Courtesy Photo by Ted Fines In this award-winning photo by Ted Fines, snow is seen on the corner of the floor in the run-down, abandoned McKenzie High School in Detroit. The photo won the Jurors Choice Award in the PRAXIS International Juried Photography Exhibit — EMPTY PLACES : ABANDONED SPACES in Minneapolis.

Local professional photographer Ted Fines took top honors for his entry to PRAXIS International Juried Photography Exhibit — EMPTY PLACES : ABANDONED SPACES — earning the Jurors Choice Award. Exhibit dates are January 16-31, 2021 at the Minneapolis gallery.

Fines is the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan. He entered the juried contest on the suggestion of local artist Brian Schorn.

“I was suprised to say the least,” Fines said of learning he earned the top honor. “I don’t typically enter these things,” he added, referring to national or international contests at out-of-state galleries.

But this one was “right up his alley,” he said. He has been photographing abandoned spaces for many years.

“When I teach a class, I tell my students, the less is more,” Fines said. “The less you have in your photograph is better.”

He tells them they will learn after taking thousands of pictures.

“Don’t mess up your image with a lot of junk,” he said. “I keep it very very simple. And it has to say something.”

He said the snow on the floor of the abandoned McKenzie High School in Detroit, “says something.” He said that school “is no more,” as he took this photo about seven years ago.

“I feel fortunate that I’m able to say something in my photographs,” Fines said.

He added that he’s honored to receive recognition for this photograph.

“I felt pretty cool about it,” Fines said. “I’m hoping to have a future in photography when I retire.”

He added that working as director of Habitat uses very different skills than being a photographer.

“You’ve got to be in the mood,” he said of taking photos. “You’ve got to be in a different mindset. There’s the business side of my mind, and that creative side of my mind, and they don’t mix.”

To view the exhibit online, visit www.praxisphotocenter.org/cfe-temp-gallery.

The show’s juror was Layne Kennedy.

A summary on the website explains the exhibition.

“Through the visual representation of abandoned spaces, artifacts of history are at once fresh and new, ancient and decayed. The past continues to live in these forsaken, ruined, or empty spaces and we ask — Who were the people who lived and worked here? What were their lives like? What were their stories? What happened to them in these spaces?

“Praxis Gallery presents photographic art that explores the visual and social significance of abandoned space – where derelict factories, churches, private houses or other empty places serve as the basis for creative investigation.”

Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Center is a nonprofit community-based arts organization that aims to support the development of new and emerging photographic artists. Praxis Gallery provides solo and group show exhibition opportunities to local and international media artists. Praxis Photographic Arts Center offers a range of learning opportunities for photographers of all levels.