Candace Freeland
Photography of Merit Award
For youth up to age 18.
2025 Guidelines
U.S. photographers up to the age of 18 are invited to enter black and white photos captured via cell phone based on the theme: After the Storm. We selected this theme after witnessing the effects of Hurricane Helene on our region in September 2024. And after witnessing the incredible resilience of the people and the land. We recognize that we ALL experience storms and struggles in life. Some are easy to see, like a hurricane, and others are carried inside our hearts. We encourage young photographers to ponder what After the Storm means in their lives and then to capture that with black and white photography.
Distinguished jurors select the annual winner of a $2,500 cash prize. We will also award one $1,000 runner-up prize. All participants are invited to attend a reception announcing the winner at The Mitford Museum in Hudson, NC.
RULES:
- Contest opens January 15, 2025.
- Contest open to U.S. youth up to age 18 as of October 1, 2025.
- Black and white photography only.
- Entrants must submit three digital images captured via cell phone (.jpg no larger than 2MB) based on the theme: After the Storm.
- Finalists will be required to re-submit winning images at a resolution that will enlarge to 11″x14″ prints.
- Deadline for entries – midnight EDT on August 1, 2025.
- One entry per person.
- Two finalists will be selected, and background checks run to confirm age and eligibility.
- Finalists will be recognized and the winner announced on September 27, 2025.
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All photographers retain copyright of their work.
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All entrants agree to the storage of their images in electronic form for the purpose of judging the competition and the private distribution of those images as required to complete the judging process.
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The photographer warrants that the rights (of any kind) to the photograph have not previously been sold or granted to any third party.
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The finalists grant The Mitford Museum the right to use the images in electronic form or in print for the specific purpose of promoting The Mitford Museum and its awards without restriction in any media.
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The Mitford Museum agrees that the images will not be made available for download on any of its websites at high resolution and that all images used will be credited to the photographer. The Mitford Museum will not be responsible for unauthorized use of any image by a third party.
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Electronic files sent as attachments will not be returned and The Mitford Museum accepts no responsibility for submissions in any other form. Prints or physical media sent as submissions will not be returned and will not be considered for judging.
Candace Freeland, 1952-2021
“At the age of 16, I was handed a clunky Hanimex Praktika camera and exposed my first roll of Tri-X film. My passion for the medium grew as I discovered the work of the photo-journalism masters: W. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier Bresson, and Dorothea Lange. They were concerned photographers…with an eye attuned to those who suffer the snares of war and poverty.”
Inspired by their legacies, Candace went on to launch an award-winning photojournalism career, which included work with the Associated Press; the Charlotte Observer, US News and World Report, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other leading journals. Her photo exhibitions included Forced Out—The Agony of the Refugee in Our Time, sponsored by Amnesty International, and The Concerned Photographer, sponsored by the International Center of Photography. Candace later moved to Hawaii, where she documented more than a thousand weddings, and later to a final residence in her beloved North Carolina mountains.
The highlight of her life as a photographer was a letter in her early career from W. Eugene Smith (1918–1978), often described as the single most important photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay. “Your photographs,” he wrote, “are quite remarkable. I truly believe you can be a magnificent and honest photographic …contributor to humanity.”
Candace gave the founding gift for the Candace Freeland Photography of Merit Award. The Mitford Museum is honored to carry forth her legacy of encouragement to young photographers through this heartfelt outreach to youth.
Meet Our 2025 Jurors
Tim Barnwell
Tim Barnwell is an Asheville-based professional
photographer and photography instructor whose career spans more than thirty-five years. His images have appeared in magazines including Time, Newsweek, House Beautiful, US News and World Report, Billboard, Smithsonian, and Mother Jones. He is the author of eight books, and his work is in several permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Mint Museum of Art, the Asheville Art Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Bank of America. www.barnwellphoto.com
TOM RANKIN
Tom Rankin is Professor of the Practice of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University in Durham, NC. Previously director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, he currently heads Duke’s Master of Fine Arts program in Experimental and Documentary Arts. Rankin received his BA in history from Tufts University, an MA in folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MFA in photography from Georgia State University. A photographer and writer, Rankin has been published widely in numerous magazines, journals, and books. His publications include Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta (UP Mississippi, 1993); Faulkner’s World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain (UP Mississippi, 1997); Local Heroes Changing America: Indivisible (Norton, 2000); One Place: Paul Kwilecki and Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia (UNC Press, 2013); and, with his wife, Jill McCorkle, Goat Light (Horse & Buggy Press, 2021). Rankin’s work is included in the collections of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Library of Congress, the Archive of Documentary Arts, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, among many other private and museum collections.
www.tom-rankin.format.com
INSPIRATION
Jan Karon’s daughter, award-winning photographer Candace Freeland, taught her two very important lessons when it comes to photography.
Stop.
Look.
In our fast-paced world, photographic images offer an opportunity to take in a single moment in its fullness. To examine it, to seek to understand it, to stop and look at it.
These links offer insight into what it takes for a photographer to capture those one-in-a-million moments that in turn capture our attention and our imaginations. Before submitting your entry to our contest, we encourage you to stop and look at these videos. Then show us how you see the world through the lens of your cell phone camera.
The Mitford Museum
The Mitford Museum is North Carolina’s newest literary landmark.
Founded by #1 New York Times bestselling author, Jan Karon, the museum's mission is to advance the common good through literacy, creativity, and community. Often called Jan’s ‘book without covers,’ the museum is a place of common ground, where people from varied backgrounds can come together to feel welcomed, cared for, and at home.
(828) 572-1511
Wed - Sat 10 AM - 4 PM
145 Cedar Valley Road
Hudson, NC 28638
