Announcing the winner of this year’s Ryan R. Gibbs Photography Contest, judged by Karrie Higgins:
Gazelle Naghshbandi will receive $400, and her work All Are Immigrants will be published as the cover art for our Winter issue, launching December 9th. We are thrilled to share this artist’s work with you all.
Read an excerpt from Gazelle’s artist statement here:
“My autobiographical thesis work narrates my life after immigration and examines the pit that exists within me. I have been in America for three years. At first, everything seemed ideal and I longed for my American Dream since I had grown up with that dream in Iran—the dream of the land of opportunity, a perfect life, and a place where I can have success and follow my dreams. But soon after immigrating, I was left with a nagging question: why do I feel empty and unfulfilled? Why do I have a hole and feel emptiness? What is the meaning of this hole to me? Why do I feel I am missing something? When I left my homeland, pieces of my identity, emotions, and memories were left behind and there was little left of my previous existence.”
“I think all people are immigrants and can have this pit. I am not the only person that felt alien in this culture after immigration. At some point, everybody feels empty and has a lack of something. As I work through my own fears and shortcomings in my art, I’ve come to believe that all people are immigrants traveling across the oceans of Time and Change. All are Immigrants depicts my void as a hole. When I felt a huge hole in my body, I was thinking how this hole appeared in my life after immigration.”
Her full statement will be published in our Winter issue. Below, find a selection from her winning work. The rest of the collection will also be published in December.
Congratulations also to this year’s incredible finalists who made this contest so compelling:
- Jayne Marek – Tidepool Constellations and Other Photos
- Clare Welsh – Grass House
- Nicholas Simko – The Anxiety of Influence
- Samantha VanDeman – No Vacancy
About our contest:
For the Ryan R Gibbs Photography Contest, New Delta Review seeks a series of 5-11 photographs to be featured in our journal’s Winter issue. Together, the photographs should tell a story, or be centered on a unified theme of the artist’s choosing. This contest goes hand-in-hand with our flash fiction contest, which seeks a full narrative in 1500 words or less.
See our past winners and judges here.
Judge: Karrie Higgins
Prize: $400 and publication in the Winter Issue of NDR
Deadline: October 15, 2016 (extended deadline)
Entry Fee: $10
Submit here.
Additional Submission Guidelines:
- All entries must be previously unpublished and original work of the entrant.
- Each entry must be accompanied by an entry fee.
- Maximum two separate entries per entrant.
- All work must be submitted through Submittable.
- Submissions will first be read by the staff of New Delta Review, and finalists will be passed on for judging.
- Family, friends, and previous students of the judge are ineligible for participation in the contest. Current students and faculty of LSU are ineligible.
Karrie Higgins is a writer, Intermedia Artist, disability activist, magician and seamstress living in Colorado. Her work can be found in The Manifest-Station, DIAGRAM, HuffPost, cahoodaloodaling, the James Franco Review (forthcoming), Deaf Poets Society (forthcoming), and many others. Her essays have twice been notables in Best American Essays & she won the Schiff Award for Prose in 2013. She can be found at karriehiggins.com
About Ryan R. Gibbs: This award is in honor of Ryan R. Gibbs (1981-2012), a gifted editor for New Delta Review, an incredible writer of fiction and screenplays, a talented photographer, and, above all, a dear friend. New Delta Review is honored to host this annual award in his honor, made possible by a generous endowment from his parents.