Image makers from across North America submitted incredible photographs for the 2021 Capture the Moment Photo Contest hosted by Duggal Visual Solutions. After careful deliberation by an impressive panel of expert jurors, they announced Eric Tomberlin as this year’s Grand Prize Winner.
Tomberlin’s touching image, entitled “Lifeguard”, captures a moment of reflection. In an interview for Duggal’s blog Tomberlin described the moment he took the winning shot: “It was in a small village outside of Puri, India, on the Bay of Bengal. The people here still fish the traditional way, and this man was in charge of watching the boats come and go in high surf. He’s there to help if a boat capsizes. I photographed him for 15-20 minutes straight while some-75 villagers watched behind me. He was excited at first, but eventually got bored. That’s when I captured this image, after he had given up on posing. It usually happens that way.”
Eric Tomberlin lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina, as a photography professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville. He worked for a number of years as an editorial photographer in New York City before moving to India, where he became a founding faculty member at the first photography school on the subcontinent. Eric earned his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and has exhibited his work throughout the U.S. and internationally.
According to the Capture the Moment 2021 website, the images “provided had to record one unique moment of inspiration. The story it told could be abstract, concrete, internal or external – it was up to the artist to capture the moment.” Alongside Tomberlin, four other photographers were selected as Finalists who met the criteria, submitting photographs that are nothing short of stunning. Congratulations to Jonathan Alpeyrie with “OLF Rebels”; Arianne Clément with “How to live on 102?”; Amalya Shendelman with “Born to Meet”; and Akasha Rabut with “Candi”.
The selection was made by an all-star panel of jurors including CEO of Duggal Visual Solutions Michael Duggal; Founder & CEO of NYC Salt, a photography and video nonprofit program for high school students in NYC Alicia Hansen, Editor & Founder of Dear Dave Magazine and author of Looking at Photography (2020) Stephen Frailey; and Painter and former President of the Salmagundi Club Elizabeth Spencer. This diverse team of industry experts and talented creators based their selection on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact, and artistic merit.
As the Grand Prize Winner, Tomberlin will receive $1,000 USD cash prize, a 20″x30″ Vibrachrome™ metal print of their winning image, and their winning image will be produced and framed by Duggal Visual Solutions for the Capture the Moment 2021 Winners Exhibition. The Finalists received $250 USD cash prize, a 16″x20″ Vibrachrome™ metal print of their shortlisted image, and their shortlisted image will be produced and framed by Duggal Visual Solutions for the Capture the Moment 2021 Winners Exhibition.
Learn more about our incredible finalists and jury members for Capture the Moment 2021 at: https://duggal.com/ctm-2021