Two Oklahomans named winners in Ron Howard's new photography contest

Johnson and Richard Waters of Broken Arrow are among the winners of the nationwide “Project Imaginat10n” photo contest, part of the ongoing “Long Live Imagination” partnership between Canon U.S.A. and Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, who was born in Duncan.

“I am so incredibly happy and honored to be a part of something so amazing,” Johnson said in an email. “The goal for my photography has always been to tell a story, to make you feel an emotion and to inspire you.”

Canon representatives, Howard and a public vote selected 91 winners, including the two Oklahomans, for “Project Imaginat10n,” in which 10 celebrity filmmakers each will use 10 of the winning photos to inspire a short film.

Five celebrities already have been tapped to direct “Project Imaginat10n” shorts: Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx; Golden Globe-nominated actress Eva Longoria (“Desperate Housewives”); Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter; Georgina Chapman, designer and co-founder of the Marchesa fashion label; and singer/songwriter/producer James Murphy.

All five short films will go into production between this fall and spring 2013 and will premiere at a special “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival. Five additional directors will be announced at a later date, according to a news release.

For “Project Imaginat10n,” 10 winning photographs were chosen from the thousands submitted in nine different storytelling categories: Character, Mood, Goal, Backstory, Setting, Obstacle, Relationship, The Unknown and Time. Howard personally picked the victor in the Discovery category — “Unparalled” by Jennifer Harris of New Orleans — and that photo will provide a thematic tie for all the celebrities' short films.

“I am so passionate about the integrity and user-generated process of ‘Project Imaginat10n' where our celebrity directors can be directly inspired by photographers from all across the country,” Howard said in the news release. “As we selected the photographs, I was blown away by the beauty, perspective and intrigue that they conveyed, and was thrilled that so many people wanted to once again take part in this exciting artistic experiment.”