2022 Best In Show Winners

With the help of the Urbana Park District and our many sponsors, the Champaign County Camera Club’s Annual Best in Show Photographic Print Competition brought together amateur photographers from across east-central Illinois for the 21st year in a row. It was another great show with some fantastic prints – 287 in all!

Once again, we have chosen not to hold a “public” Public Critique with the judges and participants. As a result, BIS Chair Allen Wehrmann has recorded a video to comment on this year’s contest and to present the winning images. Congratulations to them and to all this year’s participants! You can also click on the images below to see the place and honorable mention winners in each category.

The Best In Show competition depends upon having competent and knowledgeable judges donate their services. A huge thank you to judges, Brian K. Johnson, Craig McMonigal and Fraya Replinger for judging and commenting on our prints this year!

Brian K. Johnson is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has taught photojournalism since the fall semester of 1988. Before joining the faculty at the U of I, he worked for seven years as a staff photographer for The News-Gazette, where he won national, regional, and state awards for his work. Brian has a BS in journalism from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and an MS in journalism from the U of I. His interests include the convergence of media in photojournalism, especially video and multimedia.

Craig McMonigal has been a photographer for over 35 years. He received his BFA from Ohio University in 1983, and his MFA from the University of Illinois in 1987. Craig had been on the staff of the University of Illinois from 1985 until 2002, began teaching at Parkland College in 1994 and retired in 2015. He has participated in several national exhibitions, such as “Figure, Face and Form” in West Virginia and “Woman in the Broader Sense” in St. Louis, Missouri and “The Nude” in Lexington, Kentucky. Craig is an avid and eclectic collector, often using his flea market finds as props in his photographs, which feature the nude figure.

Fraya Replinger is a local artist, born and raised in Urbana. Her award-winning images capture landscapes, skyscapes, and the great outdoors explored from fresh perspectives to convey her visions of beauty or emotional impact. Her fine art photography is exhibited at local markets and art shows throughout Illinois, and she has pieces on permanent display on the donor wall at Allerton Park and Retreat Center in Monticello, IL.