Spring 2022 photo contest winners

First place: Valerie Chavez

This photo is taken of my mother, Yvonne Chavez, at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos while standing in front of the piece by Dorothy Eugénie Brett “Christmas Eve at Taos Pueblo” (1961).

While we walked around the museum, my mother and I saw reflections of our New Mexican identity and history in the pieces displayed. My mother has always worn Southwestern-style clothing, and on this day, I am grateful she decided to wear her beloved black cowboy hat.

We were at the museum for a good hour when my mother stood perfectly in front of Brett’s piece. She was focused on the painting, but I was focused on her. I saw the shape of her cowboy hat, the church and how the flames surrounded her frame combined to make art itself. 

For me, this photo expresses the duality of being both the subject and the viewer. I chose to enter this photo because it celebrates New Mexican culture with my mother being at the center. In my life, my mother has always been the core of my knowledge of New Mexican traditions and values. Because of Nueva Mexicana mothers like her, our culture is preserved and honored. For them, I am forever indebted.

Second place: Noah Sedillo

This photograph is a long exposure, which was taken for eight seconds. It features my model and good friend Gabriel Vallejo. I was also assisted by my friend and roommate Noah Driscoll, who held the red spotlight in place to capture the image. It was shot at John B. Robert Dam on Wednesday, March 2.

I shot this series in hopes to capture a visual representation of the stress that I, along with many students, can deal with from time to time. With the body still, giving off a calm and collected attitude, the head of the model is in distress that not everyone is able to see. 

Third place: Ryuichirio Morgan

I have a rather large group of friends in San Francisco, and the last time I had visited them prior to this image being taken was in 2020, right before the initial peak of the pandemic. I didn’t get to visit them for a while as everything went into lockdown, but I had another chance to spend time with them in 2021. It was during that trip that I had taken this image.

I’ve rarely had the chance to travel growing up. I never really went on family trips or anything like that. Any traveling I’ve done has been on my own accord. And growing up in New Mexico my whole life, I’ve rarely had opportunities to see cliff edges or oceans in person. To me, this sort of scenery is new, and there was a sense of childlike wonder when capturing this image. Plus, I found the plant life on the cliff side to be quite beautiful.

No editing or color correction has been done to the image either. These are purely the vivid colors of California captured on a camera sensor.

Valerie Chavez is a first-year graduate student studying Chicana and Chicano studies

Noah Sedillo is a second-year undergraduate student studying business administration and film and digital arts

Ryuichirio Morgan is a second-year undergraduate student studying film and digital arts