Our Panel of Guest Judges
We are honoured to have the following lineup of guest judges reviewing each one of your submissions.
Kholood Eid
Photographer
Kholood Eid is a documentary photographer working with stills, audio, video, writing and editing. She also teaches photography to a group of preteens at an after-school program through the Bronx Documentary Center and has taught graduate students at New York University as well as Columbia University. Prior to living in New York City, she was a coordinator at Pictures of the Year International.
Kholood is interested in exploring the relationship between individual and group identity, the concept of “Home,” the ever-shifting social and political makeup of the Middle East, gender-based issues, mental illness and the aftermath of trauma.
Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Lifetime, Bloomberg, Reuters, ESPN’s The Undefeated, the Phoenix New Times and a variety of Midwestern publications, with video editing for TIME.com and VSCO. In 2017, she received an IWMF (International Women’s Media Foundation) Adelante Reporting Fellowship. In 2018, Kholood was named one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. She has a masters degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri and an amazingly strange dog named Professor.
(Bio photo by Alex Flynn)
Parker Eshelman
Photo Editor
online.wsj.com / Twitter / Instagram
Parker is a photo editor at The Wall Street Journal currently covering the U.S. News section for online and print editions. He routinely collaborates with photographers in the field, assigning for daily and longterm stories focused on breaking news, politics, economics, health, science and social issues.
Previous to his move to New York City and his start at The Journal in 2012, he was a photographer and photo editor at The Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Mo. He graduated from The University of Missouri’s Photojournalism program in 2006 and interned at The Winston-Salem Journal and The Kansas City Star.
His work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International, NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, The Society for News Design and Online News Association.
Parker currently lives in NYC with his wife and their dog Weegee. When the opportunity arises to escape the city, he enjoys exploring the Catskills and Hudson River Valley.
Khalilah Hall
Photographer
Khalilah is a documentary family photographer based in Howard County, MD. She is known for her strong emotionally provocative environmental portraits. She is also a member of the Documentary Family Photographers community.
One of Khalilah’s inspirations in photography is Annie Liebowitz. Annie photographs from her heart and with a deep sense of curiosity. That’s what Khalilah strives for.
“When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them.” -Annie Liebowitz
Live Streaming Judges
The final round of Judging to select the top 10 winners + honorable mentions in each category, will be live-judged across multiple platforms by Kirsten Lewis Bethman, Jenna Shouldice and a third judge (TBA).
Kirsten Lewis Bethmann
Photographer & DFA Co-Founder
Website / Instagram / Facebook
While photography is now her career, Kirsten actually began as a painter and ceramicist attending a high school with a strong magnet program in the fine arts in Norwich, CT. Additionally, she spent a significant amount of time on the stage through musical theater and dance, a place she was very familiar with growing up with a father who was an actor and musician. It was not until after she graduated with a Child Psychology degree that she began to explore photography, following in the footsteps of her mother and stepfather. Although it took almost a decade in the field, once Kirsten realized she could apply all of her education, experiences and interests to photography she abandoned the wedding industry and a very successful market in the Outer Banks, NC and focused on carving out a niche in the family photography world, applying her love of visual storytelling and photojournalism to a commercial business.
Kirsten now lives in Denver with her husband, street photographer Gregory Bethmann, their young daughter Byrdie Mae and Golden Retriever Mingus the Dingus. Although at least half the year is spent on the road, they are grateful for the mountains to ski on and bike trails to ride when they are home and spend a lot of time soaking up all the sunshine Colorado has to offer.
Jenna Shouldice
Photographer & DFA Co-Founder
Website / Instagram / Facebook
Jenna is a documentary and wedding/family photographer based out of Victoria BC, where she works with her husband and they raise their small daughter. Her documentary work focuses on women’s issues and more specifically, the labour process. In addition to being professionally trained in photography, Jenna has a degree in Psychology, trained as a doula in 2011, and her birth work has been published internationally both online and in print. In addition to shooting, Jenna teaches documentary birth and family photography to photographers around the world.
Third Judge (TBA)
The third judge to join our live broadcast will be announced later.