Photo by Dominic Assia

Facing more than 180 creative challengers, Dominic Assia, 15, of Liberty High School and Skye Porter, 13, of Palisades Middle School were selected as the first-place winners of The Morning Call’s inaugural Amateur Scholastic Digital Photography Contest as part of the 7^th annual Olympus InVision Photo Festival.

As the winner of the High School Category, Assia, a sophomore at Liberty, takes home the grand prize of an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Camera kit for her image of a moped in a dark alley illuminated by a streetlamp. Porter, a Palisades eighth grader whose image features a warm sunset on a bright pebble beach, earned a $200 Gift Card toward visual arts classes at the Banana Factory Arts Center as the grand-prize winner in the Middle School Category.

Photo by Skye Porter

“This contest was one of our largest and most engaging photo submission contests at The Morning Call to date,” says DJ Cleaver, The Morning Call’s regional digital business development manager. “We received student photographs from 47 different schools and the public voting drew almost 2,500 votes. The Morning Call looks forward to partnering again on this now annual project.”

The complete list of scholastic photo competition winners is:

High School
First Place:                  Dominic Assia, 15, of Liberty High School (10^th grade)
Second Place:            Mackenzie McGovern, 15, of Liberty High School (10^th grade)
Third Place:                 Priya Gupta, 14, Homeschooled (9^th grade)
People’s Choice:         Brandon Graser, 16, of Liberty High School (11^th grade)

Middle School
First Place:                  Skye Porter, 13, of Palisades Middle School (8^th grade)
Second Place:            Jessica Hunt, 13, of Northampton Area Middle School (8^th grade)
Third Place                  Alexandra Bloom, 13, of Weatherly Middle School (8^th grade)
People’s Choice:         Aidan Silvestri, 13, of Southern Lehigh Middle School (8^th grade)

Open to students in the Greater Lehigh Valley ages 13-18, The Morning Call Scholastic Digital Photography Contest invited young people to submit their original portrait, action, land and cityscape photographs. Prizes included Banana Factory gift cards, as well as gift cards for printing and educational services at Dan’s Camera City.

“We were so impressed with the submissions and the talent of the region’s young photographers,” says Stacie Brennan, ArtsQuest Sr. Director of Visual Arts. “We are very grateful to our sponsors for this opportunity to highlight and celebrate our next generation of artists.”

The Scholastic Digital Photography Contest was made possible thanks to The Morning Call and Olympus America, as well as Dan’s Camera City, ArtsQuest and Image Archives. The Olympus InVision Photo Festival takes place at the Banana Factory Arts Center and ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.