A selection of images from PIEA's 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Competition.

The top student photographs from around the world were lauded recently in the Photo Imaging Education Association's (PIEA) 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Exhibition and Competition.

In January, the judges for the PIEA competition chose 120 images from more than 4,200 entries sent in by 105 schools from the United States and six other countries. The chosen photos were exhibited at the Photo Marketing Association's convention in Las Vegas, Feb. 12-15, and are now part of two exhibitions that will tour Australia, Canada, Italy, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States until 2006.

Entrants in the contest competed by grade levels in three categories: single images, portfolios and computer-assisted images. More than $81,000 in scholarships, camera equipment and accessories were awarded to the winners in each category and grade level. Andrea Behrends, a student photographer at Southern Illinois University, won the grand prize in the College & University-Single Image category. Part of her prize includes paid tuition for one semester at the Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia.

"This year's group of entrants had some of the more interesting computer-assisted work we've ever seen," says Ken Lassiter, senior consultant for PIEA. "There were also a lot more large 9 x 12 and 11 x 14 prints this year, with more of them done on inkjet printers. There's definitely a bigger emphasis on digital."

The contest judges included photographer Marilyn Bridges of New York City, Ben Fernandez of the Parsons School of Design in New York, and Gary Halpern, publisher of PhotoMedia. To view all of the selected and winning images online, go to pieapma.org.