She just graduated last May with a Photography degree, and in June she won the monthly Photo Assistant competition with Profoto, a major company in the industry. Her name is Jenifer Purpi. Purpi said, “I found out about the contest through the Mac Group, which is the organizer of this event.” She added, “They were here at MATC conducting the digital photography workshop last May.

Purpi explained she had many obstacles to overcome on the day of the contest.

“The day of the contest I was beyond sick and I needed to get to Chicago to compete.” She had also lost her batteries. They apparently fell out of her bag; she found them later on her kitchen floor.

Purpi explained that she had learned a lot on that day. “It was a really great lesson on learning how to keep it together under difficult circumstances.”

She said, “I had two choices, I can just feel sorry for myself because I’m sick and have no batteries, or I can think about what I can do (to fix the situation).”

Purpi decided to make the best of it. Refusing to give in, she bought new batteries, went back to the studio and started shooting. Purpi competed with 75 other photographers, and by the end of the day there were only four, including her.

“That was a real-world exercise right there. I learned that you are going to get sick, life is going to happen, but you have to find a way to keep going,” Purpi said.

When Purpi got the call from Profoto telling her she was June’s winner, she didn’t feel that surprised.

For her, it was more of a good lesson of what hard work and dedication get you. “But by no means am I finished learning; I’m just starting.” she added.

She explained how she accomplished the wonderful winning image, the Dancer.

“That shot was the last one of the day.” This gave her the opportunity to talk to her subject about movement. It also allowed her to work with lighting and her camera.

Being able to give her subject more direction and “the fact that I was able to be a little more intimate with my subject helped me a lot,” she said.

“At the end, it was hard to choose the image I wanted to submit for competition,” Purpi stated.

“Finally, I picked an image where the dancer looks like he is doing levitation, because he is completely frozen on the air.”

This ended up being the best image because it captured what the competition was supposed to be about. “The whole point of this competition was to show what the Profoto lights can do. They are so fast that you can stop motion.”

Purpi gave MATC credit for her success in this competition. “And because the MATC Photography program is very complete and I learned a lot about lighting, I was able to apply those skills
to my work during this competition.”

Purpi wonders if she’ll win the grand prize of photography equipment valued at $10,000. Profoto is still conducting these events in many international cities, including Barcelona, Chicago and London, and the grand prize winner has yet to be selected.

However, she isn’t just waiting around. She is working on a series of environmental portraits and is also starting a business in wedding photography.

To find out more about Jenifer Purpi, you can visit her website at www.jeniferpurpi.com.