Charlottesville High School student Emmet Leclere has been named one of the top finishers in the third annual New York Times Student Photo Essay Contest. 

Leclere, a 16-year-old sophomore at CHS, was one of eight student photographers to earn runner-up honors in the national contest, which had more than 1,400 entrants. 

Leclere earned the award for his photo essay “The Blessing of the Hounds: An Annual Nod to Virginia’s Past”, which chronicled an annual Thanksgiving tradition in the Central Virginia countryside. 

Leclere, who is a student in Ms. Rachel Wilson’s Honors Commercial Photography II class at CHS, hopes to become a professional photojournalist. 

CHS currently offers Commercial Photography I, Honors Commercial Photography II, Photography 4 Independent Study and a Commercial Photography Capstone course in its Career and Technical Education offerings. Leclere is one of the 86 students enrolled in photography classes at CHS for the 2025-26 school year.   

Leclere, whose photos regularly appear on the Charlottesville City Schools’ division website, said that learning under Ms. Wilson’s tutelage at CHS has helped him gain a better understanding of the nuances of photography and has opened doors to opportunities to work in the field as a photographer.

“The access to the materials that we have and the opportunities that Ms. Wilson has provided me have been really helpful,” said Leclere. “And it gives me this set of core values of photography that I may not learn otherwise instead of being super experimental and just figuring it out through experience. I've been able to get a lot of opportunities through CHS photography through Ms. Wilson that I would not have gotten otherwise, and I really appreciate that.”

One of those opportunities was the chance to meet Cal Cary, then a photojournalist with The Daily Progress. Cary visited Ms. Wilson’s Honors Commercial Photography II class to discuss photojournalism. 

“He came into our photography class early in the year, and he showed us his work, and he let us ask questions about it,” said Leclere. “When he showed us his work, I was like, ‘Oh, there's a lot of variety in this.’ He has sports, he has people, he has all these different events and not just one thing.” 

Leclare decided to contact Cary following Cary’s visit to the class.  

“Emmet was really proactive about reaching out to Cal and staying in contact with him,” Wilson said. “And that led to him going with Cal to the Blessing of the Hounds.”

Wilson, who was a photojournalist for The Daily Progress prior to becoming the photography teacher at CHS, likes to bring in other photographers to her class to give her students different perspectives. 

“I think, especially as the only photography teacher at CHS, students can get tired of hearing the same person all the time,” said Wilson. “Coming from somebody fresh, I think they listen more.”

Leclere has listened intently throughout his time as a student at CHS, and every time another door into the world of photography has opened for him, he has enthusiastically walked through it.   

“He’s definitely a unique student,” said Wilson. “This is my 19th year teaching here at CHS and I haven't had a student quite like Emmet, where they've come in their freshman year already knowing that they plan to be a photographer. What’s cool about Emmet is that ever since I met him last year, he has really sought out and taken advantage of every opportunity that he is presented.”

In addition to learning in the CHS photography program, Leclere also has benefited from the mentorship of prominent photographers such as Sanjay Suchak, who is a photographer for Charlottesville’s Dave Matthews Band. 

Leclere said he reached out to Suchak earlier in the school year to see if he would be interested in speaking with him about photography, and the two formed a connection that has continued to grow. Leclere said he was encouraged by Suchak to enter the student photo essay contest. 

“I emailed Sanjay about [being honored] because I was very grateful that he encouraged me to do it,” said Leclere. “I would not have known about it otherwise.”