BRATTLEBORO-In-Sight Photography Project, Brattleboro's 32-year-strong photography program for youth ages 11–18, has just opened for submissions to its second annual contest designed to nurture and support young people's curiosity about and exploration into and creativity through photography, both digital and analog (film).
Building on the success of last year's In-Sight Youth Photo Awards contest, which drew more than 30 young photographers from around the region submitting some 90 works, this year's event will be similar but offer a few changes.
Most significantly, says In-Sight Executive Director Emily Wagner, "we're trying to reach more youth because what we heard from so many around the country is, 'Why is this not open to us?' So this year we thought we'd expand."
Now the award has two contests, regional and national.
Through Sunday, Sept. 8, In-Sight is accepting submissions from young photographers in Vermont and within an hour's drive of Brattleboro into New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Categories for the regional contest include:
• Analog Film and Alt Process: Images made in the darkroom or with an alternative process to be judged by Michael Kirchoff, editor of Analog Forever, and Evie Lovett, a Putney-based photographer.
• Environments and Animals: Nature, landscapes, cityscapes, domestic animals, and wildlife to be judged by Crista Dix, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts, and Eric Stewart, assistant professor of art at Landmark College.
• Objects and Forms: Abstract, micro, and still life photography, judged by Joan O'Beirne, professor of art at Greenfield Community College, and Aline Smithson, founder and editor of Lenscratch magazine.
• People and Culture: Portraits, street photography, and scenes judged by Jonathan Gitelson, professor of art and design at Keene State College, and Los Angeles, California, photographer Julian Lucas.
The second contest, which is open to young photographers nationwide, is Your Perspective, calling for a series of five images that tell the story of the artist's unique perspective to be judged by Erica Lansner, a New York City–based photographer, and Lynne Weinstein, a photography teacher and chair of the art department at The Putney School.
With the nationwide call for submissions, "We really hope to reach kids in California, the Carolinas -wherever!" Wagner says.
To get the word out, In-Sight is working with national partners, including Lenscratch and Analog Forever.
Lovett, an instructor at In-Sight for 30 years and now a judge of the analog contest, notes that the involvement of the two magazines' leaders is significant.
It shows "they know this place is legit, that it does what it says it does," that it measurably benefits area youth, "and that really impressive photographers are connected to it," Lovett says.
Wagner adds, "I was so excited that [Dix] wanted to be involved," noting that the Griffin Museum of Photography is a "big sponsor" of the competition.
So is Sprint Systems of Photography, a major supplier of darkroom chemicals.
"Their owner is a big supporter of ours," says Wagner. "I told her about this opportunity and she said, 'Yes, of course I want to be part of this.'"
Lovett adds that "getting [In-Sight] on Sprint's radar is important."
Jurors will select top images and honorable mentions in each category to win gift cards to B&H Photo/Video/Audio, a leading New York City–based outlet for analog and digital artists.
Works on display
All works submitted will be on display at an awards reception and ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.
Next Stage Executive Director Keith Marks will host the awards ceremony, which will include in-person and video messages from the jurors.
Winning images will be up at the Latchis that day, then moved to In-Sight in time for Gallery Walk the following week on Friday, Oct. 4. They will be displayed there through Friday, Oct. 18.
Chosen works will also be seen in a Winner's Circle exhibition in In-Sight's gallery and at the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center from Saturday, Oct. 26 to Sunday, Dec. 15.
Adding to the awards' heft, top winners have a choice of receiving a print of their work from Cone Editions Press, a fine-arts printmaking studio in Topsham; a solo show at In-Sight; or a portfolio review by one of the contest jurors.
The judging process
Contest rules and guidelines for submission can be found at insightphotography.org/youth-photo-awards.
In terms of the judging process, Wagner notes that she was advised by photographers with contest experience not to provide a rubric for jurors given the subjectivity involved in selection.
Lovett notes that this is her first time adjudicating.
"I think there is worth in something that is not new but that is beautifully crafted," she adds. "There's also worth in something surprising. It's a balancing of respect for craft versus something that'll blow me out of my seat."
Judges will be doing their selecting online; Lovett's arena is analog, a mode of photography she holds dear, as do many In-Sight students.
"The analog classes often fill up before the digital," Wagner notes.
In praise of analog, Lovett says, "In our world there's a yearning for putting hands on something, for craft. Patience is required to wait for a print to develop, and it's magical."
She described the process as "extraordinarily tactile."
"We all yearn to get into the flow of doing something that is so absorbing that the world falls away, and analog photography allows that; it lets us slow down...think, experiment, discern through trial and error," Lovett says.
'A non-stigmatizing approach'
Whether focusing on a demanding contest entry or just participating in a class or workshop with peers, Lovett describes photography as "a great way for teens to explore identity."
In-Sight is a rare program. Wagner said she knows only of one similar program in Los Angeles and another in Seattle, while Lovett knows of only a couple in New York City that might still be running.
"In-Sight's programs," a press release notes, "have always uplifted youth to use photography as an expressive medium and language. Throughout our history we've offered an incredible breadth of programming, such as the Exposures Cross Cultural Program that brought youth from different cultures together to the current Photo Team Program specifically designed to help youth explore professional pathways."
The nonprofit organization's approach to photography "is to foster personal expression, artistic growth, and self-confidence," the news release continues.
Throughout the year, In-Sight offers core classes in analog film and digital photography, after-school partnership programs, a Photo Team, and an artist's residency. Course offerings, as well as profiles of staff and a broadly-based roster of instructors, are found at insightphotography.org.
Launched in 1992 by then-well-known area photographers/teachers John Willis and Bill Ledger at the Brattleboro Teen Center (now the Boys and Girls Club), In-Sight programs have been, from its beginnings and as dictated by its mission, offered on a pay-what-you-can basis.
"It's a non-stigmatizing approach," says Lovett. "As someone who's taught here [for three decades], it's really great because we're not just giving lip service."
And, Wagner adds, "we're not asking anyone to prove income status; we're saying, 'Pay what you can.' That was fundamental for the founders: All classes are fully accessible through the sliding-scale fee structure."
Moreover, youth have access to all the equipment they need: this is possible not only because of collaborations with Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) and Vermont Center for Photography, but also thanks to a robust stream of equipment donations.
That's because, as Lovett says and Wagner agrees, In-Sight has earned a reputation that'd be enviable among many youth-engagement programs.
It was founded when Willis and Ledger noticed rising tensions between police and area youth in that era, and it endures at the cutting edge of program content and delivery today.
Willis, an emeritus professor at the former Marlboro College and who most recently has taught as an adjunct professor at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, visited In-Sight when in town not long ago.
Wagner introduced him as a founder of In-Sight, she said. And the kids, who were heading out for field work in a class exploring the environment through the lens, exclaimed, "Thank you!"
"It was the sweetest thing," she says. "It meant so much to him."
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.