Mothman Wins Local Photography Contest With Self-Portrait No One Remembers Submitting

The Point Pleasant Annual Photography Contest has awarded its grand prize to an entry that no one submitted, no one judged, and no one can explain: a breathtakingly sharp, perfectly composed photograph of the Mothman, taken at dusk from approximately fifteen feet away, which appeared in the contest's digital submission system overnight with no associated artist name, email address, or EXIF data. The image, which depicts the Mothman perched atop the Silver Memorial Bridge with its wings fully extended against an orange sky, represents the first known in-focus photograph of the cryptid in the 59 years since it was first sighted in the area. 'Every photograph of the Mothman in existence is blurry, distant, or debatable,' said contest organizer Shirley Aperture. 'This one is tack-sharp. The wing membrane texture is visible. The red eyes are luminous without being overexposed. The composition follows the rule of thirds. Whoever took this is either a world-class photographer or the Mothman itself, and I'm not sure which possibility is more unsettling.' The contest database logs show the image was uploaded at 3:17 AM from an IP address that traces to a decommissioned cell tower in the TNT Area, a wildlife management zone historically associated with Mothman sightings. Judges, who evaluated entries anonymously, gave the photograph a unanimous perfect score before learning of its mysterious origin. 'We can't un-judge it,' said head judge Carl Exposure. 'The technical execution is flawless. The emotional impact is extraordinary. It won on merit. The fact that it may have been submitted by its own subject is, frankly, an art-world first.' The grand prize is a $500 gift certificate to a local camera shop. It has not been claimed. The photograph has been printed and displayed in the contest gallery alongside a placard reading: 'Untitled. Artist unknown. Medium: digital photography. Subject: self, presumably.' Attendance at the gallery has tripled since the exhibit opened. Several visitors have reported feeling watched. The photograph's eyes, they say, seem to follow you across the room, which the gallery owner attributes to 'excellent composition and normal human pattern recognition, probably.'