Trios of Photographs by H. Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Sugimoto and others

Expand and Contract: AI and Alternative Processes is an international group exhibition that features artists who turn to AI as part of their production process, and, at times, as a creative generator that expands the scope of conceptual experimentations. Exhibiting Artists Aurora Wilder (Jennifer Pritchard, Patrick Corrigan and Dall-E), Dana Bell, Adam Chin, Ann Cutting, Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Liron Kroll, Lev Manovich, Osceola Refetoff. Expand and Contract: AI and Alternative Processes posits that generative AI technologies could be considered as the most recent addition to the world of photographic alternative processes, alongside cyanotypes, daguerreotypes, or albumen prints. Perhaps we can think about it as our era’s version of cameraless photography. This international group exhibition features artists who turn to AI as part of their production process, and, at times, as a creative generator that expands the scope of conceptual experimentations. Technological developments hasten pronouncements regarding the death of photography every few decades, with the most recent trigger being digital innovations, such as digital cameras and image editing software. And yet, photography persists. In fact, it continues to re-define how we engage with one another, imagine ourselves and our place in the world. Most recently, AI caused an uproar among visual practitioners, as machines have been trained to create images using images produced by humans who were not paid for services unknowingly provided. Moreover, AI seems to pose a threat to human agency. As we wait for governments to sort the legal implication, perhaps we can focus on the human agency part: What if we flip that narrative? What if we think of AI as a tool, rather than a threat? The participating artists have been exploring its capabilities from a variety of perspectives. AI allowed Liron Kroll to address gaps she identified in her childhood family album. Working with the likeness and voice of her children, she not only completed the past, but she also created unexpected documentation of the future. Media theorist and visual artist Lev Manovich uses AI to imagine what the past could never provide him: A model for an idea Soviet city in the 1960s (shown above), or a library of writings that were never created. For both, AI is a pathway to a past that could never be, but should have existed. Image: Liron Kroll, Girl with bike

Lynn Stern, the convention-defying, New York-based, American photographer, has pushed the boundaries of photography during her 47-year career. Her work is intimately tied to the history of the photographic medium through her innovative use of natural light, still life, and large-format cameras and film. Stern’s works in the Obscura Gallery exhibition, Echoes of Light, are luminous examples of her innovation. Using natural light and a scrim between the camera and her still life subjects, she veils her subject matter to create a translucence that fills her images with soft light. As a result, in both the Quickening and Force Field series, Stern highlights only the edges of her objects with a stroke of a shadow on a white background. With this innovative use of light her images resemble charcoal drawings. Indeed, a viewer who doesn’t understand that a camera made these images might assume Stern creates her work with pencil and paper. Influenced by abstract expressionist painting but working as a lens-based photographer, Stern defies the expectations central to photography by pulling away from the sharp focus, instead blurring, veiling, cropping, partially obscuring, and otherwise de-literalizing what is in front of her lens. “My photographs are not about what they are of…. I believe that photography is a medium of light, not representation. Light is to photography as paint is to painting. I think like a painter in that my concerns are largely formal: my aim is to create tension, plasticity, texture, and, especially, spatial ambiguity in which figure (or abstract form) and ground seem to merge with The exhibition includes works from three bodies of work: Quickening, Passages, and Force Field. In Quickening, Stern placed glass bottles and circles behind a scrim, then manipulated both the objects and the scrim to create a sense of quivering movement between the objects. “The images have a dramatic luminosity and feel fleeting – as if they have suddenly come to life and could disappear at any moment,” says Stern. In Force Field, Stern placed cubes behind the scrim in such a way that the objects’ edges touching the scrim were sharp, while their bodies blurred, seeming to emerge from indeterminate space. Framed more tightly than in Quickening, and with more densely juxtaposed forms, Force Field images produce a feeling of unified, soft structure, charged with light and energy. The exhibition also includes two earlier series, Dialogues in Light and Unveilings made in 1985. Dialogues in Light marks Stern’s first experiments with the white scrim, using different types of natural light and various types of flowers. In this series, Stern noticed that the flowers’ images were elegant and poignant, generating an emotional response. Pursuing this emotional feeling led Stern to a new series titled Unveilings, in which she sought to create a dialogue between figure and ground, manipulating the scrim to create what she calls a ”charged” composition in light and shadow. The varying stances of the anemone - the curvature of the stem, the turned backs, profiles or fully open petals, their translucency or lack thereof -- become metaphors for vulnerability. Stern’s work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in the United States and Europe, and is in such public collections as the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of fine Arts, Houston; the Portland Art Museum (OR); the Victoria and Albert Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Yale University Art Gallery. Six monographs of Stern’s work have been published: Skull (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2017); Frozen Mystery: Lynn Stern Photographs 1978-2008 (Fundación Cristóbal Gabarrón / Center for Creative Photography: 2009); Veiled Still Lifes (exhibition catalogue, 2006); Animus (Tucson: Nazraeli Press, 2000); Dispossession (New York: Aperture, 1995), "Highly Commended Book," 1995 Ernst Haas Awards; and Unveilings, with a forward by Paul Caponigro, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1988). Stern was co-editor of Photographic INsight from 1990-1993. She was the organizer and moderator of a two-evening symposium held at New York University in 1991 titled "Examining Postmodernism: Images/Premises" and in 2016 moderated a discussion titled “Perceptual/Conceptual: How Does Art Nourish Us?” in New York. The Lynn Stern Archive is located at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.

As the fiftieth anniversary of the eruption of the Lebanese Civil War approaches, Lebanon continues to suffer the long consequences of instability. Decades of domestic conflict, precarious peace, corrupt governments, and civilian protest culminated in the August 4, 2020, Port of Beirut explosion, plunging the country into a socio-economic abyss. Amid Lebanon’s tumult, photographer Rania Matar (b. 1964, Lebanon) continues her practice of capturing portraits of young women persisting in uncertain times. Instead of focusing on the devastation associated with her country and the wider region, she trains her lens on young Lebanese women to forefront their creativity, strength, dignity, and resilience. In her latest body of work, Where Do I Go? (2020 – ongoing), Matar collaborates with the young women of Lebanon to collectively commemorate the present and reimagine the future of a country defined by half a century of conflict and catastrophe. Matar photographs her subjects, who choose the locations themselves, before symbolic backdrops like the Mediterranean Sea, the craggy peaks of Mount Lebanon, the traditional and modern buildings of Beirut, and the country’s many layers of destruction and abandonment, weaving the women, the land, and the architecture into a tapestry of beauty and anxious promise. The artist was twenty years old when she fled the war in Lebanon to study in the United States. As she photographs these young women, her empathic eye sees their hopes, pains, dreams, fears, and dilemmas as they consider what future Lebanon might offer to them amidst the largest wave of emigration from the country since her own departure. These photographs speak to a universal moment of anxiety in the face of political and economic uncertainty and global unrest. At a time when the global status of women is newly precarious, Matar reveals the resilience, strength, and creativity of a society as exemplified by the grace, beauty, and resilience of its women.

The Hood Museum of Art will present the first major solo museum exhibition of photographs by Chemehuevi artist Cara Romero, titled Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light). The exhibition will be on view at the Hood Museum from January 18 through August 10, 2025, and will feature over 50 works, including several never-before-seen photographs, and site-specific installations that will invite the viewer behind the scenes to experience the sets of Romero's most iconic photographs. An exhibition catalogue co-published by the Hood Museum of Art and Radius Books will be released in June 2025. The exhibition is curated by Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art. Says Romero, "The Hood Museum of Art under the leadership of curator Jami Powell and director John Stomberg is an excellent example of how an American museum can create meaningful and positive impacts on Native community, representation, and living artists. When offered my first major solo show to commence at the Hood, I cried because I never imagined this was possible for a Native woman photographer in her 40s. I am so honored to collaborate with this institution and the people making it a major force in sidelining preconceived notions about Native American art." Adds Powell, "Cara Romero is an immensely generous storyteller, and her images invite people into complex and transformative dialogues about the histories and lives of Indigenous peoples. Romero's photographs provide opportunities for audiences to recognize the humanity of Native Americans and Indigenous peoples and ask questions they might otherwise be afraid to ask." Image: Cara Romero, Zenith, 2022 © Cara Romero

This exhibition features thirty-five photographs—self-portraits or portraits of other artists—which reflect radically new propositions for what a portrait might be. They foreground the idea that identity is fluid, bodies are malleable, and strangeness is common. Whether confessional or slyly secretive, each of these photographs offers new revelations to the viewer. Working against systems meant to define, categorize, and normalize, these artists have reclaimed the portrait to express themselves and realize a vision of self otherwise foreclosed. Strangers are not entirely unknown, rather they arrive unexpectedly and often disrupt expectations. An exchange of gazes—inquiring glances, defiant smirks, vulnerable stares—typically accompany such encounters. Since the advent of photography in the 1840s, artists have used the camera to portray themselves and others. Traditional aesthetic conventions guided many early photographers, though over time new approaches emerged from diverse historical contexts. The artworks in this exhibition—self-portraits or portraits of other artists—reflect radically new propositions for what a portrait might be. They foreground the idea that identity is fluid, bodies are malleable, and strangeness is common. Whether confessional or slyly secretive, each of these photographs offers new revelations to the viewer. Working against systems meant to define, categorize, and normalize, these artists have reclaimed the portrait to express themselves and realize a vision of self otherwise foreclosed. Collectively, they ask us to consider: How do we communicate the undeniable reality of our bodies and the stories they tell about us? What does it look like to come into being, to materialize—just as a photograph develops—within as well as outside the strictures of social norms? Hello, Stranger was co-curated by Isa Cruz ‘27 and Frank Goodyear, co-director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and supported by The Riley P. Brewster ’77 Fund. All works in this exhibition have been generously donated to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art by David and Gail Mixer. Image: Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach (ringl + pit), Walter & Ellen Auerbach, London, ca. 1934, vintage silver print on paper. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of David and Gail Mixer. © ringl + pit, courtesy Robert Mann Gallery

Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition at its new location at 154 Ludlow Street, The Lams of Ludlow Street, a solo exhibition by photographer Thomas Holton, presented as part of the organization’s Mid-Career Initiative. Spanning over two decades, this deeply personal body of work chronicles the evolving lives of a single Chinese-American family in Manhattan’s Chinatown, offering an intimate exploration of identity, belonging, and the everyday moments that shape our understanding of home. Since 2003, Holton has immersed himself in the life of the Lam family, capturing both the private and public dimensions of their world with an unfiltered, empathetic lens. What began as an artistic inquiry into his own Chinese heritage has evolved into a lifelong commitment to storytelling—one that reflects the complexities of family, migration, and cultural hybridity in contemporary America. A lifelong New Yorker of mixed Chinese and American descent, Holton has long grappled with a sense of detachment from his Chinese roots. His photographic journey with the Lams became both a creative and personal act of connection, a way to bridge the gaps in his own identity through the lens of another family’s experiences. The resulting images document adolescence, marriage, resilience, and the quiet, unscripted moments that define family life. Presented at a time when Chinatown, like many immigrant communities, faces profound social and economic shifts, The Lams of Ludlow Street serves as both a visual archive and a meditation on what it means to belong. Holton’s images remind us of the power of long-term storytelling—of what it means to bear witness to time, change, and human connection. About Thomas Holton Thomas Holton is a photographer and educator based in New York City. He received a BA from Kenyon College and a MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts. His ongoing project, The Lams of Ludlow Street, has documented the life of a single Chinese-American family living in Manhattan’s Chinatown over 20 years. The project was published as a book in 2016 by Kehrer Verlag and has been shown in the United States and abroad at venues including The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, The Museum of the City of New York, the New York Public Library, and the Photoville photography festival . The work has also been featured by the New York Times, Aperture, The Guardian and many other periodicals. He has taught at the International Center of Photography and was co-founder of SVA’s VisuaLife photography program, working with at-risk teenagers in collaboration with the Children’s Aid Society in New York City. He is currently a photography educator in New York City where he lives with his family.

BAXTER ST at CCNY is pleased to announce the inaugural exhibition at its new location at 154 Ludlow Street with The Reinforcements, a solo presentation by 2024 BAXTER ST Resident Artist and writer Qiana Mestrich, opening June 4, 2025. A powerful series of photo collages begun in 2023, The Reinforcements visualizes the labor history of Black and immigrant women of color in the American corporate workplace. Drawing from archival images—including photographs of Mestrich’s own mother, who worked in sales at Rugol Trading Corporation in New York City in the late 1960s—the work explores the everyday realities and systemic inequities that have long defined professional life for women of color. This body of work stems from Mestrich’s broader, ongoing research project @WorkingWOC: Towards a History of Women of Color in the Workplace, an independent digital archive aimed at documenting and interpreting the role of women of color in the American labor force from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the early 2000s. Despite the founding of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965, Black and other women of color continue to face racial and gender discrimination, limited pathways to leadership, and persistent wage inequality. In response to the absence of robust archival material addressing these inequities, Mestrich has created speculative visual narratives by collaging images from vintage fashion and office supply magazines. The resulting works are imagined interventions into a historical record that too often neglects the labor, agency, and ambitions of these women. The Reinforcements not only centers the experiences of its subjects but also asks viewers to reckon with the ongoing erasure of women of color in corporate and institutional histories. With this inaugural exhibition, Baxter St renews its commitment to presenting urgent, socially engaged work by emerging and mid-career lens-based artists. ABOUT QIANA MESTRICH Qiana Mestrich (b. 1977, NYC) is an interdisciplinary artist and photo historian whose work critically engages with themes of Black and mixed-race identity, motherhood, women’s labor, and the empowering role of fashion. Informed by her upbringing as the daughter of immigrants from Panama and Croatia, Mestrich’s artistic practice is complemented by significant contributions to the field of photography history. Her artwork has garnered international attention, with exhibitions at the RAY Fotografieprojekte Frankfurt/RheinMain and London Art Fair’s Photo50, and inclusion in collections such as the Peggy Cooper Cafritz collection. A graduate of the ICP-Bard College MFA program, her insightful perspectives have been recognized through awards like the 2025 Saltzman Prize and CPW Vision Award, as well as the 2022 Magnum Foundation’s Counter Histories grant for her research on women of color in the corporate workplace. Mestrich’s dedication to expanding the discourse around photography is evident in her 2007 founding of Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History. This groundbreaking initiative, which evolved from a blog into a vital critique group, actively championed photographers of color. Her newly released book (Routledge, March 2025), features 35 updated interviews from the blog along with 7 critical essays on photography. Mestrich lives and works between Brooklyn and New York’s Hudson Valley.

Yancey Richardson is proud to celebrate our 30 year anniversary with a milestone exhibition bringing together works by all of the gallery’s artists and estates. Titled Celebrating 30 Years and co-curated by the artists themselves, the exhibition features works that speak across decades and through varying styles and technical approaches. The show highlights the breadth and diversity of the gallery’s roster and its steadfast commitment to supporting artists working in photography and lens-based media. Celebrating three decades as a pioneering exhibition space, one where the public has witnessed and engaged with the continued evolution of photography and artistic expression more broadly, the gallery has invited its artists to select work by their peers with whom they share creative affinities. The work on display reveals the gallery’s deep engagement with photography as both a historical and contemporary medium, with work made using classic darkroom techniques alongside multidisciplinary and experimental processes. Celebrating 30 Years includes work by Guanyu Xu selected by David Alekhuogie, David Alekhuogie selected by Mickalene Thomas, Mickalene Thomas selected by David Alekhuogie, Olivo Barbieri selected by Lynn Saville, Jared Bark selected by Rachel Perry, Omar Barquet selected by Mary Lum, Ori Gersht selected by Terry Evans, Terry Evans selected by Victoria Sambunaris, Mary Ellen Bartley selected by Ori Gersht, Lisa Kereszi selected by Sharon Core, Sharon Core selected by Hellen van Meene, Mitch Epstein selected by Lisa Kereszi, John Divola selected by Mitch Epstein, Tania Franco Klein selected by Laura Letinsky, Carolyn Drake selected by Tania Franco Klein, Sandi Haber Fifi eld selected by Bryan Graf, Bryan Graf selected by Yamamoto Masao, Jitka Hanzlová selected by Laura Letinsky, Anthony Hernandez selected by Olivo Barbieri, David Hilliard selected by Kahn & Selesnick, Laura Letinsky selected by Carolyn Drake, Matt Lipps selected by Guanyu Xu, Mary Lum selected by Omar Barquet, Esko Mannikko selected by Sharon Core, Andrew Moore selected by David Hilliard, Zanele Muholi selected by John Divola, Rachel Perry selected by Sandi Haber Fifi eld, Victoria Sambunaris selected by Anthony Hernandez, Lynn Saville selected by Andrew Moore, Mark Steinmetz selected by Victoria Sambunaris, Kahn & Selesnick selected by Jared Bark, Larry Sultan selected by Anthony Hernandez, Tseng Kwong Chi selected by Zanele Muholi, Hellen van Meene selected by Jitka Hanzlová, Yamamoto Masao selected by Mary Ellen Bartley, Pello Irazu selected by Jared Bark and Lynn Geesaman and Sebastião Salgado selected by Yancey Richardson. Over the past thirty years and nearly 290 exhibitions, Yancey Richardson has helped foster the careers of some of the most critically-acclaimed artists working today. The gallery opened in 1995 at 560 Broadway in SoHo with an exhibition by Sebastião Salgado. In 2000 the gallery relocated to 535 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, then a burgeoning arts neighborhood. Over the next 13 years, the gallery presented historically significant exhibitions with artists such as Lewis Baltz, William Eggleston and August Sander, along with exhibitions by artists such as Mitch Epstein, Zanele Muholi and Mickalene Thomas, who have been with the gallery ever since. In 2013 the gallery moved to 525 West 22nd Street, where it remains to this day. Since moving, the gallery has continued to grow and welcome new artists and estates to its roster, such as David Alekhougie, Omar Barquet, John Divola, Anthony Hernandez, Tania Franco Klein, Larry Sultan and Tseng Kwong Chi. In addition to maintaining long-term representation of a wide-ranging and international group of artists, such as Olivo Barbieri, Ori Gersht, Jitka Hanzlová, Sebastião Salgado, Hellen van Meene and Yamamoto Masao, the gallery has also mounted New York debut exhibitions for many artists who have gone on to achieve critical acclaim, such as David Alekhuogie, Carolyn Drake, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Guanyu Xu. Understanding photography as always changing and in flux, the gallery has consistently welcomed artists to its roster who engage with the medium in an expanded way, as both a technical process and a historically-informed mode of perception. Alongside its support of emerging, mid-career and historically significant artists through exhibitions, the gallery has consistently supported the publication of monographs and photobooks as an essential expression of photography. Now representing over 40 artists and estates, Yancey Richardson continues to work tirelessly alongside museums and cultural institutions around the world to ensure that their artists reach the widest possible audience and that their achievements are promoted and their legacies safeguarded. Yancey Richardson stated, “Since the day we opened our doors in 1995, the gallery has remained committed to supporting and embracing photography across the widest possible spectrum, from modern masters to new and contemporary expressions. Though both the medium itself and society’s understanding of it has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, I have endeavored to keep the gallery as a space where those changes—where history itself—can be seen, felt and interacted with. To the extent that this has been achieved is due in no small part to the countless individuals who have worked with me over the years. Above all else, I wish to thank the artists who have entrusted us with their legacies and whose work continues to challenge us to see and think in diff erent ways, all while off ering a constant reminder of the power of art to help us understand the times in which we live.”. Image: Positive Disintegration (Self-portrait), from the series Positive Disintegration, 2016. Archival pigment print, 27 1/2 x 41 5/16 inches. © Tania Franco Klein

Pace is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Trevor Paglen at its 540 West 25th Street gallery in New York. On view from June 26 to August 15, this focused presentation will feature photographs of novel aerial phenomena captured by the artist in the American West over the last two decades. Bringing together a selection of prints and polaroids, this show will explore the relationships between UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) sightings, Artificial Intelligence, and the rise of disinformation in today’s media environment—which has all but obliterated the notion of ‘truth.’ As Paglen has said, we live in “a historical moment wherein our relationships to text, images, information, and media are being entirely upended,” and UFOs, deployed by the US military and intelligence agencies as psychological instruments since the 1950s, “blur lines between perception, imagination, and 'objective' reality, whatever that may or may not be.” The artist, whose rigorous practice spans photography, sculpture, video, and installation, is known for his investigations of invisible phenomena and forces, including technological, scientific, socio-political, and historical subjects. Through his work, Paglen has explored Artificial Intelligence, surveillance, data collection, and militarism in America, meditating on the ways these issues influence modes of perceiving and relating to the natural world—from the landscapes of the US to the cosmological realms beyond the Earth. “UFOs live in the latent space between the material, the sensible, and the perceptual,” Paglen said of his enduring interest in the history of UFO photography. “They inhabit the crossroads of fear, desire, logic, and hope. They produce communities of believers and debunkers, and dreams of divine salvation, endless energy, impossible physics, dark conspiracies, and existential fears.”

Guest curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler, along with Kristin Taylor, MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections This exhibition will feature works in the MoCP permanent collection that are included in the recent and groundbreaking publication titled Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography. The book was created by a group of artists, art historians, activists, and scholars—Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Leigh Raiford, and Laura Wexler—and published by Thames and Hudson in 2024. It is an extension of a project that these five authors have collaborated on for over ten years, in which they reassess a range of photographs and projects that portray stories of humanity and social movements to decenter the photographer as the only author of the image, and to emphasize the act of photographing as an inherently collaborative process in which many parties are involved. By sharing both artists’ statements and excerpts from interviews with people depicted in photographs, they question whether memories align: Did both sides remember the moment in the same way? How did the photographed feel about the photograph’s life after it circulated through art markets, print media, and online? And what role might the photograph have played in perpetuating harmful or liberatory narratives about specific histories, places, or individuals? The works—both historical and contemporary—are presented in clusters focused on topics, to highlight and propose questions about photographed moments of coercion, friendship, exploitation, community, and violence. The exhibition will also feature a reflection space for the audience engagement, as part of the project’s ongoing effort to consider the history of photography as a living and evolving entity that is unfixed and expanding as we learn more about the people, communities, and histories that images depict. MoCP is supported by Columbia College Chicago, MoCP Advisory Board, Museum Council, individuals, private and corporate foundations, and government grants. The 2024–2025 exhibition season is sponsored in part by the Efroymson Family Fund, Henry Nias Foundation, The Rowan Foundation, Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Comer Family Foundation, and Venable Foundation. This project is partially supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. MoCP acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council. Image: Wendy Ewald, Self-portrait reaching for the Red Star sky –Denise Dixon, from the “Portraits and Dreams” series, 1975-1982

Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW) is pleased to present our 2025 Thesis Exhibition, celebrating this year’s graduates of the Certificate Program: Martin Dorn, Keylor Eng, Victoria Hunter, and Holly Pendragon. This exhibition marks not only the culmination of the 53-credit program and presentation of a year-long project for these individuals but introduces a new generation of Northwest artists. The PCNW Certificate Program offers a technically and creatively demanding curriculum delving into the history, theory, and practice of creating photographic work. During their studies students develop their own style of photography, engage in critical discussion, establish their work within a historical and contemporary photographic/fine art context, and build the foundation to sustain their creative practice.

I would like to begin by thanking the many photographers who shared their work with me as part of this process. It was a tremendous pleasure to see such interesting and inspiring work; there was much more great work than I could possibly include. I want to acknowledge the trust and vulnerability that is required for artists to provide their artwork to a juror and allow their personal expressions to be reviewed; I am grateful for the opportunity to be enriched by the dedication and creativity of HCP's members. My approach to this exhibition was first to review all the works submitted and let the photographic themes emerge. After thinking about what had been shared, it seemed that there were two primary impulses. One was about asserting presence, a kind of activism of visibility. In the works I saw protest, strength, joy, and sorrow. The photographs stated, "I am here. We are here. We take up space. Our values matter. Through art we can create a presence to validate our unique perspectives and experiences." The range of issues depicted was expansive. Photographers communicated about Queer visibility; environmental change and the threat of fire; immigrant experiences and national identity; Black joy; non-normative male beauty and masculinity; violence against women; space simulation; and motherhood. Together the photographs create a chorus of voices. The other primary impulse was to explore beauty and wonder through photography and the particular magic of our medium. Here there were experiments with different processes and materials; the embrace of light and the many unexpected and dynamic things that happen when it passes through a lens; the true lusciousness of color and the way photographic materials record them; the beauty of photographic degradation and decay; the invitation of abstraction to engage with what might be happening; the depiction of movement; and the exploration of the limits of the photograph. Many photographs fit into both categories: infused with assertion, validation, and visibility combined with the magic and beauty of photography. I hope you enjoy the exhibition as much as I enjoyed getting to know the work! Dr. Rebecca Senf, Juror, Chief Curator at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Image: © Oskar Alvarado