CENTER AWARDS: Gallerist's Choice Awards: 1st Place Winner: Bryan Schutmaat

CENTER AWARDS: Gallerist’s Choice Awards: 1st Place Winner: Bryan Schutmaat by Aline SmithsonApril 10, 2013

CENTER’s Gallerist’s Choice Juror, Lauren Panzo is the Director at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York. Lauren selected Bryan Schtmaat to recieved the 1st place Award for his evocative project, Grays the Mountain Sends. Tomorrow we will feature 2nd and 3rd place winners Brandon Thibodeaux and Donna J. Wan.

Lauren shared these comments about the juroring:

There were many strong applicants and I took about two weeks to edit my selection down to the top twenty entries. During each round, I found myself drawn to the portfolios with a very concise and deliberate concept or story. From these entries, I narrowed it to those I felt conveyed their artistic vision in an original way. Most of the portfolios were polished and professional, but not all of them resonated with me. In the first round, I eliminated the entries that didn’t engage me. In round two, I focused on the photographic groupings and what each applicant was trying to convey. In the third stage, I chose the final twenty portfolios that I kept revisiting – those that continued to stand out during each round. Judging is a subjective experience, and my top three choices are the ones that I connected with the most; another judge could have selected three different portfolios entirely.

Bryan was born in Houston, Texas, received a BA in History at the University of Houson and an MFA in photography from the Hartford Art School in 2012. His work has been published and exhibited around the world. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Grays the Mountain Sends

This project combines portraits, landscapes, and still lifes in a series of photos that explores the lives of working people residing in small mountain towns and mining communities in the American West. Equipped with a large format view camera, and inspired by the poetry of Richard Hugo, I’ve aimed to hint at narratives and relay the experiences of strangers met in settings that spur my own emotions. Ultimately, this body of work is a meditation on small town life, the landscape, and more importantly, the inner landscapes of common men.