Photographer: Justin Sanson
Sydney Metro Rail, Sydney
Presented by: Angela Ricardo, CPB Contractors
Having been a photo contest winner, Chandrawinata says he was “intrigued to now serve as a judge, enjoying the unforgettable and fun experience of judging submissions and meeting the judging team and editors of ‘ENR at the iconic Empire State Building’.
Fuchs drew parallels with the work his Washington, DC-based museum does to inspire children and adults to be curious about the world we design and build.
“The experience was a visual celebration of the wonder of work and the beauty of innovation, bringing these two pillars of the National Building Museum to life,” says Fuchs.
TO START
Post was one of the original judges when the contest began in the early 2000s. ‘oh wow!’ reaction at first viewing, compared to my photo prints from a while ago.”
Photographer and sender: Dennis Lee
Onshore Wind Energy Project, Broome County, New York
Under evening work lights, a worker was attaching a clamp to the iron deck of a wind turbine tower when photographer Lee captured this image at a project contractor TWG is building in Broome County, Ft. from the Catskills Mountains in New York State. . The lights “were casting this golden light on one of the platforms in the tower as it was getting ready for the elevator,” Lee says. “The color looked great and when I saw the double shade, I loved it.” TWG is handling the EPC work on the civil and electrical parts of the project.
Post also marvels at the development of photographic equipment, which this year includes iPhones, Androids, drones and even workplace cameras, which allow much more freedom of movement to capture the action.
“I’m amazed at how many fabulous photos there are of members of the construction team – the people who actually have boots on the ground and are doing the work,” he says. On the photo, Post wrote the caption on p. 51, adds “you can literally see the photographer’s boots on the ground!”
Photographer and sender: Chuck Morgan
Undisclosed project, Va.
Dirt isn’t usually visually appealing until you see it from a different perspective, says photographer Morgan, who used a drone to take this shot 350 feet above dozens of mounds of dirt in varying hues: red, orange , brown, black and gray. “It looked beautiful,” the Phillips Infrastructure content producer says of the image, which offers a bird’s-eye view of the stacks. It shows that even dirt can be beautiful, adds Morgan, who has a copy of the photo hanging in her home.
Hilling says that with a new group of judges each year, “it’s interesting to see similarities in some photos with previous selections. But there are also images with themes or a certain execution that we’ve never seen before, and that’s what makes this contest so exciting.”
The cover that many of you will be holding in your hands was chosen from six finalists by nearly 5,000 ENR.com viewers who participated in an online poll.
