Maggie Taylor Wins Santa Fe Competition

Florida-based fine-art photographer Maggie Taylor has won first prize in the Santa Fe Center for Photography's project competition. She will receive $5,000 plus a full-tuition scholarship for the 2004 Santa Fe Workshops.

Taylor's work merges classical studio portraits with Surrealist elements of fantasy. She uses a flatbed scanner to scan small 3-D objects and original 19th-century tintype photographs, which she then combines in painterly montages.

"She really had a vision that was separate from everyone else, and the pieces in her project really came together to form a cohesive body of work," says Elizabeth Siegel, assistant curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago.

John Trotter, Larry McNeil and Desireé Holman were selected as the "Juror's Choice" winners for their projects. Each will receive $500.

Cynthia Greig won first place in the single image, color competition, which was judged by photographer and University of New Mexico professor Patrick Nagatani. Douglas Ethridge won first place in the black-and-white competition, which was judged by Magnum New York editorial director Sue Brisk. Lauren Shaw of Belmont, Massachusetts, won the teacher of the year honors.

More than 350 photographers entered the project competition, and more than 1,400 images were entered in the singles categories. Winning photos will be posted on the Santa Fe Center for Photography's Web site <www.santafecenterforphotography.org>