Every year, the National Parent Teacher Association coordinates a Reflections program that celebrates the artistic endeavors of students across the country. Participants are invited to contribute an entry that fits into one of six specific categories: dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography or visual arts. This year, the program received almost 300,000 entries from students ranging from elementary school through high school. Competition finalists are determined by systematic judging procedures repeated at the school, county, district, state and national levels. Once at the national level, a final winner is chosen from each of the six artistic categories. This year’s Reflections photography champion was 12th grade photographer Hannah Shoultz.

Shoultz dominated at every level of the competition, her photo, “Ink Mirage,” declared “outstanding” by each panel of judges it was presented to. While these panels were dazzled by both Shoultz’s technical skill and creativity, such overwhelming success came as a shock to the young artist.

“I was really surprised, because, I don’t know, a lot of people enter these kinds of things. I just didn’t have that mindset. It’s something that goes on for the whole year, so a couple months will pass and it’s like, ‘hey, you won this contest,’ and I’m like, ‘oh, I almost forgot about that!’” Shoultz said.

Clearly, the judges did not find her piece forgettable in the slightest. Arlington County’s Reflections Chair, Michael Swisher, described the rubric panels use to determine finalists.

“There are three things they’re looking for. The most important is how well [the entry] interprets the theme. It’s scored out of 40 total points, and 20 of those are for interpretation of the theme. Ten are for technical merit, how well they handled the medium, and the other ten are for creativity,” Swisher said.

All can see the technical merit and creativity that are apparent in Shoultz’s work. However, while her photo demonstrated excellent broad interpretation of the theme, Shoultz emphasized the importance of each viewer’s individual and more specific understanding of her artwork. The biggest part of the Reflections rubric, is, perhaps, the most personal.

“I think the thing about photos, and all art in general, is that it looks different to everybody. You could look at the same painting, but it makes you feel really different than the person next to you. So I don’t go into it trying to make people feel a certain thing because I think everyone’s going to react to art in a different way based on who they are and what they’ve experienced,” said Shoultz.

Once she took her new hobby to the next level—photography classes at school—art teachers loosely guided Shoultz’s path while allowing her own innate vision to direct the specifics of her projects. Shoultz’s teacher this year, Allen Beland (who is also a professional photographer) explained what he considered his role to be.

“I don’t necessarily consider myself her teacher. I consider myself more as her mentor, but maybe tour guide. She was required to enter [the Reflections contest]. So are all of my students. But I didn’t tell her what to photograph… when she and several others asked, ‘well Mr. Beland, what are we supposed to take a picture of?’ I just shrugged. I said, I don’t know. I can’t tell you that. Then it becomes my photograph,” Said Beland.

Swisher voiced an outlook that was similar to Beland’s. Both emphasized the importance of the ultimate authority of the artist.

“For me, the goal is really about fostering creativity, and doing it in such a way that allows [the artist] to choose a medium for creativity, and to do it their way, their own interpretation. So many school art projects are how the teacher dictates theme, topic, style and technique. This one is: you have a theme, but do whatever you want with it. I believe everyone is an artist. Our job is to figure out what our medium is. So that’s one of my goals, to give kids an opportunity to discover a medium,” said Swisher.

Swisher’s goal has clearly been realized in Shoultz’s case.

“I am really interested and intrigued by photography. I find that photography is a very cathartic thing for me, especially when you have a lot of emotions or a lot of feelings that you couldn’t really put it into words. Maybe you’re feeling alone but it’s not a picture of you alone. Maybe it doesn’t directly correlate specifically, but you can create art when you don’t know how to speak. It’s a really good way to understand more of what you’re feeling. It’s a release,” said Shoultz.

While this Reflections contest has been an exciting stop on Shoultz’s artistic journey, it certainly is not the end of it. After Shoultz formally receives her award in June in Austin, Texas, she and a friend will head on to coordinate their own art show. From there, Shoultz will continue to follow the path of her personal artistic passion–and she will surely “believe, dream and inspire” wherever it leads her.

Featured Image by Hannah Shoultz