John-Paul Jespersen, 25, a Salt Lake City photographer whose work is gaining attention not just locally but also in the world’s community of artists and professionals, is among the winners of the second annual World in Focus: The Ultimate Travel Photography Contest sponsored by PDN magazine and the National Geographic Traveler.

His beautiful photo of a wintry Memory Grove, near downtown Salt Lake City, was selected to be a part of more than 80 images that represented everything from Antarctica to the Libyan desert and to a crowd of Lubbavitcher rabbis in Brooklyn. Jespersen’s photo is featured in the Urban Landscapes category, one of the six comprising the contest. PDN is the leading photography magazine in the world.

Those familiar with Jespersen’s work will readily see the elements of his unique compositional approach involving night-time lighting in creating surreal effects. As noted in a feature last summer on this blog, Jespersen said “I look for clean scenes with gentle low contrast lighting. I love shooting water and things with motion when I shoot at night. I love the idea of minutes or hours of time compressed in to one image.” Jespersen plans to publish a book of his project as he continues to explore moonlit landscapes around the globe.

Of course, this includes the new banner shot featuring a night-time skyline photo of the city, which replaces the night-time shot of the state capitol which has graced The Selective Echo’s front page since the blog went active last summer.

Jespersen’s schedule is busy as expected, along with his business Jespersen Fine Art Reproductions. He will be at Arizona arts festivals in Scottsdale and Tempe next month. Local residents, however, should take note of the Poor Yorick Artists Studios spring opening on Friday, March 28, from 6 to 10 p.m., and Saturday, March 29, from 1 to 5 p.m. The studios are located at 124 W. Crystal Avenue (2590 S), and are easily accessible from West Temple. More about the studios will be featured next month in the blog.

Readers can learn more about Jespersen’s work here and here.