©Miguel Angel Berjarano

One of my favorite classes that I teach at the Los Angeles Center of Photography is The Personal Project, a nine month class where photographers continue with or create new bodies of work, produce artist’s books or catalogs, hone their articulation and consider their influences. To say that I’m proud of these artists is an understatement–I’m amazed by their dedication to their craft and to their journey as photographic artists and it has been a complete pleasure to spend the last year with them.

Tonight, at LACP, we open an exhibition to celebrate their efforts, FRESH: 15 Personal Projects with work by Miguel Angel Berjarano, Ladini Conder, Sheri Determan, Beth Dubber, Nancy Edelstein, Carol Erb, Sally Ann Field, Elisa Haber, Rohina Hoffman, Cathy Immordino, Sharon Johnson-Tennant, Alexandra Kondracke, Victor Ramos, Kris Shires and Mara Zaslove.  The exhibition runs through October 13th with an Artist’s Talk scheduled for Monday, October 2, 7-9 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm).

Opening tonight!

The Wildlife Expeditions of Miguel Ángel Bejarano features imagery of Natural History Museum dioramas that first gave children a sense of the animal kingdom. Using digital tin type processing, his images reveal the patina of history and the magic of what is behind the glass.

©Miguel Angel Berjarano

©Miguel Angel Berjarano

In the ominous landscapes of Reckoning,  Carol Erb explores a visual narrative of disasters and the aftermath. On the surface, these scenes are literal depictions of the consequences of climate change. Deeper down the images act as metaphor for a civilization in political and cultural crisis.

©Carol Erb

©Carol Erb

©Carol Erb

Most people assume that no one is watching them below the surface of swimming pools. They’re wrong. Alex Kondracke is watching and in her series Submerged: Body Language Below the Surface, so can you.

©Alex Kondracke

©Alex Kondracke

©Alex Kondracke

52 Weeks in Los Angeles is a new book comprising of selected images from a ten-year project of street photography. From 2006-2016, photographer Beth Dubber gave herself weekly assignments in an effort to chase the authentic candid moment as well as to explore her time and place in the “City of Angeles”.

©Beth Dubber

©Beth Dubber

©Beth Dubber

Elisa Haber has been photographing her series Twins Days in Twinsburg, Ohio for the last several years. Twins Days is the largest convention of twins in the world, with over 1,900 sets of twins worldwide coming to celebrate their “twinsness”. Elisa’s fascination with twins began after she read of the unique and powerful bond of twins post 9-11 when 46 sets of twins lost their siblings.

©Elisa Haber

©Elisa Haber

©Elisa Haber

With her project, Pulp Memory, Kris Shires revisits the places of her childhood and explores the details which punctuate her memories.

©Kris Shires

  In 1984, while waiting for the school bus, I was propositioned by two men in a brown sedan.  

©Kris Shires

First Kiss

©Kris Shires

In Pilgrimage of Heritage, Cathy Immordino documents, montages and further explores her paternal ancestral heritage on her pilgrimage to Sicily. Upon learning about her family’s history, she discovered that no one is whatever heritage they think they are from; but rather a mix match of different parts of world cultures. Immordino created all of these images in layers or fragments much as she is today.

©Cathy Immordino

©Cathy Immordino

©Cathy Immordino

You are not my Guru is Ladini Conder’s visual and text-based exploration of childhood memories spent in an isolated commune in the hills of Appalachia. In this closed community, dress codes were strictly enforced, books banned, contact with the non-believers restricted and children ages 4-5 were separated from their parents. Part personal story, part investigation “You are not my Guru” is about cults in America, historical representation, family archive and the power of friendship and self-invention

©Ladini Conder, Dissident

©Ladini Conder, Hypocrisy in the name of religion

©©Ladini Conder, M.I.A.

In Don’t Bring Me No Rocking Chair, Mara Zaslove turns her focus on a woman who seems to defy societies’ traditional notions of aging. Bearing witness to her vitality but acknowledging the finite reality of life, this series combines photographs of her lithe but crepe-like body with elements from the natural world, highlighting the connectedness that all living things possess.

©Mara Zazlove

©Mara Zaslove

©Mara Zazlove

Nancy Edelstein is a fine art photographer and book designer whose work explores memory and the objects that preserve it. Friday Night Dinners brings together visual and story-telling components to reveal the power of forgotten memories held within her grandmother’s porcelain dishes. This project culminates in a series of archival pigment prints and a handmade artist book honoring those images with personal stories of a lost family tradition.

©Nancy Edelstein, from Friday Night Dinners

©Nancy Edelstein, from Friday Night Dinners

©Nancy Edelstein, from Friday Night Dinners

 Hair Stories is a series of portraits and oral narratives that have been excerpted looking at the psychology of women’s hair. Rohina Hoffman explores how hair is more than just than style or aesthetics, but a metaphor for our identity, feelings, femininity and personality.

©Rohina Hoffman

©Rohina Hoffman

©Rohina Hoffman

When sharing a name with a celebrity it’s only natural to wonder what it would feel like to be the famous person. With her project Being Sally Field, photographer Sally Ann Field channels her inner-celebrity and tries on the iconic moments in the life of actress Sally Field.

©Sally Ann Field

©Sally Ann Field

©Sally Ann Field

Victor Ramos was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism in his fifth decade. In his project On the Spectrum – Life on Earth he attempts to show what it feels like to be, to live on the autism spectrum, here on Earth.

©Victor Ramos, Enlightenment

©Victor Ramos,, Power and Will

©Victor Ramos, Self-Awareness

Sharon Johnson-Tennant has been walking the beach her entire life. In the series, I Walk the Beach, is her observation of man-made oddities discovered along these walks, made over a ten-year period. Sometimes sad, sometimes humorous, often poignant – these images reflect mankind’s intrusion on our natural environment.

©Sharon Johnson-Tennant

©Sharon Johnson-Tennant

©Sharon Johnson-Tennant

The Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) was established in October, 2013. The organization obtained 501(c)3 tax-exempt status in August, 2014. Before LACP, the entity was called “The Julia Dean Photo Workshops” (JDPW), which was created and founded in 1999 by Julia Dean, LACP’s executive director.

The mission of the Los Angeles Center of Photography is to build a community of dedicated photographers and to strengthen the importance of photography as an art form. This is achieved by providing education, scholarships, grants, exhibits, public programs and events, focused programming for youth and low