1,500 . That's a conservative number. I'll guess we received approximately 1,500 submissions for this year's Photo Annual. Portraits, landscapes, pets, dirty socks, cars, silhouettes, ancient gear, bloody knuckles, graffiti, beer, uncensored body parts, the occasional middle finger, and at least one or two climbing pics. Every photo sang to us - thrashers, ballads, and lullabies frozen in time. Some screamed articulately with the crispness of a fall day, while others hummed poetically with the opacity of a thick morning fog. Yet, it was apparent that each one of them was a note in some bigger, more fantastic melody.

We had a lot to look at, huge decisions to make, and never once, not even for a second, complained about it. We gladly put our heads down and blazed the trail of Camera Obscura in search of its finest descendents. Immersed in character, expression, talent, and art, we quickly learned that selecting final picks wasn't going to be easy. Every photo had a song to sing. Every photographer had a story to tell. We just simply didn't have enough room to fit all of them in this book. So, we respectfully rolled the red carpet out onto the cutting room floor and went to work.

Enjoy our final selections for the 2008 Photo Annual.

See you out there,
Joe Iurato