The Arc’teryx Deep Winter Photo Challenge, presented by GORE-TEX® took place in Whistler Blackcomb, BC last week. While the snow may not have been as deep as hoped, it didn’t stop photographers from finding creative angles and capturing inspired moments in time. For those of you who haven’t heard of this contest before, the concept is rad. Six snowboard/ski photographers had 72 hours January 15-19th to capture the Whistler Blackcomb experience and put together a slideshow consisting of 50-60 A+ shots while following rules like all shots must be captured within resort bounds. The winner would be crowned “King/Queen of Storms.”
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The photographers were judged by a panel of industry professionals on technical skills, originality & creativity, vantage points & perspective, how well they evoked emotion, their ability to stay within the theme “deep winter” and how they tied it all together to create a cohesive digital slideshow with smooth image transitions edited to their song of choice. This year’s contestants were Erin Hogue, Chris Brown, Cameron Hunter, Jason Hummel, Zoya Lynch and Nicolas Teichrob.
Erin Hogue kicked off the night getting Iced on-stage, thanks to Colin D Watt. She handled it like a champ, chugged the Ice and started her slideshow titled Tracks of Time. Infamous Whistler Wildcat, Chris Brown, not only snowboards like a boss, he also has photo skills and followed up with a slideshow that captured the essence of fun and grom life at Whistler through kids’ eyes. The third show featured Cameron Hunter’s work. Cameron’s slideshow was aptly titled Wish You Were Here. He matched modern images with the iconic Pink Floyd song and got a lot of laughs and crowd reaction as the photos had a theme of everyone on their iPhones… in the gondola, selfies on top of the mountain, there was even a guy checking his iPhone on the toilet. Once the action shots started the athletes were off their phones and in the moment. Jason Hummel was the next competitor and took a different approach as he chose a team of all-girls for his slideshow titled Side By Side. Overwhelmed with estrogen, he also unknowingly chose the same slideshow song as Erin Hogue: Hearts Like Ours by the Naked And Famous. The standout image in this series for me was a black and white image of a woman repelling down the face of a cliff with a snowboard on her back.
Revelstoke’s own, Zoya Lynch, was next. Winter Canvas was the title of her slideshow that featured BC artists like Vincent Massey, Kups and Vanessa Stark painting on canvas, making pottery and finding creative lines on snow. This was a beautiful series that committed to a theme. Deep Summer winner Nicolas Teichrob closed the show with his work titled Self. Teichrob said the contest “forces you to work within the confines of the contest and be creative.” His slideshow explored the theme of discovering yourself and the idea that Whistler helps people connect with nature. Dark red & black images opened his art-forward gallery of images that transitioned well to the aggressive beat, “crossing the gap to instinctual existence.”
In the end Zoya Lynch was crowned “Queen of Storms” in a packed house of 1,200 people at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Zoya was speechless and stoked as she walked away with $5,000 and a new Arc’teryx jacket. A fun after-party followed at Merlin’s where the Kokanee flowed like wine.
See Zoya’s winning slideshow
Deep Winter Photo Challenge | Results & Prized
1st: Zoya Lynch – $5,000 + Arc’teryx Jacket
2nd: Nicolas Teichrob – $2,500 + Arc’teryx Jacket
3rd: Jason Hummel – $1,000 + Arc’teryx Jacket
Best Individual Image – Nicolas Teichrob $1,000
