Photography alumnus turns blue day inspiration into global recognition
Photography alumnus Jonah Atkins recently received international exposure for his portraiture work.
Jonah, who graduated from Photography Still and Motion in 2023, was recently shortlisted in the prestigious 2024 Sony World Photography Awards, earning a place among recognized photographers from around the world.
This isn’t the first time Jonah’s work has captured widespread attention. While at Mohawk, he earned top honours in the Video Short Form category of the 2022 Emerge Media Awards with a short film, World’s Best Dad, a touching glimpse into an artist working on his next masterpiece. Then, in 2023, he won the gold medal in the Photography category at the 2023 Ontario Skills Competition.
Since graduating, Jonah has been building a freelance photography business, taking on commercial projects and pursuing personal photography interests. On occasion, he submits his work to competitions, with obvious success.
The Sony World Photography Awards is one of the biggest and most prestigious photography competitions, highlighting leading and emerging photographers from around the world and sharing their images with tens of thousands of visitors annually through international exhibitions.
“Of all the contests I had entered, this is the one I felt I had the least chance of being recognized in,” he said.
The short-listed image in the Sony competition is a self-portrait that he says, “represents a visualization of total creative exhaustion.” He had been looking for inspiration and feeling down on the day that he composed the photo. His mood infused the image.
“Most of my best work comes out in sudden bursts of inspiration,” he said. And that day was no different.
Working alone on a windy day, he set up outside with lights, umbrellas, camera and laptop to pull the session together. The image he submitted was the last one of the day, taken just moments before a gust upset his setup and broke his light umbrella.
Jonah submitted the image in late 2023 and learned a few months later that the self-portrait was being featured around the world as a short-listed entry.
Jonah took up photography as a way to overcome shyness. “I’m kind of an introverted person and it was a good way for me to interact with people. When I started doing photography, I had to step out of my own head and connect with people.”
Now, connecting with people through portraiture is Jonah’s preferred type of photography and, as international judges can attest, his work is among the best in the world.
