M. Scott Brauer is a photographer based in Nanjing, China, working on projects dealing with poverty, affluence, education, disability, and youth. Before that he spent a year working at two Midwestern newspapers (in Illinois and Michigan) and interning at the agencies Black Star and VII. His work has appeared previously in the New York Times and Colorlines magazine, and has been featured in the 2006 Ian Parry Scholarship exhibition and 2006 Gjon Mili Award exhibition in Prishtina, Kosovo.
First Place: Haunted House by Mark Lipczynski. Great concept for what could be a very difficult topic to illustrate. Reminds me of a Trent Parke self-portrait from Minutes to Midnight. I'm a little worried about the odd angle to the person (shooting from below), which makes the picture a little bit more about the person than the hotel. However, it's a creative shot, well composed, with good colors, that communicates the story visually.

Second Place: Outdoor Stage by Dave Foster. Great colors and silhouettes. Good complexity to the frame that draws a viewer into the central subject in red. Unfortunately, the guitarist in red isn't doing anything interesting. Good work in keeping the clutter of lights manageable, too.
Third Place: Hartman Brekus by Mark Lipczynski. Nice light and good contrasting colors in an interesting room. I'd like a little shallower depth of field, perhaps, or something that doesn't draw my eye to the bench back.

Honorable Mention: Soccer by Dave Foster. I really want this one to work, but something isn't right. The flare is nice, the colors are nice, suggestive of summer days spent playing games in childhood; the most emotional photo of the bunch. However, the composition feels a little too wide for me, and I would like a stronger moment. I'd also like to see a few faces, perhaps the pack of players heading toward the camera rather than away from it. Underexposing a bit more might have helped out the sky.
OTHER COMMENTS:
PHOTO #1: It's pretty much just a cute kid shot. Expressions are nice, but composition and light aren't particularly noteworthy.

PHOTO #2: Seen it before plenty of times. For something like this to work, there needs to be interesting lighting or perspective. If the photographer had control of the shot, i.e. portrait situation, consider a ladder or something to get more height or a more bird's-eye-view. You've got a great expression on the boy to the right of number 10, and
some little moments happening throughout, but some of the players are looking straight at you.  Eye contact needs to be intentional to work, I think.

PHOTO #3: I really want the girl's face to be in focus. The dog draws me in, but I find nowhere for my eye to rest after that.

PHOTO #6: This one has a lot of potential. Great seeing. However, when my eye looks around the frame, I don't find anything interesting to land on. Give me a moment with one or both people. Colors could also use some help; everything's too beige or pink to make this picture sing.

PHOTO #7: Another cute kid picture. If you shoot a cute kid, make it have a point. This one also is compositionally weak. I don't know what the tent is without the caption. Tying his shoe is not relevant to the story. I imagine there's a lot of great moments going on between family members at something called the Family Campout. Get access inside one of the tents, photograph some family games, watch for laughing and fun at picnic tables or around campfires, etc. Noontime light is also difficult to work with. If the situation and your schedule allows it,
go back at a time where light is more interesting.

PHOTO #8: Great seeing, but not quite there. Would like a truer silhouette, perhaps. I'm also wanting to see more of the shadow. You could have a cool mirror image going for you. Consider also going for some height to have the silhouette against the blown out portion of tar.

PHOTO #9: First I should say I know very little about sports and sports photography. Nice peak action, but light is bad and the yellow line in the background is frustrating and it's an unremarkable play, though it's nice enough for high school coverage.

PHOTO #10: It's not immediately clear what I'm lookinig at. Use of light (difficult in spot news) and composition are awkward.  Without the caption, it looks like two people hanging out on a trip to the beach. Need cars and some interaction between people and cars to communicate what the caption says.  Caption also seems sloppy; seems "arroyo" and "station" should be capitalized, at least. Watch the wide angle distortion.

PHOTO #11: Best of the flood pictures. Nice idea trying to work a more complex frame with multiple elements.  Wide angle distortion and haphazard tilting of the frame kills it for me.

PHOTO #12: Watch the wide angle distortion. Subject seems to be laughing about her photo being taken; would like to see emotion conveying the loss she just experienced. Color balance needs some work. The rocking chair in
water in the background looks very interesting; perhaps a frame with that as a foreground element with the woman walking through water in the background would work.

PHOTO #15: Standard shot of sports player with wide-angle lens. Here the distortion of the wide angle helps. Separation of the ball is a nice element. Composition is a little heavy on the center, but without the visual logic or style needed to back it up. The lightstand on the right doesn't need to be there, and the out of focus grass doesn't balance the frame. The muted colors are nice, however, the green and purple work well together.

PHOTO #16: A nice moment, but this sort of frame needs to be more visually compelling to work. The colors and light are working against the photographer. All of the action is way on the left, with little to draw the viewer's attention to the rest of the frame, leading me to wonder why it was included.

PHOTO #17: I imagine this assignment made you bang your head against the wall. No access, a couple of minutes to shoot, etc. That's what it looks like, at least. It's hard to say how to make this situation into a better picture. I'd like some emotion in the man's face. Perhaps the window frame as the outer edge of a frame with the man's hand on the window. Perhaps this same distance but straight on.  Perhaps, if shot straight on, some wide-angle distortion on those walls on the left and right would give the effect of a tunnel.

PHOTO #18: Without categories to the clip contest, this seems out of place among the rest. Hard to know what to say without knowing what the photo was for. Perhaps it was for a fashion or homes and gardens sort of spread. The muted colors are nice, but the composition is ordinary; the out of focus blob in the lower right should not have been in the frame. Again, it's hard to judge this picture against all the others, just because it's such a different sort of photography.