In seeking the truth, students ask: ‘What stories do these photographs tell?’

Sidwell Friends Upper School photography students recently won top awards at this year’s Southern Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the country’s longest-running recognition program for high school art and writing.

“My students amaze me with their dedication to their work and for their wide-ranging subject matter,” says Lely Constantinople, Sidwell’s Upper School photography teacher. “The work of this year’s awardees represent the photography program’s emphasis on intentionality, experimentation, and discovering your unique artistic voice.”

Wyatt McConagha ‘27 was awarded nine honors including Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention awards for his emotional and intimate photographs of Sidwell Friends athletes and teams and his images of nature and wildlife. 

Vincent Cohen ‘26 won a Gold Key award for his short film about forgiveness and moving through difficult periods in life.

Maira Zaidi ’27 won a Gold Key award for her photograph, which shows the transformation of a tennis racket as a dramatic study of light and shadow. 

Victoria Wang ‘28 also was honored with a Gold Key award for her nighttime photograph of a city bus moving past an apartment building under spare lamplight. Her work will be included in a regional exhibition in Northern Virginia organized by Scholastic.

Regional Gold Key award winning entries are automatically placed in the national awards competition. The national winners will be announced in late March. Sidwell Friends students have won Scholastic Awards at various levels each for more than a decade. 

“Photography is not just about craft but about building up a knowledge of what’s technologically possible and discerning the truth,” says Constantinople. “In class, we spend a lot of time interrogating images and asking, What stories do these photographs tell? We get under the hood of what’s happening in a picture.”