It was such an honor to be asked to juror the Center of Photographic Art’s 2020 International Juried Exhibition. The exhibition opens today and runs through December 20th, 2020. I love looking at photographs and this was akin to gathering up all the Halloween candy from the entire neighborhood and spreading the riches out in front of me, covering the floors of the entire house. I looked at thousands of photographs to create this exhibition and it was next to impossible to boil it down to 49 photographs.
I was humbled and inspired by the experience and I can confidently say that the state of photography today is more exciting and varied than at any other time in history. The exhibition reflects all facets of contemporary photography, from classic Silver Gelatin and Archival Pigment Prints to Platinum-Palladium Print, Unique Chromogenic Cameraless Assemblage on Expired Paper, Dye Sublimation Print on Silk, Acrylic Gel Transfer on Wood, Photography on Fabric, Chlorophyll Print & Scanography, Laser Etched Silver Gelatin Print, Sewn Archival Inkjet Print on Kozo Paper, Cyanotype Photogram, Photo-based Mixed Media, Photos, Oil, Narrative Text, Resin, Polaroid Prints from Digital Transfer, and more. The work is personal, political, complex, and beautiful. It’s a collection of deep seeing and thinking, so important for our world today and truly reflects photography in 2020.
I was recently in discussion with a significant photography curator and she asked, “how is are photographs elevating the medium and pushing boundaries? Show me something new!” I thought that she asked an important question, and took that into consideration for this exhibition. 2020 has been a year with a dark side, but it has also created a space for enlivened creativity.
I’ve often heard someone say, when they are rejected from an exhibition, “the juror hates my work”. This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. During the jurying process I become deeply attached to images and can’t bear to let them go. Narrowing down thousands for an exhibition consisting of 49 photographs on the wall and 70 images online is almost heartbreakingly unbearable. I had to let go images that I love, work by people I admire, photographs I’ve selected for other exhibitions, even work that I have featured on Lenscratch. The process of jurying is a subjective feat, but that subjectivity comes with deep consideration of the current state of photography….and the world.
Congrats to all the artists selected for the exhibitions, and thank you to those who submitted work. It was a privilege to spend time with your amazing work.
