Leeward Community College student Matthew Forney, who took an intermediate digital photography in fall 2016 from instructor Wayne Muromoto, was chosen as a finalist in the 37th annual Photographer’s Forum magazine Best of College and High School Photography contest. His photograph will be included in the hardcover book collection.

Matthew is a Digital Media major and currently runs his own freelance business as a web development consultant.

Leeward Associate Professor Wayne Muramoto stated, “I am always blown away by the quality of student works here at Leeward. Whenever possible, I encourage them to enter these contests as a way to see how they measure up against the rest of the entire United States, and even the rest of the world. While many students with great talent often hesitate to take up such offers, Matthew loved the challenge. I’m glad he got recognized, because it’s all his hard work. I simply sparked his creativity and worked on his technical skills. Matthew came with the desire and effort that makes for a great artist. I’m really happy for him.”

Subject matter was open with no categories. The jurors had to choose a select group of photographs from 13,000 entries this year from the United States, Canada and around the world.

The contest is sponsored by Photographer’s Forum magazine and Ricoh. Forney’s photograph was one of 798 photographs that were accepted in the finalist category.

—By Kathleen Cabral