Juror Statement

It was a pleasure to jury this exhibition of student work from Northern Virginia Community College. I reviewed 152 photographic artworks, from 42 individual student artists, ultimately selecting 62 artworks for inclusion. I sat with the images for some time, reviewing in multiple rounds over a number of weeks, as the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed our daily realities. I contemplated which images had staying power, which ones resonated in the middle of a global pandemic and in a national uprising for justice. I wanted the selected images to be in conversation both with each other and with the world outside the exhibition space.  In a moment in history when we are drowning in images, I chose photographic artworks that made me stop and listen, and most importantly, think.  

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Four artists especially stood out to me, and consequently were selected as award winners:

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Carla Keller’s staged tableaus create a collision between constructed playfulness and the metaphysics of death, pushing back against the norms of our capitalist and consumerist society. In this moment of social isolation, these interior domestic scenes also seem to speak to the failing comforts of the material world and the inability of such to fulfill the spiritual needs at the core of the human condition. 

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David Peabody’s images of homesteaders and the land and trappings of their homestead seems an antidote to the modern world. In the midst of a pandemic, the desire for retreat from the socially constructed world feels stronger than ever, and his photographs document alternative ways of building a life and existing in the world. This return to the land also suggests a possible future for humanity, if global crises like climate change continue unaddressed.

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Lizzy Miller’s ghostly layered images, perhaps double exposures, convey a haunting experience of a female figure in the world. Perhaps either a literal or surrogate self-portrait, they make me think about gender norms and domesticity, and the multiple layers of identity imposed on us all by larger forces outside our control. 

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Sumeyye Gunbayli’s still lives use fish as a sculptural material, and perhaps a metaphorical stand-in for human experience. The image of two fish in a plastic bag, neatly tied with a red ribbon, resonates with the experience of being trapped, both in the social isolation of the pandemic and within the larger expectations of a judgmental society. The images are formally beautiful and precisely composed, with the metaphorical suggestions stirring the imagination.

 

In addition to the award winners, I want to acknowledge honorable mentions for Jimmy Ha, Kate Pannozzo, and Nobuyuki Matsumoto for their thoughtful bodies of work. 

 

I hope that this exhibition and these images will linger with you, in the way that they stayed with me. Thank you to the included artists for sharing their powerful and moving images with us for this exhibition. Thank you to all the artists who submitted work for consideration - what you do is important, please keep making art, dreaming new ideas, and imagining new ways of being in the world. Thank you to NVCC for building this community forum to explore and learn through photographic ideas.

 

Thank you to Aya Takashima, Discipline Chair of Photography, for inviting me to select the works for this exhibition. 

 

In gratitude,

Nate Larson
Chair, Photography Department
MICA / Maryland Institute College of Art