Lew Lorton

Lew Lorton has been invited to open our 2016/17 competition year. He lives and works in Columbia, Maryland.

Upon visiting Lew’s website, I learned that he has definite ideas about photography. He doesn’t think that any photograph should be only an exact production of what’s in front of the lens without any more emotion or content than that. “Each picture, from a street photograph to a portrait, should bring with it some emotional impact, something that carries the viewer beyond the frame.” He also notes, “I am not a camera with a person holding it, I am a person who has this lump of metal at his side.”

You will also find a wealth of articles describing his travels, as well as posts on topics from post-processing, rules of composition, musings on the art of image making, or a film review of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado.  He has many followers on his blog, and they have left many flattering comments indicating their appreciation of his work.

His galleries include images of people in interesting or faraway places, especially in Southeast Asia (one of his favorite places to visit), and a number of street/journalism photos.  In addition, there are beautiful nature and landscape photos.

Lew has had a career as an Army officer, Vice-President of a statistical consulting company, CIO of a health care research organization, Executive Director of a technology consortium, and finally, the founder of a small internet company. When he retired he became a serious photographer, and particularly a photographer of people.

You can find out more about Lew and his work at www.lewlortonphoto.com.