The Pinelands Preservation Alliance is calling all photographers.
The 2024 Pinelands Juried Photo Exhibit is open for submissions from all ages until Wednesday, Jan. 31. Six images per photographer are eligible.
The goal of the exhibit – which begins in March – is to celebrate the New Jersey Pinelands, the nation’s first national reserve, with photographs that capture its natural beauty and rich cultural heritage, according to the alliance. Congress created the Pinelands National Reserve (PNR) with passage of the National Parks and Recreation act of 1978, according to the state Pinelands Commission.
The PNR encompasses about 1.1 million acres of public and private lands spanning portions of seven counties and all or part of 56 municipalities. The reserve occupies 22% of the state’s land area and it is the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston.
PNR’s public lands include parks, forests, wildlife refuges and military bases. Private lands include 56 communities that range in size from small villages to large towns. Nearly 500,000 permanent residents live there.
Photographer and New Jersey native Patricia S. Worley’s “Morning Mist” won first place in the landscape category during last year’s Pinelands photo exhibit; it also graces the cover of the alliance’s promotional material.
Other exhibition winners in 2023 included John Dolph’s “Oswego Choices,” first place in the People, Places and Other category; Michele Martello’s “Sunrise at the Preserve,” honorable mention in landscape; Robert Fergurson II’s “Ratsnake at Night,” second place in flora and fauna; and Emma Tager’s “Enchanted Forest,” honorable mention in landscape.
Black-and-white and color images taken within the boundaries of the PNR and in the following categories will be accepted this year: Landscape, Flora and Fauna and Other (people, towns, architecture, culture, history and recreation). All eligible photographs submitted will be displayed in a special online New Jersey Pinelands gallery that will open on April 13.
Photo exhibit dates are March 25 through April 27 at the Pinelands headquarters, 17 Pemberton Road in Southampton. An opening reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, when awards will be announced.
The Pinelands Preservation Alliance reserves the right to disqualify any image that doesn’t meet contest rules or has subject matter not within the Pinelands. Images generated by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) text prompts are prohibited, but AI tools – Topaz, for example – may be used to enhance a photographer’s own images.
Award-winning professional photographer Henry Rowan is this year’s exhibit judge. He is also an author and the executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Photography (PCP) in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, according to the Alliance, and teaches workshops there.
For more information and to view a map of the preserve, visit PinelandsPhotoExhibit.org.
