Our annual photo contest issue comes about as close as we can get to the direct delivery of reader­- driven content in ENR. Every photo in the winners gallery, starting on page 30, as well as the cover image and several others elsewhere this issue are submissions from readers to this year’s contest who had projects and photos they wanted the rest of our readers to see. 

The pictures are spectacular, and so are a number of the projects they came from that ENR’s editors learned about as we reached out to, and interviewed, the photographers whose work is featured in this issue. Expect to see more reporting in coming issues about several of the projects described in the captions.

But before any of those photographers were interviewed, we had to select the winners of the contest from hundreds of submissions. For that we relied on a panel of judges convened in our New York City office for a marathon session of photo viewing and discussion. Each year we assemble a fresh panel of judges that includes a construction safety expert, a professional photographer, and magazine editors and art directors.

Our safety expert this year was Keith Snead, safety director at MEP specialty contractor Limbach Holdings Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Our photographer was  New York-based Timothy Schenck, a structural engineer who stepped away from 13 years in practice in 2011 to devote himself to construction photography, full time. A Q&A about how he came to change his career and how he approaches his work starts on page 28.

Other judges included Joann Gonchar, an architect and a senior editor at our sister publication, Architectural Record, who shifted to AR in 2006 after eight years at ENR. Another judge was Christopher Pirrone, a Troy, Mich.-based senior art director at ENR’s parent company, BNP Media. Finally, the panel was rounded out by ENR’s Phoenix-based managing editor, Scott Blair.

Several of the judges expressed similar satisfaction with the process and the inside look it gave them into the world of construction. “Sometimes each person is stuck in their own construction reality and doesn’t get to see the amazing engineering and hard work being completed by professionals every day,” said Snead.  “The contest is a great way to show off the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of how our world is constructed.”

Related: ENR's "2017 Year in Construction" Slideshow