I am trying to catch up on Blog Posts. wanted to take a quick moment to share the Atlanta Photography Group’s announcement last week that 23 APG members are among the 200 Finalists for this year's Photolucida Critical Mass call. I am proud to be one of those finalists as well as a member of the Atlanta Photography Group. I have authored numerous blog posts already about APG, it is an incredible organization with some outstanding photographers. I have exhibited work with at least five other finalists before and have met a number of them. I encourage you to check out some of the links below to get to know their work, I am in good company with this selection.

In October I flew to Atlanta for the opening of the Atlanta Photography Group’s Gregory Harris Selects 2022 exhibition.

This exhibition was APG’s feature exhibition for Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) 2022, the month-long, citywide photography festival. The Exhibition was open themed and juried by Gregory Harris, the Keough Family Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

APG’s Program Director Nicole LeCorgne introduces Gregory Harris at the opening on October 20th.

I have been a member of APG for several years and this was the fourth APG exhibition I have had work featured in. Concurrent to this exhibition I also had two photographs up at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in APG’s annual airport show, which was juried by Lisa Volpe the Associate Curator of Photography at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. I also had a photograph in the APG’s 2022 Street Photography exhibition, curated by Henry Horenstein, which proceeded this exhibition. I have been so impressed with how professional everyone at APG is and the list of guest jurors they have brought in the last few years is amazing. So having the opportunity to see my photographs up in two separate exhibitions, and to also meet a curator like Gregory Harris, I jumped on a flight and headed to Atlanta. This was also an opportunity for me to visit Atlanta for the first time and explore a region of our country I need to get to know better.

I was honored as soon as I found out Gregory selected my photographs for the exhibition. I knew Gregory has an impressive curatorial resume and focuses on documentary photography when I submitted work for consideration. I also knew the High Museum has a prominent photography collection. Below his is statement about the exhibition:

The photographs gathered here are all straightforward pictures that respond to the wonders of quotidian human experience —the abiding pleasures of family and friends, the unexpected beauty of our built environment, the sheer marvel of the natural world—yet plumbing the depths of ordinary life offers boundless possibility for revelation. What links these seemingly disparate images is that their makers felt very little need to overly orchestrate them, and each was masterful at turning the most mundane situations into discretely poetic records of simply what was there before their cameras. – Gregory Harris

When I landed in Atlanta the day before the opening and immediately went to see the airport exhibition after getting my luggage, it was nice to finally see the space since I have had photographs in the airport exhibition twice now. The next day I went to the Atlanta Photography Group in the morning to see the exhibition before the opening. The APG space is outstanding, it has great linear wall space with a high ceiling and is laid out perfectly for a gallery. I was also happy to see that both of my photographs had prominent positioning in the center of the primary wall. I knew then I had made the right decision to fly back for the opening.

Going to see the exhibition early also gave me the opportunity to really get to know Nicole LeCorgne who is APG’s Program Director and a Curator. It was fantastic having so much time to learn about APG, the Atlanta photography community, and Nicole’s photography background.

Nicole LeCorgne, Caroline Hollingsworth, Beth Lilly, and William Karl Valentine

At the opening I was able to meet several APG’s board members and other long-time members who helped lay the foundation for this outstanding group. This gave me the chance to go to dinner with Benjamin Dimmitt, Mark Caceres, Peter Essick, Chip Standifer, and Beth Lilly after the opening. It was exciting to learn more about how vibrant the Atlanta photography community is and to just spend the time talking about the medium. The APG membership has a strong core of established photographers as well as many young emerging photographers, it is a nice mix. For example, I heard 22-year-old Joshua Walls tell us this was his first prominent exhibition when he spoke during the opening. For me, this was my 50th exhibition. The only thing I missed out on this trip was being able to meet APG Executive Director and Curator Donna Garcia in person because she had to be out of town that week. I have corresponded with Donna numerous times coordinating submissions and she has always been so helpful and professional. Donna is obviously taking APG to the next level.

Holding my photograph from the Street Photography exhibition which preceded the 2022 Selects exhibition. All three photographs were printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag ULTRASMOOTH Fine Art Paper and framed by Digital Arts Studio.

I also need to mention Digital Arts Studio in Atlanta and owner Barry Glustoff. I have used DAS to print and frame the photographs for both of my APG exhibitions this year. Their product is outstanding, they made the deadlines, and their fees were very appropriate. I am thankful for their work in really helping my images stand out. Digital Arts Studio is a qualified Hahnemuhle FineArt Certified Studio, one of fewer than two dozen in the United States as well as an accredited Canson Certified Lab and it shows in their product.

The Exhibition ran from October 17th to November 17th, 2022, and included the following participating artists:

Allison Plass
Beate Sass
Benjamin Dimmitt
Dana Weiss
Daniel Raniner
Ellen Mertins
Gwen Julia
Jo Ann Chaus
John Prince
Joshua Walls
Louis Leon

Mark Caceres
Nancy Marshall
Nate Mathews
Peter Essick
Reid Childers
Ross Landenberger
Seth Cook
Stephanie Hanlon
Willard Pate
William Karl Valentine
Zak Henderson

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