Fine Art Photography Daily

Photo NOLA Recap from both sides of the table

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Portrait of Baldwin Lee, ©Sophia Clay

It was so wonderful to return to New Orleans this past December and celebrate all things photographic during PhotoNOLA. Today we share some of the highlights of the events, and discuss the Portfolio Reviews from both sides of the table. I was a reviewer and Lenscratch Editor, Karen Bullock was a reviewee and had a chance to chat with some of the participants about their experience.

A photo festival is a multi-pronged event, with artist lectures, exhibitions, workshops, portfolio reviews, and general smoozing and the ability to deepen friendships within the community. One of the highlights was the Balwin Lee Exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Established in 2006, PhotoNOLA is an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, produced by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with museums, galleries, and alternative venues citywide. Showcasing work by photographers near and far, the festival includes exhibitions, workshops, lectures, a portfolio review, gala and more. PhotoNOLA draws hundreds of photography professionals to the city to partake in a variety of educational programs, and reaches broadly into the local community with exhibitions and events that are largely free and open to the public.

PhotoNOLA’s broad range of programming connects and inspires our community through photography. Each December, New Orleans shines as a prime destination for photography collectors, enthusiasts, and professionals in the field.

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Photo NOLA Portfolio Reviews ©Sophia Clay

The Portfolio Reviews are at the heart of the festival. After the reviews conclude, reviewers select the three projects they felt were compelling and well executed, and those projects receive the Photo NOLA Awards. The winners are:

Camille Farrah Lenain

Camille Farrah Lenain is a French-Algerian documentary photographer who grew up in Paris. She relocated to New Orleans in 2013, where she works for various publications, teaches at Tulane University and continues long-term projects that challenge societal preconception, exploring the notions of stereotypes, collective memory, and plural identities.

Bouchta, Marseille, 2022

©Camille Farrah Lenain, Bouchta, Marseille, 2022

Mediterranean Sea, 2020

©Camille Farrah Lenain, Mediterranean Sea, 2020

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©Camille Farrah Lenain

This is a love letter to you, Uncle Farid. And here are the questions I was never able to ask you: Did you ever believe in Allah? Did you ever try to come out to your parents? How did the news feel, in your body, when you were diagnosed with HIV? Were you able to feel fully queer, and fully Arab, in France?

“Made Of Smokeless Fire” is an homage to Farid, who passed away in 2013. In the absence of his voice, I turned my lens toward LGBTQIA+ individuals of Muslim culture in France, often underrepresented and simply ignored. France is home to the largest proportion of Muslims in the Western world, estimated at 8.8% or the population, or 5.57 million. Yet, islamophobia remains pervasive. At the intersection of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and racism, these communities are actively challenging these inequities, while redefining their own
cultural and religious heritage.

Queer Muslims often exist in the shadows, either through a lack of representation or a conscious choice to remain unseen. How do we photograph the invisible? How can we honor identities while respecting their secrets? What modes of representation can we develop for undefined, queer, and plural stories? How can we soften a medium that has historically been violent in its classification of human identities?

Opening up our memories and traumas can almost be redemptive, leading us to question our imposed narratives of faith, survival, family and love. This body of work has become a necessity for me, a tunnel for examining the trauma of silence surrounding queer lives. With secrets tied in loss of memory due to immigration, colonial history, and assimilation, this work has evolved into not only an homage to Farid but to queered and racialized bodies – bodies in liminality.


Kennedi Carter

Kennedi Carter  (b. 1998, Charlottesville, Virginia) is an artist and photographer, currently based in the American South.

A Durham, North Carolina native by way of Dallas Texas, Kennedi Carter is a visual artist with a primary focus on Black subjects. Her work highlights the aesthetics & sociopolitical aspects of Black life as well as the overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community. Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness.

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©Kennedi Carter, Ridin’ Sucka Free

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©Kennedi Carter, Ridin’ Sucka Free

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©Kennedi Carter, Ridin’ Sucka Free

Ridin’ Sucka Free, is a series that emerged following conversations regarding Black life in relation to horsemanship and agriculture. Pop culture’s interest in Black cowboys quickly rose following the release of Lil Nas X’s song Old Town Road. Prior to this introduction, the existence of the American cowboy can be traced back to antebellum Texas, during which White colonists traveling westward first encountered Mexican cowboys or vaqueros; these colonists later appropriated their equestrian techniques, such as (give example). By the end of the civil war in 1865, a third of the cowboys in existence were vaqueros and a quarter of them were Black.

The systemic white-washing of American history is not an unfamiliar tale. Despite the fact that African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexicans made up a majority of the cowboys that existed in the United States, their presence seemingly erased from contemporary Americana. Ridin’ Sucka Free is an ongoing project that seeks to document the experiences of Black cowboys across cultures and borders in the Americas; the ones still here using horses and agriculture as a means of survival and livelihood.


Jo Ann Chaus

Jo Ann Chaus is an American artist based in New York. Her areas of interest lie in the psychological states of mind of women she personifies in her expansive self-portrait collection. Her work depicts a conceptual and metaphorical study of a continual state of evolution, possibility and expression of the self in and through the work. She is an alumni of ICP in NY, has exhibited both in the US and abroad.  Her recognitions and exhibitions include Critical Mass top 50 in 2024 and 2023, and top 200 2018-2022, Aperture Portfolio Prize finalist in 2024, Julia Margaret Cameron Overall winner April 2024.

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©Jo Ann Chaus

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©Jo Ann Chaus

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©Jo Ann Chaus

The overarching theme in my work “Conversations with Myself” explores the shifting notions of self.  The past and the present collide through memory and desire, on a non-linear timeline. The images are still but the psyche is in motion. The repetitive act of self-regard expresses a multitude of possibilities.

This work is a declaration of courage, confidence and independence.  My hope is that it can serve as inspiration to others-as an invitation to look honestly at the past, question its hold, and move forward with a truer sense of self.


Karen Bullock shares her PhotoNOLA experience and the experience of other attendees:

My first portfolio review was at PhotoNola in 2019. I was a bit nervous because I had heard stories of people walking away from “crits” or portfolio reviews in tears. My anxiety was balanced with excitement though, as I knew it would be an opportunity to talk with curators and editors and to learn. PhotoNola helped my work gain exposure and the following year the project I brought for review, “Presence Obscured” was featured in various exhibitions and publications. In 2020, my series “Presence Obscured” was selected for Currents at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, PhotoLucida’s Critical Mass Top 200, Luna Fete, On The Line at the New Orleans Photo Alliance, APG’s Portfolio 2020, Float Magazine, and Lenscratch.

During the reviews in 2019 and this year, my third time participating as a reviewee at PhotoNola, there were mixed opinions about my work. That it is to be expected, as to some extent it is subjective. Considerate, honest, constructive feedback is something I appreciate. Whether a reviewer connects with my work or not they will often have questions or suggestions that help me to fine tune an image or to go deeper and strengthen the body of work.

I laugh to myself though when one reviewer says, “I love this photograph” and the next one says, “I think you should leave this one out. It isn’t as strong as the others.” Yet even that is helpful information. I begin to look at that image in new ways, aware that no matter what the opinions of others might be, I need to follow my own heart and vision as an artist.

Another thing I have come to appreciate is time in the waiting room with other photographers. We gather around tables, look at each other’s work and enjoy conversation. Often we meet Instagram friends for the first time or see work that is new and exciting to us. It is a wonderful, supportive, community. I am grateful for the entire experience–for the reviewers, for the volunteers from the New Orleans Photo Alliance, and for the reviewees.

In between reviews this year,  I was able to ask a few reviewees for their perspectives about participating in PhotoNola. I asked them about why they came, what they hoped to gain, what kinds of questions they asked, if they had advice for first time reviewees, or in general what their experience was like. This is what they had to say:

Ben Depp: I came to PhotoNola to meet curators from across the country and to try to network with institutions that I don’t have access to otherwise. I have benefited from advice that I have received. I came specifically with questions about how I should approach institutions to “travel an exhibition” from one museum to another. I have also been asking curators, after they have seen my work, what institutions they think would be a good fit for my photographs. Curators have recommended a number of institutions around the country that I didn’t know existed. So that has been a positive experience for me.

Benjamin Dimmitt: The PhotoNOLA reviews are my favorite! The vibe is very relaxed, the reviewers come from a variety of backgrounds, the food is great, the programming is always interesting and it’s a fun city to visit.

Bob Gibson: I come over to PhotoNola each year because of all of the creativity and interaction with other photographers and the insightful comments from reviewers. I have come for two years and it has been the highlight of my year both times.

Allison Grant: I came to PhotoNola because I am publishing a book with Composite Press. It is my first monograph and in anticipation of that book coming out in the summer of 2025, I wanted to see if there was any opportunity to work with others in our field to try to get the work out and get exposure for both the publication and to capitalize on this big moment in my career. I have been to PhotoNola before with this work, so I wondered if it would be a valuable experience to come back. I was reading an article by a business person who wrote something like, “You can’t over market. You have to go seek exposure. It’s not going to come to you.” I thought that’s probably right and there are probably lots of people out there who would be interested in the work but haven’t seen it or haven’t had a chance to talk with me about it. So that is why I came and I was lucky to get a group of reviewers that are amazing curators and art professionals that I have never met before and that’s kind of magical. It is a pretty cool place to be. I am impressed by the regional diversity of photographers and reviewers at this portfolio review which is really surprising to me. I have always thought of PhotoNola as a Southern-focused portfolio review but it is cool to see people from California, New York, all of the middle of America–North, South, East, and West. It is a really rich environment.

Lyn Swett Miller: I am originally from Hanover, New Hampshire, now from Vermont. I am here because I am really excited about being in a community with other photographers in a place that feels welcoming. New Orleans is such a welcoming city. I appreciate PhotoNola and also FilterPhoto because they are smaller than a lot of other reviews and they are run by genuine people. Because I live in a rural area I need a quick fix of being surrounded by other photographers and creatives. I wanted to give myself a jump-start before the New Year, to have a game plan for where to go with my work in 2025.

I have just completed three separate bodies of work that are connected all around the subject of compost and transformation and renewal. I now want to bring those narratives out into the world. My hope is that while I am here, through my conversations with people from the media and from galleries and other professionals, I will gain some insight into where I might go next with this work and what might be some appropriate strategies for moving forward.

Each of the three parts of my work are slightly different in character. So far I have met with four reviewers. So I am halfway through and I found it really encouraging that what people are saying confirms my instincts, and that my compost work, beautiful photographs, belong in a gallery. They are big images. I have some other work, photographs of mold and books that feel more intimate, and that might belong in a compostable book. The third body of work is about green burials, my mother’s green burial and composting her on a bed of compost that she and I created together. That is a deeply personal narrative that puts all of this other work into context. It is a story that would be good for a public conversation around death and dying. I have a personal perspective on that and I would like to share. The people I have met with so far have been really receptive to this work. They have been kind in their responses to me and they have been so thoughtful in their suggestions for how I might move forward. I am only half way through. I have tomorrow too and I am so excited. I also love hanging out meeting other people and feeling part of a community outside of myself which I feel is really important at this particular moment in time.

Mike Murat: I am here to make connections, get some feedback from different perspectives on my work and see what path forward I might take with my photography.

Frances Williams:  This is my first time doing reviews and everyone at PhotoNola is so nice. It is great because it is not intimidating. I have had three reviews so far. They have all been constructive. Each person has had different advice but for me that is helpful. If I were to give advice to another first time reviewer, I would say that one thing I didn’t know until just before the review is that it is better to have uniform print sizes. The other thing is don’t fret too much. It is better to just talk about your work, about what you love and why you do it, than to memorize and recite an artist statement you have written down.

KB: The work of all of these photographers and others who participated in reviews and photowalk may be explored via this link 2024 PhotoWALK – PhotoNOLA

The reviewers are listed here 2024 Reviewers – PhotoNOLA

Finally, a few memories of the myriad of events during PhotoNOLA.

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Zine Workshop with Jeff Phillips ©Sophia Clay

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SEEING BLACK: Panel discussion with authors Eric Waters and Shana griffin, and artists Ashley Lorraine, Christine “Cfreedom” Brown, and Tod Smith ©Sophia Clay

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Michelle Dunn Marsh presenting What We Talk About When We Talk About Publishing ©Sophia Clay

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PhotoNOLA Book Fair ©Sophia Clay

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Curating Contemporary Photographers with Assistant Curator, The Museum of Modern Art Caitlin Ryan and New Orleans-based Photographer and Writer, L. Kasimu Harris ©Sophia Clay

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Celebrating NOLA style ©Sophia Clay

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