Something we talk about a lot in reviews is how to create a cohesive, compelling body of work. There are many facets and answers to this question, but one I think doesn’t get talked about is the use of basic story structure.
The visual representation of basic story structure is a lopsided pyramid set in a plain. The elements are: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution or denouement. Many bodies of work that have a strong narrative, a story to tell, can typically be made to follow this form.
Why is this beneficial? I think there are two primary reasons. One is that the viewer has been, unconsciously, bombarded with television shows, movies, songs, short stories and novels that follow this form. It is subconsciously recognized.
Second, if the photographer is conscious of attempting to create or curate in this manner, there can be a tighter, more cohesive relationship between the images, thereby telling the story with more clarity.
Having just been jurors of Critical Mass we saw numerous entries that could have benefited from thinking in these terms, especially since they only had ten images to get their creative concepts across.
The video below is great. Vonnegut expertly and humorously gets the point across, in his way.
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Linda Posnick’s image Last Days Of The Sixth Street Bridge 2015 received the Directors’ Award in the town & county exhibition juried by Michael Kirchoff. Linda’s exhibition Sixth Street Bridge is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
To me, photography is both art and storytelling-it’s about deciding how to present a moment, whether through raw documentation or a more stylized artistic approach. My 6th Street Bridge series, for example, merges both worlds. While some may define style as a signature aesthetic, I see my style as ever-evolving—driven by the subject, the light, and the vision I have for the final image. Living in Los Angeles, a city steeped in cinematic history, constantly inspires my work. Art is everywhere here—it’s in the architecture, the streets, the energy—and it always challenges me to see and capture the world in new ways.
At first, my connection to the 6th Street Bridge was purely cinematic—I knew it from films and TV. But as I watched the original structure fade away, I felt a deep sense of loss, wishing I had captured more of its energy before it was gone. The new bridge brought mixed emotions—apprehension about change, yet excitement for its rebirth.
Photographing this transformation became more than a project; it pushed my creativity in unexpected ways. It challenged me to see composition and storytelling differently, bridging my past with new artistic possibilities. This series isn’t just about a structure—it’s about finding beauty in transition and embracing new perspectives.
Linda Posnick
November, 2025
Bio
Born and raised in Los Angeles in the 1960s to a biracial family, my creative path was shaped early on by a household filled with books, art, science, and music. My first encounter with photography came at age 13 when my parents enrolled me in a class at Barnsdall Park. From that moment, I was hooked, I dreamed of becoming a Rock ‘n’ Roll photographer, capturing the energy of live concerts for music magazines and tour books. Over time, my influences expanded beyond music to include art, fashion, architecture, and design, with inspiration drawn from icons like George Hurrell, Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, Lillian Bassman, Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Basquiat, and many more.
A pivotal moment in my career came when I had the opportunity to work with the legendary Herb Ritts for 14 years—first as an assistant, then as his behind-the-scenes photographer. Watching Herb work taught me invaluable lessons: the power of lighting, composition, and aesthetics, but most importantly, how to connect with subjects to capture truly compelling images. My career has taken me from shooting Victoria’s Secret campaigns, movie posters, billboards to working on commercial sets with Michael Bay, Ava DuVernay, and Herb Ritts.
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Thomas Burke’s image Shinagawa Aquarium received the Juror’s Award in the water exhibition juried by Catherine Couturier. Thomas’ exhibition Days Between Stations is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
“I didn’t start this series with any plan or concept, just started seeing some common themes in the photos and kept going with it – images with formal compositions but a messy process, avoiding elements that give away location, trying to remove context around images, using rain/snow to eliminate backgrounds and simplify visuals.
I took the name from a book by Steve Erickson. I really liked the atmosphere he created of a world that is gradually slowing down – sand blows in from the desert and blocks the highways out of LA – the world that had been so closely tied together begins to move apart.”
Thomas Burke
November, 2025
Bio
Thomas Burke is a retired office worker and 20+ year resident of Japan. Tom has been interested in photography for as long as he can remember. He took many classes at School of Visual Arts in New York City back in the 90’s in black and white photography and darkroom. He also attended workshops at Maine Media, as well as workshops with Keith Carter and Todd Hido. Tom currently splits his time between Tokyo and the countryside where he and his wife manage a small organic farm.
the imperfect lens exhibition, juried by Amanda Smith, was in the online gallery from October 1 to November 30, 2025. The juror selected forty three images from twenty artist for the exhibition. Renee S Elkin’s Meditation received the Juror’s Award. James Rohan’s image Suspension Tower, Brooklyn Bridge received the Director’s Award.
Juror’s Statement
For years, my personal cameras of choice were those with either plastic lenses or pinholes, simple light boxes that dissolve the rigid boundaries created by f-stops and film speeds. With those in hand, the world becomes a playground of possibility. There is no technical chatter to distract, only the pure act of searching for wonder and magic to place before the lens, and the quiet thrill of pressing the shutter.
The images I selected for this exhibition all capture magical moments—moments that only a plastic or pinhole lens can truly reveal. Renee Elkin’s image, Meditation, which received my Juror’s Award, depicts a little boy sitting beneath a mysterious tree. The scene instantly reminded me of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan, always watching and waiting for Peter to return. The sense of wonder and anticipation in the photograph, combined with the unique qualities of the lens, creates an atmosphere that is both nostalgic and enchanting.
Michael Trupiano’s stunning image, Black Swans, captures two swans swimming together. The elegant curve of their necks to the ever so slight ripples in the water create a scene of serene beauty. This harmonious composition exemplifies pure perfection, embodying the quiet magic that defines the exhibition.
Awed into silence, an image by Kristie Cornell, beautifully captures the haunting majesty of a cypress tree deep within Louisiana swamps. From the vantage point of her kayak, Kristie used a home-made 8×10 pinhole camera, carefully mounted on a tripod submerged into the water, to create this magical image. The result is a scene that invites viewers into a world of quite wonder and reflection.
Thank you to all the artist who shared their magical images with me. Each photograph brought a unique sense of wonder and creativity to this exhibition, and I am truly grateful for your inspiring contributions.
The black/white exhibition juried by Michael Kirchoff, was in the online gallery from October 10 to November 20, 2025. The juror selected forty seven images from thirty three artist for the exhibition. Edward L Rubin’s Hands received the Juror’s Award. Robin Olive Reich’s image Mabel Looking for Me Through the Bedroom Window received the Director’s Award.
Juror’s Statement
This call was quite broad in terms of subject matter or substance of the photographs. The great thing is that, being an all black and white call, I really get to look deeply at the content and composition of what shows up. None of that pesky color hogwash to distract and trip me up. The amount of creativity that somebody can achieve with a monochrome photograph is astounding. A full range of tones and deep blacks gets me every time. Don’t get me wrong, I do love color images as well, but the black and white work still reigns supreme in my world.
Themes of solitude and reflection often emerge as key elements in what I might include in an exhibition or sequence of images. The photographs that create mystery and drama, while asking questions rather than providing answers, are something I wish to bring to the table. Most of the time, I feel like we live in a world (these days) that won’t give us what we want out of it. So, we are left to search and ask how we might get from point A to point B in only the best way possible. I believe it’s the curious ones who put in the effort to get there, knowing that the answers might never come, but still finding a way of enjoying the ride while it’s happening. Looking through photographs like this provides just that, much the same as making them. We make and engage with image-making because we enjoy it and have something to say with the results we’ve achieved.
I believe that the makers are the ones who create the most engaging conversations. And this goes for all mediums, not simply photography. The never-say-die crowd is the one I watch and listen to, and everyone who submitted to this call can call themselves part of that group. Every step forward you take with whatever it is that you create is paramount in fulfilling oneself, and I, for one, appreciate the walk you walk.
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Michael Pointer’s image Blue Cow with Sun received the Juror’s Award in the expressionism exhibition juried by Doug Chinnery. Michael’s exhibition Photoexpressionism is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
“My work explores the deep and evolving relationship between photography and painting. Rooted in a lifelong practice of drawing and painting under the tutelage of my artist father, I came to photography with a painter’s sensibility. The darkroom became my studio, photo paper my canvas, and chemistry my paint. What I call Photoexpressionism emerged from this crossing of mediums influenced by abstract expressionism.
In this collection of work, I begin with an image that anchors reality and holds the truth of the moment. From there, I expand upon the metaphor through abstraction, gesture, and direct engagement with materials. Unlike the immaculate, technically precise black and white prints being produced pre-digital which I found sterile and derivative, my process embraces spontaneity and imperfection. I splash, drag, and layer photographic chemistry much as I would paint, inserting myself directly into the mechanical process. Each piece is analog and unique; I rarely use acquired images, working instead with my own photographs as raw material.
My influences are painters who pushed boundaries—Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Marin in particular. From Motherwell, I learned the courage of pouring one’s heart onto a surface; from Rauschenberg, the freedom to play with arrangement and collision; from Marin, the restless openness to possibility. Their examples affirmed my desire to work, as Rauschenberg said, “in the gap between art and life.”
Sometimes a poem serves as my entry point, it becomes a written sketch of emotion that guides the making without dictating imagery. The resulting works are not illustrations of words but carry a parallel resonance. In the act of making, I move away from the mechanical precision of photography and toward the expressive immediacy of painting.
Ultimately, I want viewers to experience not just the image but the surface itself, to sense the hand of the artist alive in the chemistry, the gesture, the accident. I have labored to challenge the boundaries of photography, expanding its metaphoric possibilities, and claiming space for the expressive, painterly mark within it.”
Michael Pointer
October, 2025
Bio
I am a fourth generation artist. I received my first camera at age nine and began formal art training at the Wichita Art Association and the Wichita Art Museum. At age 12 I also began to work in the darkroom under the tutelage of my father, Ed Pointer, a painter with an interest in photography. I grew up making art. In 1969 I had photography selected for the National Scholastic Art Awards exhibit in Wichita, Kansas.
I spent ten years on active duty in the United States Air Force. During this period I won several command awards for photography and for charcoal drawings. After a solo photography exhibit in Wichita, Kansas in 2000 I was invited to become a Lecturer in Photography at Wichita State University School of Art and Design and taught there for three years.
In 2009 I moved to Kabul, Afghanistan with the Afghanistan Dental Relief Project. While there I set up a dental laboratory to support a free dental clinic in southwest Kabul and taught Dental Technology to a group of young Afghan women and men. I also participated in taking dental treatment into imprisoned Afghan women and their children. Additionally, I became acquainted with Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA) where I lectured on my photography and became a member of their advisory board. CCAA teaches contemporary art forms to young Afghan women.
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Chris Losee’s cyanotype on glass plate, Reflection, received the Directors’ Award in the unique: alternative processes exhibition juried by DorRae Stevens, Kevin Tully and Amanda Smith. Chris’ exhibition I Am Nearer to You Than You Imagine is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
“My photographs can be thought of as unfinished narratives, offering brief glimpses that form part of a larger story. They depict places we might visit in dreams or the imagination, offering a gateway into spaces that may (or may not) exist in the past, present or future…or perhaps all at the same time. Like half-remembered visions, they conjure a response mingling familiarity and unease.
Many of these images consider the fragility of natural objects, and their connection to the human experience. Others are re-imagined landscapes in which beautiful scenes may be tinged with anxiety. My most recent work sparks a dialog between past and present: These photo objects present images from long ago that overlap with contemporary scenes, suggesting subtle connections and the possibility of transformation.
I use several different 19th century photographic processes in creating this work, including salted paper, cyanotype, and gun dichromate. Because each print is hand-made, no two can ever be exactly alike. I feel the unique qualities of these processes resonate with the images themselves, allowing them to exist outside of a definite moment in time and space.”
Chris Losee
October, 2025
Bio
As a suburban teenager, Chris Losee began making black-and-white prints in the basement fallout shelter of his parents’ home. He pursued academics in college in Washington, D.C., but was drawn back to image making, earning an MFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. There he began experimenting with alternative processes, including Kwik-Prints (a proprietary gum bichromate process), under the tutelage of Bea Nettles.
Later, he worked as a photographer and art director in New York City, but paused image-making when digital technology became ascendant. In 1996, Losee moved to the Hudson Valley of New York State and started a sustainable farming enterprise and a family—the subject of a memoir he co-authored called Stronger Than Dirt (Crown/Random House, 2003). Once again, however, he was drawn back to analog photography, and he began to connect with people creating hand-made images.
In 2018, at the George Eastman Museum, Mark Osterman taught him the historical process of salted paper printing, and Nick Brandreth showed him how properly made digital negatives could produce fine prints. In 2019, Brenton Hamilton at Maine Media Workshops guided him in tri-color gum bichromate printing. Rediscovering these processes has led him to become once again deeply involved in the practice of photography. Since that time, he has continued to explore the image-making possibilities that handmade photography offers.
Chris Losee’s artwork has been featured in several publications, including Direct Art and The Hand magazines. A few of his recent shows include a solo exhibition, The Absent Hours, at Locust Grove Estate (Poughkeepsie, NY), and the group shows Made in New York (Auburn, NY), The Still(ed) Life (Silver City, NM), By Hand: Alternative Processes (Abilene, TX), Contemporary Photography (Providence, RI), Unique: Alternative Processes2025 (Johnson City, Texas) and Dreams and Imagined Realities (Middlebury, Vermont).
The open | unleashed exhibition, juried by Darren Ching, was in the online gallery from August 29 to October 9, 2025. The jurors selected forty images from thirty three artist for the exhibition. Laurie Peek’s For Austin received the Juror’s Award. Peggy Reynolds image Parallel Universes received the Director’s Award.
Juror’s Statement
Unleashed an open call by the A Smith Gallery—an open the gates, no holds-barred-call to unleash the creative instincts to show the unexpected, challenging the norms photography, challenge the viewers visual comfort zones, run with an inspiration, and rein it all in with exceptional photographic technique, execution and authorship.
Photography’s roots in the 19th century were innately utilitarian, initially a tool for documentation, rather than for artistic expression—early examples being the medical daguerreotype by Southworth & Hawes; rogues’ galleries used by law enforcement; Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies or the botanical cyanotypes by Anna Atkins. Much photography operates within the parameters of either commercial, documentary, or editorial objectives—in addition to the technical limitations of the medium. The sense of experimentation and artistic expression in Unleashed appreciated more when seeing the counterpoint of photographic history in the rearview mirror.
Standout photographs included a portrait entitled Transpinay in front of a Funeral Wreath // Fatalism by Bienyl Huelgas. Anchored by the subject of Transgender Filipinas, the directness of the subject’s piercing gaze leaves the viewer not knowing it’s defiance, vulnerability, or sadness; while the handwriting around the image amplifies the humanness of the artist’s voice. The historical context of this photograph is difficult to ignore, given the current stripping away of trans rights, and villainization of diversity in the United States.
Another piece of note captures the viewer’s imagination through an inventive use of presentation and form—a multi-exposure, abstract cyanotype with brushstrokes in black and gold referencing East Asian calligraphy, the thick paper with rough torn edges, vertically hung in the manner of a scroll. In FC Scroll 1 by Lisa Tang Liu, the different components come together as a well considered expression of cultural identity and the hand of the artist.
For my Juror’s Pick I selected a dynamic composite of angiosperms—a cacophony of twigs, petals and leaves, in grays with accents of soft blue hues. For Austin by Laurie Peek is a playful romp, visually weaving the viewer through flower symbology, affording glances of recognition within the textural richness. The photograph flirts with the space that separates abstract and representational photography. Exceptional craftsmanship and authorship evident in this flower-centric homage.
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Pat Brown’s hand sewn exposed-binding book of cyanotype and mixed media images, Benabbio ,received the Jurors’ Award in the unique: alternative processes exhibition juried by DorRae Stevens, Kevin Tully and Amanda Smith. Pat’s exhibition Blue Moves is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
“My current body of work, Blue Moves, consists of digitally manipulated dance photos, both singly and paired with other images, mostly botanicals, contrasting and comparing the forms and movements of dancers with those of leaves, flowers, and trees. There’s one where the dancer is portrayed against a Japanese temple wall, and another with the dancers and a map of the cosmos.
The dance images are from slow-shutter-speed photos taken at dance recitals, digitally inverted positive-to-negative, and presented in tones of blue and green. The botanicals are somewhat abstracted by their presentation as negatives rather than positives as well as their presentation in blue-green tones. The title of the series, Blue Moves, alludes to the rapid movement of the dancers, captured as blur, and the imperceptibly slow movement of the botanicals, all tied together in tones of blue. Each, though, is captured by the camera in one still moment.”
Pat Brown
September, 2025
Bio
Pat Brown is an artist and fine-art photographer residing in Austin, Texas. She is a liberal arts graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been exhibited in numerous juried shows throughout the U.S., and her photographs are included in both private and public collections. She is included in an exhibit currently on view at the Annetta Kraushaar Gallery at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, TX. Her work can be seen online via Instagram.
Artistic Career
I fell in love with photography in 1989 when I took my first photography workshop, a University of Texas informal class. Over the next several years, I carried on an intense personal study of photography through numerous workshops and seminars, reading, and looking at many images.
I started with 35-mm. color slides, then began to realize that my colors were becoming more and more muted and monochromatic and that I really belonged in the black-and-white world. Getting a Mamiya 6 camera and my own darkroom in 1997 launched me into that world of medium format images and silver gelatin printing.
After the wet darkroom came digital imaging, editing, and printing, as well as the exploration of “alternative” photography forms such as wet plate collodion, platinum, cyanotype, lumen, encaustic, Polaroid transfer. Lately, there has been watercolor, mixed media, and collage. Most of my photographs these days are taken with the iPhone, edited in Snapseed and Lightroom, and printed on various papers with pigment inks.
I have always been drawn to bookmaking and have made many artist books through the years. This gives me the opportunity to explore things thematically and allows for the creative juxtaposition of images and ideas as well as the tactile joy of photos, threads, and papers.
The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions. Tim Christensen’s image Rosalia lameerei received the Directors’ Award in the art + science exhibition juried by Linda Alterwitz. Tim’s exhibition Neotype is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
Neotype: Definition: a specimen designated as the defining specimen for a species that replaces a preexisting “type” specimen that has been lost or destroyed.
Before I grew tall enough to clearly see the ground benign neglect was the open-ended algorithm that shaped my interactions with the natural world. Out of the house away from the cries of my younger siblings I’d roam. Climbing fences, opening closed doors, peering down abandoned wells, spelunking the irrigation pipes running under the road, poking at dead carcasses, and stuffing overalls with my finds. More than once my collections were thrown away. I still feel the loss of some of those things. Insignificant to adults but full of meaning and curiosity for a child brought up on benign neglect.
I’m older now, a scientist but also an artist. Still collecting insects. I see how our invention of chemistry has decimated the natural world and deprived us of our insect companions. I ask myself what I am missing with my trained eye as I walk through the woods. I know that science is not the way we remember it is only the way we document, these are not the same. With all this swirling in my mind I create my artistic practice. Borrowing the now ancient chemistry of early photography and merging it with modern digital techniques I capture my insects so that I will remember them. I seek to create a ritual of engagement with my work that evokes the sense of wonder I felt as a child as I conversed with the insects but comments on the way science puts the living world in boxes. It seeks a new way of knowing by creating a conversation between wonder and reductionism. A conversation between the past and the future of these disappearing creatures of wonder.
Each of my works starts with an insect I’ve collected and carefully preserved. As a scientist I wonder at the beauty of these specimens as I focus up and down under the microscope creating a complete image in my mind of the whole insect. To share this image with you I take thousands of frames of each insect and create a super resolution digital composite. Insects are not digital. Converting the digital back into the analog I use the old process of wet plate collodion. Chemistry swirls and takes on a life of its own that results in a one-of-a-kind object that celebrates and remembers insects.
Tim Christensen, Ph.D., MFA
September, 2025
Bio
Tim Christensen finds inspiration in the nature surrounding him in North Carolina. He has a deep passion for all the life around him. This compelled him to get my Ph.D. in Genetics from Cornell and become a Biology professor at East Carolina University. He balances the preciseness of his scientific training with the handmade qualities of historical photographic techniques to create compelling images of the small things we often overlook.
