The 29th annual juried exhibition, Through the Eye of the Camera, is currently on view through June 21 at the A.E. Backus Museum and Gallery in Fort Pierce.

The exhibit features an array of exceptional traditional and digital photography by professional and amateur photographers. And, although the competition is not limited geographically, entrants are primarily from Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties.

Vero Beach photographer David Bence received several awards this year, including Best of Show for “Paper Mill, Brunswick, GA.” The other three pieces he entered were also recognized, receiving Best Black & White Photograph for “Being – Journey #11,” Second Place for “Being – Journey #10,” and Honorable Mention for “Bedroom Door.”

Marshall Adams, Backus executive director, said at the opening reception that they had received 194 entries from 70 different photographers. A three-person panel of experts examined them all before jurying in 81 entries and, from those, selected 36 award winners.

“They liked what they saw, and I hope you do too,” said Adams.

“We’ve been doing this juried competition in one form or another since 1995, and we’re so pleased that artists and the public have shown such support for photography as an art form.”

Works were submitted in four categories: Animals, Flora and Landscape, People/Portrait, and Open, where the photos’ focus did not fit into the others, such as still-life, abstract or conceptual.

In addition to First, Second, Third and Merit Awards for each category, there were Best Black & White Photograph and Best Film/Traditional RAW awards. The RAW file format produces uncompressed and unprocessed image data, enabling the photographer to produce images that capture greater detail with less loss of quality during enlargement.

“Then there is the Big Kahuna. The award that the judges felt was for the singular work of art that they wanted to elevate as a body. And that is the Best of Show,” said Adams, referencing Bence’s Paper Mill.

“And then the Director’s Choice, which is the one award that I get to pick,” said Adams, who presented it to “Motherhood,” by Bob Gibson of Tequesta.

In it, Gibson captured a snowy egret, her glorious wisps of breeding plumage perfectly complementing the soft downy feathers of the chicks she gazes down upon.

Gibson’s was one of many exceptional bird photographs in the exhibition; each indicative of the numerous hours spent patiently waiting for just the right shot.

The works were presented in a full range of sizes and surfaces, including aluminum, acetate, canvas and photo print paper. In the application process, instructions stressed that the judges considered each work’s “artistic merit, exceptional quality and craftsmanship, creative success, and exemplary presentation.”

“Staff are not giving these awards. Never have, never will. We always make sure that we get an independent panel of jurors every year; a different set of three jurors every year,” said Adams, adding that all decisions are determined by the majority.

“They have to work out what they think is the best and come to a consensus or agreement.

And that allows us to have a very exciting show, because the expertise and the perspectives of the judges change every year.”

This year’s jury panel included Tariq Gibran, curator of art and exhibitions at the Museum of Art in DeLand; Sharon Lee Hart, associate professor of art at Florida Atlantic University; and Kirk Ke Wang, professor of art at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

“So, we brought them all here to Fort Pierce last weekend and we had a right jolly old time, sorting through 194 entries to get to this distilled assets of a great exhibition. I hope that you’ll agree,” said Adams.

Of his winning photograph, Bence explained that he had driven past the paper mill numerous times on trips up north. As he headed home from a show in Greenville, S.C., on a windy, drizzly, cold February day, the emissions billowing out from the mill’s smokestacks caught his attention.

“It was a good day to make a photograph, but it was just a really blustery, horrible day to be sitting out there for an hour,” said Bence. “I had to use an umbrella and my car to block the wind and keep the camera from shaking.”

He estimates that the time exposure that produced the gossamer-like effect was a little over 10 seconds, although all told he took about six different pictures, all different time lengths.

“I hit it at the right time. I was happy with the way it was looking and knew it would be a time exposure,” said Bence.

The Best Black & White and Second Place Open awards were given to two photographs in his 12-piece Being-Journey Series, which feature posable sketch figures (Beings) whimsically interacting with inanimate objects. He said Black and White Magazine, an international fine photography publication, will have an article about the series in October.

Each photograph is actually comprised of multiple exposures and multiple shots, which he then uses Photoshop to blend and stitch together so that it seems to be all one shot.

For Being-Journey #11, which features a little Being peering into the mouth of a fish, he borrowed a mounted fish from Vero Tackle & Watersports.

“They take countless hours to make; it’s never a quick process.”

It is, however, similar to the storyboard work he did at his former job in advertising.

“I was pretty good at it back then. So, I wanted to do a series where I could work that way, as opposed to the more traditional photography that I had been doing. I had a lot of fun with it,” said Bence.

“I love shadows and shapes and design. I got my undergraduate in graphic design and photography, so I always key in to lighting and shapes and shadows; I like that a lot,” he added.

Through the Eye of the Camera is on display through June 21. Visitors can vote through June 21 for their top choice to determine the People’s Choice Award, which will be tallied and announced when the show closes.

For more information, visit BackusMuseum.org.

Photos by Joshua Kodis