JURIED EXHIBITION
The Photographer’s Eye Collective and Gallery announces
(s)Light of Hand, 2025
A Juried Exhibition of Alternative Photographic Processes
Alternative Process Images courtesy Donna Cosentino©
Alternative Process Images Courtesy Donna Cosentino©
A photograph is a (s)Light of Hand, a magic trick of sorts, conjured into being. Light is summoned and chemistry is concocted, making visible both the intangible and the corporeal. It is heart and mind, imagination and craft, melding together into an experience of life-altering alchemy.
We here at our Collective and Gallery have a deep respect and affection for historic processes. In this call for entries, we wish to celebrate this love for hand-made, photo-based processes and invite you to share your magic-making wizardry in our spellbinding juried show, (s)Light of Hand.
Open to all photographic artists in the U.S. and beyond who practice the one-of-a-kind art making of any alternative photographic process from Albumen to Ziatype. A good resource to see what can be considered is the AlternativePhotography.com site’s list of processes: http://www.alternativephotography.com/processes/
It is acceptable to use digital tools as a means to an end, an alternative process result. Also, we will accept any digital or silver print if it has been hand-worked using such things as collage, stitching, weaving, and three-dimensional constructions. (Our Juror has final say as to what is considered ‘alternative’)
Our distinguished juror this year is Aline Smithson
CALENDAR OF IMPORTANT DATES: 2025
- Call for Entries Starts June 1st, 2025
- We will receive online work until midnight PST, FRIDAY, August 8th, 2025
- Juried August 10th-12th, 2025 and Notifications sent out August 14th to 15th, 2025
- Take in framed work Monday, September 1st through Saturday, September 6th, 2025, 11am-5pm daily at the gallery
- Mailed/Shipped work MUST BE RECEIVED by Saturday, September 6th by 5pm
- Show Install: Monday, September 8th - Friday, September 12th, 2025
- Exhibition Dates: September 13th -October 4th, 2025
- Opening Night Reception: Saturday, September 13th, 2025 5:00pm-7:00pm
SPECIAL HONORS: A Juror’s Award and a Director’s Award will be given.
FEE & ENTRY: $35 for the first 5 images and $5 for each additional image up to 10. Please see our directions below for file size and naming. (Look for our PAY and SUBMIT buttons below.)
HOW TO SIZE YOUR IMAGES: jpegs no more than 2000 ppi on the long side, 300dpi between 2-3 mb in file size.
HOW TO NAME YOUR IMAGES: First name-Last name_Title_Process_Image # If images are not named as described they may be disqualified.
EXAMPLES: Brian-Jones_Leaf_Cyanotype_1.jpg, Brian-Jones_Waterwheel_Platinum_2.jpg, Brian-Jones_Train_Tintype_3.jpg
SUBMITTING YOUR WORK: Create a folder titled with your first and last name, then place your entries into that folder along with a Word.doc or PDF that lists your artwork titles, image sizes, and a brief description of the process(s). You can include an artist Bio and Artist Statement (no longer than 200-250 characters). Zip files are acceptable. See below for steps to pay and submit your entry.
ELIGIBILITY: Any photographer age 18 and up who practices alternative photographic processes.
PRESENTATION: Selected 2-D work must be framed and wired, up to 30” x 30”, presented with high quality professional standards. There is no minimum frame size. For selected 3-D works you may supply your own method of display or we will provide pedestals if necessary. Please include with each delivered piece your name, title, price and contact info. Approx. 30 works will be selected for the exhibition. We reserve the right to refuse to show an accepted and delivered piece if its presentation is not up to our level of quality.
MAIL OR HAND DELIVER: Framed and wired images are to be delivered to: The Photographer’s Eye Collective and Gallery, 326 E Grand Ave, Escondido, CA 92025. If mailed, please include a prepaid return label. MUST BE RECEIVED by Saturday, September 7th during regular business hours, 11am-5pm.
SALES: You may sell your work if you wish during the exhibition, and the gallery will take 40%.
COPYRIGHT AND USAGE INFO: Artist retains all rights. An artist whose work is chosen for exhibition grants us permission to use images for promoting the exhibition or our Gallery and its programs. Images may be placed on social media for promotion and features. Artists grant usage as stated without further compensation.
STEPS FOR SUBMISSION:
1. Click the 'Pay Here' button to submit your entry fee of $35 for up to 5 images and for each additional entry up to 10 for $5 each.
2. Once paid, click on the 'Submit Image Folder Here' button to submit your folder.
IF YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE WITH SUBMISSION, PLEASE GO DIRECTLY
TO OUR EMAIL TO SUBMIT ENTRIES:
Aline Smithson
Aline Smithson is an interdisciplinary artist, editor, filmmaker, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. Best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. She received a BA in Art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies, studying under artists such as William Wegman, Allen Rupersburg, and Charles Garabedian. After a career as a New York Fashion Editor working alongside some of the greats of fashion photography, Smithson returned to Los Angeles and her own artistic practice.
She has exhibited widely including over 50 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyqo Festivals in China, The Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, the Center of Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Arnika Dawkins Gallery in Atlanta. In addition, her work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, PDN (cover), the PDN Photo Annual, Communication Arts Photo Annual, Harper’s, Eyemazing, Soura, Visura, Shots, Pozytyw, and Silvershotz magazines.
Smithson is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Lenscratch, a daily journal on photography. She has been an educator at the Los Angeles Center of Photography since 2001, and her teaching spans the globe. In 2012, Smithson received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community, and she also received the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER. In 2014 and 2019, Smithson’s work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50. Her work is held in significant public collections including the Los Angeles County Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Crocker Art Museum, and the Santa Barbara Art Museum.
In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her first significant monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography. In 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Smithson to create a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. In the Fall of 2018 and again in 2019, her work was selected as a finalist in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. In 2019, Kris Graves Projects commissioned her to create the book LOST II: Los Angeles, which is now sold out. Peanut Press Books published her monograph, Fugue State, in Fall 2021. Her books are in the collections of the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others. In 2022, she was honored to be a Hasselblad Heroine. With the exception of her cell phone, she only shoots film.
ABOUT THE GALLERY: The Mission of our Collective and Gallery is to provide a location for the exhibition of fine photography by regional photographers and beyond; to make available a darkroom for analog and alternative photography practices; and to create a meeting place for the study, teaching and discussion of the art and craft of photography.
Journey Exhibition: Gallery 1