EXHIBIT Closed on August 13th 2017

Juror: Catherine Just


Juror's Choice: To Burn in Effigy
by Joshua McGowan
Baldwin, Georgia USA

A philosopher once wrote “The face is the soul of the body”. While one might not agree with the implications of that statement, a person’s facial expressions are a reflection of their personality whether or not they are aware of it.  As photographers, we are more or less successful at capturing the essence of a person in a single photo. 

Exhibit Calendar (Subject to Change)
Exhibit Opens:20 July 17
Artists' Reception:5 August 17 16:00
Exhibit Closes:13 August 17
The Face
Exhibit Catalog now available at PrestoPhoto

The Darkroom Gallery Difference

It’s redundant to say that faces are pictured everywhere now that digital media and the internet put literally billions of images in front of us every day.  And yet the oversaturation created by social media and selfies has made it, if anything, more difficult to create an image that goes to the essence of the subject. The existence of facial recognition software and the consequent loss of personal boundaries may contribute to a guardedness that makes emotional expression feel even more threatening.  Thus the challenge to the photographer is to establish a rapport that creates openness. This can even apply in self portraiture.

The purpose of this exhibition is to reveal the emotion, intelligence, passion, character, and immense variety expressed in the human face.  Whether your métier is the self portrait or photographing others, we’d like to see your work.

Juror’s Statement:

It was such an honor to be the juror of this exhibition. I was moved by the wide range of unique expression all under the topic of “the face”. It was a difficult process for me to choose just 55 images. MANY were so strong that it made it hard to edit them out of the shows final selection. For me what makes an image strong isn’t as much about just perfecting the technical aspects, but to be able to pull the viewer in emotionally. This takes a variety of skill, some seen in the image and some unseen, but deeply felt. I was inspired by what I saw and felt throughout this process. There are so many talented photographers who submitted work! I’m grateful for the opportunity to not only view what I consider very vulnerable work, but to witness beautiful choices in the way the internal landscape and external moments and emotions were expressed visually. Congratulations to all of you who submitted work. Keep going. It’s so important that we share our unique points of view.

Catherine Just

Juror: Catherine Just

Catherine Just is an award winning photographer, artist and mentor living part time in both Los Angeles, California and Paris, France. Her career began in 1987 while studying photography, film and video at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Catherine's work has been published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, inside Oprah.com and PDN.com as well as galleries around the globe including her most recent collaborative show in Paris.

She believes photography can be used to gather  evidence of what exists between words and to document the unseen but deeply felt spaces and places within the internal and external landscape.

Catherine teaches popular workshops and courses both online and in person as well as creating images for highly visible artists for their websites, books and creative projects.

www.catherinejust.com