LEICA WOMEN FOTO PROJECT WINNERS: 2022

Photo © Bottoms September. “Kat jumps off the diving board after getting out of her first psychiatric hold, one of many more to come.”

Photo © Rania Matar. Rhea (and the Mirror), Beirut, Lebanon, 2021

Photo © Rosem Morton.

“I always admired wildflowers for their abilities to bloom and thrive. I am a survivor, a wildflower.” - Rosem Morton. Baltimore, United States, 11 Nov 2018 

 

Leica Camera USA announced the recipients of its 3rd annual Leica Women Foto Project Award. As part of Leica’s initiatives to expand diverse and inclusive representation in the photography industry, The Leica Women Foto Project is an ongoing commitment to elevating marginalized voices while empowering the female perspective. ⠀

This year’s award winners: Rania Matar, Rosem Morton, and September Bottoms were selected by a diverse panel of judges ranging from award-winning photojournalists to renowned contributors to the world of photography. Each winner will be awarded $10,000, a Leica SL2-S camera with Leica Vario-Elmarit 24-70 ASPH lens, and a 4-week photography exhibition at Fotografiska New York. The exhibition will also feature the work of this year’s Leica Oskar Barnack Award winner, Ana María Arévalo.
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The panel of judges this year included eleven influential women in photography, art and journalism: ⠀
• Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Director, Leica Galleries Worldwide ⠀
• Laura Roumanos, Co-Founder, United Photo Industries ⠀
• Amanda Hajjar, Founding Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska New York ⠀
• Natalia Jimenez, Picture Editor, The Washington Post ⠀
• Denise Wolff, Senior Editor at Aperture Foundation ⠀
• Maggie Steber, Documentary Photographer & Guggenheim Grant Fellow ⠀
• Sandra Stevenson, Associate Director of Photography for CNN ⠀
• Elizabeth Krist, Former Senior Photo Editor at National Geographic ⠀
• Lynn Johnson, Photojournalist ⠀
• Elizabeth Avedon, Independent Curator ⠀

• Eve Lyons, Photo Editor for The New York Times

Artist’s work on view now through April 17, 2022

Fotografiska New York
281 Park Avenue South
NY, New York 10010

LENSCULTURE: Black + White Photography Awards • Entry Deadline October 21, 2020

Early Entry Photograph © Graham John Bell

Early Entry Photograph © Holly Wilmeth

Early Entry Photograph © Darin Back

LensCulture Black + White Photography Awards: The aim is to uncover photographers from diverse backgrounds and experience levels, and connect them with global audiences and career-changing opportunities. LensCulture is on a mission to discover the most imaginative, talented, creative photographers out there, regardless of location, age, background or experience level. Check out the panel of international jurists, and cash awards and opportunities. Free entry available for single-image submissions. Deadline Oct.21, 2020.

ENTER HERE : LENSCULTURE

CENTER 2020 AWARDS: Sandra Chen Weinstein

 Lee and Me 

Photograph © Sandra Chen Weinstein

"A blessing and a perfect child. I was surprised when Lee told me only recently. We are always very close and it will always be so. My love for my child is infinite and unconditional." -Sandra (me)

Alejandro and Alexander

Photograph © Sandra Chen Weinstein

"At 18 years old I was outed. Kicked out of home same day. Didn't talk to my dad for years. Struggled with abandonment. Lived recklessly for a few years. Made it out of the struggle. Found a man that I made my husband. Family came to wedding (progress). Still struggle. but have a therapist. Here I am - GAY. I made it - I am here and still a second class citizen." - Alexander

 

 Barbara and Jess

Photograph © Sandra Chen Weinstein

"Barb and Jess are going to get married after a few year of companionship in Bay area."

 

Emmet

Photograph © Sandra Chen Weinstein

"After leaving Sweden, I found my chosen families within the Trans community in America.” 

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 CENTER Director's Choice Award 1st Place

 Sandra Chen Weinstein for her project: "Transcend" 

"This is a story of relationships but most importantly, love. This collection of intimate portraits and stories of people and their loved ones, families or chosen families, including my own, from diverse LGBTQ community which constantly struggles for equality and acceptance.

My adult child came out as queer, transgender, non-binary and is collaborating with me in writing in this book. This series of 30 family images are displayed with their own quotes and stories about themselves and their loved ones. The work seeks to aid social justice against stereotype and stigma that have long existed."

SandraChenWeinstein.com

Check out all CENTER Award Winners: 

https://awards.visitcenter.org

ARNOLD NEWMAN PRIZE WINNER: Louie Palu FINALISTS: Jess T. Dugan, Cheryle St. Onge, and Bryan Thomas

 Arctic Passage

 Photograph © Louie Palu, 2019 Winner

 Arctic Passage

 Photograph © Louie Palu, 2019 Winner

 Arctic Passage

 Photograph © Louie Palu, 2019 Winner

 Arctic Passage

 Photograph © Louie Palu, 2019 Winner

This year's winner of the 2019 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture is Louie Palu for work that demonstrates a compelling new vision in photographic portraiture. His project, Arctic Passage, is a series of photographs from the Arctic and an installation composed of large format portraits frozen in ice blocks. Since 2015 Palu has been working on a long-term photography project related to climate change, which documents the changing lives around Inuit communities in the high Arctic. The project also explores the evolving situation related to the geopolitics of the Polar region and the growing militarization of the Arctic as countries look to capitalize on the melting ice revealing natural resources.

"Two years ago I began experimenting with freezing these photographs in ice blocks, then putting them outdoors to melt. The concept came out of a book on the Franklin voyage, which was a British Naval expedition in the 1800’s. Franklin’s two Arctic exploration ships were crushed by the ice and the crews perished succumbing to the Arctic’s severe weather. Their camera was never found and I imagined the photographs frozen and lost somewhere in the ice."

"The Arctic is about imagination, because most of us can’t go there we can only imagine it. In some ways we must use imagination combined with science to understand how climate change will affect us. The Arctic is the region in the world where the planet is warming the most rapidly. I felt the need to push the boundaries of traditional portraiture to not only looking and at encountering another person through photography, but experiencing what they are seeing, which is ice disappearing as a part of their identity. I wanted to take the work beyond the image, pixels and paper prints."

"In 2019, I submitted a proposal to the SXSW Festival’s Art Installation Program with this concept and it was selected. I installed the work outside in front of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin and made several discoveries. First, the ice block portraits took several unique forms and changed while they melted including forming frost, spider web cracks and water running down (from melting) the faces of some of the portraits. They all eventually fell over due to melting, and the only way I can put this in words is destroyed themselves by shattering on the ground. Attendance to the installation was high and what I found interesting was everyone took photos of the slowly transforming, what some called “ice portraits” and shared it on their social media tagging it related to climate change. The result was viewers documented the changing portraits as the ice melted which made their photographs inclusive to the installation and conversation around people affected by climate change."

"Ice defines the Arctic and is as much a part of the identity of the people from there as it is a part of the environment they live in. Fusing ice and images of the people there and how their very identity is slowly vanishing is what I want people to experience. The portfolio submitted is a combination of my photographs and examples of some frozen in ice. Work in this project has been supported by the Harry Ransom Center, Joan Morgenstern, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Geographic & Pulitzer Center." – Louie Palu

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Three Finalist's were also selected: Jess T. Dugan, "Every Breath We Drew"; Cheryle St. Onge, “Calling the Birds Home"; and Bryan Thomas, “Sunrise/Sunset".

The 2019 Jurors were: Paula Tognarelli, Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography • Elizabeth Avedon, Independent Curator, PhotoBook + Exhibition Designer • Jessica Dimson, Deputy Photo Editor, The New York Times

The $20,000. award was funded by the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation and administered by Maine Media Workshops + College. Thank you to all who submitted their incredible work!

 2019 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions

  in Photographic Portraiture

Winner and Finalists Exhibition

The Griffin Museum of Photography

October 1-20, 2019

Reception: October 10, 2019

Calling The Birds Home

  Photograph © Cheryle St. Onge 

Sunrise/Sunset

Photograph ©  Bryan Thomas

Every Breath We Drew 

 Photograph © Jess T. Dugan 
Courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago

LEICA WOMEN FOTO PROJECT | AWARD 2019: Call For Entries

Photograph © Maggie Steber

Photograph © Maggie Steber

LEICA WOMEN FOTO PROJECT | AWARD 2019

Call For Entries is Open to August 29, 2019

I’m thrilled to be on the panel of judges for the first LEICA WOMEN FOTO PROJECT AWARD, dedicated to the female perspective and its impact on visual storytelling. In support of diversity in photography, Leica CameraUSA is seeking 3 photographers to receive $10,000 + 1 year loan of a Leica Q2 to support a personal project expressed through the female perspective.

Applicants will be reviewed on the basis of quality of photography, dedication to the medium of photography, sophistication of project, with narratives that broaden perspectives, ideas and conversations on today’s social and political climate.

Applications will be judged by a renowned panel of industry voices including:

Karin Kaufmann: Art Director and Chief Representative, Leica Galleries International
Maggie Steber: VII Agency Photographer and Guggenheim Fellow
Laura Roumanos: Executive Producer and Co-founder, United Photo Industries
Elizabeth Avedon: Independent Curator, Photo-book and Exhibition Designer 

Deborah Willis: University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography + Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and Author of Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery

MORE INFO: https://bit.ly/LeicaWomen

Candidates for the award are requested to submit a series of 10 images from a personal or long-term project, made on any digital or film camera of any make, model or brand, with at least 4 images created between 2018-19. Alongside the images, applicants are required to submit a 500 word proposal describing their personal project and its relevance in today’s social climate, including detail of how the funds will be allocated. 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited and outside US.  Must be legal US resident 21+ at entry, and must not be affiliated with competitor of Sponsor. Entry must adhere to Submission Guidelines. Winner may not partner with competitor of Sponsor for 1 year. 

Official Rules http://bit.ly/LeicaWomenFotoProjectRules
MORE INFO: https://bit.ly/LeicaWomen

PHOTOLUCIDA: Critical Mass 2019

Photograph: Chloe Aftel @chloeaftel

Get your best work ready because Photolucida's Critical Mass 2019 is now open for submissions!

Entering it’s 16th year, Critical Mass was created as a way to facilitate connections between emerging photographers and industry professionals with an aim at creating career-changing opportunities! With 200 museum curators, gallerists, publishers and more on the jury there is no better way to get your work seen in this digital day and age.

This year Photolucida is offering some amazing awards: A solo show at Blue Sky Gallery during Portland Photo Month, the Rauschenberg Residency Award, a Top 50 Exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA curated by Elizabeth Avedon, and publication in issue #63 of GUP Magazine for a selection of finalists. All finalists will also receive this special issue of GUP after it is published!

Deadline to submit is July 15th at noon PST! 

https://www.photolucida.org/critical-mass/entry-details

P.S. I'm thrilled to be curating the Critical Mass 2019 Top 50 exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA! EA

INTERIORS: Call For Entry | A. Smith Gallery | Juror Elizabeth Avedon | Deadline Aug 20th

Photograph © Amanda Smith

“Interiors” Call for Entry: A Smith Gallery

Juror | Elizabeth Avedon

Entries Due | August 20, 2018

Exhibition | October 5 to November 11, 2018

Reception | October 27, 2018, 4 to 8pm

INTERIORS: inside, details, furnishings, space, indoors, within, internals, contents …. Creativity is encouraged! Jurors Award – $325.00. Directors Award – $250.00. And more ..... ELIGIBILITY |  Submissions are open to all photographers both professional and amateur working in all photographic mediums and styles. International entries are welcomed. Work that has been previously exhibited at A Smith Gallery is not eligible. View Submission Guidelines here

A. Smith Gallery

LENSCULTURE EMERGING TALENT AWARD EXHIBITION : KLOMPCHING GALLERY

Untitled IV © Victoria J. Dean

Winner, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017

Candy Beach © Bambi No Muere

Winner, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017

Ti Pinsik, Aux Poteaux, Gonaïves, Haiti © Thomas Freteur

Juror’s Pick, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017

Zoran, 10, and Zia, 13, rehearsing for a show they will perform for their parents small family Circus “Les Pêcheurs de Rêves” (The Fishermen of Dreams) August 2017, Avignon © Stephanie Gengotti, Winner, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017 

 Cabin. Kazanlak, Bulgaria, 2015 © Vladimir Vasilev

Winner, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017

Morning Prayer, Lingshed School, isolated from the world by the towering peaks of the Northern Himalayas, between Ladakh and Zanskar © Jarek Kotomski, Winner, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017

LENSCULTURE EMERGING TALENT AWARD EXHIBTION

Klompching Gallery and LensCulture present the laureates of the 2017 LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards. The 50 photographs are a selection of the strongest and most memorable work sent in by photographers working in over 160 countries around the world. You'll discover serious documentary and photojournalism projects, as well as our aesthetic celebrations of the interplay of light, color, form and texture, creative work from all parts of the globe. A single photograph has been chosen from each award-winning series, curated by Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching.

LensCulture Emerging Talent Award Exhibition

March 7 – 17, 2018  

 Reception: Thursday, March 8, 2018

The Opening Reception is Changed Due to the storm about to hit NYC Postponed to Thursday, March 8, 2018 6pm-8pm. Darren and Debra will be at the gallery Wednesday, 11am–3pm to welcome any photographers wishing to drop by.

 Klompching Gallery

89 Water Street

Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY

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Check out all of the LensCulture 2017 Competition Winners

THE GRIFFIN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY: 22nd Peter Urban Legacy Exhibition

THE PETER URBAN LEGACY EXHIBITION
Opening night reception was well documented 

by the many photographers who attended. 

Take a look on Facebook here

The 22nd Peter Urban Legacy Exhibition 

Juried by Elizabeth Avedon 

Open through August 28, 2016

THE GRIFFIN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY

67 Shore Road, Winchester, MA

Thanks to Griffin Director, Paula Tognarelli, and her incredible team - Mike Bodall, Meg Birnbaum, Iariza Menjivar,  Julie Williams-Krishnan and volunteers - who work tirelessly to promote photography! 

Steven McCarthy sponsored this Exhibition in honor of photographer Peter Urban's Legacy. Many thanks to Steven, The Peter Urban family and the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston.

Buy The Catalogue here $28.00

Read More here

AMY ARBUS: Tintype Portrait Evening Dec 13

One 8" x 10" portrait with Amy Arbus - $600

Penumbra Foundation brings you the exclusive opportunity to have your own 8" x 10" tintype made by renown portrait photographer Amy Arbus. For more details and to book your appointment visit their Website. 

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AMY ARBUS
Tintype Portrait Evening
December 13th | Friday
3:00 PM - 9:00 PM

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Photographer Amy Arbus has published five books, including the award winning On the Street 1980-1990 and The Inconvenience of Being Born. The New Yorker called The Fourth Wall her masterpiece. Her most recent, After Images, is an homage to modernism's most iconic avant-garde paintings. Her photographs have appeared in over one hundred periodicals around the world, including New York Magazine, People, Aperture and The New York Times Magazine. She teaches portraiture at the International Center of Photography, NORDphotography, Anderson Ranch and The Fine Arts Work Center. Amy Arbus is represented by The Schoolhouse Gallery in Massachusetts. She has had twenty-five solo exhibitions worldwide, and her photographs are a part of the collection of The National Theater in Norway, The New York Public Library and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.View more of Amy Arbus's work.

TOD PAPAGEORGE: 2012 Lucie Award Honoree

Play the Vimeo

Play the Vimeo

Tod Papageorge | 2012 Honoree

Achievement in Documentary

"Tod Papageorge began to photograph during his last semester at the University of New Hampshire, where he graduated in 1962 with a B.A. in English literature. After living for about a year apiece in Boston, San Francisco, and Europe, he moved to New York in late 1965 and was quickly accepted into a small circle of photographers engaged in transforming  the documentary “style” of the medium into a poetic form driven more by subjective perception than journalistic literalism. During the 1970s, he received two Guggenheim Fellowships in photography and a pair of National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship-Grants. In 1979, following one-year appointments at MIT and then Harvard, he was named the Walker Evans Professor of Photography at the Yale School of Art, and, as the Director of Graduate Study in the photography area from then until 2011, shaped the Yale course into an M. F. A. program that, among other achievements, would produce thirty-five Guggenheim Fellows. 

Papageorge is the author of Public Relations: The Photographs of Garry Winogrand and Walker Evans and Robert Frank: An Essay on Influence, prepared in conjunction with exhibitions that he guest-curated for New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1977 and the Yale University Art Gallery in 1981. In 2011, Aperture published Core Curriculum, a collection of his writings on photography.

Tod Papageorge’s photographic work has been widely exhibited nationally and in Europe, and is represented in over thirty major public collections, including those of the Museums of Modern Art in New York  and San Francisco as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. It has also been collected and published in three monographs: Passing through Eden: Photographs of Central Park (Steidl, 2007), American Sports, 1970, or How We Spent the War in Vietnam (Aperture, 2008), and Opera Citta (punctum, 2010). In 2008, Papageorge was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and, in the following year, invited to the American Academy in Rome as a Resident in the Visual Arts. In 2010, he was awarded the Rome Commission in Photography."–The Lucie Foundation

RICHARD GERE: 2012 George Eastman Award

Portrait of Richard Gere © Michael Weschler Photography

Richard Gere Receives the George Eastman Award
By Elizabeth Avedon for Le Journal de la Photographie

“It's a great honor to receive this prestigious award. In light of past recipients and the valuable work the Eastman House has done in film preservation, photography and the captured image, I'm very grateful to have been recognized by such a distinguished group.” –Richard Gere

February 16th, Richard Gere received the the George Eastman Award for Distinguished Contribution in the Art of Film, as well as for his International Humanitarian Leadership, from George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.

Gere is known as much for his leading rolls in films such as American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Cotton Club, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, Unfaithful, The Hunting Party, and Chicago, as for his ongoing commitment as advocate and supporter of numerous humanitarian causes through his Gere Foundation.

Dr. Anthony Bannon, Director of George Eastman House, said about Gere's nomination, “We have a special interest in inviting Mr. Gere to receive this honor, as he embodies the spirit of all four of the major awards this institution bestows, including the George Eastman Award, the George Eastman Honors (which is presented to those who excel in both motion picture and photography) and the Eastman Medal of Honor (which is awarded for exemplary public service). We admire Mr. Gere’s own considerable photographic skills. I am also well aware of Mr. Gere’s work on behalf of the people of Tibet and his relationship with H.H. The Dalai Lama, and I have followed both his career and his advocacy for many years. I read with interest his recent statements before Congress, and must tell you they very much echoed a conversation I had with the late Manute Bol when he visited Eastman House to speak about the crisis in Darfur.”

George Eastman House, the world’s oldest museum dedicated to the art, history and science of photography and motion pictures, was the first museum to create a school of film preservation, the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Established in 1947, their motion picture archive contains the leading silent film collection in the world. With nearly 30,000 titles, the collection includes significant holdings from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, various independent studios, personal film collections of Cecil B. DeMille and Martin Scorsese, the Merchant Ivory Archives, the Technicolor Archives, as well as lesser known documentaries, shorts, newsreels, and avant-garde works. In addition, Eastman House is home to more than 400,000 photographs representing the history of photography, making Eastman House the world’s most consequential non-government, independent collection of still and moving images.

The George Eastman Award was first presented in 1955, and past recipients include Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, Louise Brooks, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Lillian Gish, Audrey Hepburn, Mary Pickford, Isabella Rossellini, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Gloria Swanson, Jessica Lange, and Graham Nash.

Also Read
An Interview With Richard Gere
by Elizabeth Avedon

Le Journal de la Photographie: 2•16•2012

CENTER: 2012 International Awards, Project Competitions + Review Santa Fe

Photograph © Amy Stein
Stranded | Car on Fire, Route 17, New York
2011 Santa Fe Prize Nominee + 2006 Review Santa Fe Participant

Photograph © Emily Shur
Untitled Japan | The Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich, Kanazawa
2011 Santa Fe Prize Nominee + 2009 Review Santa Fe Participant

CENTER AWARDS | Deadline January 30

LENS CULTURE: International Exposure Awards Exhibition in Dumbo

Photograph (c) Jessica Hines, from the series My Brother’s War
Grand Prize, Portfolio Category

Photograph(c)Martine Fougeron, from the series Tête-à-Tête: After-Prom 09
Grand Prize, Single Image Category

Photograph (c) Julia Fullerton-Batten, Dressing Gown, 2009
Honorable Mention

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Lens Culture International Exposure Award-winners on display at VII Photo:
31 Contemporary Photographers

"An eclectic and diverse group show of award-winning photographic work by 31 photographers from 12 countries will be on display at VII Photo. An international jury of seven photography experts selected the winning photographs from more than 6,500 photographs submitted by photographers in 47 countries." Jim Casper, founder of the Awards, said: "The winning photos represent a truly multifaceted snapshot of contemporary photography as it is being practiced in various cultures around the world today.”

Portfolio Category Award Winners: Grand Prize: Jessica Hines, 2nd Prize: Carolle Benitah, 3rd Prize: Louisa Marie Summer. Single Image Category Award Winners: Grand Prize: Martine Fougeron, 2nd Prize: Albertina d’Urso, 3rd Prize: Anne Berry. Honorable Mention Awards (in alphabetical order): Susan Bank, David Carol, Ellie Davies, Frank Day, Bruno De Cock, Margaret de Lange, Dan Dubowitz, Joachim Froese, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Kevin Greenblat, Daisuke Ito, Mary Shannon Johnstone, David Lazar, Sebastian Liste, Adam Magyar, Rania Matar, Justin Maxon, Bill McCullough, Marcia Michael, David Rochkind, Julian Roeder, Evzen Sobek, Miki Soejima, Ian Teh, Jan von Holleben

VII Gallery
28 Jay Street, Dumbo-Brooklyn, NY
July 14-September 2

LAURA PRESSLEY: REVIEW SANTA FE INTERVIEW

Laura Pressley, Executive Director at CENTER

Elizabeth Avedon Talks With
Laura Pressley, Executive Director at CENTER

REVIEW SANTA FE, the 11th annual juried Portfolio Review produced by CENTER, concluded last month. The 100 Photographers, who were chosen to participate because they had created a significant project or series, met with curators, editors, publishers, and gallerists.

Elizabeth Avedon: Tell me about your selection process for Review Santa Fe.

Laura Pressley: This year’s 2011 Review Santa Fe Selection Committee included Karen Irvine, Curator and Manager of Publications, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Alan Rapp, Alan Rapp Studio, and formerly Senior Editor at Chronicle Books; and Whitney Johnson, Director of Photography at The New Yorker Magazine.

The reason I chose these three for the Selection Committee is that they have all participated in Review Santa Fe previously and they have different perspectives from within the photographic and art Industry. With Alan Rapp, we have a perspective from the realm of Publishing; with Karen Irvine we have the Curator's perspective, Whitney Johnson provides the Editorial perspective.

Photographers submitted an Artist Statement, Résumé and 20 Images. Everyone says this but its true in that the quality of work every year gets better and better. This year there were approximately 500 entries, with an increase in International submissions. Photographers from 23 U.S. states and 13 countries, including Austria, Egypt, Hungary, Japan, Mexico and Scotland, were chosen to come to New Mexico to attend Review Santa Fe.

Review Santa Fe judging process is via a numeric system, so each juror picks their top 60 or so and each photographer then has a number in a ranking. Additionally, there is a high attrition rate at these types of events so in addition to the 100 slots there is also a Wait List. About 25% of the accepted photographers cancel due to personal reasons. So the Wait Listed photographers who are asked to attend are asked in order of their rankings.

In addition to the people who are ranked highly, we have about 17 Project Award Winners who are also here. So not only are there photographers accepted into Review Santa Fe, but there's also a high quality of work because of the Project Competition Winners, and the Project Launch Winners, as well as some of the Choice Award Winners are in attendance. So there are many photographers recognized through our other programming who have the opportunity to attend Review Santa Fe free of charge.

I feel that a major component of the awards and what they offer is the exposure and the opportunity of attending Review Santa Fe. That’s the key to building personal relationships and potential for career advancement. We also have about 15 attendees who receive partial or full scholarships. They participate for a discounted tuition or free of charge. We have the Scholarship Fund raffle this year, with all the proceeds, every dollar, benefiting the Photographer Scholarship Fund for next year.

Elizabeth Avedon: How do you Curate the Reviewer list?

Laura Pressley: One basic, simply stated guideline is that we invite a lot of curators and publishers. Why? The CENTER mission is to serve gifted and committed photographers and a lot of the participants would prefer to meet with curators and publishers. I can easily assess that in the reviewer rankings in the online lottery scheduling system. The other genres of industry professionals I invite are high-profile editors of magazines like National Geographic, The New Yorker, and Time Magazine; people that use photography really well. In addition, reviewers who support the community by creating Photography Blogs or on-line Magazines like Fraction who can give photographers exposure.

Providing exposure to people who can offer direct outcomes is an extremely valuable component to the whole weekend. In addition, we offer access to the people who are somewhat inaccessible, like the people from the Whitney and SFMoMA. Busy curators who don't typically have time to sit down with photographers and look at portfolios in their day-to-day work flow. Ultimately, we strive to create a platform for both sides of the table, Reviewers and Photographers, to be able to slow down for a weekend, be present, and focus on something we are all passionate about - Photography.

EA: How long have you worked with CENTER?

Laura Pressley: This is CENTER’s 16th year and my 10th year. After their first review event, the organization, then called the Santa Fe Center for Visual Arts, noticed how much synergy and forward momentum there was around the organization and they hired me to help them move continue and expand on that forward momentum. Prior to that, I was living in the San Francisco Bay area where I worked at the Richmond Arts Center with the after-school program for kids, and the Artist’s-In-Schools Program. There was such poverty there; I saw the great impact of these programs on this community. It was then I decided I had to work for an a mission based organization from that point on, lending my strengths to the impact that Art can have on our communities and our lives.

EA: What is your background in Photography?

Laura Pressley: I'm originally from the Chicago area. I was a Photography Major and graduated with honors from the College of Santa Fe now the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

I moved to San Francisco for two and a half years after college and moved back to Santa Fe in 2001. I really missed this community and I missed the landscape and the light. I needed to come back to New Mexico, which happens to a lot of us here, we try to leave and we have to come back.

I needed to come back to New Mexico, I missed the landscape and the light that is so inspiring and expansive –Laura Pressley

When I came back I got involved with a program called PhotoArts Santa Fe. At the time, I worked to get their inaugural festival off the ground by providing volunteer support and other administrative support. The Santa Fe Center for Visual Arts Executive Director and staff noticed me through PhotoArts and recruited me to come on board. I met with Reid Callanan, Founder of the organization, and Director of the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops and I was hired shortly thereafter.

The organization has evolved through a few name incarnations. It was the Center for Photographic Projects, then Santa Fe Center for Visual Arts, then the Santa Fe Center for Photography. Finally, in 2006, because one of our board members had a relationship with a design firm called McKee Wallwork Cleveland, which was a national award winning agency that happens to be in Albuquerque we were gifted an identity package and campaign. That was an important milestone in our history and development.

They asked a series of questions to determine our target audience. That was an important part of their process to create that identity package. In fact, they trademarked their process as it’s a unique and successful method of creating and crafting a brand. They helped us tremendously, not only to strengthen our brand, but to really own who we are in the photo industry. Before we changed our name, we were often confused with the Santa Fe Workshops. I would have to say, “We are not the Workshops, we are a separate non-profit organization." That is not a problem anymore as I feel our brand is really strong and it's thanks to their good work.

Branding is so powerful. I think success goes hand-in-hand with creating a Personal Brand. You need to claim who you are. If you don't brand yourselves, someone else will. That holds true for organizations, businesses and photographers as well.

Everything comes back to CENTER

EA: What’s the thought process behind the design of the new CENTER logo?

Laura Pressley: The same Agency was behind the identity and the new logo. We have the light turquoise color as our home is in Santa Fe and we wanted to retain the New Mexico connection in our name. The whole idea of what the name means - to CENTER oneself - your CENTER is where Art comes from and it's a very sacred space. CENTER is also a fruitful ground where you go to create relationships, to commune, to find people of like-mind that are passionate about photography. It all comes back to CENTER, so all of the letters point towards the CENTER. That’s why the R and the E at the end is reversed. I love the whole Russian Constructivism look it evokes. Come to CENTER and thou art shall be seen. Our target audience, those gifted and committed photographers, they get it.

La Lettre de la Photographie:
About Review Santa Fe Part I / Part II