#NewVisions2020: A Student Show

Juror Paul Thulin-Jimenez has selected 50 images for the #NewVisions2020 online exhibition. A complete list of the exhibiting artists is below, with award winners noted in bold. Congratulations to all!

Ikron Alexander, Bossier Parish Community College | Xandr Arquin, The University of Texas at San Antonio | Noel Becerra, Baylor University | Sophie Bennett, Tulane University | Dillon Bryant, University of South Dakota | Sergio Cordero, The University of Texas at Arlington | Ashley Creighton, Baylor University | Race Dillon, The University of New Mexico | Kim Eagan, Texas Woman's University | Shawna Fitzpatrick, The University of Texas at Arlington | Lori Foringer, Academy of Art University | Sonja Garcia, Odessa College | Lily Guillen, Wichita State University | David Jones, University of Alaska Fairbanks | Işık Kaya, University of California San Diego | Epiphany Knedler, East Carolina University | Marena Koenka, Clark University | Margaret Liang, School of the Art Institute of Chicago | Jalen Lomax, Community College of Denver | Kathleen Mahoney, Odessa College | Wesley Meyer, Virginia Commonwealth University | Ashley Miller, The University of New Mexico | Jacob Mitchell, Bossier Parish Community College | Michael Mulvey, Texas Woman's University | Danyell Nefe, Central Michigan University | Jory Pacht, Rice University | Alec Peyton, University of Georgia | Nikki Raitz, Kennesaw State University | Beatriz Rivas, The University of Texas Permian Basin | Anikó Sáfrán, James Madison University | Kerstin Schoen, The University of Texas at Arlington | Leah Schretenthaler, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | Caleb Shipman, Mississippi College | Matt Sunthimer, Texas Christian University | Emily Swierzbin, Central Michigan University | Carlos Villarreal, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi | Albert Abdul-Barr Wang, The University of Utah | Dick Wilcock, University of Alaska Fairbanks | Hao Zhang, Boise State University

JUROR'S REMARKS

Thank you to all of the wonderful student artists who submitted to #NewVisions2020: A Student Show. It was such an honor to engage in so many interesting and thought provoking images. My initial juror’s statement challenge “to put forward your most experimental and risk filled images” was met full force and made a significant impact on what images I ultimately chose to include in this exhibit.

The selection of the images and their purposeful sequencing was a challenge to my curatorial role as well. I felt it was important to choose images that resisted traditional categories and welcomed re-contextualization with other images in hopes of bringing to light shared themes, moods, and styles that resonate with the artists’ experiences in the present socio-political landscape — a virus infected landscape. The sequenced order allows the sum of the images to take on more meaning than interpreting the images on their own as isolated, singular images existing in their own universe. The First Place image works as an amazing endpoint of the sequence and it truly took courage to submit that image — it satisfies the risk of my original call, holds up as a unique and expressive artwork in itself, and plays well with others.

In the last six weeks, for many of us, our days have been dominated by a sense of rapid change, vulnerability, isolation, hope and fear facing an unknown health threat as well as an ever increasing anxiety confronting the deterioration of our normal perception of time and self. Time has become indecisive, mundane, mediated and hyper repetitive. This has resulted in our everyday stories changing, causing distortion and disruption, which in turn changes how and what our images communicate.

I feel these 50 images powerfully reflect our communal attempt to negotiate a slowly unfolding existential crisis unlike any other in our shared histories. Time and subjectivity are changing and with them the reliable narratives of yesterday and tomorrow have lost their structure and meanings. These images, from such talented emerging artists, are honest and at times beautifully raw — their representational power lies in their authors’ unrelenting courage to engage and document the value of “Being” in a destabilized present. These images are about enduring and facing the unknown — what was once unimaginable is reality.

— Paul Thulin-Jimenez

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*Given the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on our community and classroom, we are extending the deadline for submission to April 24, 2020. This competition is now closed.

Texas Photographic Society is excited to present our online, open-themed collegiate student photo competition. Submissions from college undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students of all skill levels are encouraged. Students may submit up to 12 images and each image will be judged independently. CASH PRIZES will be awarded!

The show will be juried by Paul Thulin-Jimenez, Graduate Director and Assistant Professor in the Department of Photography and Film at Virginia Commonwealth University. For more details, see the Juror's Statement below.

All entries must be submitted via CaFÉ. Need help resizing images? Go here.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

02-18-20 Call for entry opens
04-24-20 Deadline for entry (11:59 pm MST)
05-01-20 Exhibiting artists announced and online gallery opens

Please download our #NewVisions2020 poster here and help us share this call for entry!

AWARDS

First Place = $300
Second Place = $200
Third Place = $100
Up to 5 Honorable Mentions may be awarded

The juror will select 50 images for the online exhibition. The selected images and student artists will be showcased on our website gallery and promoted to our extended TPS community including members and photo/social media contacts.

ENTRY FEE

Entry fee is $30 for 5 images, plus $6 for each additional image. You can submit up to 12 images total. You do not have to be a member of TPS to enter. However, students may enter the competition and also join TPS as a member at the same time, for a discounted Student Member rate: $15 for 1 year (normally $20), or $33 for 3 years (normally $48).

TPS Member Benefits include Member feature opportunities via our Members' Gallery, Member Spotlight, Members' News, Members' Instagram Takeover, social media accounts and E-Zine, entry fee discounts to most competitions and discounts to programs and services offered through our partnerships.

All entry and membership fees are nonrefundable. Note: as this is an online show, you will not incur any additional expenses for printing, framing or shipping.

ELIGIBILITY

#NewVisions2020: A Student Show is open to college students at least 18 years old who are enrolled in a college credit course (both undergraduate and graduate) or continuing education/noncredit course. All skill levels are encouraged to apply. Any photographic-based work is welcome including digital, silver, alternative processes, mixed media incorporating photography, collage and book arts. Works exhibited previously in a TPS show are not eligible.

IMAGE REQUIREMENTS

Please submit JPG files only, minimum of 1200 pixels on the longest side and 5 MB maximum. For each image you will need to provide the image title and the process used (Archival Digital Print, Silver Gelatin Print, Platinum/Palladium Print, Wet Plate Collodian, etc.)

Need help resizing images? You can resize via a Mac or PC computer, or use a number of third-party applications, many of which offer free trials or solutions. Please go here for suggestions.

ABOUT THE JUROR

Paul Thulin-Jimenez lives in Richmond, Virginia and works as the Graduate Director and Assistant Professor in the Department of Photography and Film at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Paul Thulin-Jimenez’s photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally at United Photo Industries, NYC; Ogden Museum, New Orleans; Miami Scope; Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA; Chicago Art Fair; PPAC, Philadelphia; AAC, Washington DC; Toronto Art Fair, Foto Gallery, Barcelona; Grand Prix Fotofestival Lodz, Poland; the Athens Photo Festival, Greece; the Center for Fine Art Photography, Colorado; Mt. Rokko Photography Festival, Japan; the Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards, Nera di Verzasca Photo Festival, Switzerland, FIF\_BH - International Festival of Photography, Brazil; and the Noordelicht Photo Festival, The Netherlands.

Thulin-Jimenez has been the recipient of a variety of photographic prizes and awards including a 2001 TPI National Graduate Fellowship, a 2006 Virginia Commission for the Arts Artist Fellowship, 2013 Conveyor Magazine Exhibition Grant, 2015 Hariban Award Honorable Mention, 2015 Critical Mass Top 50 and the 2015 Lensculture Emerging Talent Grant. His series Pine Tree Ballads was one of ten emerging talent portfolios selected for GUP magazine’s (NLD) tenth-anniversary issue as well as highlighted in the May 2016 British Journal of Photography.

Thulin-Jimenez's first monograph, Pine Tree Ballads, was published by Candela Books in March 2019. He is currently working on a new research project, "Isla de Las Palmas," which explores Puerto Rican identity in the 21st century.

JUROR'S STATEMENT

For this exhibition, I will, of course, seriously consider images that are well-behaved, compositionally balanced and technically advanced. You know -- the images that are traditionally considered visually striking and should be included in any respectable photography exhibition. However, what I am deeply invested and hopeful in discovering is photography that purposely and creatively challenges convention --- artwork that explores the unknown, makes what is wrong so right and builds a foundation in the unsettled.

Put forward your most experimental and risk filled images. The work you have always loved in private but are scared it's too challenging, too political, too punk, too messy, too pretty, too funny, too forward thinking or even too backwards thinking. Feel free to shed your "I always need to be accepted" comfort zone in regards to your treatment of a subject matter, process, exposure, form and materiality. Nothing is off the table - full contact sheets with markings, found photos, blurry portraits and landscapes, rough cut magazine collages, images with text, unexposed paper and even cute puppy pictures! As long as the work attempts to establish an original style, reads as genuine, is aesthetically aware of itself and hints at the importance of being a publicly exhibited artist at this moment in history, I am fairly sure it will catch my eye and will be rebelliously amazing!

— Paul Thulin-Jimenez

TPS TERMS AND AGREEMENT

You retain all rights to your images. If your image is selected for the exhibition, you grant Texas Photographic Society (TPS) the right, in perpetuity, to use and display your image, image title and process, your name, city, state and country of residence, and school name for TPS publicity and promotion. Permissible use includes the display, reproduction and distribution of said information on the TPS website, in TPS exhibitions, presentations, program promotions, artist features, fundraising initiatives and publications, and on social media networks, without further contact from TPS. Please note that we may have to crop images to meet space/proportion requirements for promotional platforms. You understand that TPS will not be held responsible for loss, theft or other damage, whether caused by the negligence of its officers, members or others. All entry and membership fees are non-refundable. Submission entry and payment signifies understanding and agreement to all of the above terms and conditions.

QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions, please contact TPS Executive Director Ann T. Shaw at ann@texasphoto.org.