Juror's Statement
Jurying Portals: Windows, Mirrors and Doors was almost a transcendent experience, as the hours spent with all the images illustrating this exact topic put me in a slightly meditative state as part of the process of absorbing and sorting the imagery. One definition of “transcendence” relative to Kantian philosophy (as per Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher) is “being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge”. It was this specific terminology that I wanted to experience looking at an image – does the image illustrate this as a possibility to the viewer?
Before considering this, I assessed if the image fit the call-for-entry theme and I tended to shy away from overly manipulated imagery that pushed the point too far right off the bat. I was more intrigued by subtle images that made the viewer work a little to absorb. Could one feel the presence of another reality in the eye of a dog, a shaft of afternoon light, a glass of star-shaped glitter?
The last few years has taught us much, including the realization that time is more abstract and elastic than we once might have thought. The social isolation and slowing down of life as we knew it perhaps gave us more space to pay attention to memories, dreams, and multiple realities – and gave us easier access to the “portals” that took us there. Thank you for sharing all your amazing photographic interpretations of this journey.
— Laura Moya
Call for Entries
For our purposes, a portal can be an architectural feature: a gate, a doorway, a window, a mirror, or a tunnel, that frames or isolates or adds a new dimension to the image. In a fictional sense, a portal is also a magical doorway that connects two locations in space or time.
For “Portals,” we’re looking for images that use these devices in intriguing ways. All capture methods and processes are welcome.
We are very pleased that Laura Moya will jury and curate this exhibition. She will select approximately 35 images for exhibition in the gallery, and 40 for our Online Gallery. All 75 selected images will be promoted on social media, reproduced in the exhibition print catalog, and remain permanently on our website, with links to photographer’s URL.
Information about our printing service and free matting and framing here.
Banner image: Rowene Weems
Home page thumbnail: Bruce Berkow
Click image below to enlarge
About the Juror
Laura Moya is the Director of Photolucida, in Portland, Oregon. She organizes Photolucida’s biennial Portfolio Reviews event, Portland Photo Month, and project manages Photolucida’s Critical Mass book award publications. She has juried for Critical Mass, Blue Sky Gallery’s Northwest Drawers, Newspace Center for Photography, Photo District News, United Photo Industries/The Fence and PhotoPlace Gallery, and has written pieces for Finite Foto, Griffin Museum’s Critic’s Pick, and Photo-eye’s blog.
Laura co-curated an independent project, The Early Works Project, which was shown at Newspace Center for Photography, Rayko Photo Center, the Center for Fine Art Photography, and the Photographic Resource Center, as well as The Elevated Selfie: Beyond the Bathroom Mirror, which exhibited at LightBox Photographic Gallery and the Griffin Museum of Photography. She has participated in Reviews events including the National Society for Photographic Education and LensCulture in Paris, and participated in talks and panels at international festivals such as Pinyao International Photo Festival and GuatePhoto Festival. Most recently she curated photography + science for the Yixian International Photography Festival, and Hypermedia in Critical Mass for the Lishui International Photography Festival in China.
Read more about Laura here.
Read about Photolucida here.
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