Alexa Dilworth is publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University, where she also directs the awards program, which includes the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, the CDS Documentary Essay Prize in Writing and Photography, and the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize. In 1995 she was hired by CDS to work on the editorial staff for DoubleTake magazine. She was also hired as editor of the CDS books program at that time and has coordinated the publishing efforts for every CDS book, including the recent and forthcoming publications Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound, Second Edition, edited by John Biewen and Alexa Dilworth; Lovie: The Story of a Southern Midwife and an Unlikely Friendship by Lisa Yarger; Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila: Photographs by Nadia Sablin; Legendary: Inside the House Ballroom Scene: Photographs by Gerard H. Gaskin; One Place: Paul Kwilecki and Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia; Iraq | Perspectives: Photographs by Benjamin Lowy; and American Studies: Photographs by Jim Dow. Dilworth has a B.A. and an M.A., both in English, from the University of Florida, and an M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry) from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Blue Mitchell is an independent publisher. Based in Portland, Oregon, he has been involved with many facets of the photographic arts. After Mitchell received his BFA from Oregon College of Art & Craft in 2005 he founded One Twelve Publishing.

One Twelve is most notably known for its fine art photographic print annual Diffusion (Est. 2009), which focuses on artfully-crafted, advant-garde photography. Additionally, One Twelve hosted Plates to Pixels online gallery for ten years (2007-2017), publishes the occasional artist book (Contact by Jake Shivery, 2015) and provides an extensive website with articles, galleries, and serial features.

Most recently, Mitchell launched a podcast where he chats with artists, curators, and writers working in the field of fine art photography.

Mitchell is interested in reviewing work focused on artfully crafted, avant-garde photography including mixed media, alt process, photo as an object, installation, book arts, and fine art concept work in both analog and digital formats. Opportunities include publication in Diffusion, physical Diffusion exhibitions, One Twelve website features, and maybe even guest invitations for The Diffusion Tapes podcast.

Andrew Fedynak of Zatara Press (Hartford Art School MFA and ICP One-Year Certificate Program) is a photobook publisher and photographer located out of Richmond, Virginia. Centered around the aesthetic view principles of Wabi Sabi and Zen, Fedynak created Zatara Press to publish uniquely designed and collaboratively crafted “Artist’s Styled Photobooks”. To ZP, photobooks are poetic art objects as well as statements or narratives. Our books are located in a multitude of collections, libraries, and museums such as the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, Victoria and Albert Museum National Art Library, and the MOMA Library.

Fedynak is always intrigued to see clearly developed projects in the documentary and fine art genres that could lend themselves well to both short and long form creative artist’s books. Some particular themes are: photojournalism, documentary, portrait, landscape, and conceptual photography. However, he is also interested in all forms of photography, and enjoys seeing a variety of photographic practices both historical and modern. He can offer editorial and design advice about any photographic project. Please familiarize yourself with Zatara Press’ design ethos and projects before our meeting.

Dennis Kiel has been the Director of the Dishman Art Museum at Lamar University for the last 5 ½ years. He comes to the Dishman from Charlotte, North Carolina where he served as chief curator at The Light Factory Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film. Before joining The Light Factory, Kiel was the associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs at the Cincinnati Art Museum for 24 years. He also taught the history of photography at Northern Kentucky University as an adjunct professor for a number of years. 

He served as a member of the National Endowment for the Arts panel titled “American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring” and has participated in portfolio reviews at Houston Fotofest, “Our World” for Photo Alliance San Francisco, Photolucida, Review Santa Fe, Slow Exposures Photography Festival, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Society for Photographic Education, and the Click! Photography Festival. He has also been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass online competition from 2011-2019.

Recent photography exhibitions at the Dishman include Keith Carter-Fifty Years (2019), MUM: Nancy Newberry (2018), Intrusions of Grace: Anne Berry & Lori Vrba (2017), Jamey Stillings: The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar (2016), and Eliot Dudik: Broken Land | Still Lives (2015).

Kiel is interested in looking at basically all areas of photography, especially street photography, photojournalism, and portraiture. He is not interested in commercial work (primarily advertising). He can offer inspiration, advice on exhibitions and proper presentation, and can help photographers find a direction that will take their work to the next level.

Since 2015, Eden has led DiverseWorks, a nationally-known multidisciplinary arts organization based in Houston, where she manages its operations and artistic programming. During her tenure, she has overseen DiverseWork’s move to a new state-of-the-art exhibition and performance facility and established the Project Freeway Fellowship program that supports artist’s projects in the neighborhoods where they live and work. Her curatorial focus is on artists who address complex socio-political issues through experimental, performative, and community driven practices. She was previously Curator of Exhibitions at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (2005-2015) and Assistant Curator at The Power Plant, Toronto (1999-2005). She has also worked as an art writer and independent curator, and previously held positions at the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York and Women & Their Work Gallery, Austin. She holds a BFA from the State University of New York-Purchase and an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

My preference is for photography that is experimental, multi-disciplinary (i.e. incorporates performance, sculpture or other media) and/or addresses social justice issues.

George Slade is a photography historian, writer, consultant, and curator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Most recently he was the curator and program manager at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston. In 2008, as an adjunct assistant curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, he oversaw the installation and presentation of the Museum of Modern Art’s major traveling retrospective of Lee Friedlander’s photography. He was the artistic director and chief curator of the Minnesota Center for Photography from 2003 to 2008 and directed the McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowships for Photographers Program from 1998 to 2008. In 2007 he was awarded a Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for a project linking archival photographs and personal reflection. Slade contributes regularly to photo-eye books.

Liz Spungen has been the Executive Director of The Print Center in Philadelphia since 2006. She received both a BA and MA in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and has spent her entire career working with the visual arts in Philadelphia. Her tenure at The Print Center has been marked by programmatic and administrative accomplishments. She has developed numerous major individual and institutional gifts, among them the largest gift ever received by The Print Center naming the Jensen Bryan Curatorial Chair, as well as awards from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, William Penn Foundation, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has established fiscal and personnel stability for the organization, expanded the size of the staff, developed a publication program, improved the facility and re-established The Print Center’s position as an artist’s advocate. She often serves as a panelist, guest juror and visiting critic for regional and national organizations, government agencies and universities. Her curatorial efforts have included Black Pulse: Doug + Mike Starn, 2007; Nakazora: space between sky and earth: Masao Yamamoto, 2008; Silver Mine: Robert Asman, 2011-2012; Matt Neff: Second Sight, 2014; and Victoria Burge: Penumbra, 2016. Recent publications include The Picture that Remains by Will Brown and Thomas Devaney, 2013, and To See God Not the Devil’s Insidesby Doug and Mike Starn, 2007.

Anne Kelly is the Director of photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM and has been with the company since 2006. Her interest in photography developed at an early age, influenced by her mother’s love for the medium. Originally from Colorado, she moved to Santa Fe to further her studies in photography at the College of Santa Fe, where she received her BFA.  As Gallery Director at photo-eye, Kelly has produced over 75 exhibitors in Santa Fe as well as art fairs such as photo LA and the AIPAD Photography Fair.   Kelly is a long time Critical Mass jour and has served as a portfolio reviewer at events across the country.

Kelly ls particular interested in contemporary photographic works that employ the use of alternative and analog processes that images that invoke emotion and stimulate the imagination.

photo-eye (est. 1979) is a leading contemporary photography gallery and bookstore representing both established and emerging photographers  (photo by David Hymes)

https://photoeye.com/gallery

Ksenia Nouril is the Jensen Bryan Curator at The Print Center, a 105-year-old non-profit institution in Philadelphia dedicated to expanding the understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts. A specialist in global contemporary art, Ksenia previously held a Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP) Fellowship in the International Program at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. She has organized exhibitions at the Bruce Museum, Lower East Side Printshop, MoMA, and Zimmerli Art Museum. Ksenia lectures widely and frequently writes for international exhibition catalogues, magazines, and academic journals, including ARTMargins Online, The Calvert Journal, Institute of the Present, OSMOS, and Woman’s Art Journal. She has published two books: Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe: A Critical Anthology (co-editor and contributor, MoMA, 2018) and Ilya Kabakov and Viktor Pivovarov: Stories About Ourselves (editor and contributor, Rutgers University Press, 2019). Ksenia holds a BA in Art History and Slavic Studies from New York University and an MA and PhD in Art History from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

I am most interested in work that tells a story / that has a context, whether it be a personal or collective story – one that is somehow socially or politically motivated, responding the our current world and its issues. I am less interested but still open to what I’d deem purely aesthetic work – abstraction for abstraction’s sake, etc. I’d *love* to meet artists from outside Philadelphia and even outside the NYC-area. This is a great way for me to reach new photographers in areas to which I rarely travel.

Brian Piper is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). He completed his PhD in American Studies at the College of William and Mary in 2016, with the assistance of fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. His research focuses on twentieth century African American photography, vernacular uses of photographs, and histories of race and photography. Prior to his arrival in New Orleans, Piper held a variety of teaching and curatorial positions at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Valentine Richmond History Center. At NOMA, his curatorial credits include: You Are Here: A Brief History of Photography and Place (2019), Lee Friedlander in Louisiana (2018), Beyond the Frame: Photography and Native American Lives (2017), and the multi-media exhibition Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories, (2018).  He is currently developing an exhibition about the work of African American studio photographers during the Long Civil Rights Movement.

Work I’d like to see… I’m open to all kinds, but am especially interested in work that has an historical anchor and/or a contemporary social or political argument. That could range from explorations of individual identity to narrative projects to landscape studies.

(photo by R. Alokhin)

Marshall N. Price is the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and adjunct faculty in the university’s Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies. He received a Ph.D. in Art History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Before joining the Nasher Museum, Price was Curatorial Assistant at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and from 2003 until 2014 held the position of Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Academy Museum, New York. He has organized numerous exhibitions including Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush, Colour Correction: British and American Screenprints, 1967-75, Jeffrey Gibson: Said the Pigeon to the Squirrel, and John Cage: The Sight of Silence, among others

Mark Sloan has been Director and Chief Curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art since 1994. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the Light Factory in Charlotte, and Associate Director of San Francisco Camerawork. He holds an MFA in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University and has exhibited his own work all over the world.  He has authored or co-authored 30 books, including many on photography subjects or photographers. He most recently co-curated Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, which is currently on national tour.

Mark is particularly interested in seeing extended form fine art documentary projects and portraits. He has no interest in nudes, commercial, process oriented, formal, or abstract work.

http://halsey.cofc.edu/

http://southboundproject.org/

Covid portrait of Mark Sloan by Tom Rankin

Paula Tognarelli is the Executive Director and Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography. The Griffin Museum of Photography located in Winchester outside Boston, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit photography museum whose mission is to promote an appreciation of photographic art and a broader understanding of its visual, emotional and social impact. The museum houses 3 galleries and maintains 3 satellite gallery spaces and several virtual on-line galleries as well. The museum has been in operation for 25 years. Ms. Tognarelli has held positions at the museum since 2002.

Ms. Tognarelli is responsible for producing over 54 exhibitions a year at the Griffin and its surrounding satellite spaces. She holds an M.S. in Arts Administration from Boston University, BA from Regis College, is a graduate of the New England School of Photography and was a candidate for her Masters in Education at Lesley University. Prior to her career as an arts administrator she spent 25 years in the printing industry. She was named one of 12 women in the United States that contributed to moving the industry from an analog workflow to a completely digital process.

She has juried and curated exhibitions internationally, is a regular participant in national and local portfolio reviews, has been a panelist and featured speaker at photography events and conferences including MacWorld. She has been a panelist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Photography Fellowships and is a nominator for the Prix Pictet in Geneva, Switzerland, a nominator for the Heinz Prize in Pennsylvania, the Robert Gardner Fellowship at Harvard University, St. Botolph Club Foundation, MOPA Triennial, and the Rappaport Prize in Massachusetts. She is a past member of the Xerox Technical Advisory Board, Rotary and Winchester Multicultural Network. She is on the advisory board of the New England School of Photography, Mt. Ida College and the FlashPoint Festival Boston.

While Ms. Tognarelli will be reviewing portfolios with the intention of filling exhibition spaces over the next years, this does not mean a review with her insures an exhibition. She is open to viewing a broad range of photography but will be looking for completed bodies of work that are ready for exhibition. She is also interested in work that can be connected to programming and education projects. Ms. Tognarelli approaches portfolio reviews from the perspective of an educator offering assessment and guidance to photographers to realize their objectives.

(photo by Katie Swanger)