Filter Photo is pleased to announce Context 2018

Filter Photo is pleased to announce Context 2018, our annual spring open call for lens-based work. This year the exhibition was juried by April M. Watson, Curator of Photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Context 2018 opens March 16, at Filter Space and will remain open through April 28. A juror's choice award and an honorable mention will be awarded at the opening reception.

The myriad conceptual and aesthetic approaches to photography that characterize the medium today were in full evidence as I viewed the submissions for Context 2018. Across the board, the submissions were high caliber. My task was, thus, very difficult; less a matter of selecting the best, but rather choosing works that represented mature, creative ideas and adept techniques, whatever the genre or category of practice. That being said, my subjective proclivities for work that uses the medium to challenge mundane modes of perception are reflected in my final selections. The themes of memory—personal and collective—also weave through these works, though I avoided any stringent thematic underpinning, for fear such an approach would omit too many fascinating works. Ultimately, I hope my selections reflect the incredible wealth of talent that came together, in aggregate, for this exhibition. It is to Filter Photo's great credit that they provide such important opportunities for talented individuals to show and share their works in such a professional and thoughtful manner. To that end, it has been a privilege to serve as this year's juror.
April M. Watson
Curator of Photography
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Participating Artists
Ben Altman
Philip Augustin
Larry Chait
Daniel Chung
Laura Cobb
Troy Colby
Rachel Cox
Elizabeth Claffey
Elena Dahl
Marcus DeSieno
Alexander Diaz
Jim Ferguson
Adam Finkelston
Jennifer Garza-Cuen
Eui-Jip Hwang
Elise Kirk
Jordanna Kalman
Meghan Kirkwood
Susan Kott
Sage Lewis
Molly McCall
Mary McCloskey
Daniel McCullough
Casey McGuire & Mark Schoon
David Ondrik
Miguel Ontiveros
Astrid Reischwitz
Jamie Tuttle
Max Wagner & Megan Pobywajlo
Tara Wray

About Filter Photo Festival:

Filter Photo is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Chicago, Illinois.

Filter Photo's mission is two-fold: first, to serve and support the photographic communities of Chicago and the Midwest; and second, to highlight Chicago as a vital center of the national photographic community.

Since 2009 Filter Photo has organized the annual Filter Photo Festival, a multi-day celebration of photography that includes workshops, lectures, exhibition receptions, artist talks, and other diverse programming. A primary component of the Festival is the portfolio reviews, through which photographers are able to connect with national and international curators, gallery directors, editors, and other elite professionals.

In 2015 Filter Photo opened Filter Space, a permanent gallery and project space located in Chicago's West Town neighborhood at 1821 West Hubbard Street, Suite 207. Filter Space hosts regular social, educational, and professional development activities, including exhibitions, workshops, and lectures.

Cover image © Jordanna Kalman

Michael Joseph: Lost & Found

By Michael Joseph

Publisher : Kehrer Verlag

2024 | 144 pages

Lost & Found documents a contemporary American subculture of young Travelers through raw, striking portraiture and intimate storytelling. These Travelers abandon home to move around the country by hitchhiking and freight train hopping in a nomadic, transient existence outside of mainstream society. Along their personal journey driven by wanderlust, escapism, or a search for transient jobs, they find a new family in their traveling friends.

The high of freedom, however, does not come without consequence. The black and white portraits are made in public, on the street, using natural light. Individual stories, as a collection, form a greater narrative. Over ten years in the making, Joseph’s portraits reveal the human condition. They capture courage, tenderness, and determination in his subjects that have been largely ignored and unseen.

An incredible book that we highly recommend! All About Photo

All About Michael Joseph

Nick Brandt: Sink / Rise, The Day May Break: Chapter Three

By Nick Brandt

Publisher : Hatje Cantz

2024 | 120 pages

Through his widely acclaimed work, English photographer Nick Brandt (1964) addresses pressing environmental issues, consistently highlighting mankind’s impact upon the natural world. His work is truly a fusion of artistry and activism, and he is best known for capturing the majestic landscapes of Africa as well as intimate portraits of its wildlife. Sink / Rise is the third chapter of The Day May Break, an ongoing global series portraying ecological degradation and destruction. This chapter adopts a slightly different approach than its predecessors: taking humans, rather than animals or landscapes, as his subjects. Sink / Rise focuses on South Pacific Islanders impacted by rising oceans from climate change. The people in these photos, photographed underwater in the ocean off the coast of the Fijian islands, are local representatives of the many people whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the water rises. In Brandt’s images, the Islanders sit down at tables, stand on chairs and embrace―all the while, their pinched expressions reveal the desperation of their asphyxiating condition.

All About Nick Brandt

Lisa McCord: Rotan Switch

By Lisa McCord:

Publisher : Kehrer Verlag

2024 | 204 pages

Rotan Switch is the first monograph by Lisa McCord, documenting life on her grandparents’ cotton farm in the Arkansas Delta community of Rotan. It takes its name from the community’s central landmark—the railroad switch where farmers loaded their cotton bales onto trains headed out of the Delta. Although it hasn’t been used in years, it remains a potent symbol of the complex intersections of industry and agriculture, of race and injustice. Collected over the last forty-four years, these images and stories are a reflection on the people and places that have taught McCord the meaning of the word home. It is also a self-exploration into her inherently complicated role in this community as both the photographer and the granddaughter of the farm owner.
This publication is a long-term project, constructed from McCord's analog photographs, family snapshots and ephemera. Including, monochrome photographs, color polaroids, and recipes.

Christer Strömholm

By Christer Strömholm

Publisher : Dewi Lewis Publishing

2024 | 296 pages

Christer Strömholm is recognised as one of the major figures of 20th century European photography. Strömholm captured his surroundings in black‐and‐white images that display his integrity, understated humour and a highly personal aesthetic. With an unmistakable sensitivity to human suffering, based on his personal experience, he took photography in a new direction. Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian, has described him “as the father of Swedish photography both for his abiding influence and for his role as a teacher.”

Filter Photo is pleased to announce Context 2018

Context 2018

Selected Books