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.  Eric Zeigler and Aaron Ellison’s image Polypores, Allerton Park and Retreat Center, Monticello, Illinois – Infrared Light, 2024 received the Juror’s Award in the art + science exhibition juried by Linda Alterwitz.  Eric and Aaron’s exhibition Instability is discussed in this GalleryTalk.

Artist Statement

The “state of emergency” in which we live is not the exception but the rule.
Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History, VIII

Watch for long enough, and anything that appears to be stable will reveal its true perpetual state of instability. Imaging devices record single moments: Crack! Trees fall, shutters snap, photographs are fixed. We expect these moments to be decisive, but when we combine the static objectif-icity of still images on film, paper, and glowing screens with our expectations of how the world “works,” we disregard its true dynamic nature.

Using contemporary versions of 19th-century dry collodion glass plates, 20th-century film, and new digital technologies, we challenge the assumption that photographs and digital images portray an objective reality. We reclaim the aesthetics behind the myths of the Westward Expansion, the American Frontier, and similar colonialist activities that have occurred throughout the world, and illuminate contradictions in 21st-century narratives of environmental stability and preservation. Modern ecosystems deemed healthy and stable only because we’ve left them alone are shown to be far from stable, unchanging, and, as the US National Park Service would have it, “unimpaired.” Are these tiny islands of nature within a vast ocean of unchecked development ecological reserves or fading theme parks? The essence of their ongoing and essential decay, normally hidden behind an opaque, yet gossamer fog, is unveiled in instability.

Eric Zeigler and Aaron Ellison
April, 2025

Bio

Eric Zeigler is Associate Professor of Art at the University of Toledo. His research and artistic practice interrogate the underpinnings of the history of the photographic process by purposefully exploiting problematic contemporary Western cultural categorizations and presumptions that are placed on photographic and lens-based imagery. Aaron Ellison is a Boston-based photographer, sculptor, writer, and Senior Research Fellow Emeritus in Ecology at Harvard University. His research and artistic practice focus on the disintegration and reassembly of ecosystems following natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Working together, Eric + Aaron explore unknown worlds beyond our current understanding. Their joint work currently centers on non-anthropocentric/posthumanist aesthetics and creative photodocumentation of forests and deep time.

website: ericzeigler.com
instagram:  @ericzeiglerphoto

link to online exhibition

link to Instability book

The Photographic Performance was created to feature the works of artist with completed bodies of work and a strong narrative. Leanne Trivett S.’s exhibition Navigating in Traffic is the second of four performances to be exhibited during 2025. Leeanne’s exhibition is discussed in this GalleryTalk.

Artist Statement

I am a fine art photographer using the lens as a mirror and a map – exploring identity, emotion, and transformation through fragmented narratives of the self.  My work moves through self-portraiture, abstraction, and experimental florals, where the self is never fixed, but continually reimagined.

With roots in theatre and vocal performance, my images speak with a performative language – one that holds tension between what is seen and what is felt.  I’m drawn to liminal spaces, where presence meets pause, where an image feels both deliberate and instinctive.  It’s in these in-between moments that something raw and real begins to surface.

Self-portraiture is at the heart of my practice and I am drawn to transformation.  By turning inward, I engage with an evolving inner terrain – resilience, grief, vulnerability, and growth.  These aren’t just portraits, but emotional landscapes.

In Navigating in Traffic, a self-portrait series, I trace the arc of healing amid the relentless motion of life.  Each image captures a moment of reckoning – a near-collision, a sudden detour, an intersection demanding pause.  Using blur, layering, ICM, and multiple exposures, I disrupt clarity in favor of sensation.  The result is a moving map of disorientation and renewal – visual metaphors that hold the weight of emotional truth.

At its core, my work is about finding one’s way – through chaos, through stillness, through the layers of who we have been and who we’re becoming. It’s a bridge from my interior world to yours, a quiet invitation: to pause, to feel, and maybe, to recognize a piece of yourself within the frame.

Leeanne Trivett S., 2025

Bio

Leanne Trivett S. is an award winning photographer and visual artist using her personal photographs to explore experimental self-portraiture, florals, and the emotional abstract.

She graduated with a BFA in Theatre from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in NY, NY.  Her background in musical theatre and her experience performing as a professional singer have inspired her creation of characters and self-expression through images and photography.  She is best known for her colorful and current self-portraits and her work with florals. Leanne’s award winning artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues like the Los Angeles Center for Photography, the Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston, CPA in Carmel, CA, KFF FotoFest 2024 in Karuizawa, Japan, Millepiani Gallery in Rome Italy, BRAHM Museum in Blowing Rock, NC, PH21 Gallery in Budapest, Fotonostrum Gallery in Barcelona, Spain and others. Her work has been published and can be seen on the cover and in several issues of Art Ascent International Magazine, Humana Obscura, Monochromica, Inside Sacramento, ARTDOC Magazine winning the Silver Award for her Florals, feature and cover in SHOTS magazine, cover of Dodho Magazine  with interview, in Barcelona and recognized for Monochrome, Color, Portrait, and Fine Art Awards in 2022, 2023, 2024, interviewed and featured in for Women United ART MAGAZINE and a solo show, published in several editions of Black & White Magazine, and in multiple special edition exhibition books.  She was chosen as the winner of the EMERGE 2024 Fellowship Award and Winner in Portfolio Platform 2024/2025, and has done solo shows featuring her project Pisces Dipped in Fantasy, winner and Honorable Mention for The 18th, 20th, and 23rd Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for Women Photographers in Barcelona Spain for 2022, 2023, and 2024, Refocus Award for COLOR in Conceptual Photography, placed second in People and Portraits for Digital Photo 2022, received honorable mention in the ND Awards, and many more.  She is currently teaching at Santa Fe Workshops, Chicago Botanic Garden, Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island near Seattle, and giving Art Talks on Zoom in such places as the UK and Chicago. She spends her free time traveling and creating in her artist studio near Asheville, NC. All of her imagery comes from photos she takes with her cameras, and she often uses creative techniques like blur, ICM, layering, and multiple exposures in and out of camera for her work.

Directors’ Statement

We have watched Leanne’s growth as a photographer over the past few years. Her previous color work and self-portraiture are well conceived and beautifully constructed. However, we think this body of work, Navigating in Traffic, shows her growth as a visual storyteller. Her choice of black and white to dramatically and successfully portray emotion absolutely displays her maturation as an artist.

The addition of the hand or hands consistently reaching in the images adds visual consistency and emotion, suggesting a theme or story, drawing the viewer into a narrative of the images. The circle motif effectively added throughout the work serves as an, almost subliminal, element that adds to the unity of the work and another layer of latent meaning.

Early man painted his or her hands in caves across the world. Was it a search for identity or a statement of identity? We imagine Leanne as having kinship with our long-ago ancestors.

Thank you Leanne.

Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully
July, 2025

website: leannetrivettsphotography.com
instagram:  @leannerockstar

link to online exhibition

link to exhibition catalogue

The celebrations exhibition, juried by gallery directors Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully, was in the online gallery from June 1 to June 30, 2025 . The exhibition celebrates the galleries Quinceañera and  features 64 images from 51 artist. Thanks to all that have filled our exhibitions with profound art and to all the travelers and friends who have visited the gallery both physically and online.

link to online exhibition

The water exhibition, juried by Catherine Couturier, was in the online gallery from June 6 to July 17, 2025 . The jurors selected forty seven images from forty artists for the exhibition. Thomas Burke’s  Shinagawa Aquarium received the Juror’s Award. Lisa Tyson Ennis’ image Seen/Unseen received the Directors’ Award and the Visitors’ Award.

link to online exhibition

link to exhibition catalogue

The Photographic Performance was created to feature the works of artist with completed bodies of work and a strong narrative. Brian Van de Wetering’s exhibition The Acting Hand is the first of four performances to be exhibited during 2025. Brian’s exhibition is discussed in this GalleryTalk.

Artist Statement

Death and suffering are reported each night on the evening news. I’ve seen friends, family, and acquaintances taken from this world seemingly at random. I watch on social media as friends and acquaintances struggle with life-changing illnesses. How do we make sense of this? How do we persist in the face of the indifference and randomness of the universe?

As social creatures, we are born with a theory of mind, the ability to attribute intent, emotions, beliefs, and knowledge to ourselves and others. It is no wonder that we are drawn to create order out of this randomness by assigning it some external reason, intent, or plan: The Acting Hand. Whether we blame the devil, god, fate, the stars, kismet, or destiny, we gain comfort from imagining an actor and motivation behind our suffering. With order comes solace. With chaos comes madness.

“As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.”
— King Lear (4.1)

But what of calamity meted out by our own hand or the hands of others? Are we solely responsible? Is it an act of free will or a throw of the dice? In the eye of popular science, addiction becomes a disease, the sociopath is born that way, and the abused becomes the abuser. Who creates the despot, the murderer, the rapist, the junkie?

“…an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!”
— King Lear (1.2)

Although I understand intellectually that some events are truly random, I still feel a strong emotional draw to imagine some intent, The Acting Hand, even if only in metaphor. The hand is not just a metaphor but also the central question. In this series of staged vignettes, I’ve brought this invisible hand to life to prompt further reflection on causation, randomness, and free will.

The theme of play is also central to the work. As children and artists, we play God in our make-believe worlds, and we can be cruel and destructive in our play. I’ve depicted events from history, literature, the evening news, and my own personal experience using children’s toys to illustrate our complex relationships with the suffering and misfortune in our lives and the world around us. Heavy stuff to be sure, but there is a thread of dark humor woven into these images that I recognize as one of the ways that I cope with my own fear, worry, and anxiety.

Brian Van de Wetering, 2025

Bio

Brian Van de Wetering is a photographic artist living and working in San Diego. Brian’s interest in the arts began in his youth when he dabbled in acting, lighting design, set design, music, and the visual arts including painting, sculpture, and collage. During college he worked at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater. A degree in computer science and minor in English led to a career in software development while playing in a punk band provided an artistic outlet. But his interest in the visual arts remained unfulfilled.

In 2010, success in the Anza Borrego Foundation’s annual Desert Photo Contest inspired Brian to seriously pursue an artistic practice centered around photography. He continues to develop his unique artistic vision with projects and interests including self-portraiture, the constructed image, conceptual work, street photography, abstraction, surrealism, and humor. He incorporates a wide variety of cameras and techniques in his work including-medium format film, toy cameras, home-built cameras, Polaroids, lumen prints, light painting, found photographs, collage, and sculptural works.

Since 2010, Brian’s work has been featured in many juried exhibitions throughout the United States including at the Southeast Center for Photography, The Los Angeles Center of Photography, the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont, and the Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Center in Minneapolis among others. His work has been featured by Jonathan Blaustein on aphotoeditor.com and by Aline Smithson on Lenscratch.com. Brian is currently the Technical Director of Lenscratch.com and works as a freelance web developer. Brian continues to play in the Irish punk band he helped found more than 30 years ago.

Directors’ Statement

It was a pleasure to open Brian’s entry. The combination of the humorous with the macabre in the images immediately piqued our interest. At first glance the overall simplicity of the images was soon replaced with an appreciation for the quiet, direct, emotionally pregnant scenes of sophisticated photography catching the literal and metaphorical hand of creation and fate, arriving from Mount Olympus or the ether or the sleeve of a misbehaving Mr. Rogers.

Thank you Brian.

Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully
June, 2025

website: brianvandewetering-photo.com
instagram:  @bwetering

link to online exhibition

The elsewhere exhibition, juried by Kevin Tully, was in the online gallery from April 25 to June 5, 2025.  Kevin selected forty seven images from thirty seven artists for the exhibition. Glen Serbin’s image Dune Study received the Juror’s Award. Anne Walker’s image Threshold received the Director’s Award. Charlotte Watts’ image She Gave Me A Bowl and I Saw The Soul Has This Shape received the Visitors’ Award.

Juror’s Statement

I am very proud of these images. It was very gratifying and pleasing to see all the wonderful, varied styles and interpretations of the theme, Elsewhere. We are always surprised as to how photographers interpret our themes, bringing the suggestions to life. Suggestions, that’s what we hope our theme choices are – prompts tickling the right brain.

There is photography that artfully shows us life and the lithosphere, the one percent of the planet that we live on. Then there is photography that shows us the incorporeal, ethereal moments behind or clothing the material.

Glenn Serbin’s image Dune Study, my Juror’s Award selection, takes sand dunes and makes them sensual — maybe a human form, maybe a cephalopod.

Gail Haile has transformed her image Frozen Moonrise from a winter scene into a winter passage, possibly the snow-covered yellow brick road, illuminated by the lights of the approaching Emerald City.

Susan Isaacson’s image At Silver Lake #6 The Big Fish becomes a long-ago memory of a fisherman.

Honey J Walker ‘s image Messages has us possibly approaching by boat a nighttime city in the rain, a carnival on the shore.

Elsewhere can be where we want to be or where we are in our dreams and creations.

Thank you to all who entered for your thoughtful images.

Kevin Tully
November, 2025

Director’s Statement

So where does your mind go when it had rather be anywhere but where you are … elsewhere?  That was the question posed to artist who submitted images for consideration for this exhibition.

I was deeply moved by Anne Walker’s beautiful image, Threshold, which portrays a delicate, ghostly woman standing within the remains of a window, surrounded by lifeless vines. Anne’s image was chosen for the Director’s Award because it so thoughtfully captures the yearning and searching to find a place beyond the present, searching for her comforting elsewhere.

In Susan Wirt’s image, Gold Dust, a shimmering spirit seeks to escape the confines of the frame. Drawn by the soft glow of the window, the spirit searches for its elsewhere, far from the present.

And in Geoffrey Agrons’ All This Useless Beauty (Rome, Italy), a girl sits, adrift in silent yearning, her gaze wandering far from the chair that holds her, dreaming of distant places.

Thank you to all the artists represented in this exhibition, whose creativity and vision have brought Elsewhere to life. I am especially grateful to Kevin Tully, the esteemed juror, whose vision has helped create this exhibition. For us “elsewhere’ is more than a theme, it is a shared journey.

Amanda Smith
October, 2025

link to online exhibition

link to exhibition catalogue

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.  Bill Polkinhorn’s image il pensatore received the Director’s Award in the she exhibition juried by Polly Gaillard.  Bill’s exhibition Desert Stanzas is discussed in this GalleryTalk.

Artist Statement

I was born and raised in the heart of the desert. My photography is a deeply personal exploration of the landscape that has shaped me. The desert’s grandeur, its elegant sparseness, and its unyielding simplicity inspire my work. In its vast expanses, where heat and desolation reign, there is a profound stillness—a quiet that speaks to the timelessness and eternal nature of the universe.

Through my lens, I seek to capture this delicate balance: the interplay of light and shadow across the flats and hills, the weathered resilience of ancient rock formations, and the fleeting moments where life persists against all odds and, as well, life here in the desert. Each image is an invitation to pause, to feel the weight of the eternal, and to connect with the universe’s enduring presence. My photographs are not just representations of the desert—they are meditations on its ability to reveal both the ephemeral and the infinite. It is my intention to record and to preserve these places in my own imagination, but moreover the exploration of these harsh, yet stunningly beautiful landscapes offer a glimpse into possibly coming to some understanding of the human condition.

Bill Polkinhorn
May, 2025

Bio

I was born and raised in the center of the Mojave Desert which covers most of deep Southern California and  Arizona, where I own and manages Bill Polkinhorn, Inc. a customs brokerage company founded by my grandfather in 1917. I continue to live and work here.  I am married and have 4 grown daughters.   I left the desert for 13 years. 9 of which were spent in college where I earned degrees in zoology, chemistry, English Spanish and psychology.  I returned to the desert and  began working in the family business.   When I was able to return to my interests in photography in approximately 2014, digital photography was the up and coming thing.   I bought a digital camera and began teaching myself how to take pictures.  The desert was my subject and the internet was my instructor.  My first images,  taken during my teenage years were black and white.  I have come around now, once again, mostly to black and white work.  My immediate surroundings – the desert southwest has become my worthy subject – to which I have returned many times – each time – hopefully – with a higher level of consideration and thoughtful restraint.

website: billpolkinhornphotography.com
instagram:  @billpolkinhorn

link to online exhibition

The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions.  Jennifer Wannen’s  image September Reds received the Juror’s Award in the town & country exhibition juried by Michael Kirchoff.  Jennifer’s exhibition Invocations was featured from May 1 to May 31, 2025 and is discussed in our GalleryTalk with Jennifer.

Artist Statement

Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky reflected, “Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.” As an artist, I gravitate toward subjects that dance on the edge of two worlds—one of ordinary physical reality and one of nonordinary mystical presence. Whether framing a nature scene or setting up a narrative self-portrait, I’m attempting to capture a current of mystery I perceive in that moment. With alternative lenses and composite editing, I’m generally taking an image further from empirical presentation and more into an imaginative space, conjuring multiple layers and realities at play.

My photography practice grew out of spiritual retreat practice, and that retreat mindset has come full circle, infusing itself into my creative focus. My images invite the viewer into an intimate ‘time out of time’ world, ideally making space for their own experience of the sacred in their lives.

Most of the images in “Invocations” came out of a time of close, compounded losses, when grief became a phantom margin to the everyday story. These years opened the aperture to that “secret soul”—both the enchantment and shadows found therein. “Invocations” bears witness to that liminal vision.

Jennifer Wannen
April, 2025

Bio

Jennifer Wannen is a photographer, writer, and interfaith spiritual director in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In her image making, she explores themes of imagination, animism, and mysticism.

Her work has appeared in the PhotoPlace Exhibition Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont, the Southeast Center For Photography in Greenville, South Carolina, A Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas, and the Chateau de LaLande in Crozon-sur-Vauvre in France for the Photos de Femmes 2020 seeingWOMEN exhibitions.

website: SoulChapters.com
instagram: @jennifer.wannen

link to online exhibition

The unique: alternative processes exhibition, juried by DorRae Stevens, Kevin Tully and Amanda Smith, was in the online gallery from April 1 to May 31, 2025.  It was also exhibited at Creek Road Homestead Studio from May 3 to May 31, 2025.  The jurors selected thirty six images from thirty one artists for the exhibition. Pat Brown’s hand-sewn exposed binding book Man With Nature and God received the Juror’s Award. Chris Losee’s cyanotype on glass plate image Reflection received the Director’s Award. Mckenzie Campas’ image Severed received the Visitors’ Award.

Juror’s Statement

Alternative processes in photography are experiencing a resurgence in part as a response to digital photography. This revival is driven by a new generation of artists seeking hands-on, tactile experiences in the darkroom, as well as by seasoned practitioners who are witnessing renewed appreciation for techniques they have cherished for years. The growing interest in analogue methods is enriching the photographic community and expanding creative possibilities.

When we were planning this exhibition, cyanotype, wet plate, and platinum palladium immediately came to mind. The submissions ultimately represented seventeen distinct photographic techniques, each demonstrating the artists’ ingenuity and passion. It has been inspiring to see artists take the traditional processes and make them their own, new creations.

Pat Brown’s work, Benabbio, a hand sewn exposed-binding book with cyanotype and mixed media, received our Jurors’ Award. The book is an innovative example of taking the cyanotype process, expanding upon it, and creating something truly unique. Similarly, Chris Losee’s creation Reflection, a cyanotype on glass plate presented in a custom-built box designed to harness light and illuminate the artwork, received our Directors’ Award. Both Pat and Chris gave great attention to detail and presentation.

It was truly rewarding to have an exhibition up in a physical space again. The opportunity to witness guests contemplate and marvel at the pieces reaffirmed the value of bringing analogue photography to the forefront of artistic dialogue.

We want to extend our gratitude to everyone who submitted their work for consideration and contributed to the success of this exhibition. Special thanks to Bobby Stevens for his assistance and essential role in the creation of Creek Road Homestead Studio.

DorRae Stevens, Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully

link to online exhibition

link to exhibition installation images

The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions.  Bob Tully’s  image The Bu received the Juror’s Award in the light exhibition juried by Laurie Klein.  Bob’s exhibition Low Falls was featured from April 1 to April 30, 2025 and is discussed in our GalleryTalk with Bob.

Artist Statement

In the golden light of the late 1960s and early 70s, nestled deep in the woods near Woodstock, there existed a sanctuary—a place where water met rock, where bodies met earth, and where souls met freedom. This hidden swimming hole Low Falls, fed by a cascading waterfall, was more than just a place to cool off; it was a sacred space where the counterculture spirit flourished, where clothing was optional but authenticity was not.

My work seeks to capture the essence of that era—an untamed, unfiltered celebration of nature, community, and self-expression. Through my lens, I document the fluid connection between human and landscape, the way sun-kissed skin blends with dappled light on water, and the way laughter echoes through the trees like an ancient hymn to the wild. These photographs are not just images; they are echoes of an ethos, a time when we shed societal constraints as easily as we shed our clothes, immersing ourselves in something purer, something real.

To stand at the edge of that waterfall, to witness bodies suspended in motion, caught between earth and sky, is to understand the fleeting, beautiful impermanence of life. My work is an invitation—to remember, to dream, to step back into a time when we belonged to the land, and it belonged to us.

Bob Tully
April, 2025

Bio

I was born in the South Bronx and experienced my early life in the many diverse neighborhoods of New York City. My introduction to the imaginal world of photography materialized in a unique place and time. I witnessed my first photo print slowly appearing in the swirling liquid filled developing pan on a combat base during the Vietnam War. I was so thrilled I immediately knew what I wanted to pursue when I returned back home. I attended the New York Institute of Photography where the majority of the instructors were working professionals. I relocated to California and entered the City College of San Francisco which had an excellent two year photography program. I managed a community rental photo lab underneath North Beach Camera which catered to the local photographers of North Beach. Shortly after I was very fortunate to have a photography studio downtown San Francisco. I then became interested in video and attended the College of Marin to study television production. Again I relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the Entertainment Industry. I was extremely fortunate to be member of five Emmy Award wining camera crews. Before retiring I return to school and attended Santa Monica College to refresh and learn the contemporary techniques of digital world of photography.

website: tullyphoto.com
instagram: @tullyphoto

link to online exhibition