“BLUE MONDAY”: This photograph by Jennifer Gershon of New Hope, Pa., is one of a trio of works that won Best Body of Work at the 31st annual “Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition.” The show is on view at Phillips’ Mill in New Hope, Pa., through April 19.

Phillips’ Mill Community Association recently hosted an artists’ reception and awards ceremony for the 31st annual “Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition,” which is on view through April 19.

Showcasing 135 contemporary works across many genres, from portraiture to abstraction, the 2024 exhibition was selected by juror Thom Goertel, a fine art and documentary photographer who has worked everywhere, from the White House to Iceland to Kenya. In a Phillips’ Mill Art Talk, available on the Mill’s website, he described his approach to jurying: “I did an initial pass looking for what jumped out, what were the ‘wow’ images, and after that I went back through for specific thematic areas we needed to address”.

As part of the process, Goertel chose images for 11 special awards, including Early Morning Ritual by Debbie Wolf of Edgewater, Md., which won Best in Show. Local winners include Joshua Ackerman of Pennington, whose Haircut 24, a Norman Rockwell-esque portrait of a boy at the barber took Second Prize, and Linda Heath of Cranbury, winner of the Street Photography award for Housemaids in India.

Bucks County, Pa., resident Jennifer Gershon won for Best Body of Work, with her trio of imaginative portraits ranging from the surreal to the film-noire in style. One of these, Blue Monday, features hues of aqua and envisions a multitasking woman wearing a mermaid costume as she wields a phone and a vacuum in a setting that is ambiguously indoors or underwater. Another, Bristol Derby, depicts a woman attired in a floral dress and spot-lit amid a murky, 1940s-style office, and a third, Riedemaster’s Dilemma, alludes both to a mathematical theory about knots and to the elaborate floral designs of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Lisa Stolzer of Lambertville won in the Nature category with the photograph entitled Morning’s Necklace.

A complete list of the award winners is posted at phillipsmill.org.

Phillips’ Mill is located at 2619 River Road in New Hope, Pa. Hours are 1 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday; and 1 to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit phillipsmill.org.