Lisa and I were thrilled to jury the annual member show for the Colorado Photographic Arts Center for their 60^th anniversary! This past weekend we were able to celebrate with them at the inaugural opening of their beautiful new space. A big thanks to CPAC’s Executive Director, Samantha Johnston, for inviting us to be a part of their photographic community!

The 34 prints in this exhibition were chosen from over 700 submissions from CPAC members. Many photographers inspired us with their use of photographic practice as a doorway to discover their surroundings with eyes that are lucid and curious. As jurors, we carefully considered every image, selecting exceptional photographs that also bring something fresh to established genres. We set a few criteria to guide our selection, and images were chosen with certain questions in mind. It might be interesting to consider your own answers to these questions as you go through the exhibition.

Even if this image is very good, have I already seen many iterations of this picture before?
Are there compositional surprises? Does the picture include a moment or subject that activates the scene?
After repeated viewings of the image, do I still like it? Do I like it more every time I look at it? Do I like it less?
Does the image match or even transcend what the artist statement says it should communicate?
Does it leave me with questions, or make me want to see more of the photographer’s work?
When I close my eyes, and I think about all of the photographs, do I remember this one?

That last question is key. When we have thousands of images at our fingertips every day, how do we differentiate between what we scroll past on an instagram feed, and what we would place on the wall in a gallery or in our homes? A fine art photograph, made with care, craft, and intention can be worthy of a longer look. And it can become significant to the beholder, in a way that renews over time.

The point of intrigue that makes an image memorable can take different forms. It may look like Susan Artaechevarria’s fox, perfectly centered and staring at us from the hay bales, sitting off at a just-unreachable distance. Or it might be Denise Laurinaitis’ tiny shadow of a toy airplane that sticks in the mind.

Michael Young employs thoughtful visual overlap and mirroring in his portraits of two different girls growing up in the same small town. One wears a flowery dress, with a wall of delicate floral brocade behind her, and the other is positioned on a field of rough grass and straw, wearing camo. Young’s portraits demonstrate how carefully selected details in a photograph can create depth or prompt questions.

As curators, we are drawn to photographs that hold a rare balance- where the emotional and conceptual layers of the work are just as compelling as the aesthetics. We search for pictures that first evoke feeling, but then keep your eye wandering through rich (or spare) layers of color, shape and form. We also gravitate towards imagery with a bit of mystery, and explorations that fall outside the more familiar boundaries of photographic genres. A portrait can be two shadows intertwining on the wall, as in Raj Manickam’s Layers of Love. A landscape may well be tumbling off the wall, like Suzanne Theodora White’s Against the Ruins.

The final selection represents a through line that we saw in the submissions — the depth and refinement that comes from slowing down and truly engaging with subject and material. With this approach of patient attention and curious appreciation, photographs become more than just an image on the wall, they are a portal for opening connection.