Jurors' Statement
Ansel Adams famously declared, “you don’t take a photograph, you make it.” We make choices each time we press the shutter. The strongest photographers have always been those who understood their choices and could intuit which variables to hold tightly and which to set wandering. This philosophy is central to my approach to photography as an image-maker, curator, and publisher of Don’t Take Pictures.
Celebrating the Creative Process is an open call, giving artists free range to explore the myriad choices that go into the making of a considered photograph. When jurying this exhibition, I sought works that embraced the idea of photographing with intention and of carefully considering the elements of each image. This exhibition contains imagery in which the photographer meticulously transformed an idea in their mind into a final print. Some of these photographs reflect careful planning. Others rely on choices made in the moment when light, composition, and movement came together for one fraction of a second, just long enough for a photographer with carefully honed instincts to frame and record. Still others were created through the art of post-production, when a group of photographs are transformed into something new and magical through composite imagery. Each is a photograph that is made and not taken, and reflects deliberate choices that make it more than the sum of its parts.
- Kat Kiernan
About the Juror
Kat Kiernan is the Editor-in-Chief of the photography magazine Don’t Take Pictures, as well as the Director of Panopticon Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. Her writings have appeared in numerous publications, most recently in the book The Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life (Intellect Books, 2017). Kat received the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Rising Star Award in 2015 for her contributions to the photographic community. Her photographs have been exhibited across the United States, and Photoboite Agency named her one of 2012’s 30 women photographers under the age of 30 to watch. Kat divides her time between Brooklyn, New York and Boston. She holds a BFA in photography from Lesley University College of Art and Design. Learn more about her work here.
Call for Entries
“I used to say to my students: Don’t take pictures—make them. This subtle change in language highlights the distinction between the widespread use of cameras in the modern world, and the considered act of creating photographic art. I use “Don’t Take Pictures” as a mantra to celebrate photography as a fine art, and to engage as many people as possible with the medium in a thoughtful and articulate way.” - Kat Kiernan
For this exhibition, we seek photographs that reflect the photographer’s careful and conscious choices in making the image – choices that, among others, are the essence of the creative process and what defines photographic art. Any subject, any genre, and any capture or process are welcome.
Recipients of the Juror's Award and Director's Award will be entitled to a portfolio review by Kat Kiernan.
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