First, we the coordinators want to thank all of you who submitted to this call. Due to the amount of entries, the jurors had a lot of amazing work to choose from, making it all the more difficult. With the collaboration of Scott Dietrich and Ellen Wallenstein, we present you to the final list of selected artists for the
First MFA Photography Juried Exhibition
Alphabetical (last name)
1. Deanne Andrus
2. Allison Barnes
3. Jamie Carayiannis
4. Louise Field
5. Sergei Isaenko
6. Ashley Jones
7. Gina Phillips
8. Naimar Ramirez
9. Jagrut Raval
10. Casey Riggs
11. Ian Rillet
12. Kate Wimer
Juror, Ellen Wallenstein wrote a personal note, addressed to all who submitted:
Judging from on-line entries
is certainly not the easiest though it is the most convenient way to look at
work from a thousand miles away. There is no way to really ascertain the power
of the printed image - some entries looked great online while others did not
translate well, especially those involving alternate processing. I would have
liked to see all the actual pictures.
The photographs came first.
Looking at the five images as a whole came next. Thirdly, I re-read the
statements and thought about how they meshed with the work. In some cases (those I didn’t pick) I felt
that the set of 5 were not totally strong as a whole, or that one threw it off,
or that I’ve seen that kind of work before, done better. (Sorry, but that’s reality.)
Also where some concepts and
styles seemed similar I picked the ones that spoke most forcefully to me.
As someone who has taught
and practiced darkroom principles for decades, I’ve been rather slow to embrace
and appreciate digital image making, especially those in which the skill of
using a photoshop program seems to be the point of the images. That’s my prejudice and my truth, though I
tried to stay open to everything and everyone.
There is a great diversity
of work here, and all of it (chosen or not) is exciting and most meaningful.
Congratulations to you all.
Thank you for the
opportunity to jury this exhibition.
Ellen Wallenstein
New York City
