Oskar Alvarado

Born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Oskar Alvarado is a visual artist currently living in Barcelona. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at Basque Country University (UPV), a MA on Curatorial and Cultural Practices in Art and New Media at Higher School of Design (ESDI) in Barcelona and a Graduate Diploma in Management, Preservation and Dissemination of Photographic Archives at Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB).

WHERE FIREFLIES UNFOLD - Deleitosa is my village. It is located in the region of Extremadura in Spain. Here my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and other ancestors were born, going back through centuries of family genealogy. Deleitosa was the village that Eugene Smith chose to realize in his photographic essay “Spanish Village” that was published in Life magazine in 1951. Far from showing the perceptible appearance of Deleitosa or some of the visual references linked to what was a photographic icon of the social and economic backwardness in Spanish rural society, my gaze has some subjective nuances linked to a series of experiences, places and personal memories. Reminiscences that have endured as apparitions in my memory. Images that intermingle episodes that float in my imaginary with the new realities that coexist in the village. There is an emotional need to reflect on the territory of which we are part. To explore our identity in the echo of the places that still speak to us, or in the absence-presence of the people and beings that inhabit them. To form a visual interpretation that evokes the mystery that manifests itself in everyday rhythms, in the poetic condition that underlies the strange.

Nicole Antebi

Nicole Antebi is an animator and moving image maker. Her interest in animation grew out of a desire to have more tools for storytelling—specifically in thinking about place-based animism and a curiosity about how vastly different cultures/religions historically and presently imbue place with personhood, sympathetic magic, or animistic qualities forming a foundation of knowledge, belief systems, or in times of crisis a desperate incantation of hope.

"Animating the World, Gestures for A Plague Season, or Goodbye Earth(works) 2020-2025" The film is an accumulation of 5 years of small performances that began in Spring of 2020 shortly after the Coronavirus began to spread across North America. Through rituals of movement and moments of slapstick, the performances mark time and place. And embody words like “weight” and “gravity” in reference to the heaviness that comes with reflecting on the real possibility that our species might be on the edge of extinction.

Kristina Barker

Guided by her introspective sense of place, Kristina examines themes around human consciousness reflected in nature. In her search for belonging, she investigates the idea of where our physical and non-physical worlds intertwine. Her practice is heavily influenced by the idea of memory and enduring grief. Kristina is a freelance photojournalist living in Portland.

Kristina investigates the bewildering experience of existing as a human reflected in nature. This exploration is heavily shaped by grief, surviving trauma, and examining the state of dreaming as a critical part of human life. This work is an evolution of her documentary background. Kristina is creating artworks that nurture a unique, place-based exploration of land and sky scapes. These delicate moments of immersive presence in nature reflect on ideas of self awareness, memory, belonging, and confronting ambiguous loss. Nature has long been a space to reflect and heal; as a child escaping to the solace of nature as a way of coping with trauma, and into adulthood when faced with the grief of watching her vibrant, healthy mother be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at 53 years old. Her artwork has received support from the International Women’s Media Foundation, Green Box Arts (Colo.), and the Portland (Ore.) Regional Arts & Culture Council. She was nominated twice for South Dakota’s Young Journalist of the Year and was recognized for her work on documenting the challenges of unpaid maternity leave with a Public Interest Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Keith Belzner

My name is Keith Belzner I am an amateur astrophotographer based in Maryland since 2020. What began as a casual interest in photography quickly evolved into a deep fascination with astronomy and the night sky. Blending art and science, I enjoy capturing the beauty of space through my lens, sharing my passion with both the astrophotography and local photography communities. I am an active member of the Harford County Astronomical Society and the Harford County Photography Group. My work has earned recognition in regional photo contests and is featured in a local gallery.

Astrophotography fills me with awe and wonder. Capturing the night sky connects me to something greater and lets me share that beauty with others. What began as a hobby has become a true passion, blending art and science in every image I create.

Bremner Benedict

Benedict focuses on protecting desert landscapes from ongoing human-made threats. Her work resides in the Center for Art & Environment, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, Harvard Art Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, the Solo exhibits include Sahara West Gallery, Florida Museum of Photographic Art, Texas Women’s University. Themed exhibits include Out of Site, Survey Science and the Hidden West, Autry Museum, Ceding Ground, Griffin Museum of Photography, and Bernal Gallery, AZ. Awards include Launch Award, Center Sante Fe, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Prix Pictet nomination, 2 Puffin Grants.

As the American West runs out of water, my project Hidden Waters focuses on its disappearing desert springs. Since prehistoric times, springs have been vital to humanity’s survival, yet today they are all but forgotten — a staggering 80% have been destroyed since 1900, and that rate is only increasing. Sacred to Native Americans but seen as exploitable by industry and developers, springs’ ecosystems support 20% of North America’s endangered species. As an artist, I aim to make the complex natural and cultural histories of springs more accessible, using beauty tinged with sadness and vulnerability through muted colors. I want to question whether their loss reveals a deeper truth about our eroding connection to the land — a connection we too often overlook. With the West the driest it’s been in 1,200 years, my intention is to record these places before they are lost forever.

Brody Campbell

Brody Campbell is a Houston-based film photographer whose work explores the intersection of faith, memory, and place. Working exclusively with analog photography, he uses the deliberate pace of film to slow down and observe the world through a lens of grace and intentionality. His portraits and urban landscapes reflect a quiet search for meaning, shaped by his Christian faith and a desire to uncover beauty in overlooked spaces. Brody’s images invite reflection on what is sacred in the everyday, offering a visual meditation on time, presence, and the often-unspoken stories that dwell within familiar environments.

The photos I've submitted carry a deep, meditative stillness—one that honors both the ordinary and the sacred. There’s a thread of intimacy and quiet dignity that runs through each frame. Whether I'm capturing tender moments of joy—like a father lifting his child in a pool—or the layered complexity of generational presence, this work reflects an attentive, faith-rooted pursuit to preserve truth, beauty, and identity amongst my family and my community. In particular, this photograph holds deep personal meaning for me. Fatherhood is something I long for—a role I pray to one day fulfill—and it’s a narrative I’m continually drawn to. In this moment, my friend lifts his son into the air, joy and trust suspended between them. It’s playful, tender, and quietly powerful. Set in the middle of a family gathering, the image speaks not just to presence, but to legacy—to the love, protection, and delight that define what it means to be a father. For me, it’s a glimpse of something sacred I hope to one day embody.

Francesca Cao

Francesca Cao is a photographer born in England and raised in Italy, based in Milan. After completing a degree in Philosophy at the University of Milan, she studied photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. Since 2007, she has worked as a freelance photographer for international publications including The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, and Wired. Her personal work explores emotional landscapes and narrative experimentation through material processes. Her projects have been exhibited across Europe and the United States and recognized by awards such as the Unseen Dummy Award, the Tierney Fellowship, and Inge Morath Award.

In my photographs, time bends, returns, and overlaps, rather than flowing in a straight line. I aim not to capture a definitive vision but to create an encounter of fragments, moments that brush against or collide with each other.Each image becomes an emotional geography, built through layering, where nothing ever fully closes and every form is a memory in transformation.​

These works arise from a desire to break away from the linearity of traditional photographic vision. Influenced by artists who challenged conventional representations of reality, I view photography not merely as a reproduction of the world, but as a tool to evoke unseen dimensions and rekindle a sense of wonder.​

From a technical analog accident, I developed a practice of partial frame overlap, turning error into a creative gesture. In a time dominated by rapid image production, I reclaim the value of imperfection and slowness as acts of resistance and authenticity.​

On Becoming A Wolf is the first project born from this approach. It portrays the emotional journey toward reclaiming a wild, instinctual feminine identity, long hidden beneath layers of rational control.Through fragmented, uncertain images, the project evokes the liberation of a primal, intuitive self,a fluid,transformative force that carries memory like an ancient current.​

Brad Carlile

Brad Carlile has exhibited his work in three biennials and is in the collections of several international museums. Brad's work has been shown in 10 countries and has had over 70 U.S. shows. His solo show in Portland Oregon was chosen as best photography show in 2011. He has won over 24 photographic awards. In 2009, he was chosen as a winner in the prestigious Hearst 8x10 Photography Biennial. Brad’s work has been featured in magazines including SPE Exposure and in BETA Developments; and newspaper including the Houston Chronicle (interview), The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Las Vegas.

We live in a world of constant explosions—of strong opinions, biases, and fears. In this chaos, nothing feels entirely safe.

Each year in America, over 300 million pounds of fireworks are set off, with 90% ignited by amateurs — that's about one pound per person. The chaos is both dangerous and exciting. These asymmetrical explosions create a seductive, beautiful, and ephemeral mix of color, light, and energy.

In this series, the colors in these images are intentionally inverted, like a film camera’s color negatives. Vibrant hues transform into soft pastels, and once-familiar shapes resemble ink stains. They take on the appearance of Rorschach tests, designed to reveal subconscious thoughts and emotions through the interpretation of ambiguous images.

By using color negatives, I also play on the very idea of “negative”— how it can shift perception, turning positives into negatives or vice versa. Fireworks themselves embody this duality, evoking both joy and fright, wonder and destruction. This color inversion also forces one to pause, reconsider, and question what they see. In doing so, it creates an opportunity for dialogue, encouraging discussions with others who hold different perspectives.

Do these color-negative images of explosions serve as a Rorschach test for our times?

Sandra Chen Weinstein

Sandra is a photographer driven by a passion for capturing the human experience in its most natural and unguarded moments. Her work delves into themes of identity, diversity, and the social and political landscapes that shape our world. Before photography, she studied ceramics in Japan and the U.S., and has lived and worked in Washington D.C., Japan, China, Taiwan, and Canada. Her photography has received numerous accolades, including a Prix Pictet nomination and awards from British Journal of Photography, National Geographic, Kuala Lumpur International Photo, and and widely exhibited at Galerie Huit Arles, Phillips Collection, Aperture Gallery, and more.

“Transcend” - Freedom to Love is about the love and relationship in the LGBTQA+ community, the individual, their natural and/or chosen family portrayed in their homes or in a familiar environment. It includes my personal story from a mother’s perspective. My adult child came out recently as queer, transgender, non-binary at age 28.

This project was mainly photographed in real time and natural light and environment . Each portrait in the series is an intimate exploration of identity, showcasing the resilience and strength of the LGBTQIA+ community in the face of adversity. I have photographed and interviewed subjects of LGBTQA+ community and rainbow family not only in many cities of U.S. but also around the globe: Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Iceland etc. Love is a universal language for us to connect despite the diversity and cultural heritage signifying the freedom to love, promote equality, and celebrate one’s identity and dignity.

Ally Christmas

Ally Christmas is a visual artist whose work revolves around notions of selfhood, healing rituals, and lived experience. Her hybrid practice makes use of multiple mediums including digital video and collage, constructed imagery, quilting and embroidery, and cyanotype on handwoven fabric. She’s exhibited work at a wide variety of venues such as bitforms gallery in NYC; the Delaplaine Center for the Arts in Frederick, MD; ATHICA in Athens, GA; Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, GA; and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO.

/bodycrumbs began as a meandering, labyrinthine exploration of internal selfhood – questioning what it means to be, and tracing how all the intersecting, overlapping, conflicting parts of myself coexist together. More recently, the imagery and motivation behind the work have morphed towards a more uncomfortable exploration of external (m)otherhood – questioning who I am through the eyes of others and how I extend or project myself outwards now that I am a mother. This project has been a multi-year labor of love, and ‘labor’ is a key term I hope to unpack in this work; how can traditional forms of domestic labor (like sewing, weaving, mending, quilting) become vehicles for conveying meaning about embodiment and selfhood? While creating this work, the ritualistic processes of image and object construction have invoked both a productive form of spiritual contemplation and a (perhaps) counter-productive remove from reality (read: repression, avoidance, *anxiously laughing emoji goes here*).

Karen Duncan Pape

Karen Pape is a photographer living and working in Charlottesville, VA. After a successful career in business, she decided to pursue her first love, photography. Individual work has been shown in numerous galleries, including Praxis Gallery, D’Art Gallery, Southeast Center for Photography, and The A Smith Gallery. Recent solo Exhibits have been held at The Chroma Arts Project in Charlottesville, VA Blue Raven Gallery, Rockland, Maine, The Library Institute in New Haven, Connecticut and the University of Virginia Mortimer Caplin Law School Library.

I began “De-circulated” in 2021 as I learned that many books were being banned in US schools. When I was growing up in a small town in rural Virginia, books were my lifeline. They introduced me to other cultures, different political viewpoints, and notions of freedom and justice. Books expanded my knowledge of the world and enhanced my compassion toward those who experience the world differently. It is distressing that the alternate viewpoints which allowed me to develop an inquiring and critical mind are being repressed for our youth today.

When I started my exhibit in October of 2023, 2250 books had been banned in the US in the first 10 months. By the end of the year, that number had swelled to 4,250 books titles. The figure for the 2023-2024 school year stands at a whopping 10,000 instances of book bans, with 8,000 in Florida and Iowa alone. Florida: 4561. Iowa 2671 Texas 538, Wisconsin 408 (mostly one person, one school district), and Virginia 121.

By making multiple exposure images of banned book covers, I have rearranged the images and obliterated or made text illegible, just as restrictions on the written word ultimately curbs freedom of thought.

Asia Estelle

Asia Estelle is an African American photographer, ceramicist, and visual activist. Estelle photographs Black issues, natural hair, and explores ways to combine 2D and 3D materials. Additionally, she aspires to provide representation for Black communities and to inspire Black individuals to be confident and unapologetic. Estelle is interested in using her tools, cameras, and clay, as political instruments to empower herself and her community. Estelle was born and raised in Houston, TX, and has received an Associate of Arts degree from Lone Star College, and a BFA in Photography with a minor in Mass Communication from Texas State University​.

In this body of work, I made photographs analyzing my identity more closely and created something I felt was encompassing of its multitudes. I examined Blackness, my place within it, and what it means to exist as a Black woman. Identity, politics, community, and much more contribute to the understanding and perceptions of Blackness. This work explores my desire to participate, question, and understand the limitless cultural experiences of Blackness.

The need to understand Blackness ultimately stems from the need to understand myself. In researching Blackness, I find it is not a monolith: there is no singular Black experience. It defies polarity and exists within an in-between space that metaphorically, is gray.

The aesthetics of this work embody its sentiment as I photograph family, intimate relationships, physical and metaphorical connections, objects, and how these devices are integral to my identity. It holds personal significance because it actualizes self-love and belonging. It also acts as a catalyst for continued self-exploration. This artwork is a snapshot of my current practices as an artist and the many ways Blackness intersects in my life. It functions as a paragraph in an unfinished essay and allows me the freedom to express my narrative.

Martha Estrella

Born in Guanajuato, Mexico and currently based in Lake Jackson, Texas, Estrella is a photographer who enjoys capturing the emotional weight of everyday life. She began taking film photographs at age 12, eventually turning her passion into a serious practice in 2021. Her work often explores themes of identity, memory, belonging and the messy beauty of growing up. Estrella considers herself a creative visual artist that aims to share her journey exploring the intersection between art and everyday life.

My work is deeply tied to my bicultural identity. Born in Mexico and raised in the United States, I’ve often navigated the complexities of home, belonging, and family. In order to bridge both of my homes, I try to capture everyday moments in both the United States and Mexico.

Ashley Gillanders

Ashley Gillanders is an interdisciplinary artist from Winnipeg, Canada, currently based in Denton, TX. Her work spans photography, sculpture, and new media, exploring artificiality, perception, and the boundaries between physical and virtual space. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a New Artist Society Scholar. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent shows at Heaven Gallery, Platform Centre, ADDS DONNA, Tokyo University of the Arts, and FotoFest. In Fall 2025, she will join Midwestern State University as Assistant Professor of Art in Photography.

My interdisciplinary practice spans photography, new media, and sculpture to explore themes of illusion, artificiality, and the ways images construct our perception of reality. Across different projects, I investigate how technology mediates our relationship to space, time, and materiality—whether through the mechanics of a camera, digital simulation, AI-generated imagery, or sculptural interventions.

Wrenay Gomez Charlton

Wrenay Gomez Charlton is a Bay Area based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores memory, transience, and the relationship between nature and human-made spaces. Through photography and mixed media, she reimagines cultural symbols and investigates how space shapes identity. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including at Steven Wolfe Gallery and San Jose ICA, and featured in Shots, The SF Chronicle, and Public Art Magazine. She holds an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BA in Fine Art from Humboldt State University.

My practice explores memory, impermanence, and the relationship between physical environments and internal experience. I’m drawn to photography’s ability to hold ambiguity, to capture not only what is seen, but also what is felt or remembered. Across my work, I focus on subtle shifts, overlooked details, and the tension between presence and absence. Whether working with landscapes, still life, or constructed scenes, I use the medium to reflect on what endures, what fades, and what lingers beneath the surface.

The images I’m submitting are from my current series, Between Presence and Absence, which documents sites where victims of femicide were found-places intended to be hidden or forgotten. These forest edges, ravines, and riverbanks may appear unremarkable, but they hold the weight of violence and loss. Even as the land continues to change, traces of what happened remain embedded in the terrain.

This work examines the unsettling parallel between violence against women and the exploitation of the natural world—both often dismissed, erased, or neglected. By approaching these landscapes with care, I aim to create space for reflection and recognition. Photography becomes a way to bear witness-to bring visibility to what’s been concealed and to consider how memory is held in place.

Cynthia Greig

Cynthia Greig draws from her background in photography, printmaking, film making, and art historical research, giving visibility to the trace impressions, peripheral spaces and overlooked histories that broaden our perspectives and understanding of the human condition. Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, and is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, George Eastman Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Smith College Museum of Art, among others. Also an independent curator/writer, she co-authored the book, Women in Pants (Harry Abrams, 2003). In 2020 she relocated her studio from Detroit to northern Michigan.

While growing up, my family would drive north to vacation in rural Michigan. As we approached our summer destination, we passed two unassuming concrete buildings alongside the road—temporary living quarters for the migrant workers who also drove north but—rather than to sun and swim—to harvest cherries and other fruit during the same season.

Now living in rural northern Michigan, these same buildings continue to arrest my attention. Their anonymous architecture bears a superficial resemblance to mid-century motels—each single-story lodging punctuated by a repetition of doors and windows along an attenuated exterior. However, the drab cinder block or utilitarian facades of the “pickers’ sheds” stand in stark contrast to the motels’ more cheerful palette—sometimes mimicked by a coat of whitewash, pastel or brightly-colored paint later applied to their exteriors. Often in varied stages of disappearing—their structures survive as the remains of an agricultural economy made possible by those whose labor our food supply continues to rely upon. My images memorialize the generations of migrant workers who have brought food to our homes while far from their own, pointing to our interdependence while the current political climate attempts to scapegoat their belonging.

Joshua Haunschild

Joshua Haunschild was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. He received his BFA in Photography & Imaging from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2012 and his MFA in Photography from Arizona State University in 2019. Haunschild's work has been displayed at North Light Gallery, the Houston Center for Photography, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Artspace 111, Crooked Tree Arts Center, and Gulf & Western Gallery. He is currently an artist and professor in Denver, Colorado.

This project began with a set of E6 slides found in an abandoned carousel discarded in a trash pile in Slab City, California. Slab City, built on the site of a former military base along the Salton Sea, is home to people who live off the grid, disconnected from mainstream society. The slides document a couple’s travels across the American West in the 1970s, capturing moments from their journey through natural landmarks.

Exposed to the harsh desert elements for decades, these slides have been transformed. What were once simple travel photographs are now weathered artifacts—part of the landscape they once documented. Time has re-contextualized these images, turning them into objects that speak not just about a past journey, but also about abandonment, impermanence, and the relationship between memory and place.

I use neon backlighting to bring these images into the present, referencing the technology of old slide projectors. The work considers how time and exposure shape the objects and the memories we attach to them. As an artist concerned with land, technology, and how we interact with the environment, this project speaks to my ongoing interest in the unseen forces shaping our understanding of the world.

Jessica Hays **

Jessica Hays is a photographer, artist, and educator based in Montana and Chicago. Grounded in the American west, her work explores the long lasting effects of the land on human psyche from trauma to restoration. Hays works in a variety of processes including pigment printing, handmade books, video, and alternative process. Her work is shown internationally, received numerous awards, published in magazines and textbooks, and is held in multiple public and private collections. Hays earned her MFA in Photography from Columbia College, a BA in Film and Photography, and a BA in Environmental Studies at Montana State.

Wildfires are raging across the western United States, burning up increasingly large swaths of land every year. While fire is a natural part of many ecosystems, the increasing presence of larger, faster, and hotter fires is a reminder of the rapidly changing environment. Begun after experiencing the devastation of a wildfire in my hometown, this work explores solastalgia, which describes emotional and existential distress caused by negative environmental change, generally experienced by people with lived experience closely related to the land. Lands integral to our identity, our livelihoods, and our wellbeing are shifting and changing without notice or control. Although these are localized examples of wildland fire and the trauma that follows, collectively the scale of these events is unfathomable. Cycling endlessly from active fires to aftermath, the images reference the ever worsening pattern of climate driven fires.

Integrating photographs, moving images, and textual works, The Sun Sets Midafternoon examines the immediate aftermath of megafires on surrounding communities and what the experience of local fires are like, interweaving narratives of ecological devastation, collective trauma, and climate grief.

Juan José Herrera

Juan José Herrera Vela (Monterrey, 1973) is a visual artist and photographer whose work explores the body, performativity, and landscape through photography and video. He holds a BA and MA in Communication from Tecnológico de Monterrey, where he currently teaches. His work has been exhibited internationally, including in Buenos Aires, San Diego, and Madrid, and featured in publications like EXIT and Revista de la Universidad. He has received multiple awards and has served as a mentor in key photography programs in Mexico. A two-time member of the National System of Art Creators, he is based in Monterrey, Mexico.

As an artist and photographer, my work centers on the exploration of the human body—particularly those bodies that exist outside of hegemonic ideals. I am drawn to corpulent, robust, and diverse figures, whose presence challenges normative narratives about beauty, gender, and representation. Through photography and video, I construct staged, often minimal situations that emphasize intimacy, vulnerability, and confrontation, using the image as a space to question how identity is perceived, shaped, and politicized.

I am interested in how the body, when made visible in non-standard forms, becomes a site of resistance. These bodies are not passive subjects but active agents—marked by history, labor, desire, and emotion. My work engages with the tension between the personal and the collective, and between what is seen and what remains concealed.

I often incorporate performative gestures and choreographed stillness to disturb the viewer’s expectations and provoke new readings of the human figure. The landscape, both physical and symbolic, plays a key role in contextualizing these bodies within broader cultural frameworks, particularly those of northern Mexico.

Ultimately, my practice is about witnessing—honoring bodies in their fullness and complexity, and expanding the visual language through which we understand human nature.

Susan Isaacson **

Susan Isaacson is a photographic artist exploring themes of time, memory, and the emotional topography of life transitions. She is drawn to the natural landscape to connect with and represent her inner world. Following a twenty-year career in strategic marketing, Isaacson established a dedicated photography practice in Chicago, Illinois and Laguna Beach, California. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across the U.S. and internationally. Isaacson is represented at Perspective Gallery in Evanston IL and Alta Vista Arts. Her work is featured in Black + White Photography (UK), SHOTS, NewCity Art and LENSCRATCH. Isaacson was recognized as a 2023 and 2024 Critical Mass Finalist.

At Silver Lake: Much is lost in the act of remembering. By exploring personal photographic archives, I reclaim the sense of wonder and curiosity experienced in my youth, while idling along the shores of our family lake home or discovering new terrain. In this series, I have re-photographed vintage Kodachrome slides, inviting refracted light, environmental intrusions, and focal plane manipulations to transform the images.

There is an unpredictable magic in the recorded flecks of errant light. They connect me to an imagined world and the enduring energy of those held dear who are no longer here. During the period of making this work, both my brothers lost their battles with terminal illness. Thus, my act of recollection has been tinged with the perspective of loss and eroded by the passage of time. This collection holds layers of familial love, connection to place, and remembrance.

Damien Jackson

Damien is a Vincentian-American photographer whose work explores memory, identity, and legacy through the lens of Black life. Born in Gibraltar and raised between St. Vincent, Brooklyn, and Nashville, he brings a transnational perspective to his images. A biology major at Fisk University and a professional in medical education, Damien came to photography later in life as a self-taught artist. His ongoing project, Saltwater Memory, is a meditation on return—a visual reclamation of homeland through light, gesture, and sea. Rooted in documentary and fine art traditions, his work reflects the emotional tension between belonging, becoming, and remembrance.

This work is born of salt—of the sea, of sweat, of memory. Saltwater Memory is a visual meditation on Black boyhood, rooted in the Caribbean and framed by the emotional topography of return. As someone raised between St. Vincent, Brooklyn, and Nashville, I photograph to reconcile what was left behind with what endures. The boys in these frames leap, float, and cling—not only to boats and ropes but to ritual, freedom, and each other. The elders look up, the smoke curls skyward, and the ocean waits.

These images are not nostalgic—they are ancestral. They honor the physicality of joy, the weight of reflection, and the tenderness of land that made us and remakes us. With every frame, I ask: What does it mean to belong to a place that remembers you better than you remember it?

Isabella Kahn

Isabella Kahn is a lens-based artist born in China and living in Philadelphia as she completes her BS in Photography at Drexel University. Her creative practice navigates the tension between her personal history and global memory as a transnational, transracial adoptee, highlighting themes of identity, displacement, and family. Isabella has shown her work in nationally and internationally, in cities including Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and London. Select group exhibitions include Momentary Visions at The Print Center and Alternatives 2025: Image as Record at Ohio University. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the International Center of Photography.

32 Years Later: The Legacy of Chinese Intercountry Adoption is an ongoing series of portraits that focuses on themes of self-definition, growth, and resilience among Chinese transnational adoptees. Following the Chinese Government’s recent and sudden decision to end their foreign adoption policy, over 160,000 of us worldwide are now left to reflect on its three decades of history and nonexistent future. This conversation is extremely complex and important within contemporary dialogue, intersecting with issues of immigration, citizenship, and cultural representation. 32 Years Later recognizes the individuals impacted by the personal and political legacy of this history, analyzes how we as adoptees collectively fit under this shared identity, and celebrates the ways we have grown beyond it. For me, this represents one of the community’s many efforts to connect and heal as a diaspora of displaced peoples.

Katie Kehoe

Katie Kehoe is a multidisciplinary artist who creates speculative survival architecture and wearables to use in performance and installation she documents with still photography. Her work has been presented across the US and Canada, highlights include: The Hirshhorn Museum (DC), The Contemporary Museum (MD), Center for Maine Contemporary Art (ME), and Mother Earth Exhibition (DC). In May 2023, she attended Santa Fe Art Institute’s, International Artist Residency, Changing Climate. Kehoe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at Florida State University and completed her MFA at the Mount Royal School of Art at Maryland Institute College of Art.

In 2023, I began creating wildfire shelters as speculative survival architecture. These structures are not functional but symbolic as sculptural devices that appear to offer protection from flame, heat, and smoke exposure. The material I use to create the shelters, is not a readymade material but a combination of materials and processes that achieve a similar surface appearance to the fire shelters used by wildland firefighters. After creating the wildfire shelters, I carry out temporary site-specific installations, installing them in areas that have either been struck by a historic wildfire or are at an increasing risk of wildfire. I document the installations using still photography. I design and create the shelters myself and also carry out the site-specific installations and documentation myself. Recently, to expand on this work, I began creating wearables that also have the appearance of offering some protection against heat and flame exposure and developing a persona - The Survival Architect. The Survival Architect is a performed persona intended to present as someone who assesses wildfire risk and installs wildfire shelters in locations they perceive to be at risk. I perform the persona and document this work myself using timed photography.

Cassandra Klos

Cassandra Klos (b. 1991) is a photographer, curator, and writer currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Within her interests of science fiction, climate, and historical archives, she uses storytelling and photography as a way to breathe life into situations where visual manifestations may not be available. Her work has been exhibited and published across the United States and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Boston Public Library, and the Cassilhaus Collection and Gallery. Her work has been published in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, TIME, among others.

Across the globe, space analogs and off-planet simulations conjure visions of a new science fiction—one rooted in the tangible reality of scientific research. These environments, created to mimic the extreme conditions of lunar and Martian habitats, offer a glimpse into what space travel might be like for the first cosmic explorers. In my project "Mars on Earth," I seek to capture the intersection of human resilience and the surreal, as participants don pressurized suits, consume freeze-dried food, and maintain communication with Mission Control back on Earth.

These analogs allow us to investigate how humans can live and work in isolation, confinement, and sensory deprivation—challenges that will define future long-duration space missions. The simulated experience blurs the line between reality and fiction, creating a space where participants suspend disbelief, and the boundaries between the known and the speculative dissolve. This body of work exists within this tension, blending the real and the imagined. My goal is to build a visual archive that serves not only as a historical record but also as a wellspring of inspiration for scientists, artists, and explorers alike. My work underscores the necessity of both imagination and resilience in the pursuit of space exploration.

Marcia Levetown

After a rewarding career as a physician, I have turned my creative energies to capturing the beauty of the moment with my camera so that I can share those moments with others. My evolution from snapshots to artist was enabled through numerous classes at the Houston Center for Photography, on-site workshops with the National Parks Photographic Expeditions, online classes and constant attention to photographic art books, magazines and facebook feeds. 

I live with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is made worse by gray or dark days and is made substantially better by bright, yellow light. For this reason, I wear amber colored lenses, and the world always seems warm and positive. Colors are more saturated as I see them and this is how I represent them in my work.  Strong lines and geometric patterns also are dominant in my overall body of work.

In addition to being chosen for the 2025 Annual Exhibition at HCP, my work has been recognized in 2024 by Dodho Magazine for 2 top 100 images in the Color category and 2 top 100 images in the Fine Art category. 

I shoot many subjects, primarily architectural and abstracts, but my husband loves to take safari trips to Africa. On a transformative first trip to Botswana, we met The Empress wading through the warm morning light. She was one of the many extraordinarily beautiful animals we met in what seemed like a very up close and personal way. These meetings have led us back to various African countries 4 times since our maiden trip in 2022. 

Wen-Hang Lin

Wen-Hang Lin, a Taiwan-born photographer, ventured to America, inspired by Robert Frank's "The Americans," to explore art. Despite limited artistic support in Taiwan, Lin began his journey 30 years ago, studying at Arizona State University and earning an M.F.A. from The Ohio State University. Now based in Mesa, Arizona, Lin is a graphic designer and photographer. His art, including the double-exposure negatives of “The Riff of Silence” and the blending figures in “And I Wander,” merges realism with abstraction to explore themes of memory, identity, time, and place, connecting the tangible with personal perception.

In my ongoing series, "And I Wander," I explore the intricate relationship between identity and belonging, drawing on my experience as a Taiwanese immigrant navigating the United States over the past 30 years. The series captures a range of emotions—from belonging to alienation—through images featuring a fluid, nebulous figure moving between the American Southwest and Taiwan, symbolizing both past and present. This figure embodies the immigrant experience, reflecting the profound sense of displacement felt after being away from home for decades. Through this work, I examine the challenges of assimilation and the emotional pull of one’s origins. My artistic approach incorporates carnival mirrors, crafted to reflect my silhouette and placed within landscapes. These mirrored figures, interacting with light and environment, blur the line between reality and illusion, emphasizing the complexities of cultural adaptation and the ongoing search for belonging in a foreign land.

Chris May

Carolyn Monastra uses photography, video, and community-engagement to address environmental concerns and examine human’s relationship with our ecosystems. Awards include grants from the Puffin Foundation and BRIC Arts Media, along with residencies at Ucross, Djerassi, and Blue Mountain Center, among others. Monastra earned a BA in English Literature from Fordham University and an MFA from Yale. Her artwork is in the Marguiles and Johnson & Johnson collections and has been exhibited in venues in the United States, China, Ireland, and England. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and works wherever birds are found.

My conceptual project, “Divergence of Birds,” takes inspiration from two texts: The Audubon Society’s “Birds and Climate Change Report” which projects that, by 2080, climate change will affect the range of habitat of over half of North American birds; and P.K. Dick’s 1968 dystopian novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” where electric versions of once-commonplace animals are so realistic that they even fool humans. Divergence of Birds addresses the prospect that, one day, only simulacra of climate-impacted animals may be left.

For this project I photograph paper cutouts of climate-threatened birds in their current natural habitats to allude to the fact that, without conservation measures, we might only have facsimiles of our wildlife to enjoy. To create exhibition work that has a lower carbon footprint than traditional framed prints and references the precariousness of these birds’ survival, I create “faux daguerreotypes” by printing the photos on aluminum plates and inserting them in vintage photo cases. These “memento mori” serve as both a warning and call to action to protect our birds before it is too late to preserve them.

Liz Moskowitz

Liz Moskowitz is a documentary photographer and filmmaker. Much of her work stems from an attempt to understand and honor the dignity and nuances of people, places, and issues. She approaches each individual and community that she photographs with intentionality and an open-mind. Her photo projects oftentimes include direct quotes from participants as a way to make the photographic process more collaborative and inclusive. She is a member of Women Photograph and the recipient of grants from The Dallas Museum of Art, the Henry Luce Foundation, Austin Film Society, Preservation Austin, the Summerlee Foundation, and the City of Austin. Several of her photos were acquired by the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University. She holds a BA in Photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

A Path of Impermanence: life along a highway expansion is a documentary photo project of the people, places, and landscapes impacted by a large-scale highway expansion in Austin, Texas. The images and interview quotes, collected from March-September 2024, speak to broader themes of displacement, community, memory, and change. All photographs were shot on 120mm film with a medium format camera.

The I-35 Capital Express Central Project is currently underway, the beginning of potentially a decade of construction to widen the main highway that runs through Austin, Texas. It is the largest expansion of I-35 in Austin’s history and more than 50 businesses were displaced, many of which were small, local businesses that had been a part of Austin’s cultural landscape for years

While I was doing archival research for the project, I looked through visual records of I-35’s divisive development over the past century, and the absence of people was pronounced, particularly communities and identities that have traditionally been neglected and historically underrepresented in archival and artistic spaces. Consequently, I wanted my work to primarily be a vessel through which the stories of those impacted could be witnessed.

Carlos Ocando

Carlos Ocando is a Venezuelan-American photographer that specializes in the natural landscapes, the urban landscape, the urban abstraction and liminal spaces. Exploring his surroundings looking for answers for questions from within, trying to find meaning in a new life, in a new country where there are no roots and a whole lot of uncertainty.

My intention in this body of work is to capture the spirit of the trees, peaceful and powerful, the harsh beauty of nature. Utilizing long exposures in camera as a tool to capture the movement of the trees dancing with the wind, their stillness over the water and even happy accidents like a bird flying in front of the lens to create a whooshing effect, like the spirit of nature winking at us.

Valentine Ollawa

Valentine Ollawa is a Nigerian-American photographer and multidisciplinary artist born in Nigeria and based in Texas. His work explores themes of identity, memory, and spirituality across the Black diaspora, bringing a depth of conversation and poetic discipline to his visual stories. Using a documentary and journalistic approach, he reimagines everyday moments as sites of resistance, beauty, and meditation. His photographs construct visual narratives that retell stories and reclaim space for stories shaped by migration, identity, and ancestral memory.

Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst explores the fragile yet resilient intersection where Black childhood encounters the weight of societal expectation. Focusing on play—an inherent right often prematurely revoked—this series confronts the adultification of Black youth in America, visualizing playfulness as both resistance and reclamation. Documenting intimate moments of tenderness, acts of care, and unapologetic joy, to assert the presence of Black youth in spaces historically denied to them. Intentionally removing background contexts and using compositions to underscore the resilience and vulnerability of the depicted moments, transforms the subjects and their expressions into symbolic acts of resistance against cultural and social invisibility.

Donna Pinckley

Pinckley has received Visual Artist Fellowships from the Mid-America Arts Alliance/NEA and the Arkansas Arts Council. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in over 200 solo/juried shows. Pinckley was a finalist for the Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture and won First place for People/Culture at the International Photography Awards, She was awarded an Honorarium at the Houston Center for Photography’s Members Show and she has been selected for PhotoLucida’s Critical Mass Top 50 exhibition. She has been published in GEO Germany, Black and White (UK), Black and White and online publications www.slate.com, www.theguardian.com, www.huffingtonpost.com.

Passages and Transitions: My husband suddenly died of a cardiac arrest twenty years ago and now I find myself the same age as him when he died. I never really grieved because I had our six-year-old daughter to raise. The loneliness and isolation just became my norm. This body of work reflects not only the time surrounding his death, but it also references some of the ghosts that I have come across in the twenty years since.

Allison Plass

Allison Plass is a Fine Art photographer living in NYC. She received her MA in Art History at UC Santa Barbara where she explored gender and representation in European Art. She completed the Advanced Track Program at the International Center of Photography in New York in 2020. She has been featured in group, and juried exhibitions in the US, Europe, and Asia. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, as the 2023 First Prize winner in the KLPA Portrait Awards, and she is a 2023 LensCulture Portrait Award Finalist. She is the first recipient of the Salon Jane Award, 2024.

My photographic practice is influenced by art history, the natural world, and the intersection of cultural myths and stories we carry about our own lives. In my ongoing series, "Boys in the Garden", I situate my husband and two teenage sons within imaginary frames of possibility. What does it feel like for those who identify as boys and men to have only been given one story? In the space of the garden, old ideas of patriarchy give way to more generative forces, which complicate notions of gender and identity, individualism and connectedness. Scenes of transformation, fragility, and impermanence in the natural world come to mirror their own stages in life as they negotiate youth and middle age in a shifting cultural landscape. Inspired by art history, fairytale, and myth, I ask them to enact a kind of mock theater, reimagining cultural mythologies of the past while exploring new stories as they emerge. I come to see this journey as my own, a hybrid recognition of what it means to be human.

Jann Rosen-Queralt

Jann Rosen-Queralt is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and scuba diver whose work address the poetic nature of water, exploring social and ecological relationships connected to universal themes. Since 2020, she has shown underwater photographs in dozens of exhibitions nationally. Following retirement from a decades-long career at MICA, where she was Director of the Rinehart Graduate School of Sculpture, Jann now dedicates herself full time to her art practice. She is currently preparing for a grant-supported solo exhibition of her photos and artworks highlighting human impact on marine and arctic environs at Baltimore's Peale Museum in June of 2025.

I am an interdisciplinary artist, scuba diver and researcher creating art that connects human experience to life across ecosystems. I see myself as both visionary and aesthetician, balancing between collaborator and provocateur to trigger awareness of arctic and aquatic environments. Bolstered by my dive experience, I view these extreme terrains as spaces where infinite combinations of stillness/frenzy, light/dark, color/monochrome and life/death are present and constantly in flux. Some of my underwater images challenge a sense of scale, while others trick the eye - upon inspection a “bird” may transform into a fish and the “clouds” might morph into bubbles churning below the waters’ surface. A recent series of black and white underwater photographs are informed by documentary techniques of 19th century western landscape photographers who engaged the enormity of space, visited monumental geologic formations, and included information locating their images in space and time. Acknowledging that one’s sense of place is derived from merging personal geography with our ecological landscape, these projects call attention to our cultural legacy and potential for stewardship. Most people will never visit these domains, but in revealing what goes unseen, I create a context in which one considers their impact on marine and environmental health.

Alberto Sanchez

Alberto “ALBERT” Sanchez is a Tejano artist working in cyanotype, textile, and oral tradition to process memory, grief, and transformation. Rooted in the borderlands and shaped by years of archival photographic work, their practice reclaims abstraction as an Indigenous language of becoming. Guided by shared joy, improvisation, and the unexpected lessons of collaboration, they create with others as a way of learning. From Liminal Space, they recently completed Cyanomation, a hand-exposed cyanotype-based experimental film, and are weaving a mythic book project from familial song, spectral crossings, and collective care.

These works are part of a broader visual mythology shaped during my thesis, where cyanotype and oral tradition become tools for witnessing, remembering, and reimagining. My hand-exposed cyanotypes are not documents but residues—imprints of breath, grief, and transformation. The Codex series reclaims abstraction as an Indigenous inheritance, drawing from glyphic language and emotional weather to hold what resists translation. Cyanomation was created in joyful collaboration with Dominick—an experimental film composed entirely of hand-exposed cyanotypes. Born from curiosity and play, the project extends this slow practice into movement, animating personal mythologies shaped by familial song and spectral memory. Whether still or in motion, these works reflect a belief in process as offering, and in the sacred possibilities of making together.

Simon Silva

I’m Simon Silva, a photographer born and raised on the southwest side of Houston, Texas. Growing up surrounded by a rich mix of cultures deeply shaped how I see the world—and how I choose to frame it. My work centers on portraying Black and Brown communities, especially Latinx life, with care, dignity, and complexity. It’s a response to the shallow or negative portrayals that dominate mainstream narratives. I aim to show moments of intimacy, joy, tension, and everyday beauty—images that feel real because they are.

I shoot digital because it gives me full creative control. Photoshop lets me experiment without boundaries, while staying true to the emotion of an image. Wide-angle shots are a signature of my style—they let me bring the subject’s world into the frame, showing how environment shapes identity. To me, context is everything.

I’m influenced by Gordon Parks’ raw, human storytelling and Richard Avedon’s precise, almost surreal compositions. I try to strike a balance—images that feel grounded but slightly otherworldly, emotional but composed. Ultimately, I want my work to feel like a conversation. I want the people I photograph to feel seen, and for viewers to see them—and maybe their own communities—in a new light.

Saba Sitton

Saba is part of the present day Persian diaspora. Her work engages with the ephemeral nature of time and memory. In her work she explores transitory moments where past and present converge, creating a liminal space of in-betweenness. Having lived in diverse cultural contexts, Saba has experienced navigating the complexities of cultural hybridity and the negotiation of multiple languages and traditions. Her work is influenced by Persian art and literature, which she reinterprets through the lens of a modern, multicultural society. Saba studied at the California Institute of the Arts and the University of Oregon, where she earned her MFA. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and in Europe, contributing to a broader discourse on diasporic identity and cultural memory.

My work offers a reflection on the poetics of migration and the stories of exile. The work explores transitory instances of time when one’s awareness is threaded between the present and a similar moment remembered from the past. At times, these threaded moments have hard juxtapositions due to differences from a change of context, the passage of time, or a change of place. Other times, they blend and fuse to create a sense of continuity.

As an Iranian-American artist my work echoes attributes of early Persian art and metaphors. It is inspired by idealized landscapes and intricate designs found in Persian miniature paintings. In my work, a flower, a tree, or an intricately woven pattern of branches, become visual metaphors for a sense of connection with a remembered past.

The poems I include in my work are written by contemporary Persian poets. The poems are an accompanying voice and an integral element woven into the visual presence of each piece. Sometimes the poems echo a sense of hope or longing, other times they evoke a sense of disorientation or doubt, as might be felt by one on a life’s journey, of being in-between.

Chip Standifer

As a well-travelled but odd and disconnected child, I was always a keen observer of people, places and situations. At the age of 12, I built a pinhole camera and discovered the delights of creating images, developing film, and the magic of photographic images emerging from the darkness. My work has been juried into shows at the Atlanta Photography Group, Photographer’s Eye Collective, the Photo Place Gallery, FotoFoto Gallery, SOHO Photo Gallery, the Southeastern Center for Photography, Atlanta Airport, Marietta Cobb Art Museum The Fence Regional Show, Slow Exposures, South By Southeast Gallery and The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

Precious Stories: My work is about precious connections to place and the past. I photograph objects and locations which tie directly to or represent my memories and emotions of my family as the objects, the origin and the storytellers themselves vanish, preserving and embellishing these memories as new artifacts in pigment, gold and silver.

Each print is unique bearing the marks of my hand as I apply the gold or silver.

Lieh Sugai

Japanese-born Lieh Sugai is a visual artist based in New York, specializing in photography and video. Her work explores the shared memories between people and places, reflecting on how they evolve through time, events, and cultural shifts. Utilizing her dual perspective as a Japanese immigrant living in America, she brings a unique depth to her art. While studying Graphic Design at Pratt Institute, Lieh discovered a profound connection to photography, which soon became her primary means of navigating and conveying diverse cultural landscapes, seamlessly blending conceptual and documentary practices.

KAIKOU—meaning “encounter” in Japanese—is a body of work composed of photographic images and chemigram, a historical photographic technique where photographic paper and chemicals interact to create organic visual reactions.

These images were created between my two homes, Japan and America, over several years. During a time when I couldn't return to Japan, I sought out familiar subjects in America that evoked memories of my homeland. By tracing light and shadow, I gathered fragments of memory, weaving them together into a pathway that led me back to the idea of “home.”

While KAIKOU reflects a deep sense of nostalgia and longing for my birthplace, it transcends personal memory. It is a spiritual journey through a shifting landscape of recollection, where reality and illusion intertwine. In navigating this terrain of memory, I encounter both the past and present, ultimately discovering a profound sense of belonging.

James Tiebout

I graduated with honors from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1974 with a BS in Graphic Arts and became interested in photography while at RIT. In the summer of 1975 I took 1 a photography class taught by Charles Hagen, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY. I enrolled in the Glassell School of Art in a photography class taught by Casey Williams in 1979. I was one of the founding members of Houston Center for Photography in 1981, and participated in shows at local galleries and a members show at the Friends of Photography. I designed their quarterly magazine, initially called IMAGE, later changed to SPOT, as well as posters, catalogs, and exhibition announcements for them.

These photographs explore the effects of storms and hurricanes on Buffalo Bayou in Houston, TX. The floodwater leaves a trail of debris behind that shows the fragility of life as the man-made and the natural intersect. The trees and bushes are reshaped by the strength of the water and transformation happens with the interplay of wind & water, light & color, form & substance, resulting in abstract, calligraphic images with their own beauty. I first experienced this on my walks along the bayou after Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. I have continued to photograph the changes that happen to the bayou with each new storm, rainfall, high tide, and season.

William Karl Valentine

I am a documentary photographer living in Newport Beach, California. I was born (1963) and raised in Pasadena, California. I earned a BFA in photography at Arizona State University in 1986. I have exhibited photographs in 60 exhibitions (solo and group) and I have prints in a number of permanent collections. I authored a photography book on the Santa Anita Racetrack and my most recognized work to date documented the Pasadena Police Department in the 1980's during the height of the rock cocaine era.

I was in Pasadena on January 7th when the Eaton Fire started. My 98-year-old mom still lives in the house I grew up in, and I was up there dealing with yard debris from the high winds, and to get her some groceries. I first smelled the smoke from the Eaton Fire as I walked into the market around 6:30 pm, but I couldn’t see the fire. Inside I heard people talk about a fire then I got a phone call which confirmed Eaton Canyon was on fire. When I left the parking lot I saw the fire and it was raging. I photographed as I could while the fire was burning, and I have returned to document the devastation over 25 times since. The fire killed 17 people and destroyed 9,000 homes; I know dozens of people who lost homes. It is hard to comprehend the scope of the devastation unless you witness it. By documenting as much as I can I hope to preserve history and allow others to have better understanding of the size and emotional impact of this fire on community members.

Zuya Yang

Zuya Yang is a lens-based artist and bookmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Her practice examines the landscape as an ongoing process emerges from entanglement of human action, non-human agencies, historical forces and spectacle. She employs photographic process as a form of slow reconnaissance, tracing and using aesthetic as a clue to tackle the invisible and ephemeral layers of the everyday façade. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Qiong Hua, or Chinese Viburnum, is the provincial flower of my mother’s hometown, Hainan Island. Using Qiong Hua as a thread, I began photographing my aunts living in rural Hainan, tracing a form of femininity and a soft resistance that unsettles the gaze and reclaims lived experiences. Through fragments of their daily routines of labor and recreation, I trace the multifaceted nature of resilience that is ordinary, nuanced, and tender in the fragments of sisterhood, care and joy.

Joshua Yates

Joshua Yates is a photographer based in Savannah, Georgia. His journey started at 15 in a high school darkroom, sparking a lifelong connection to analog photography. His current work combines medium and large format film with traditional darkroom and alternative photographic processes. Through his lens, he explores themes of solitude, loss, and transformation, particularly in abandoned industrial spaces and forgotten architecture. An emerging artist with recent group exhibition features, Yates is expanding his documentary scope through cross-country travels in a former Amazon delivery van, capturing America's overlooked spaces along the way.

In this black and white film photography series, I document abandoned structures across the southeastern United States. Through analog processes, I capture moments of eerie beauty and quiet solitude in forgotten spaces - sites with which I find unexpected kinship.

This body of work emerged during a profound personal transition as I left both my marriage and career. Living part-time in my van while traversing the American South became both a physical and emotional journey. As my own life dismantled, I was drawn to spaces that mirrored this experience of abandonment. The region's landscape of boom-and-bust economies, rapid development alongside rural decline, resonated deeply with my internal state.

These abandoned spaces became reflections of my personal apocalypse: structures of a former life, now vacant and transformed. Photography evolved into a form of meditation, with each exposure a deliberate act of witnessing both their story and my own.

The black and white medium distilled this experience to its essence: light emerging from shadow, presence defined by absence, and endings containing the seeds of beginnings.

Torrance York

Torrance York is a lens-based artist living in Connecticut. Her new series, Extant, builds on her Semaphore project. A 2021 Critical Mass Finalist and Lenscratch Art+Science Award recipient, Semaphore has been shown at Rick Wester Fine Art, and the United Nations, NYC, and the Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA. Work from both series’ will be exhibited at St. Lawrence University in October. York earned a BA from Yale, an MFA from RISD, was a resident artist at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and received a 2010 Connecticut Artist grant. Collections holding York’s photographs include the Addison Gallery of American Art.

There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD). In Extant, I delve into the psychological experience of having PD. The non-motor symptoms of depression, anxiety, and disorientation, and the primitive responses of fear, fight or flight that they provoke, are my subject. Using the camera to capture perspectives or compositions the unaided eye cannot perceive, I aim to make the unseen seen. Parkinson’s disease is the world’s fastest-growing brain disorder; currently, over ten million people live with Parkinson’s worldwide.