Walking down the Upper School hallways, you may have noticed the walls lined with beautiful photography. The artwork is a part of the annual Black and White Photo Exhibition hosted at Fort Worth Country Day. This year was the 32nd year FWCD has participated in the competition, and its goal is to encourage photography teachers and students to come together to compete against and be inspired by the art of other students.  

“The goal was (and still is) for students to be inspired by each other’s work and for teachers to exchange ideas about the craft and teaching,” Sil Azevedo, US photography teacher, said. 

There were over 650 total submissions from 14 of the top photography programs in DFW. At FWCD 12 pieces from 11 students were selected to be a part of the exhibition this year. Alexis Espino ‘23, Abbie Klein ‘23, Kendall Lehman ‘22, Eti Lois ‘23, Jendayi McNatt ‘21 were the students whose works were selected for the architecture category. In the experimental group, Caroline Grebe’s ‘23 and Davis Ryder’s ‘22 works were selected.  For the photo essay category, Sydney Becan ‘20, Erin Fishman ‘21, Mia Fleischer ‘20, Sarah Hillebrecht ‘20, and Izzy Juliao ‘20 were selected. Finally, another one of Lehman’s pieces was chosen for the still life category. 

Professor Byrd Williams IV was the judge for the exhibition this year. He is a fourth-generation photographer who has dedicated his life to photographing and teaching. He has taught at Texas A&M, Southern Methodist University, Collin College, Tarrant County Community College, and Bauhaus, Weimar, Germany. Additionally, his work is featured in the Amon Carter Museum; Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier, SchlossBalmoral, a museum in Germany; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, where some of the photos he took in the 1950’s (before he was 10 years old) are featured. For the exhibition, Williams studied all the submissions and selected 82. 

“These 82 selections [had] one thing in common: they captured the trained eye of an artist-professor with unmatched experience and credentials. This is no small achievement,” Azevedo said.  

After being selected, the artists of the 82 selected submissions prepared a matted print of their photo, which was then delivered to FWCD. Once all the prints were received, Williams selected the winners of each category and the Best of Show piece.

“With the abundance of images online (via social media and other means), there is a longing for events like this that bring us together and that celebrate the art and the craft of photography. With this in mind, we are investing [in] growing the event to include even more schools with higher student participation,” Azevedo said.