Lauren Willey (center) with her mother and Al Mueller, dean of Arts and Sciences, after she won the Life in the Arts Digital Photography competition.

Three Neumann students swept the Digital Photography category in the first Life in the Arts competition, held on October 18 at the Union League. Lauren Willey, Samantha Martone, and Jonathan Lucente took the top spots in the field.

	Happiness, the winning photo taken by Lauren Willey

Lauren, a junior nursing major, won Best in Category for her photo entitled Happiness. “My photograph is of a Rastafarian man and his son who live in the Bahamas,” she explains. “I took the photograph over the summer while visiting my mother in Nassau. I felt that, out of all of the photographs I had taken, this particular one captured the essence of human life and dignity. The love between this father and son is evident through their big smiles and the touching of their hands. I chose to make the picture black and white because the focus of this shot is the joy shared between the two; color does not matter.”

Samantha took second place for an untitled photo. Jonathan, a senior liberal arts major, received honorable mention for his work, entitled Cross. He took the photo standing through the sun roof of his car.

The Life in the Arts event was sponsored by the Books Motivate Foundation, which seeks the advancement of education, science and the arts, and the elimination of prejudice and discrimination. The foundation promotes the development of literacy by sponsoring educational initiatives, programs, and events in local communities.

Other founding sponsors were LaSalle University, Neumann University, St. Joseph’s University, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office for Life and Family.