Houston Center of Photography Members Exhibition

Houston Center of Photography Members Exhibition by Aline SmithsonJuly 19, 2014

©Morgan Ashcom (Queens, NY) Untitled 24, 2013

Houston Center for Photography recently opened its 32st Annual Juried Membership Exhibition that will run through September 7th, 2014. Juror Malcolm Daniel, Curator in Charge of the Department of Photography and Curator of Special Projects at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, selected 38 artists from around the globe to create a diverse and interesting exhibition. “I’ve selected work that I hope will make a varied but coherent exhibition while also representing the best examples of a wide array of approaches to the medium, from documentary photo essays to visual diaries and from nature photography to highly manipulated images,” said Daniel. “The three award winners—Anne Berry, Geoffrey Ellis, and Jeanine Michna-Bales—could not be more different from one another, but each presented a unique and compelling body of work.”

©Bruce Barshop (San Antonio, TX) The Virgin Mary Makes an Appearance at the Car Show, San Antonio, Texas, 2012

Three of the 38 selected artists—Anne Berry of Newnan, GA, Geoffrey Ellis of San Francisco, CA, and Jeanine Michna-Bales of Dallas, TX—received the Beth Block Juried Membership Honoraria, supported by The Beth Block Foundation that includes $500 and a feature within HCP’s publication SPOT. The Annual Juried Membership Exhibition highlights the photographs of its national and international members. Now at a membership of over 1600, HCP’s members have been an integral part of its mission since 1981.
This year’s participating artists include:

Morgan Ashcom (Queens, NY), Bruce Barshop (San Antonio, TX), Amy Becker (Madison, NJ), Anne Berry (Newnan, GA), Sandy Carson (Austin, TX), Sebastien Collett (Asheville, NC), Ginger Cook (Paris, TX), Hannah Cooper McCauley (Ruston, LA), Adam Davies (Washington, DC), Amy Davison (Rochester, NY), John DuBois (Issaquah, WA), Billy Dykes (Baytown, TX), Geoffrey Ellis (San Francisco, CA), Michael Ellison (Savannah, GA), Robert Flatt (Houston, TX), George Grubb (New York, NY), Joshua Haunschild (Fort Worth, TX), Carol Hayman (Austin, TX), Christi Hellrung (Houston, TX), Carl Henry (Houston, TX), Brian Johnson (Broken Arrow, OK), Sarah Jones (San Antonio, TX), Kent Krugh (Fairfield, OH), Tracy Lynch (Boerne, TX), Sara Macel (Brooklyn, NY), Timothy McCoy (Cumming, GA), Jeanine Michna-Bales (Dallas, TX), Matt Morris (Baton Rouge, LA), Haley Morris-Cafiero (Cordova, TN), Jackson Patterson (San Francisco, CA), Beverly Peace (Winchester, VA), Christine Pearl (Washington, DC), Camilo Ramirez (Jamaica Plain, MA), Brian Christopher Sargent (Brooklyn, NY), Jae-Hee Schin (Seoul, South Korea), Samantha VanDeman (Villa Park, IL), Mitsu Toshikawa (San Francisco, CA).

©Amy Becker (Madison, NJ) Seaside Dino, 2013

Juror’s Statement

It was a genuine pleasure to look through the many portfolios submitted for the HCP Annual Juried Membership Exhibition and a tough task to whittle it down to 37 artists and 65 photographs. Any selection of work for such a show is, by definition, a personal selection, but I have tried nonetheless to assemble an exhibition that represents the breadth of work created by HCP members who have tackled many subjects, used a wide variety of photographic media, and, of course, pursued their art with individual perspectives and aesthetic sensibilities. Some of the threads that ran through the submissions and are evident on the gallery walls were personal or historical storytelling, nostalgia for a lost industrial past, exploration of personal memory and identity, a search for humor in our everyday experiences, and an exploration of how the camera can allow us to perceive the world in new ways.

This year’s recipients of the Beth Block Award—Anne Berry, Geoffrey Ellis, and Jeanine Michna-Bales—could not be more different from one another, but each presented a unique and compelling body of work. I congratulate them and all of the artists included in this 32nd annual exhibition.–Malcolm Daniel, Juror, Curator in Charge, Department of Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

©Anne Berry (Newnan, GA) Monkey in Painted Room, 2011

About the Houston Center for Photography:
HCP’s mission is to increase society’s understanding and appreciation of photography and its evolving role in contemporary culture. HCP strives to encourage artists, build audiences, stimulate dialogue, and promote inquiry about photography and related media through education, exhibitions, publications, fellowship programs