We felt the full impact of the recession with a significant drop in entries to this year's Photography Annual. Still, 6,075 entries, totaling more than 13,000 images is a lot to judge in just two days.

"I was surprised by having to view images of corpses in Haiti preceded by a fashion spread and trying to stick to the task at hand—judging the merit of the photograph," juror Leslie Baldwin said.

Several jurors commented on the impact of rampant digital post-production. Juror Takaaki Matsumoto was quite philosophical: "In this judging process, I found myself questioning what is photography today? Is it the illustration of an idea based on an image that happened to be photographed or is it creating/manipulating a photographic image to archive one's vision?"

When asked about the future of commercial photography, advice ranged from short-term practical to long-term career direction. "I think if photographers are to survive, they must work in many arenas and cross-market their services," Muna said. "Gone are the days when people could specialize in one area of still photography.