EXHIBIT Closed on April 23rd 2017

Juror: Gary Samson

Juror's Choice: The Sleep by Florin Ion Firimita

"And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?" - Walt Whitman 

Exhibit Calendar (Subject to Change)
Exhibit Opens:	30 March 17
Artists' Reception:	9 April 17 15:00
Exhibit Closes:	23 April 17
BODY/IMAGE Exhibit Catalog now available at PrestoPhoto The Darkroom Gallery Difference

In the earliest days of experiments in photographic methodology the various emulsions available were too slow to permit the portrayal of the human form, and even more advanced processes like daguerreotype and tintype required lengthy motionless sitting times by the subject. Nevertheless, the human figure has been mainstay of the photographer since almost the inception of the medium. Figure photography imitating the style and subjects of classical painting constituted some of the fine art photography of the time. As technology advanced, photographers began to create their own figure photography sub-genres, ranging from the crass to the sublime.Fine art figure photography is now routinely taught in art curriculums.

For this exhibition we're looking for examples of accomplished photography that present the human body as subject. The nude in nature, in the studio, and in more candid situations are all appropriate. And nudity is not necessary; any photo that depicts the body as an artful form to be celebrated is appropriate. 

Juror’s Statement: I want to start out by saying how impressed I am with the quality and breadth of this show, it was extremely difficult to make the final selections presented here in the gallery. This exhibition very successfully explores both traditional approaches to photographing the figure as exemplified by the direct portrait studies and the nude figures integrated into natural landscape as well as more experimental work where real risks were taken to push the idea of the figure into new and exciting visual territory. It is very apparent that the photographers included in the show have a solid understanding of the history of photography and how the nude figure fits into the medium as fine art subject matter. The great intimacy found in some of the work here is to be highly commended as well as the willingness to push boundaries and reinterpret the figure through the use of bold color, strong compositions and innovative ways to look at the human form.  Gary Samson Chair, Photography Department New Hampshire Institute of Art Manchester, NH

Juror: Gary Samson

Gary Samson is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer. His work is in private and public collections including the Currier Gallery of Art, the University of New Hampshire and the National Archives, Washington, D.C. He is the author of three books on New Hampshire history and has photographically illustrated other books on Ghana, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and New Orleans. 

After graduating from Franklin Institute in Boston in 1971, he came to UNH as the photo lab technician in Media Services, Dimond Library. In 1974, he began producing films and exhibitions on New Hampshire history and culture. It was during this period that he came to appreciate the importance of creating and preserving photographic collections for future generations. He later worked with German photographer Lotte Jacobi creating a film biography and establishing an archive of her work at Dimond Library, UNH. 

Gary left the university in 2000 when he was appointed the chair of the BFA Photography program at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. He has had a long relationship with the Institute starting in 1981. He  established the Certificate in Photography Program in 1984 and has taught photography courses and workshops there for thirty-six consecutive years.

 His personal approach to photography is to make extended portraits over a period of time. “I see the process of creating a portrait as a collaboration between myself and the subject in the subject's familiar environment. That environment is an instrumental part of the portrait, revealing a facet of the subject's character. While I am setting up my camera, I try to draw the subject out in conversation and the ensuing dialogue will shape my portrayal of the individual. And like the portrait photographer Arnold Newman, I often prefer to use a view camera and black-and-white film to create my photographic portraits.”

 Gary’s most recent exhibition was “Unburdened Beauty: A Decade of Nude Portraits” at the Vermont Center for Photography in September, 2016.

• All selected entries are exhibited in our gallery and included in a full color exhibit catalog;
• Juror's Choice receives a 30x48" vinyl exhibit banner featuring their image, free entry into a future exhibition, a free exhibition catalog;
• Honorable Mentions receive free exhibition catalogs and free entry in a future exhibition. 
• People's Choice gains free entry into a future exhibit.
• We offer free matting and framing of accepted entries for the duration of each of our exhibition, subject to standard sizes. Photographers set their own prices if they wish to sell their work and retain all rights to their photographs.

EXHIBIT Closed on June 18th 2017

Juror: Bruce Gilden

Juror's Choice Superhero, 2016 by Merrilee Luke-Ebbeler Cincinnati, OH USA

I love the people I photograph. I mean, they’re my friends. I’ve never met most of them or I don’t know them at all, yet through my images I live with them.   Bruce Gilden

Exhibit Calendar (Subject to Change)
Exhibit Opens:	25 May 17
Artists' Reception:	10 June 17 17:00
Exhibit Closes:	18 June 17
Streetwise Exhibit Catalog now available at PrestoPhoto The Darkroom Gallery Difference

Street photography records the human experience as it happens, minute to minute, second to second. Its hallmark is immediacy and its challenge is to capture, at precisely the right instant, the drama of everyday life. While street photography is so often associated with big cities, especially New York City, any public space, from small town Main Street to the county fair, can yield genuine human drama.
If your pictures aren’t good enough, then you’re not getting close enough. Robert Capa

Getting close enough to one’s subject(s) is difficult for most of us, and yet it’s essential to making effective street photographs. For this exhibit Darkroom Gallery and juror Bruce Gilden looked for photographs that illustrate the interplay of human activity and that seize the moment.

 

Juror’s Statement: It was a very hard choice to pick the winner but in the end, there was something in the photo of the boy with the mask. This photo is not a cliché. Overall most of the work missed the mark, some narrowly others by a mile. Many of the photos were too cramped on one side and had too much space on the other side. A good photograph works well across the whole frame. In closing, street photography as a genre is very difficult to do well. One suggestion I have: keep it simple. Crawl before you walk. Bruce Gilden

Superhero, 2016. Juror's Choice Merrilee Luke-Ebbeler Cincinnati, Oh United States	untitled Honorable Mention John Waller Holyoke, MA United States	Steps Honorable Mention Merethe Wessel-Berg Oslo, Norway
Agricultural Fair Honorable Mention Robert Rutoed Vienna, Austria	Willets Point People's Choice Cat Cutillo South Burlington, VT USA	Petticoat Lane Market, London A.G. McQuillan Missoula, MT USA
Wedding on the Hudson 1 Barbara Ehlers New York, New York United States	At the Ice Cream Truck Barbara Ehlers New York, New York United States	Herb Boba Fett Remulak, Space France
kids. Crummy Gummy Orlando, FL USA	Dolly Danyelle Farrell Boston, Lincolnshire UK	The Shopper Danyelle Farrell Boston, Lincolnshire UK
Hypnotized Clown Darren Port Northampton, MA USA	Double Birthday Darren Port Northampton, MA USA	Hat, San Jose, CA David Clarkson Monterey, CA United States
Lipstick David Whitney Andover, MA United States	Lost in the city Dimo Dimov Sofia, Bulgaria	Subway Glance Erik S. Lieber Brooklyn, NY USA
42nd Street, January 21, 2017 Gabrielle Robinson New York, New York USA	An older self, Tamarama Rocks Joey Solomon Forest Hills, New York USA	untitled John Waller Holyoke, MA United States
You'll Never Walk Alone Jolanta Mazur Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Onwards We Go Jolanta Mazur Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Views Kristen Victoria Harner Damascus, MD USA
Cinema, 1 Lawrence Michael Lee New York, New York USA	telephone Maureen Bond Granada Hills, CA USA	Explorer Meredith Moore Brooklyn, NY United States
Spring Grove Cemetery Wedding, 2015. Merrilee Luke-Ebbeler Cincinnati, Oh United States	Dark CIty #2 michele palazzo new york, New York United States	5th avenue 1 Nei Valente New York, NY United States
5th avenue 2 Nei Valente New York, NY United States	Lost Elmo Nei Valente New York, NY United States	Blue Front Cafe Norma McGehee Woodward Fredericksburg, VA USA
Easter 6 ORESTES GONZALEZ long island city, New York United States	Easter 10 ORESTES GONZALEZ long island city, New York United States	Soho Paul Kessel New York, NY USA
South Williamsburg Paul Kessel New York, NY USA	Western & Santa Monica, L.A. #1 - 2014 Richard Greene Los Angeles, CA USA	Christ Died for Our Sin, NY, NY, 2015 Robert A. Virga Fort Lee, New Jersey USA
5th Avenue, NY, NY, 2012 Robert A. Virga Fort Lee, New Jersey USA	Chauffeur, NY, NY, 2015 Robert A. Virga Fort Lee, New Jersey USA	Holiday Fair Robert Rutoed Vienna, Austria
N.O.A.H Tao He Baltimore, MD United States	N.O.A.H Tao He Baltimore, MD United States	N.O.A.H Tao He Baltimore, MD United States
Got a Light? WEDNESDAY AJA Dana Point, CA USA	Homemade Cookies Zoe Perry-Wood Lexington, MA United States

• All selected entries are exhibited in our gallery and included in a full color exhibit catalog;
• Juror's Choice receives a 30x48" vinyl exhibit banner featuring their image, free entry into a future exhibition, a free exhibition catalog;
• Honorable Mentions receive free exhibition catalogs and free entry in a future exhibition. 
• People's Choice gains free entry into a future exhibit.
• We offer free matting and framing of accepted entries for the duration of each of our exhibition, subject to standard sizes. Photographers set their own prices if they wish to sell their work and retain all rights to their photographs.

Juror: Bruce Gilden

Bruce Gilden and his photography are inextricably linked. Hours as a child looking at tough guys on the bustling streets of Brooklyn from his second-story window shaped Gilden’s attraction to his photographic subjects. Gilden is a street photographer. He is best known for his candid close-up photos of people on the streets of New York City, using a flashgun. He has had numerous books of his work published, and is the subject of the documentary film: Misery Loves Company: The Life and Death of Bruce Gilden (2007). He has worked in black & white photography most of his life, but recently has begun shooting color and digital in recent years.

EXHIBIT Closed on May 21st 2017

Juror: David H. Wells

Torn by Gary Mitchell

Chiaroscuro [kee-ahr-uh-skyoo-roh] is defined as "the distribution of light and shadow in an image" or " the use of deep variations and subtle gradations of light and shade, especially to en-hance the delineation of character and for general dramatic purposes". To the photo-grapher the play of light and shadow is the very essence of the medium.

Exhibit Calendar (Subject to Change)
Exhibit Opens:	27 April 17
Artists' Reception:	13 May 17 16:00
Exhibit Closes:	21 May 17
Chiaroscuro Exhibit Catalog now available at PrestoPhoto The Darkroom Gallery Difference

The many nuances and subtleties in the contrast of shadow and light are crucial in establishing a photographic narrative. Light can glow, dance, blaze, bounce and flash. It can be dim or radiant, brilliant or gloomy. Shadow can cut through an image like a blade or reveal an object in the finest gradients.

For this exhibition, we're looking for photographs that graphically illustrate the interplay of shadow and light, darkness and illumination. How have you utilized the relationship between light and shadow to create drama, emotion and nuance in your photos? Chiaroscuro is your opportunity to show off your photographic vision of darkness and light.

Juror’s Statement: Jurying the Chiaroscuro work was a fascinating experience. A couple things struck me immediately. While color photography seems to be everywhere these days, the vast majority of the work that was submitted was in black and white (or at least that is what struck me.) With the theme being Chiaroscuro, as in "the distribution of light and shadow in an image,” that tendency towards black and white was not a complete surprise. Having said that, the word Chiaroscuro usually references classical paintings, which were usually done in color. I did notice that the best images in this set (both color as well as black and white) often referenced classical paintings in terms of having lots of chunks of black, great beams of light and wonderful distributions of tones. The best color images generally had fairly subdued colors which is something you often see in classical paintings with great Chiaroscuro. Since my own work features a fair amount of Chiaroscuro and is mostly in color these days, I am not completely surprised that the imagery I was drawn to had those traits. While the imagery I was drawn to had plenty of Chiaroscuro, the best images had something more. I passed over plenty of images that had great play of light and shadow, but the winning images were the ones that used dramatic light and shadow in support of some larger message. The images I selected for the show and especially the "Juror's Choice" and the three "Honorable Mentions” exemplify that. Each image has a great story within it, a story that is made much stronger by the use of Chiaroscuro. When I am out photographing that is what I too am looking for! I congratulate the winners whose work had that ideal balance of form and content, as in having beautiful Chiaroscuro and a great story within each image. David H. Wells Narrative Visuals

Juror: David H. Wells

David H. Wells is a visual storyteller whose photography and film making straddle the line between fine art and the documentary. His hybrid work is created on commercial assignment and through grant-funded projects Wells uses still, time-lapse, and moving images as well as audio to create award-winning narratives.He is affiliated with Aurora Photos, with past assignments for Life Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, to name a few. His work has been featured in solo exhibits at Brown University, U.C. Berkeley, and Harvard University. Wells has taught classes at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Maine Media Workshops. He is on the faculty of the International Center for Photography in NYC, He was featured in Photo District News as a "Best Workshop Instructor".

• All selected entries are exhibited in our gallery and included in a full color exhibit catalog;
• Juror's Choice receives a 30x48" vinyl exhibit banner featuring their image, free entry into a future exhibition, a free exhibition catalog;
• Honorable Mentions receive free exhibition catalogs and free entry in a future exhibition. 
• People's Choice gains free entry into a future exhibit.
• We offer free matting and framing of accepted entries for the duration of each of our exhibition, subject to standard sizes. Photographers set their own prices if they wish to sell their work and retain all rights to their photographs.