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MaryEllen Nealis is the second place winner in a North America-wide competition which recognizes excellence in professional photography, but she insists this award is not hers alone.
Even as she runs her fingers over her name engraved in gold on the statue Nealis said she feels the judges have honoured her husband, her children and her extended family as well.
“I look at this and I think about my two sons, my daughter, my husband, my mother-in-law and sisters,” she said. “I feel this award is theirs just as much as it is mine because they have always been the first to tell me how much they like what I do and they have encouraged me to do more and made me feel like I could do this.”
In a field like photography where a livelihood is based so much on creativity, Nealis said the support her family has always shown her has always been, and always will be, a bigger deal than any reward.
“My sister works with me and her organization keeps me on track. My husband has built my confidence and they have all been my cheering section. They encourage me to go for it, and I have, because of them,” she said. “This award is all of ours, not just mine. Over the years there have been so many people who have inspired me, worked with me and supported me.
“It is not MaryEllen alone and would never be.”
Nealis, who was the first woman ever to win the title of Photographer of the Year by the Maritime Professional Photographers’ Association in 1999 and again in 2000, was encouraged to enter the Kodak Gallery Elite Award competition last spring after Earth, Wind and Fire became her first print to win a Kodak Gallery Award of Excellence Digital from her constituency, the MPPA.
Every year every constituency across North America awards a Gallery Award of Excellence for each of four categories including portrait, wedding, digital and commercial/industrial. After winners are announced all of these prints are then put together, categories are removed and they are judged by the Professional Photographers of America as the Elite collection.
Entering this phase of judging required Nealis only to fill out a form and send it away since her print was sent digitally to the PPOA. After she mailed the form last March she said she didn’t give the contest another thought and didn’t think anything would come of it – until last month.
Out of the blue in January she got a phone call asking if she could attend the Professional Photographers of America Gala, a black tie affair in New Orleans where the Elite awards were to be presented. Knowing only that she had made the short list, not expecting at all that she had won an award, Nealis decided the one week of notice wasn’t long enough to plan for such a big trip.
When she later found out she was the second place winner she admits couldn’t help but regret not being there to accept her award. When the heavy box arrived in the mail days later she said she realized the enormity of the award.
“It was just so heavy and big and beautiful that it struck me all at once,” she said, laughing as she refers to the statue as “a weapon”. “Something like this makes you look at yourself just outside the box. You realize that anyone who has a passion for something and works away at it will always find that something good will come out of it.”
To make the short list of the Elite collection was a big thing, Nealis said, to be awarded second place in all of North America is unbelievable.
“Even though it’s second it certainly feels like first,” she said, cradling the heavy spire shaped award hand carved out of black marble. “When you think of all the photographers across the United States and Canada it’s a big deal just to win a Gallery Award. I thought it was wonderful to be chosen to be in the running for the top of those awards, to place second is a dream.”
It means a lot to Nealis that this particular print was chosen as second place because it has already won several awards including Top Print Experimental from Polaroid Canada Inc., the Nikon Award of Excellence Electronic Imaging and the Fuji Award of Excellence Digital. It was also one of 40 prints accepted into the Professional Photographers of Canada’s National Print Show Loan Collection last spring.
Earth, Wind and Fire has also earned a special place in Nealis’ heart.
It was not only created from a photograph of her daughter Monica with a compilation of fall leaves but the combination of brilliant colours and motion within the print has evoked a lot of emotions in people who have seen it.
“I’ve had one gentleman break down and cry when he looked at it and then he really wanted me to explain what it was all about,” she said. “That’s the highest compliment I’ve ever had because this is a piece that transcends photography and has become a piece of art.”
When she looks at the print Nealis said, to her, the face of the daughter she loves so much reminds her of Mother Earth.
“When I look at it I see something as basic as the world today and that we are doing a lot of damage to it. I see that this print is as basic as nature and Mother Earth seems to be crying out. I recognize that my daughter’s generation and the ones following behind will have only what we leave behind us. There are a lot of emotions I feel when I see this print and this all really wasn’t the intent when I did it.”
Within the print she said she sees not only her daughter but herself, her mother and grandmother as well.
“That’s the part that is as basic as the title, Earth, Wind and Fire,” she said. “That’s what we’re really all about.”
