©alina balseiro, 10 days, 2025, 33x22in, archival inkjet print

In celebration of its 50th Anniversary, the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) launched a six- month mentorship program pairing four early-career photographers with four established artists for sustained one-on-one mentorship, critical feedback, and professional development.

The 2026 Mentorship Fellows are alina balseiro, Jaypix Belmer, Libby O’Neill, and Nick Ortoleva, who were paired with mentors Jess T. Dugan, Rashod Taylor, Jillian Guyette, and Tommy Kha. Throughout the program, each fellow met regularly with their mentor to develop their work, strengthen their artistic voice, and receive guidance on their professional practice. The program culminates in an exhibition at the PRC gallery, on view September 11–October 18, 2026, featuring work developed by the fellows during their mentorships.

The program will also be celebrated at PRC’s 50th Anniversary Gala on October 17, where all four mentors and four fellows will be present as honored guests. Created as part of PRC’s 50th Anniversary, the program celebrates the importance of mentorship in photography while fostering meaningful relationships between emerging and established artists and supporting the next generation of photographers.

Today we share feature the work of Mentorship Fellow alina balseiro and a conversation with Mentor Jess T. Dugan.

©alina balseiro, 102 days, 2026, 33.3 x 50in, adhesive photo vinyl

alina balseiro is a Latine, Queer artist who uses photography and sculpture to empower their muses in the lgbtqia+ community. reflecting on their personal experiences, they incorporate self-portraiture to emphasize connections between themself, their sitters, and viewers. as they explore the social codes and cues within this group, they depict queer individuals’ common experiences. alina creates spaces that welcome authenticity of lgbtqia+ perspectives by interweaving vulnerability, identity affirmation, and care into each collaboration. balancing representation and education of identities historically unseen, they connect with Queer individuals seeking to share their narratives.

alina is currently a 50th anniversary fellow at the photographic resource center and earned mass cultural council’s creative individuals grant. along with solo exhibits at bentley university and buckingham browne & nichols school, they participated in select group exhibitions at abigail ogilvy gallery, boston city hall, boston university, gallery 263, griffin museum of photography, the new school, and vermont center for photography. holding a bfa in photography and design from lesley university, they currently work as a global associate at an independent school and have taught at the institute of contemporary art and lesley university.

Instagram: @alinabalseiroart

©alina balseiro, 67 days, 2025, 33 x 22in, archival inkjet print

Jess T Dugan Shares:

One of the most beautiful things about being an artist is that you are part of a lineage: many have come before you, their creative lives influencing how you perceive the world and what you create while you are here, and many more will follow. For queer artists, there is yet another layer of lineage; we look for representations of ourselves, and when we don’t see what we need to find, we create it, opening possibilities for those who will follow.

It has been an honor to work with alina balseiro through the PRC’s 2026 Mentorship Program as they embark on a new project about their experiences with gender-affirming surgery. It can be difficult to create work that is so personal, and even more so to share it with others before there has been ample time for reflection. alina has bravely forged ahead, making new images each month and moving their project forward, sometimes in unexpected ways. The resulting exhibition is evidence of a deep commitment to their work, an openness to constructive feedback, and a belief in the importance of community and representation.

Making art is a magical thing; it allows us to simultaneously explore our own internal lives and realities while forging deep and meaningful connections with others. Over the past six months, alina has done both. I look forward to following their work—especially to hold & be held—as it develops and expands for years to come.

©alina balseiro, 95 days, 2025, 22 x 33in, archival inkjet print

Jess T Dugan: can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your photographic practice?

alina balseiro: i am a Latine, Queer, lens-based artist and pair imagery with sculpture. some select projects i’ve worked on in the last decade include shear pleasure that depicts Queer gen-z’s relationship with their hair; almost seems which bridges the gap between my generation and those preceding mine; and to hold & be held, a budding project depicting before, during, and after my recent top surgery with the need to remember each version of my body.

each collaborative series includes strangers, friends, and self portraits that weave the connection of our found communities together. we begin with a set of questions in which our conversation guides the images produced. i prioritize the comfort of each collaborator and hope that the images we make together contribute to their ever-evolving confidence. while i don’t directly reference the Queer archive, i look to it as a way to fill its gaps. i aim for my work to be an amalgamation of photographs that serve as a long-lasting representation of the lgbtqia+ community.

writing poetry, journaling, group critiques, and visiting art spaces impact what i create. i am inspired to make work that resonates with both my real-life and others’ experiences. through existing, i make art that feels relevant to the moment. in all of my work, i bring inner dialogue to external visual art.

©alina balseiro, 43 days, 2025, 33x22in, archival inkjet print

Jess T Dugan: what drew you to apply for the prc’s 50th anniversary mentorship program?

alina balseiro:for me, the prc has always been a space for new opportunities and a way to strengthen my artist practice. in 2020, one of my photographs was nominated for their student show and shown at panopticon gallery in boston. i have appreciated their support for photographers, especially emerging ones, and when the fellowship was announced with the line-up of incredible mentors, i knew i had to apply. after dropping off my work for an out-of-state exhibition, i completed the application in the corner of a bookstore using my phone’s hotspot. i’ll admit, there were some tears involved when i learned I would get to work with you as a mentor in this fellowship.

in my artist practice, i appreciate human connection in the making process and honest feedback. the fellowship emphasized one-on-one support from a consistent established artist, which felt necessary for me to overcome the plateau i was experiencing. i graduated from art school four years ago and have craved an external push to help guide my new projects

Jess T Dugan: how has your personal history or lived experience influenced the photographs you make?

alina balseiro:even when i’m not visible in the photograph, it still reflects my perspective, morals, and past, regardless if it’s intentional or not. for me, being Queer and a photographer go hand in hand. 10 years ago marks both the year i came out and began picking up my mom’s camera more frequently. wanting to understand myself and my friends in new ways has continued as a throughline for the last decade. a lot of us have come out or transitioned since those first photos and seeing the progression over time is really precious.

i have always enjoyed making self portraits, yet this new body of work depicting my experience with top surgery is a fairly new way of working for me. i am internally processing my new body and the way i am perceived while simultaneously documenting how each new moment feels. photography has the power to slow us down and pause a moment in time. self portraiture is a visual journal and way to mirror my current state of being. i am able to control each element of the image and create a narrative that communicates the intentions of the photograph.

©alina balseiro, 256 days, 2026, 33x22in, archival inkjet print

1. was there a particular project or body of work we discussed together that helped clarify your artistic direction?

in may 2025, i began the process of gender affirming care through top surgery. as someone who has photographed other people through this process, i didn’t anticipate turning the camera around on myself. i knew that i needed to remember as much as i could in preparation, during the recovery, and the long term euphoria as a result of my decision. it wouldn’t be hard to remember a body i’ve lived in my whole life and i wanted to make that represented visually.

2. over the past six months, how has your work evolved, either conceptually or visually?

as you know, during the first critique, i shared a 40-page presentation with images that were simply demonstrating the time-sensitive process. there certainly were conceptual elements budding and through the fellowship, i worked to create conversations between them that benefitted the importance of each images’ role in the work.

i was able to hone in on what my intentions were and express them through a cohesive visual language. these were sketched in one way but ended up being much better through variations from my original idea. starting such a new project that documented the mental and physical changes of my body with only myself as the muse has been a challenge i’ve been grateful to work through. inspired by my new routine and internal monologue, the fellowship kept me accountable to experimenting in new ways.

i’ve always been a listener as a way of getting to know other people and making them feel seen. this project forced me to listen to myself and unravel tensions through the process of image making. the changes have been slow in the moment but when i look back to the first images i made, my scars healed, confidence grew, and the work formed into something i couldn’t have predicted. each photograph is a marker of time.

3. was there a piece of feedback or a conversation during our mentorship that shifted the way you think about photography or storytelling?

during times where i felt like i was racing to a finish line, you reminded me that the work is a part of a larger project, not the whole thing. realistically, people are going to see the work in the way they want to because of their own lived experiences. this sequence is relevant to everything up until this point and i will continue to gain new realities that may inspire different iterations.

©alina balseiro, 118 days, 2026, 33x22in, archival inkjet print

1. how has this mentorship influenced your creative process, confidence, or career goals?

the rigor of my artist practice’s upswing resulted in growing pains through the process.

i embraced the performative qualities of making self portraits in public and it feels like an extension of my gender. i’ve made plenty of portraits in public spaces but this has emphasized the unfamiliarity of this new life journey and feelings that come from existing as a genderqueer person in shared spaces.

the fellowship showed me the importance of incorporating rest as a core part of my artistic process. this project is in such preliminary stages that the more time i have to live through this new phase of my life, the more art will come into fruition.

2. what has been the most valuable aspect of working one-on-one with a mentor through the prc program?

you were a great thought partner who was able to understand the importance of gender affirming care and translating its impact to imagery. group critiques can offer new perspectives but one-on-one mentorship has specifically been beneficial for navigating a completely new set of images. you could see motifs naturally develop throughout the work over time and encouraged me towards the most successful direction. working with you while moving through this monumental change in my life has added a new dimension to the way i incorporate Queerness into my photography.

3. what challenges have you encountered in your practice recently, and how have you worked through them?

honestly, it was emotionally challenging to create authentic work that was in conjunction with processing real-life changes. the internal drive to make photos through it allowed the work to reflect the reality of the process. i had to remake an image here and there to make sure it felt “right” and every new version of the image showed the current moment. there isn’t fantasy; it is a translation of how i envision my reality.

i usually operate on a cycle of using the colder months to research, rest, and reset and the summer months to create, experiment, and explore. since i have been in consistent production mode for the last year, i’ve eliminated a vital part of my process which has led to burnout, especially with the specific subject matter.

for me, there is guilt associated with pausing and i have been learning that it is necessary to decompress before continuing to produce. although it is difficult to breathe through the cycle, i journal and write poetry to release without any specific objective.

©alina balseiro, 273 days, 2026, 66.6 x 100in, adhesive photo vinyl

1. are there photographers, artists, or experiences that continue to inspire your work?

you were one of the most frequently referenced photographers during my college art school critiques. your work collaborating with the lgbtqia+ community directly related to how i was naturally forming a connection with photography.

i look to artists like Elle Pérez and Lindsay Perryman who have gone through the same physical transformations and make images that resonate to their livelihood. i recently saw Naima Green’s work at the international center of photography in nyc and spent hours in the exhibition with her intimate photographs of her pregnancy.

my best friends, my partner, and chosen family continue to inspire me with their resilience, humor, and own creative endeavors. sometimes, they’re even my “human tripod” and placeholder for switching myself into the frame. i moved to the boston area from jersey city, nj for college and left nearly everyone i knew as my community. although i miss being just across the river from nyc, the people i’ve chosen to surround myself with in boston have been unforgettable.

2. and last, what does the exhibition at the prc mean to you?

showing the first iteration of my ongoing project to hold and be held means that i can create representation for Queer people who see themselves in me, those who are new to understanding it, and anyone in between.

there are only a handful of times where i have been able to show a larger selection from a body of work and having the opportunity to show a version of this new series so early on has provoked an immense amount of joy. in preparation for my monthly meetings with Jess and the end goal of an exhibition, i focused solely on making images for this project and experimenting with layout, material, and ways to make the images talk to one another.

there is an immeasurable weight of responsibility to my Queer community, including myself, in showing this iteration of the project. without hesitation, i’ve welcomed the vulnerability of sharing work that is more personal than i’m usually comfortable with so early in the emotional and photographic process.

it’s not just for me, it’s for all of us.

Portrait of Jess T Dugan by Kevin Roberts, 2023

My work explores the complexities of personhood, relationships, desire, love, and family through photography, video, sound, drawing, and writing. It is informed by my identity as a queer, nonbinary person and is motivated by an existential need to understand myself and connect with others. Central themes are living authentically and the immense power of seeing—and being seen by—others. Through honest and emotional storytelling, my work invites viewers to engage with others in a meaningful, intimate way, reflecting on their own lives and identities in the process.- Jess T. Dugan

©Jess T. Dugan, Shira and Sarah, 2020.