The Magic of Light

Juror:  Aline Smithson
Gallery Exhibition:  March 1 - March 27, 2013

Juror's Statement
Being a juror during the holidays reminded me that each submission is a gift and opening each jpg a surprise and an adventure. The problem is that I got too many gifts and like a hoarder, I wanted to keep them all. But unfortunately that's not possible. First off, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful work—almost every entry was thoroughly appropriate to the theme and I appreciated your excellent submissions. For this exhibition, I was looking for work that was talking about light, showing its magic, its possibilities, and nuances. I was also looking for sophisticated images and work that was sometimes unexpected, but was shot with intention and focus. In a world where everyone has a camera, it is important to make work that is well executed (in focus, no dust, with a strong point of view), create submissions that are consistent, but also make work that is fresh. Most jurors look that thousands of images on a regular basis and see a wide variety of work, so it is crucial that the work be unique, relevant, exacting, and professional. Thank you for your photographic gifts. I wish you many successes in 2013.

- Aline Smithson

About the Juror
After a career as a New York Fashion Editor and working along side the greats of fashion photography, Aline Smithson discovered the family Rolleiflex and never looked back. Now represented by galleries in the U.S. and Europe and published throughout the world, Aline continues to create her award-winning photography with humor, compassion, and a 50-year-old camera.

She has exhibited widely in over thirty solo shows including the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the Lishui, Pingyao, and Shanghai Festivals in China, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Wallspace Gallery in Seattle and Santa Barbara. In addition, her work is held in a number of public collections. Her photographs have been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Photo District news, Communication Arts, Real Simple, Eyemazing, Visura, Slate, Artworks, Shots, Click, and Silvershotz magazines.

In 2012, Aline received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community. In 2014, Aline’s work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50, the PDN Photo Annual, and Review Santa Fe. In 2007, Aline founded LENSCRATCH, a daily photography journal that has featured the work of thousands of photographers. She has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, a contributing writer for Diffusion, Don’t Take Pictures, Lucida, and F Stop Magazines, has written book reviews for photo-eye, and has provided the forewords for artist’s books by Tom Chambers, Flash Forward 12, Robert Rutoed, Nancy Baron amongst others.

Aline has curated and juried exhibitions for a number of galleries, organizations, and on-line magazines. In 2014, Aline received the Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER. She is a founding member of the Six Shooters Collective and is currently teaching and curating for the Los Angeles Center of Photography in Los Angeles. The Magenta Foundation recently published her monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography. Aline lives and works in Los Angeles.

More about Aline Smithson: http://alinesmithson.com/
More about Lenscratch: http://lenscratch.com/

Call for Entries
Light makes photographs. When photographers are especially attuned to light, photographs become special, wonderful, even magical. For THE MAGIC OF LIGHT, we sought photographs in which light is the decisive component, transforming the image from ordinary to extraordinary. For this juried exhibition, we were interested in photographs in any style or medium in which light plays a special role.

We are thrilled to welcome back esteemed photographer, educator, and writer Aline Smithson as juror. Aline selected forty photos for exhibition at PhotoPlace Gallery from March 1st through March 23rd, 2013. She also chose an additional thirty-five photos for the gallery's Online Annex. All selected work will be included in a full-color exhibition catalog available for purchase. To help artists defray costs, PhotoPlace Gallery offers to mat and frame work selected for exhibition free of charge, providing artists print their images to our pre-cut mat and frame sizes.