2024 TPS National Photography Award
Please join us for an opening reception on Thursday, March 28, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Sabine Street Studios, 1907 Sabine St, Houston, TX 77007!
Online gallery coming soon!
We are proud to announce that Juror Olivia Parker n has selected the recipient of the 2024 TPS National Photography Award: Cressandra Thibodeaux from Houston, TX. Cressandra will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize and a solo exhibition during FotoFest Biennial 2024, the international festival of photography in Houston, Texas.
Please see the juror's remarks below.
We are also delighted to recognize the following TPS National Photography Award Finalists:
Finalists: Duygu Aytac (Boston, MA) | Patty Carroll (Chicago, IL) | Edwin Carungay (Santa Cruz, CA) | Jason DeMarte (Saline, MI) | Mark Felix (Houston, TX) | Terri Golas (Houston, TX) | Dmitriy Gushchin (Boston, MA) | Ed Malcik (Austin, TX) | Lennette Newell (Placitas, NM) | Matt Sims (Grapevine, TX) |
Heartfelt congratulations to the selected artists and warmest thanks to all of the artists who generously shared their work for consideration. The 2024 TPS National Photography Award exhibition will be presented at Sabine Street Studios in Houston, in conjunction with FotoFest, from March 28, 2024 to May 11, 2024.
JUROR'S REMARKS
The Photographs submitted for this competition amaze me. It was extremely difficult to choose just one winner among so many accomplished image makers. The winner was a surprise to me and perhaps will be to you. Cressandra Thibodeaux‘s photographs have a consistency not only of visual form but also in the way the subjects look back at the photographer. There is a certain trust there as though the photographer is not taking a picture. It seems to me as though the subjects are giving their images to us via the photographer.
Photographers are explorers through light and darkness and from black and white to a range of colors. If light reaches a subject that subject can be photographed. Each of the runners up has found a way of seeing that is their own. The images range from the simple to the extremely complex, but in each group I see a strong individual vision. I wish you all well in your future journey through photography.
- Olivia Parker, 2024
ABOUT THE AWARD RECIPIENT
Cressandra Thibodeaux IS a bi-racial, award-winning filmmaker, writer, and visual artist with an MFA degree from Columbia University’s prestigious Film program. Her career spans producing, directing, and editing numerous documentaries, short films, a play, and several commercials. Her first three commercials won three silver Addy Awards, a testament to her creative vision and technical expertise.
Her first solo show, Oil on Water, was held in 2010 at Art Basel in Basel in Switzerland. Her work has been described as thought-provoking and engaging, and with a unique ability to connect with audiences of all backgrounds.
Cressandra founded 14 Pews, a microcinema located in an old church in the Houston Heights, in 2010. As the Executive Director of 14 Pews, she has curated 11 art shows highlighting Houston artists and directed several award-winning documentaries on Houston artists. The art shows and cultural events have a strong community engagement component, including collaborations with other artists, activists, academics, and non-profit organizations to foster an inclusive and diverse creative space. Her dedication to uplifting underrepresented voices and commitment to social justice have made a lasting impact on the Houston community.
Cressandra describes the project:
The thematic exploration of Blood Quantum, confronts the complexities of Native identity, sovereignty, and representation, through photography and interviews. I'm an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Tribe of Chippewas. My old “Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) card” states I’m ¼ Ojibwe. And although I don’t feel Native enough to represent the voice of my tribe, I do feel qualified to share in the Indigenous dialogue of how the colonial concept of Blood Quantum affects our fractured Native identities. The choice of color portraiture is deliberate. It imbues the project with a contemporary immediacy, pushing against the confines of the historical narrative. In portraying a diverse group of Native Americans, I aim to counter the paper genocide inherent in the concept of Blood Quantum. This act of documenting Natives through visual representation and sharing their personal stories, is a powerful testament to our resilience and self-determination.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Texas Photographic Society is delighted to announce the call for entry for the 2024 TPS National Photography Award, juried by Olivia Parker. (Please read her full Juror's Statement and Bio below.)
This call is open to artists residing in the United States who have a consistent body of photographic work. The recipient will be awarded a solo exhibition at the Sabine Street Studios plus a $2,000 cash stipend to aid in the creation and presentation of the work. The exhibition will coincide with the 2024 FotoFest Biennial, the international festival of photography in Houston, Texas.
Submissions will include ten images and an artist's statement (up to 200 words). Award recipient's full exhibition will be based on the initial submission and include all submitted images as part of the exhibition. This call is open to all subject matter, aesthetic approaches, and photographic processes. Two-dimensional work is preferred in this venue (some three-dimensional work can also be accommodated in support of the the 2-D work), and submissions from artists of all levels are encouraged. Please read the IF YOUR WORK IS ACCEPTED section below for more information. Details from the previous exhibitions can be found here: 2020 and 2022.
Calendar of Events
December 20, 2024 - Call for entry opens on CaFÉ
January 30, 2024 - Deadline for entry (11:59 Mountain Time Zone)
February 19, 2024 – Award Recipient Announced
March 21, 2024 – Work due at Sabine Street Studios in Houston, Texas
March 28, 2024 – Exhibition opens
May 11, 2024 – Exhibition closes
Awards & Recognition
$2,000 cash stipend • Solo exhibition at Sabine Street Studios coinciding with the 2024 FotoFest Biennial in Houston, TX • Juror may select up to 10 TPS National Photography Award Finalists, providing additional recognition to entrants.
Entry Fee
Entry fee is $45 for 10 images and statement, $35 for TPS Members (applicants can become a member through CaFÉ website at time of entry).
Eligibility
The TPS National Photography Award is open to artists of all levels residing in the United States who are developing or have completed a consistent body of photographic work. All photographic-based art is welcome, including digital, silver, and alternative processes. You do not need to be a member of the Texas Photographic Society to enter this competition. Current members of the TPS Board of Directors are NOT eligible for entry.
JUROR'S STATEMENT
What do I look for in photographs? I like to see something I’ve not seen before or if I have seen it before I need to see it realized in a new way. At the same time I like something that makes me pause and absorb what I am seeing. I want a sense that the photographer cares about what he or she is doing. In my own practice I must care about what I am doing in order to make photographs that connect with other people even if people are not in the image.
Sometimes it is important for a photographer to go through a period of experimentation particularly when beginning a new body of work. When individual photographs seem successful and then coalesce into a group of images that have a strength that is greater than the individual images they become a real body of work. Occasionally in a portfolio I see some pictures that are similar to images I have seen but others are new to me and all are sequenced into something that is of interest. I do like surprises, but only if there is something there beyond a joke.
In this time of truths and lies photographs are especially important. Photographs can lie through retouching, clever sequencing or false labelling, but photographs and videos are still our best hope for telling the truth. Photographs can show us places of beauty or devastation.
A wide range of human faces and bodies alone or in relation to each other and their surroundings can reveal new possibilities. Recently the horrors of war have come to us again in the form of photographs and videos. Some of these continue to haunt long after they were made. Images of animals can show us new ways of thinking about them and their relationship to us. I find that in still life or constructed photographs combinations of things and light can make a living whole and speak of many things.
- - - Olivia Parker
ABOUT THE JUROR
After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in Art History, Olivia Parker began to photograph ephemeral constructions in 1973. Her work is in major private, corporate, and museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, MOMA, MFA Boston, and The Peabody Essex Museum. There are four monographs of Parker’s work. The most recent is Order of Imagination published by The Peabody Essex Museum and The University of Washington Press. A 1996 Wellesley Alumnae Achievement Award recipient, her residencies include Dartmouth College, MacDowell, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Cassilhaus. In November of 2019 she was inducted into The International Photography Hall of Fame.
‘Vanishing in Plain Sight’, images concerning Parker’s husband’s Alzheimer’s, was at The Lunder Center at Lesley University in the spring of 2019 and there was a major retrospective of Parker’s work at The Peabody Essex Museum in the summer and autumn of that year. At present Parker is continuing work on two series: Persephone’s Graffiti and Persephone’s Garden. Also she is beginning a new body of work concerning her ancestor Mary Estey who was hung as a witch in Salem even though it was her words conveyed to the Governor that stopped the terrible persecutions.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2024 TPS National Photography Award is made possible through funding from the Texas Commission on the Arts, a partnership with Fujifilm, and the generous support of our TPS Members.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- APPLY HERE!-
IMAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION
Please submit digital JPG files only, minimum of 1200 pixels on the longest side and 5 MB maximum. Please remove watermarks from images. For each image you will need to provide the image title and the process (medium) used to make the image/print (Archival Digital Print, Silver Gelatin Print, Platinum/Palladium Print, Wet Plate Collodian, etc.) To clarify, you will submit a digital files of your images for the contest application; if your work is selected, you will you will print your images, frame them, and ship them to the exhibition venue.
IF YOUR WORK IS ACCEPTED
Award recipient's full exhibition will be based on initial submission and include submitted images as part of the exhibition. After award announcement, TPS and exhibition venue will work with Artist to make sure the exhibition is an appropriate fit for the venue.
The exhibition will be presented on the Sawyer Yards campus in Sabine Street Studios—a studio building with 67 creative workspaces. The exhibition gallery is open to the public during the day, and surrounded by artists studios, with some foot traffic and no gallery attendants, so please plan your presentation accordingly. For more information and a map of the venue, please visit here and scroll down to Sabine Street Studios. (This exhibition will be in the northernmost open space surrounded by studios 110 -115. See installation photos below.)
Shipping & Presentation Guidelines:
Artist will deliver or ship work to Houston and TPS will pay for return shipping (if necessary) within the United States using a common carrier. It is recommended that selected artwork be shipped ready-to-hang using wire or D-rings. NO glass please; plexiglass only.
Sales
TPS encourages the sale of exhibited work and will collect a 30% commission from all prints sold during the exhibition. Please indicate the sales price of your print, including frame/finishing. If your finished piece is not for sale, simply note NFS. If your work is accepted and you do not indicate a sales price, the artwork will be listed as NFS.
Liability
PLEASE NOTE: TPS and the venue will exercise all due care when handling your work, but will not be held responsible for loss, damage, or replacement during the exhibition.
Reproduction
TPS and the venues retain the right to display and reproduce work accepted for this exhibition for publicity and promotional purposes only. The photographer retains copyright to his/her own individual images.
- APPLY HERE!-
Questions?
If you have any questions or concerns after reading all the guidelines on this website and at CaFÉ, please contact TPS Executive Director directly at ann@texasphoto.org.