By Brian Ruth
The Scene staff
Forest Park student Katrin Hackenburg’s photo of the Gateway Arch took top honors in a Missouri photo contest.
Hackenberg, 35, won first prize in the 2014 Study Missouri International Student Photo Contest, sponsored by the Study Missouri Consortium.
The Study Missouri Consortium is an organization of colleges and universities across Missouri that promotes international education by fostering cross-cultural experiences among students throughout the state.
The contest winner — entitled “Nothing Impossible St. Louis” — won out over 228 other entries.
“I didn’t even know that Katrin had entered the contest, until she told me that she’d won,” said Hackenberg’s photography instructor at Forest Park, Jamie Kreher. The photo was also used as one of the student’s first assignments in Kreher’s class.
“It (the photo) was not an accident,” Hackenberg said. “On the Illinois side of the riverfront, I was sitting on a low wall at the memorial with my feet up and I saw the shot of the Arch.”
The photo was shot from a wall at Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park, located on the East St. Louis riverfront.
“I take a lot of pictures for my family and friends in Germany, to show them how we live here,” Hackenberg said. “It was my mother’s favorite picture. She hung it on the wall of her office in Germany.
“That was the reason that I decided to send it in for the contest.”
Hackenberg’s parents moved to Berlin, Germany when she was six months old. In St. Louis, the photographer teaches German language to high school students on Saturdays for the German Association of Greater St. Louis.
“My husband, who is a scientist at the Danforth Plant Sciences Center, had a big project in St. Louis,” Hackenberg said. “I decided to come with him from Berlin.”
Even with a degree in educational science in Germany and a financial background with the global financial company Deutsche Bank, Hackenberg found herself having enough free time at home to consider a career change. She is taking classes at Forest Park while working towards an associate’s degree in interior design at Meramec.
“I live in South City, so I’m thinking of taking more classes at Forest Park,” Hackenberg said. “It’s closer to home.”
“Katrin’s photo is very striking,” said Kreher. “I think it shows a lot of whimsy — the way the Arch is framed, looking through her Chuck Taylors — it’s positive and youthful.”
“I think, a lot of times, people are down on St. Louis,” Kreher noted. “It’s refreshing to see when someone — from somewhere else — comes here and has such a high opinion of the city.”
Hackenberg received $200 for the prize winning entry, which was displayed in the Missouri State Capitol rotunda during the International Education Day luncheon in April.
“It makes sense that it won,” Kreher said. “It’s a photo with a message that people can understand.”