Pride seeking photos of Neuse River for promotion materials

Amateur, professional photographers invited to compete

Staff reports

Posted: 10:30 PM EST Thursday January 05, 2006

Picture this: four-season photographs of the Neuse River, or images of wildlife in the water, or a man fishing from the riverbank.

These and other scenes of the river are being sought by Pride of Kinston, which is sponsoring "Picture the Neuse," a Neuse River photographic contest. Competition will run through Sept. 30 and must be submitted to Pride by Oct. 10. The winning photo, or series of photos, will be used as the logo for Pride's program to develop the river.

The contest is open to amateur and professional photographers throughout Eastern North Carolina. Professional and amateur photographs will be judged separately. Community Council for the Arts will display a selection of the works.

"The Neuse River has been a constant feature of Kinston's natural landscape since the beginning," Pride Director Adrian King said. "As far as historians can tell, its existence first entered the written record when two English explorers wrote to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 about discovering Indians living along '…a goodly river called Neuse …' Our contest is meant to be a continuing reminder of Kinston's historic connection with the Neuse, and our hope to build a more productive connection in the future."

Archeologists estimate the river's age at about 2 million years. The Neuse River Foundation says archeological evidence indicates the banks of the Neuse were settled about 14,000 years ago. Early Indian settlers included the Tuscarora, Coree, Neusiok, and Secotan tribes. The tribes are not accounted for after the early 1700s because of wars between tribes and European settlers, disease, dispersion and omission of the tribal designation by later census-takers.

European settlements sprang up along the Neuse as farming and forestry took hold, although water commerce was not practical above Kinston at the fall line, the foundation reports.

Pride has formed a 22-member task force to promote the 10-mile stretch of the river that flows along Kinston's boundaries. The task force wants to develop a plan to enhance the river's role as an economic development factor for downtown. The organization has established a partnership with students and faculty at N.C. State University's College of Design to help launch the study.

Kinston photographer Isaac Hines and artist Juliet Barrus will be advisors on the photography contest. Judging will be by a panel of photographers. Barrus will use the winning photograph as the model for an oil painting and prints will be made from the painting. For additional information, contact Adrian King, (252) 522-4676, Ext. 2020.

Contest rules:

Pictures taken by professional photographers and amateur photographers will be judged in separate competitions. First, second, third and honorable mention awards will be offered in both categories.
Participating photographers must certify that their pictures are taken within five miles of either side of the King Street Bridge in Kinston and that they are taken after Jan. 1, 2006. The contest will end Sept. 30, 2006 and all photographs and slides must be in the hands of Pride of Kinston by close of business Oct. 10, 2006.
A photographer may elect to submit entries for all four seasons, or submit only one picture. Submissions must be made in the 5X7 format along with a slide version of each submitted image. The submitted images may be in color or black and white.
On or about Oct. 15, a peer review jury will select pictures to be mounted in a special Neuse River exhibition at the Kinston Community Council for the Arts. An overall first-place winning photograph will be selected by the jury from those selected for the special exhibition.
The overall first-place photograph will be shared with noted artist Juliet Barrus who will render an oil painting of the image.
The winning photograph and the resulting oil painting will be used as the emblem for Pride's Neuse River development project. Prints from Barrus' painting will be sold as a fund-raiser for Pride's river development project.