/ 2026 / Fine Art / Still Life

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Michael Izquierdo, United States
• Date of Photograph
  2021

In early January of 2021, I was driving north on Highway 15-501, just past the Haw River and Hamlet’s Chapel Road, when a burst of color caught the corner of my eye. It was the unmistakable electric yellow of Forsythia — blooming wildly, long before the rest of nature had even begun to wake up. I made a U-turn, pulled off the road, and gently cut a single branch.

At home, I remembered a small ceramic bud vase in my studio — a piece my wife brought home from Seagrove, North Carolina, where she visits potters every year. The soft earth tones of the vase paired perfectly with the vibrant yellow