Open Call: THE PORTRAIT PROJECT, TAKE TWO

2022 Winners and Finalists Announced!

TOGETHER AS ONE (RELATIONSHIPS WITH FRIENDS / FAMILY, GROUPS OF PEOPLE OR SINGLES)

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Ousman Diallo: Portrait of Jace & Justice

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Ousman Diallo: Portrait of Jace & Justice

Excerpt from my recent personal project, “The Wounds You Give Me”.

FINALISTS

Louise Amelie: Missing Member – Kyrgyzstan, A Country On The Move

WHAT DOES MIGRATION MEAN FOR THOSE WHO STAY BEHIND? Louise Amelie’s documentary photo series is an artistic exploration of the global phenomenon of migration and its many facets,which are often ignored in European migration politics. In a collection of portrait texts and photographs that foreground individual stories, the book is an expression of solidarity and empathy,and shows that migration can mean both an opportunity as well as the painful loss of a beloved missing member.

Domenica Bucalo: #4 All The Time in the World

The series of images “All the Time in the World”, portrays an aspirational stillness whose qualities deliver a sense of perpetual connection to the self and others.

A yearning to hold time where the dreamy atmosphere, a cusp between not so long-ago memories and adult life, creates a place to gain possession of ourselves.

A relationship among the human figures and the natural elements of the landscape. An effortless connection draws them together.

Andrew Feiler: Elroy & Sophia Williams – Sophia Williams’s Grandparents, Former Slaves, Donated Land for this School

Rosenwald schools were a collaboration between a white, northern, Jewish businessman and a Black, southern, Christian educator. From 1912-37 the program built 4,978 schools across 15 states and transformed America. Sophia and Martin McDonald, center, were born into slavery. Upon emancipation, they built an expansive ranching business. The family donated the land for the Hopewell School (Bastrop County, TX, 1922-59). Elroy and Sophia Williams stand inside Hopewell holding the 19th century photograph of Sophia’s grandparents. Both Williamses attended Rosenwald schools and became educators.

Roxanne Huber: The final weeks. Longmont, CO. September 2020

Photograph from my on-going body of work “Mother: loving in the passage of time.”

This is a self-portrait I made while holding my three year old daughter, three weeks before I gave birth to my son.

Arevik Martirosyan: Together

The unbreakable bond between father and his son.

Joseph P Smith: Beck Brothers

Following the death of their father in 1945,Alfred and Paul Beck took over the family printing business at the ages of 17 and 14 respectively.Both brothers contributed actively to the running of the company making it one of the finest offset printing concerns on the island.Their only son is now at the helm.Sadly,Alfred passed on late last year.I have known the family for a long time and in February 2021 I asked if I could do a small portrait session with them.Wearing formal attire and deadpan expression the brothers are a reflection of the close bond between the two men.

Farren van Wyk: Mixedness is my Mythology

I was born in South Africa in 1993, the official last year of the apartheid era that classified me as a Coloured woman. Building on this, working from a personal perspective the next project Mixedness is my Mythology started because of the love between my white European father and Coloured mother. My three brothers and I grew up on a Dutch farm where we had the space to portray who we want to be and create our iconography. I explore the contradictions and connections of race, migration, colonialism and apartheid between my two South Africa and The Netherlands in this grey space.

Amy Woodward: Stephanie, With Her Mother and Firstborn, 38 Weeks

Stephanie, With Her Mother and Firstborn, 38 Weeks. A portrait of three generations – capturing the intimate bond between grandmother, mother and child as Stephanie awaited the arrival of her second child, Viv. Medium format.

Franklin Yeep: Close Bond

Love knows no bounds, a portrait of two hearts entwined.

Victoria Zabrodina: Two as one

The merging of two people, when two become as one. Modern Romeo and Jelieta, interpretation of “”The Kiss”” by Gustav Klimt, an eternal theme in the modern world.

INTERVIEW WITH OUSMAN DIALLO

This winning image is from a recent personal project of yours, “The Wounds You Give Me”, can you please tell us what this project is about?

“The Wounds You Give Me” is a fictional story that follows two main characters, Jace and Justice. The story between the two main characters is left purposefully ambiguous. The two women may be close friends, lovers, sisters, or family. All that we know as the viewer is the relationship is deeply intimate. The rest is left for the audience to decide.

In my work, I often play with themes that are rich in subject matter, yet seldom yield a direct answer as to what exactly is happening. I think “Wounds” and especially this portrait captures the essence of the deep intimacy I wanted to portray between Jace and Justice whilst keeping the connection between the two enigmatic.

How do you envision this project to develop over time?

I’ve explored the theme of ambiguous intimacy many times. This will most likely be a continuing theme in my work over the years.

What inspires you to create an image or to start a project?

Curiosity. When a concept begins to form in my mind I become obsessed with the possibility of the image existing. To know I am on the brink of creating something that has never existed before. After some time the images, the light, the composition, the possibility begins to haunt me. This haunting may transpire for days, weeks, or even years. It usually doesn’t leave me until the images are created and finally shared. Once the process is complete and the curiosity satiated the haunting usually ends with it.

Where do you draw inspiration for your images?

This is too difficult of a question for me to answer, but I will try my best. Inspiration comes to me from every direction. Every day. It could simply be the way light falls on someone’s face in the afternoon or some small gesture at a coffee shop. I do house a small library of about 20,000 images that I review from time to time to keep me inspired.

Can you tell us what other work you are photographing now or a project you will be starting in the near future?

I am currently working on a portrait project photographing the youths in Bushwick, New York. This body of work will almost certainly span my entire summer, fall, spring. I am looking to exhibit this body of work once complete.

Anything else you wish to share with us?

I am incredibly honored to receive this award. The Lucie Foundation has been a beacon of image-making to me for years. The respect, quality, and love for image making is evident in the editing and selections. Lucie award recipients have done and gone on to do incredible work in our field. I am very humbled to receive this award and excited to continue in the tradition of the image makers of the past as well as begin forging the road ahead for the future of the photographic medium.

SELF / PORTRAIT

CATEGORY WINNER

Robert Stivers: Self portrait in water

CATEGORY WINNER

Robert Stivers: Self portrait in water

self portrait in lake wearing straight jacket . created during time of transition (geographically, career, emotionally, getting sober…).

FINALISTS

Mayra Biajante: Impermanence

My authorial works are based on themes that move me. I focus on feelings and sensations in order to get to know myself better. For this, one of the tools I use is the self-portrait and the intervention of my images with hand embroidery.

When I find myself on the other side of the camera, I choose the way I want to see myself. We are made of something ephemeral, constantly changing, inconstant. So I watch it.

When I embroider on the image, I carry out an inner dialogue, I create a world apart. I put more of myself into my photography.

Steve Bright: Decarie

Decarie is an athlete, a track runner. I wanted to explore both his strength and also his vulnerability as a young man in modern Britain.

Alejandro Cupi: Human in Nature

This is a moment of meditation, a space for silence, harmony and contemplation. In this project I’m developing a connection with the landscape. It is a dialogue between the body and nature, looking for a perfect balance, allying human and the environment. Most of these interventions are pre-visualized in order to perform an organic arrangement of the landscape, the human figure and the elements that fill the frame with consciousness. This construction of the landscape becomes a ritual, almost an offering gesture.

Laurie Freitag: The Hammock

This is a candid of the first child I ever nannied. This image sits on the edge of the criteria for my series, ‘The Lost Years’, the years that most adults don’t remember before the age of 7-years-old, as this boy is a little older. Due to the ever-changing development in the brain which makes room for new information, old memories are discarded. It will be interesting to see if this child remembers this moment.

Zack Garlitos: Untitled (Self Portrait with American Flag), 2022

This self portrait is from a long term documentary project entitled “Eating Fish Behind Drawn Blinds,” which follows my process of seeking to understand my existence as a mixed-heritage Filipino-American within an historical context, understand the effects of colonization and assimilation on my grandfather, my father, and myself, and build a relationship with my Filipino family members both in the US and in the Philippines.

Ayanah George: Coming Through: Be the light

This photo is part of a series inspired by the art work of Kehinde Wiley. These photos are meant to highlight the beauty of women showing them as majestic and sophisticated. This photo shows a single woman with daylight coming through a curtain. She was posed from side to show her boldness. This two dimensional view shows only a slice of her and as people we often only a show a fraction of ourselves, yet there’s always more. This work is my journey in being an artist and showing people how I want to be seen.

Emma Hardy: my mother, her mother

This is a portrait of my mother, made around the time she was turning 80.

She’s sitting in front of a portrait of her mother,
More than a century divides these 2 portraits. And I’m the third generation of women, holding the camera.

I find my mum’s gaze so moving, there’s much to gather: not just her beauty, more than that: an acceptance, a sort of resignation that accompanies her age I guess, defiance for sure, & regret, & I see a searching for peace in her lovely eyes.

Jiajie Lin: Longyan Boys

Greg Lin Jiajie is a Chinese photographer based in London. Noted for his intimate approach to photography, Greg’s work displays a strong sense of narrative throughout, from documenting life in his hometown Fujian to self-portraits with his identical twin brother. Greg treats photography as a profoundly personal and emotional experience.

The project Longyan Boys is a self-portrait photography series of my identical twin brother and me, in our hometown Longyan, China. A story of us reconnecting, after years of being apart. The series is an exploration of intimacy and self-acceptance.

Emily Neville Fisher: Pen and Alejo

My ongoing body of work “Natural Tendencies” studies the complex and symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural world. My portraits and landscapes often reflect a sense of timelessness. I typically juxtapose solitary figures with an almost overwhelming landscape to suggest the environment as being active and significant in both the composition and concept of the image. My roles as mother, wife, artist and environmentalist inform my work. I am acutely aware of the precarious nature of our shifting environment, of the fragility of life and the ephemerality of childhood.

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan: The Looted Honor

The Myanmar Army raped Dildar Begum (30). They killed her husband, two young sons, and mother-in-law in 2017 in Myanmar. Over one million Rohingyas are now living in several refugee camps in Bangladesh. In 2017, Myanmar Army started killing Rohingyas, burning their houses, and raping many women who later delivered the unwanted child in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Rohingya women had to become mothers of children stemming of rape. These women are now brave enough to unfold their identities to the world to achieve justice.

Olha Vorobiova: Coast kids

In this project I create a collective portrait of the Crimean youth. I return to the place where I was born to peer into the faces of those who are growing up today in a suspended political situation, an irreversibly bad ecology and a problem economy. I am interested in the search for a fundamental principle that would bring together representatives of different generations who grew up in the same territory. The search at the heart of childhood world for something different, independent of circumstances, something that can be crystallized into pure human experience

CANDID

CATEGORY WINNER

Beatrice Heydiri: my little sister

CATEGORY WINNER

Beatrice Heydiri: my little sister

This is a series of siblings shot during the corona summer 2020 year in the north of Germany. This is one of the first afternoons back out in the open, nearby the own homes. Full of expectation, hope and anticipation of the future having spend so much time together in lock down not knowing that the pandemic is far from over.

FINALISTS

Maude Bardet: oh hello

Crowded neighborhood shop in Sheikhupura, Pakistan

Pete Hansen: fishmonger’s shower, Yangon

I was fortunate to be in Myanmar shortly before the Feb2021 military coup. This image is of a fishmonger at the Thiri Mingalar fish market cleaning up at the end of his work day.

Jun Hwan Sung: Nomadic Family

Mongolian nomads start moving for survival with their livestock every October. A difficult and arduous journey begins. I met a nomadic family on a winter migration on the road. The mother drove the cattle and left first, and the two daughters were traveling in the father’s car. Father and daughters moved for 7 days. They looked very tired because they hadn’t washed or eaten properly.In their appearance, I could see a family dreaming of happiness, raising livestock in better pastures, and hoping that nomads’ lives would be economically happier.

Jean Karotkin: Mirrors: Drag Queens

In this series, Mirrors, I provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of my subjects in moments of transformation into their public personas. I explore the complex relationship between identity and gender, and the social construction of the “feminine” as surface and image.

On a literal level, mirrors reflect the subjects’ images as they prepare themselves for their performances. On a symbolic level, mirrors reveal innermost feelings and thoughts. The subjects appear in a compressed space to further demonstrate the private, intimate process of transforming from one persona to another.

Katarzyna Piechowicz: Escape from war

In the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians massively began to leave their country out of fear for their lives. Their most common destination was Poland. The photo was taken at the Korczowa border crossing where buses filled with frightened people arrived, like this woman who had to make the decision to flee overnight, taking only the most necessary things.

Alinne Rezende: love (n)ever

Love (N)ever, how a love letter, a broken heart, and a city gave me quite a journey searching for love. A short but intense essay about the broken heart of an unknown Catalan woman. But honestly, it could be just anyone else’s story. Part of a project called “Small love tales” focuses on the small little details life offers us on the way.

Barcelona, April 2022.

Anita Sagastegui: One who is still, Kyoto, Japan

On a rainy afternoon in Japan I was captivated by the sea of umbrellas in motion. While setting up to take an image of motion blur featuring the umbrellas, I noticed one person who was not moving at all–in fact, she was looking right at me. I had to take the shot, and today love having captured this solitary moment of one who is still.

John Walmsley: 075841 Bike balancing.

Taken whilst on a grant from the Scottish Arts Council to live and shoot on the Wester Hailes housing scheme on the outskirts of Edinburgh, 1979.

B/W

CATEGORY WINNER

Paula Aranoa: Linked Generations

CATEGORY WINNER

Paula Aranoa: Linked Generations

Black and White portrait of my mother and daughter resting together. Two generations of women linked in one image, by a third woman of the intermediate generations who takes the photo, me.

FINALISTS

Marcia Bricker Halperin: Kibbitz and Nosh: When We All Met at Dubrow’s Cafeteria

These black-and-white images were taken during the waning days of New York City’s legendary cafeteria culture. One frigid day in February 1975, I was shooting storefront windows on Kings Highway in my native Brooklyn. My fingers were frozen when I tried to advance the film of my Pentax camera. I slipped into Dubrow’s Cafeteria to defrost. Between magical mirrored walls and steaming coffee urns, I found myself as if on a theater set, looking out at a tableau of memorable faces and returned time and again to photograph.

Paola Chapdelaine: Home

Innocent at home.

Lisa K Cho: Mourning Lia

“Mourning Lia” is taken from my new project “Devotion.” The series invites the viewer to see Hawaii through my lens as I revisit memories from my youth & explore the deep relationships we have with each other & the community.

When I was growing up I was always with my friends in the water. Swaying back & forth in the waves like a dance – we swam, we surfed & we grew into young women together. In the project’s first chapter, I wanted to illustrate the strong bonds we have with each other & our connection to the sea.

“Mourning Lia” represents how friendships grow, change & sometimes, end.

Sebastian Copeland: Henry at the South Pole

I took this portrait of my late friend Henry Worsley at the geographic South Pole. Henry was a Shackleton scholar. He had dreamt of completing the famed Antarctica crossing that never was when Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, got trapped in the ice before even reaching the start line. Henry endeavored to complete the trip 100 years later. He was 1700 kilometers in with less than a week to go when he was struck with a severe case of peritonitis. Henry was air lifted to a Chilean hospital where he died two days later.

Monica Frisell: Portrait of US: Central Florida

Portrait of Tony, known as McGyver in the Orlando, FL taken in the winter of 2023. This is a single image from a collection of over 250 large format film portraits from across the US for my project “”Portrait of US””. All photos are made on a 1940s Kodak Master 8×10 field camera and the film is processed in my mobile darkroom that I built into a converted cargo trailer. This work aims to bring attention to our similarities in a time when the US is often highlighting divisions. I ask folks to find what we have in common as Americans across State borders – rather than focus on what separates us.

James Lattanzio: Mark Warner

Portrait of friend and documentary photographer Mark Warner, from a long term portrait project where I invite friends and acquaintances to my home to photograph them in a small studio that I created in my garage.

Jack Lawson: Rose

Rose, a nurse in the NHS, at home after a shift in ICU during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Christine Lenzen: Mother

In the fall of 2018, my mother was given the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. This portrait is part of an ongoing project in which we reflect on the life that she has lived through the lens of her cancer diagnosis.

Ed Silvester: John

John walks up a hill every morning and sits on the same bench. He watches the sunrise in Hughenden valley; a beautiful spot. I often shoot there. I asked him to pose for me. He told me his walking stick is 50 years old. I like John.

Sophie Smith: Gabisile & Kwanda

“We are both dark skinned, chubby, tall with beautiful afros”

Gabisile describes herself and her adopted daughter Kwanda. She is a 34 year old single mother by choice.

Tracy Whiteside: Be Your Own Man

This young man with goth makeup exudes an edgy and mysterious vibe, with a touch of rebellion and a hint of darkness. He is not interested in following the crowd, but expressing himself both artistically and genuinely.

ALTERNATIVE/ABSTRACT

CATEGORY WINNER

Kristina Sumfleth: The Toll

CATEGORY WINNER

Kristina Sumfleth: The Toll

I made this self-portrait while I was editing another project about a polluted waterway and was experiencing frustration and stagnation with the process. I wanted to create an image to convey that sensation. Greek mythology has always been a point of inspiration so I used the river Styx as a reference point to create this image.

FINALISTS

Amber Banks Brumby: Summer’s Mother

When arriving home one July day, I found my Mother in the greenhouse. Already having my camera on me, I instinctively photographed her through the glass, I knew this was going to be my best photograph of her. I have always related to Roland Barthes love for his Mother and how he describes in Camera Lucida searching for her face in photographs, he finally finds her as a young girl within a glass house which he names the photograph, Winters Garden. Summer’s Mother is my subconscious equivalent of Barthes Winters Garden, a bittersweet reminder of love, fragility and mortality.

Cody Rasmussen: Curwen & Woodward

“Curwen & Woodward” is a series modeled by artist Kathryn Rose Woodward, and original fashion designs created by Andrew Curwen. It was achieved in two parts. Firstly in the studio, which was later printed on 100% cotton paper and frozen in a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide, and photographed as a still life series. All visuals were achieved “in-camera”.

Adri Salido: Escaping the Kafala System

Portrait of Mariam, a woman who escaped from the Kafala system in Beirut. Through this system, mainly women from African countries such as Sierra Leone or Benin, are sent to Middle Eastern countries to work as domestic workers under inhumane conditions, on numerous occasions deceived without receiving any salary and being physically and psychologically abused.

Zachary Scott: Bob Odenkirk, A Very Serious Man

Bob Odenkirk Photographed in Albuquerque New Mexico For the New York Times Magazine, upon the completion of filming his his award winning show “”Better Call Saul””. I borrowed the large barrel cactus from my yard in California, and drove it to the shoot location along with my lighting and grip gear.

Natia Ser: I am here to go

A portrait of an old friend taken on film, then developed and scanned by myself to be made into a Van Dyke print—the long processes an attempt to extend the companionship. My preservation of her presence is an exploration of the ambivalence of estrangement and familiarity in a transient world.

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SUBMITTED

GRAND PRIZE / ONE WINNER:
Winner will be the photograph with the highest score overall in any category. 

◦ Featured interview on the Lucie Foundation website
◦ Part of Lucie Foundation Online Exhibition for competition
◦ Cash prize $1,000
◦ 16×20″ print of the Winning Image from Paper and Ink Studio (printed and shipped worldwide)
◦ Pick of one (1) Lucie Honoree Poster (unsigned edition)
◦ 30 minute portfolio review with curator Anne Morin via Zoom

CATEGORY WINNERS / 4 WINNERS:
Winners will be the highest score in the remaining categories. Categories remaining will depend on Grand Prize winner. 

◦ Part of Lucie Foundation Online Exhibition for competition
◦ Cash prize $250
◦ 16×20″ print of the Winning Image from Paper and Ink Studio (printed and shipped worldwide)
◦ Pick of one (1) Lucie Honoree poster (unsigned edition)

MEET THE JURY

Anne Morin

Anne Morin (Rouen, France, 1973) is an Art Historian and the director of diChroma photography, a company specializing in international traveling photography exhibitions and the development and production of cultural projects.

A graduate of the National School of Photography in Arles and the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier, Anne Morin is the director of diChroma photography (Madrid), a company specializing in international traveling photographic exhibitions and the development and production of cultural projects.

diChroma photography works for renowned museums and institutions such as the Fundación Canal (Madrid), Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), the Pushkin National Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the Musée du Luxembourg, the Jeu de Paume (Paris), the Palazzo Ducale (Genoa), etc.

diChroma photography accompanies its exhibitions with an editorial activity, publishing catalogs, essays and art books such as Antonio Lopez: Visionary Writing; Paul Alexandre: Slowness; Margaret Watkins: Black Light; or Vivian Maier, co-edited with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN).

Passionate and enthusiastic, Anne Morin works for the revaluation and greater visibility of artists and photographers. She has curated numerous exhibitions of prestigious photographers and artists such as Berenice Abbott, Antonio Lopez, Vivian Maier, Robert Doisneau, Jessica Lange, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Sandro Miller, Pentti Sammallahti and Margaret Watkins, among others.

In 2022, she was awarded Curator of the Year by the Lucie Awards at Carnegie Hall in New York for her work on Vivian Maier’s exhibition, Unseen, at the Musée du Luxembourg.

Reid Callanan

Founder and Director of the Santa Fe Workshop

Reid Callanan is Founder and Director of the Santa Fe Workshops, currently in its 32nd year offering photography and writing workshops to the international imaging community. In addition to workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico, there are also educational programs in Havana, Cuba and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

In 1994 Reid founded the non-profit Santa Fe Center for Photography, now known as CENTER, and is currently Vice-President of its Board of Directors. He serves on the President’s Council for Texas Photographic Society; on the Board for American Society of Media Photographers Foundation; and on the Advisory Board for Bertha Crosley Ball Center for Compassion.

Reid started photographing in 1974 during a semester abroad at Richmond College in London and has been making images ever since using a variety of photographic processes including silver halide, Polaroid imagery, and now digital capture. His photographic projects include a personal diary of images called HOMESCAPES, black-and-white portraits made in Cuba and Mexico, and most recently iPhone travel images posted to his Instagram @reidcallanan.

Lucia Torres

Executive Director of the Las Fotos Project

Lucia Torres (she/her) is Las Fotos Project’s Executive Director. Her love for the organization began in 2014, when she joined the Las Fotos Project Advisory Board. After her term, she continued to volunteer with the organization until she became a staff member in 2018.

Lucia brings 17 years experience working with community-based organizations in Pacoima, Boyle Heights and South LA developing the capacity of youth and young adults and acting as a conduit for the telling of community narratives. She graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Chicano/a Studies and received her Masters in Public Administration from Cal State, Northridge.

Outside of her work with community-based organizations, Lucia enjoys both fiction and nonfiction writing. Some of her previous work can be found on KCET Artbound and Departures.

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