Bridgestone photography awards give tires image makeover

Bridgestone Firestone Canada’s fourth annual photography awards brought a whole new perspective to the ubiquitous tire, with Ryerson University photography student Andrew Marshall taking top honours.

Marshall, a continuing education student at the G. Chang School of Continuing Education, works as an aerospace engineer by day. But he has been working on his photographic art since he was a child. He was excited by the win and the $3,500 cheque that went with it.

Marshall’s “Emergency Vehicles” entry earned him the top prize of $2,000 for submitting the best photo of all entries, and $1,500 as the Ryerson winner. In all, judges reviewed more than 250 entries from a dozen schools across Canada to determine winners from each institution, as well as the overall winner.

Judges noted that his black and white image of emergency vehicles told a story and had drama that set it apart from the other images.

The judges, Norris McDonald, the Ontario editor and motor sport writer for the Toronto Star; Andrew Ross, editor and publisher of the automotive magazine Jobber News and an award winning photographer; and Irv Kochman, a professional photographer and co-owner of System 4 Gallery, a fine art and photography gallery in Toronto.

Judges reviewed all entries independently, selecting the best from each institution, and then assembled to choose the best of the best.

All winning images had positive attributes.

“Tires have long been looked at as uncomplicated, round black necessities and the goal of this contest is to shed a different light on them,” said Michael Sigillito, director, Consumer Tire Marketing for Bridgestone Firestone Canada Inc. “All of the entries were highly imaginative and demonstrated outstanding creativity. Considerable time and effort obviously went into each photo submission, and every entrant should be extremely proud of the quality of his or her work.”