Archive Photography Competition 2005

National Photography Competition Gives Meaning to Ethnobotany Across the Nation and Around the World

This year photographers from around the nation submitted their interpretations of the theme: Plants and People: An Ancient Connection. Approximately 100 submissions came before the judges, who had to decide which images best communicated the relationships and interactions between plants and people in a cultural context. Further, the judges had to select four cash prize winners. One for Best in Show and three Honorable Mentions. This year all four winners are Chicoans!

Justin Bonneau of Chico took the top prize of Best in Show for his photograph titled, "Maya Woman and Child", depicting a woman preparing to fill a banana leaf a maize paste.

Marion Bronson of Chico received an honorable mention for the photograph titled, Asian Grower, capturing the feel of the Chico Farmers’ Market.

Debra Moon of Chico also received an honorable mention for her photograph titled, Hopi Run, 2000, which documents the Hopi Reservation’s protest marathon of the use of their aquifer water by the Peabody Coal Company.

Mary Wurlitzer of Chico received an honorable mention for her submission titled, Passage of a Farm Machine, illustrating the fate of a faithful farmer’s equipment after many years of rice cultivation in Northern California.

With submissions having come from far-flung locations such as New York, NY; Fort Lee, NJ; Montreal, Canada; Shawnee Mission, KS and Dunsmuir, CA, Chicoans can be proud of their homegrown talents.