When you show off your hard work for the things you love, you may be surprised for the recognition you receive. For junior Eve Evans, this recognition came at a local photography competition.

Evans, an advanced photography student and creator of photography club at Chamblee, represented Chamblee at the annual ACP Open Exhibition. From their website, this “free pin-up show that celebrates the democratic nature of photography,” celebrated their twentieth anniversary of annual festivals this October. Anyone who can take a photograph can enter by submitting two photographs. This year, Chamblee was one of twenty-seven schools that participated.

Photography teacher Angela Georges asked all of her advanced photography students to submit two photos to the competition, and Evans took first place in the teen category. This is not the first time Chamblee has had a winner for this prestigious competition.

“Our photography program is amazing and we’ve got a lot of talent,” said Georges. “One year we took best school and they awarded us $500. We’ve consistently won a prize almost every year, so it’s pretty impressive to be recognized that often.”

Georges was not surprised Evans won.

“Eve’s amazing,” said Georges. “She’s incredibly talented. She is an outstanding student. She is a sponge, takes everything in. She’s very disciplined and self-motivated. She has an eye for composition and color and has great technique. I wasn’t that surprised. I was ecstatic.”

Evans was excited to participate in the competition and share her work. Her photos came from previous class assignments.

“The photo was of my sister,” said Evans. “I take a lot of pictures of her because she’s right there and I can just grab her. This was shot in my parents’ bathroom because I really like the lighting there. I took some pictures of her face beforehand, but I didn’t like them as much so I wanted to take a different approach and got her feet instead.”

Evans’ passion for photography began in the fifth grade.

“I saw a bunch of accounts on Instagram that were doing photoshop manipulation stuff and I got really into it and started creating my own stuff,” said Evans. “Photography is just cool and surreal and trippy.”

Unlike Georges, Evans was surprised she won the competition.

“It was mind-boggling,” said Evans. “I didn’t expect to win at all. I was super happy. It feels good to be recognized for your work.”