Niamh Smith is a fine-art and contemporary documentarian photographer currently based in Dublin, Ireland currently studying an MFA in photography at Ulster University, Belfast.

The current work draws on contemporary debates that surround the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby homes in Ireland, to critically assess the different compounds of these stories. 

Smith says, "Bearing witness is something of great importance to me in my current practice. Thematically, I am seeking to uncover the surreal stories while being present at the scenes of these now banal landscapes.

To bear witness to the mediation and grieving process of such catastrophic events that have been shielded by the state and the passing of time."

Although more commercial work my website is : www.niamhsmith.ie

Nina Weinberg Doran says, "A routine mammo followed by the unexpected diagnosis of breast cancer.... my head was swirling. .. i couldn’t imagine what might be my life in the coming year or more..... the first words.. chemotherapy turned my insides out.... loss of hair.. the world would know.. i would be exposed... to them.. to myself.. to my inner world of terror....  as i grappled with a long period of time in treatment. surgery... radiation... i peeled the layers back inside myself.. and found the most important gem.. myself.. true identity. truly exposed.... it was then i turned the camera on myself.

It’s remarkable how we arrive at certain places in life. You make a decision to do something new and it opens a window onto possibilities previously unexplored. For me photography emerged haphazardly. I’d been going through a tumultuous time and found myself struggling to find new meaning and peace. 

I set off on my own, camera in hand, with the intention of doing nothing more than further explore a place I’d grown to love.  The camera was thrown in amongst the usual essentials; maybe I’d take it out now and then to encapsulate some lasting memories. What ensued was a metamorphosis: a few casual shots grew into an obsession. 

While out shooting and walking, everything else vanishes. I become immersed in areas rarely ventured and am granted glimpses into idiosyncratic moments of others’ lives. It’s the greatest peace I’ve ever known.  As I sift through my photographs, the memories adjoining the images are savored and as significant as the final result.

I am a self-taught photographer, picking things up by something akin to osmosis.  Time and again I was told by friends and colleagues that the photos evoked something more than the typical travel shot and I was encouraged to do more. I began to connect with fellow photographers who assisted in mentoring me. 

Like the revelation of discovering more than “vacation shots” stowed away in my camera, I find sharing my photographs with a broader audience just as serendipitous.  
Shooting comes from somewhere deep within.  It is as though something murmurs, and I must wander off and shoot. My heart starts to beat wildly. My eyes blink like a shutter, as if to retain some images I may have missed. What ensues are these special moments, requiring communication with the subject, even if unspoken. Almost all of my photos begin with that flicker of human connection.   

What does the future hold?  I’ve always loved to travel. The second the wheels hit the runway, I’m conceiving my next journey.  With the added captivation to shoot, the urge is almost irrepressible."
 
CV

The Photographic Nude
Lightbox Photographic Gallery
Astoria, OR
Juror Christa Blackwood
Feb-Mar, 2018

Tree Talk
Griffin Museum of Photography at
Lafayette City Center , Boston
Juror, Paula Tognarelli
Jan-Feb, 2018

The Curated Fridge
Somerville, Ma
Juror J. Sybille Smith
Winter 2018

Portraits
SxSE Gallery
Molina, Georgia
Juror Elizabeth Avedon
Nov-Dec, 2017

Winner Photographic Nude
Julia Margaret Cameron
Budapest, Hungary
Oct 2017- Jan @2018

Portraits Without Faces
Ph21 Gallery
Budapest, Hungary
Sept-Oct, 2017

What the World Needs Now
The B Complex Gallery
Atlanta, Georgia
Jurors Anita Arliss,
Ruben Natal-San Miguel
Sept-Oct, 2017

The Face
The Dark Room Gallery
Essex Junction, Vermont
Juror Catherine Just
Jul-Aug, 2017

Mobil Only
Ph21 Gallery
Budapest, Hungary
Jul-Aug 2017

23rd Juried Exhibtion
Griffin Museum of Photography
Winchester, MA
Juror Hamidah Glasgow
Jun-Jul 2017

Summertime 
A Smith Gallery
Johnson City, Texas
Juror Sandrine Hermand-Grisel
Jun-Jul 2017

Portraits 
Center for Fine Art Photography  
Fort Collins, Colorado
Juror Karen Marks
 Jan- Mar 2016

WE-AMEricans
Station Independent Projects Gallery
Jurors Ruben Natal
San Miguel/Leah Oates
July 7-Aug 7 2016

The Rights of Summer 
Ripe Art Gallery, Huntington, NY
Jurors Sean Corcoran
Ruben Natal-San Miguel
August 2015

Portraits - Juror Amy Arbus
Center for Fine Art Photography
Fort Collins, Colorado
Spring 2013

Rising Waters at Governors Island: Photographs of Hurricane Sandy
In collaboration with The City Museum of New York and ICP
NYC, NY
Sept-Dec 2013

PUBLICATIONS

Fraction Magazine
9th Anniversary Issue
May 2017

Women in Photogaphy
Julia Margaret Cameron 2013
Black & White Magazine
Special Issue
February 2009

Focus Magazine
July, 2006

AWARDS

Julia Margaret Cameron
10th edition - juror Amber Terranova
Nude and Figure - Winner
2017

Ph21 Gallery  Mobil Only 2017
Honorable Mention

CFAP Portraits 2016 with Juror Karen Marks
honorable mention, Live books website awards

CFAP Portraits 2014 with Juror Amy Arbus-  2014,
honorable mention, Live books website awards

WPGA 2nd ed Portraits and People-  2011
Photography Masters Cup- 2011, Nominee in 3 Categories

Photographers Forum- 2010, honorable mention

Julia Margaret Cameron-  2010

Robert Cornelius Portrait Award -  2010

www.ninaweinbergdoran.com
 

Paula Rae Gibson says, "These images are about decay, longing, past echoing and acceptance - they are part of a series called Destination.

This image, "what is grief, but proof i loved you so much, proof you are with me every moment, proof you are inside me, what is the option, to not miss you, to not miss anyone, i would rather die..."
 

"stand naked at the wind's mercy, ripped beyond bone, can't being to explain."

"can't understand why we had to part now."

Phil Tarley says of his series, 'Processing Grief', "A few years ago my cousin died.   

It was very sad and family flew in from all over.  The day was dark and rainy. I asked permission to shoot the funeral and since I knew all the protagonists, I understood where to be and who to shoot.  I was grief-stricken and used my camera as a way to cope with the pain.  

I arrived early and went into the room that contained the casket, closed the door so no one could see me and opened the lid to her coffin.  I stood on a chair and leaned over to get the portrait shot.  

Then I shot the procession to the funeral car and the pallbearers loading the coffin.  At the grave site, I shot my family as each took turns throwing a shovel of dirt into my cousin’s grave. After the burial, I went back to my car and rewound all the photographs I had taken until the very first portrait of my cousin in her casket. Only then could I cry."

Phil Tarley is a fellow of the American Film Institute, a member of the Photographic Arts Council and an artist member of the Los Angeles Art Association. 

He curates photography exhibitions in Los Angeles and writes about contemporary art for Fabrik Magazine. In 2014 he founded Round Hole Square Peg, a
biennial international survey of LGBTQ photography shown at the Photo LA.,The LA Art Show, the AC Gallery and
​other venues in Los Angeles.  

His personal series of LGBTQ political and ethnographic videos is housed in the permanent collection of the New York Public Library and has screened in film festivals and museums like the American Film Institute and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

In 2009, under hisnom de porn, Phil St. John, Tarley was inducted into the Gay Porn Hall of Fame for his 20-year producing and directing career.

His writing and photography have also appeared in the LA Times, the LA Weekly, The WOW Report and American Photo Magazine.

His book, Going Down On Cuba: Notes from an Underground Traveler, is slated to be published in 2018 by Fabrik Press. Click here to read Phil Tarley's photography blog The Critical Eye.

Contact: philipmarctarley@gmail.com

 

Pippa Healy says, "Where does your mind wander in your final hours? Which experiences are revisited? ‘At This Hour’ explores memories and their role in the final moments of life.
 
If you could return to a place or a person in your last days, where would you go? What would you choose to experience one last time? Might a painting or a favourite place be something, or somewhere, you would like to revisit? As we reflect on the memories built up over a lifetime, some have emotional resonance above all others. Some are there until our very last breath."

Healy is a visual artist living in London. She graduated with distinction from the University of Westminster with an MA in Photographic Studies in 2016 and from UAL Central St Martins with a PG Cert in Photography in 2010. She has exhibited her work in the UK and in internationally.
 
Her practice concerns are around grief, death and loss. The artist enjoys the dialogue between her images and the audience.These images are from her series ‘At this Hour’.
 
www.pippahealy.com
 
@pippahello  (instagram)
 

Rahshia Sawyer says, "Belonging is a core emotional need; unknowingly it delicately changes who we are. Subtly shifting us from, who we want to be, to who we think we have to be, hiding away who we really are.

We do this to be accepted and also to protect ourselves. Not wanting to be excluded, we repress who we want to be. Being vulnerable opens us up to be rejected as we show our differences, our uniqueness. Which propels us into a disagreement with ourselves.

A contradiction that allows our emotions not only to persist, but to amplify until they become the loudest thing we emote, but cannot hear. It isolates us from our core and quiets our spirit. This deafening causes others to speak softly – so softly that we no longer belong.

This series shows the disagreements between our emotions, and the paradox as it appropriates the figure."

Rahshia Sawyer is a conceptual photographer based in the Washington DC area.

She was the 2012 recipient of the Contemporary Talents award from France’s François Schneider Foundation. Exhibited in the 2012 Inaugural Dublin Biennial, her photographs and installations have been included in numerous group shows in Canada, England, France, Ireland, Spain, and United States.

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Foundation François Schneider, and Radford University Museum. 

She received her MFA from George Mason University in Virginia, and her BFA at the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington DC.

Her current projects examine relationships between beauty and humanity and its balanced (or imbalanced) interaction between reality and fantasy.

CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2017  Within the im/balance, The Center for the Arts of Greater Manassas and Prince William County, VA
Some Things I Can’t Explain, ArtSpace Herndon, Herndon, VA 

2016  Some Things I Can’t Explain, Craddock-Terry Gallery, Lynchburg, VA 

2014   Some Things I Can’t Explain, George Mason University, Fairfax VA
 Then You Weren’t, Workhouse Art Center, Lorton VA         

2013   Subversion, Greenbelt Community Art Center, Greenbelt MD 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2016  Berlin Foto Biennale 2016: Palazzo Italia, Berlin Germany

2015  Fresh! | Young Collectors Show: JanKossen Contemporary, New York, NY

2014  Contemporary Talent 2012, François Schneider Foundation, Wattwiller France
Dealing with Trauma through Art Making, Holy Family University, Philadelphia, PA
Positive ID: Bodies & Subjectivities in Photography: NOVA-Woodbridge, Woodbridge, VA
Artifex: Graduate Student Exhibit: Capital One Corp. Art Program, Richmond, VA
2nd Annual GMU MFA Exhibit, George Mason University VA (catalog)

JURIED EXHIBITIONS:

2016   The Mary B. Howard Artist Member Exhibition: Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA
 
2015   Jax Exhibition: Jacksonville Center for the Arts. Floyd, VA
 Art Educators’ Exhibition: In Practice: Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA
EMULSION 2015: Gallery OonH, Washington DC
Voices: An Artist’s Perspective: National Association of Women Artists, online gallery, NYC (catalog)
 
2014  Post-Photography: Beyond the Print, Torpedo Factory, Alexandria VA
WATERGIRL, Artzibs Gallery, Athens, OH
8th annual MASTER PIECES: Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (catalog)
Of Memory, Bone and Myth V, Rourke Art Museum, Moorhead, MN
PhotoSpiva, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, MO
Significant Details, Verizon Gallery, Annandale VA
Take Flight, The Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, VA (catalog)
 2nd Annual MFA/MA Juried Show, Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA

2013 CHOICE, Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art, San Francisco, CA
Westmaryginiasylvanington: Regional Juried Exhibition, Frederick, MD
7th annual MASTER PIECES: Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (catalog)
PHOTO/VIDEO 13: Juried Mid-Atlantic Exhibition: Artisphere, Arlington, VA
San Francisco Int’l Photo Exhibition: Gallery Photographica, CA (catalog)
Open Water!: The Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, VA (catalog)
EMERGE: Center Gallery, Wichita, KA
Mysterious Visions: Dreams, Fantasies & Mirages, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT
Fine Art Photography Competition 2013, ArtSpace Herndon, Herndon, VA
8th Photographic Image Biennial Exhibition, Gray Gallery, Greenville, NC (catalog)


COLLECTIONS:

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC
François Schneider Foundation, Wattwiller, France 
Radford University Museum, Radford VA


www.Rahshia.com
photo@rahshia.com
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Rebecca Weston says, "Having first deepened my experience with photography while living abroad and through extensive and sometimes exotic travel, the goal of my current work was to explore the inner world of my dear friend and cousin, who had just gone through a very difficult and sudden divorce.  

While devastated, she was able to catch a glimpse of a world made possible only through deep reckonings with grief. 

When I am shooting, my relationship to people is not about dialogue or intervention, but about creating a frame of seeing and allowing the moment to be what it is. 

As much about the process as about the shot, photography allows me to appreciate quickly, let go swiftly, and remain marginal — precisely the opposite of a good psychotherapeutic connection.  I usually use black and white in order to distill the essence of interactions.  

While I am often drawn to more anonymous street photography, my work has more recently been more personal and interior.  Engaging, as I have been, in activism work since the election -- photography has provided me a way back to the quiet, the reflective, the more intimate. 

By training and by profession, I am a psychotherapist who focuses on interpersonal trauma. 

I have always been interested in photography as a visual extension of my interest in people and how they interact in their world. 

As a child, my father’s photography functioned as our family diary – and was for me a continual source for validation, renewal and questioning.

I have been shooting seriously for about three years and have had two shows.  
One, in Stockholm, Sweden (entitled, “Street Photography Al – Andalus 2014 – 2015”) and the other, in Missoula, Montana (entitled, "Between Things Ended and Things Begun, 2017").   

I have taken one photography workshop with award-winning photographer, Jon Kral, but otherwise have taught myself and benefitted substantially from various on-line critique communities.  

I have published in two competitive international street photography compilations and in 2016, I received first place for my submission in the "Hometown" L.A. Photo Curator competition, judged by photographer Barbara Peacock.
 

www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccaweston
 

Rita Maas says of her series, 'As Is', "Before my mother was my mother, she had a life I could not know. 

Shortly after her death I found myself shuffling through a pile of negatives from her youth that she had carelessly tossed in a shoe box.

As I searched to find her image in the brittle pieces of plastic, it was not difficult for me to imagine that these pictures were made for the same reason that many pictures are today; to record, share and remember.

Photography often takes on the role of acting as a prompt to memory, giving it a physical tangibility. Yet, the photograph is not the memory itself but its inadequate surrogate.

As I hold these negatives, I ask myself, where is the memory tethered to once the holder of the memory is no longer with us? Any meaning I insert while viewing these images is pure invention. I find it interesting to note that Proust believed that memories are non-existent prior to their recollection. I propose memories become non-existent again once they are detached from the individual who created them. After that, it is a story told by someone else. 

Photographs cannot preserve a memory. Just as an echo will fade as it repeats and travels through time, a memory will also eventually become mute.
     
While handling these fragile objects I was driven by a desire to “do something” with them. I was not interested in making or remaking a picture of “what had been.” Rather than attempting to make something that would be an interpretation, I choose to present them “as is.” By scanning the negatives as objects rather than as images, I betray one of the basic premises of photography, that it describes. I choose to obfuscate what was originally depicted, blocking access to its contents and relieving them from the burden of holding and carrying memory. A certain form of erasure occurs while a new narrative emerges.
     
They say that at the end of life, the beginning returns. The two darknesses merge and the distance between the two collapses. If sorrow and beauty are connected, it may lie within the texture of longing. This series, for me, becomes a mapping of that empty space, the presence of absence.
     
This series is an extension of my investigation into the medium of photography itself, its materials and the meaning we place on photographs. I seek to make visible photography’s particular conditions of representation and the instability of meaning in any representation while playing within the gap between abstract and representational depiction."

Born in New York in 1956, Maas received  her BFA in Photographic Studies from the School of Visual Arts in 1981.

Shortly thereafter she established a successful commercial studio in New York, NY shooting award winning campaigns for major advertising and editorial clients. She earned her MFA in Visual Arts at Lesley University College of Art and Design in 2013. 

She currently lives and works in Westchester, NY.

Maas’ work concerns itself with the conditions surrounding photography and examines photographic materials and processes while reflecting upon themes of reproduction, representation, perception, and interpretation.

CV

Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions

2017   Spot Gallery, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, Residual Ink Drawings
2013   Thorndike Hall, Myers Media Art Studio, Columbia University, New York, NY, Tidal Volumes
2012   Gallery 1401, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Reality TV
2011   Griffin Museum of   Photography, Winchester, MA, At Home 
2010   Gallerie BMG, Woodstock, NY, Skylight Views
2009  Lishui International Photographic Cultural Festival, Lishui, China, Reality TV
2007   Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, New Works Gallery

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018  New Art Center, Newton, MA, Dialogues: Medium and Materiality

2017  Norton Gallery, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix AZ, INFOCUS PhotoBid, curated by Rebecca Senf
Filter Space/Filter Photo Festival, Chicago IL, we like small things, juried by Jennifer Keat
Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX, 35th Annual Juried Member Exhibition
 A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Wish You Were Here 16  
Commons Gallery, University Hall, LUCAD/AIB, Cambridge, MA, Group 6 WIP 
Fine Art Gallery at Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY, A Crack in Everything
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY 6 x6

2016    Circuit Gallery @ Prefix ICA, Toronto, Canada, Trace, Copy, Render
Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria, Hand Made
Bevier Gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Faculty Exhibition
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY Annual Member Exhibition

2015     International Photography Festival GuatePhoto 2015, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Norton Gallery, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix AZ, InFocus PhotoBid, curated by Rebecca Senf
Filter Space/Filter Photo Festival, Chicago IL, Abstract, juried by Debra Klomp Ching
Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, Photography 15 National Photography Exhibition
Leslie University College of Art and Design, Cambridge MA, Alumni Biennial / Reclassified

2014   Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, Hot Off the Press
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA Winter Solstice Show

2013  Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, MFA Exhibition, Tidal Volumes
Caloundra Regional Gallery, Tasmania, Touring Exhibition Missing Presumed Dead
Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY, Elements, juried by Jennifer McGregor
MoMA, New York, NY, PopRally: Abstract Currents: An Interactive Video Event
Friends Without a Boarder, Invitational Benefit Auction, New York, NY

2012  Central Square Theater, Cambridge MA, This That Show
2011  Contemporary Arts Spaces Tasmania (CAST) Missing Presumed Dead
Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY, The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography

Awards and Acknowledgements

2017   INFOCUS Sidney Zuber Photography Award, Honorable Mention
2016     Filter Focus, Abstract, Honorable Mention
Barrett Art Center, Photography 15 National Photography Exhibition, First Place
2010    he Ten Most Exciting Photographers I Learned About Last Year, Rebecca Senf

Collections           

Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
Photography Museum of Lishui, China
Corporate and Private Collections: New York, Houston, Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago

Professional

2016-2017  Visiting Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2015   Adjunct Professor/ Visiting Artist, College of Staten Island, CUNY, Staten Island NY
2013-2015  Teaching Assistant, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
1987-2014  President and owner of Rita Maas Studio, Inc., an award winning commercial studio,  specializing in still life, food and beverages for editorial and advertising clients

rita@ritamaas.com
 

Sarah Marie Rooney says, "There are two days a year I “indulge” myself in feeling the actual pain and loss of losing my best friend- my mom. 

The other 363 days I push the sadness down and I seek substitutions for her humor, wisdom and care.  I do not speak about this pain and therefore I do not weep. 363 days a year I smile so that no one, including myself, knows that anything is wrong.  As my mom was fond of advising, “Fake it until you make it.

Growing up in Connecticut, my mom would take me to the shore many times throughout the summer.  When I was little I would ask her if we were almost there yet and her answer would be, “I can tell we are almost there because my ears are itching!” I will not forget those memories, but the tone of her voice, her mannerisms and gestures can be hard to recall with accuracy.

I would be lying to say that I believe it healthy to avoid the pain.  I would be lying to say that all of my choices and substitutions for missing my mom have been healthy.  Therefore, I have decided to dig deep and face the loss of my mom. I am determined to allow myself to feel the deep emptiness I feel day in and day out in the hope that by walking through the grief I will be able to heal the holes in my heart. 

By forcing myself to consciously deal with her absence, my deep loss and pain, I hope to alleviate an even deeper fear that I have; the fear of remembering and therefore the fear of forgetting.

This selection of self portraits, made in Manhattan Beach, are inspired by confronting my fear of remembering my mom in order to not forget her.  Connecting to my mom photographically through memories with a shared love of the sand, the sea, and the salt air makes my ears itch now and then when I am close by. I take comfort in knowing her ears will be itching too. 

 I miss you mom every day and I love you always."

Sarah Rooney grew up in Connecticut and obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Musical Theatre, from Syracuse University. After graduating Sarah continued her vocal studies in the UK and New Zealand and performed more than fifty solo vocal recitals and operas in the United States, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. 

Sarah was also the Business Manager and Executive Theater Producer at BATS Theatre, Producer of Summer Shakespeare and Young and Hungry Theatre Company. 

In addition to performing and producing, Sarah taught and directed classes for theater, voice and stage at the Wellington Theatre for Performing Arts (NZ), Oregon Children’s Theatre and School (USA), and St. Mary’s in Sydney (AU).   She also maintained a private singing studio for ten years. 

Sarah obtained her MBA, with Merit, from Victoria University, Wellington NZ, and Georgia Institute of Technology.  Sarah moved from Wellington to Atlanta Georgia in 2012 and spent two years working with Usher at his Non-Profit foundation, Usher’s New Look, as Director of Communications and Technology. 

In 2015 Sarah moved to Los Angeles and began her photography studies at the Los Angeles Center for Photography (LACP), where she is currently part of the One Year Professional Program.

Sarah was selected by Paula Tongarelli, Executive Director and Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography, to show work at the dnj Gallery for LACP’s Fourth Annual Member’s Exhibit.  Sarah has also shown work in “On the Streets of Los Angeles” at the LACP gallery in Hollywood CA. 

Sarah is a photographer for animal welfare, lobby and rescue organizations.  Sarah photographs events and adoptable animals for Best Friends Animal Society, NKLA (No Kill Los Angeles), Angel City Pit-bull Rescue, and Wags and Walks.  Sarah lives in Manhattan Beach, CA with her furry, four-legged family (two rescue dogs and one rescue cat).

Website or contact info IG:  @sarahmarierooney 


 
 

Sara Lyons says, "The images in the Last Alive series are a developing, re-photographic document of roadside memorials and fatality markers.

Many elaborate and others spare, these visible tributes are evidence of evolving grief rituals particularly for those who have experienced an abrupt loss. Current academic and legal discourse surrounding the emotional and environmental significance of the “last alive place” sustains my interest in photographing these subjects. And, the loss of my father in a highway accident makes the work a personal meditation on impermanence, immortality, and faith."

Sara Lyons is an artist and art educator living in Western Massachusetts. She received her BFA in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology and earned her MAT in Visual Arts from Rhode Island School of Design.

Sara teaches visual art and photography at a public charter school and a community college in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Images from Sara’s fine art photographic series have been exhibited throughout New England including a solo exhibition at Historic Northampton Museum.

www.saraklyons.com

Stefynie Rosenfeld says, "As a digital photographic artist, I create both traditional and composite based images. 

My work explores the intricacies of the human condition, the blurred lines between the literal and surreal, the passage of time, and the spiritual beauty of the natural world.

By delving deeply into my own creative process, I strive to connect with my subject or theme and discover how it can express itself through me.  In doing so, I am able to create a story, without beginning or end, within a single frame.

The composite images I'm submitting express periods of profound sadness, loss and grief, yet also seek to find beauty where solace abandons.

take2films.wix.com/throughmylens  
 

Susan Prediger says, " Fueled by a lifelong love of nature combined with philosophical inspiration from the transcendental movement and visual inspiration by the painters of the Hudson River School of my native East Coast of the US, my passion is to photograph pastoral scenes and seascapes of the rugged Irish West Coast, creating a romantic and perhaps idealized portrayal of the commonplace, often to the bemusement of farmers and locals.

Having had several devastating experiences of grief now at midlife, I chose these three images to tell a tale, almost fairytale-like, to represent stages of the pain, decay, and renewal through grief, in at all things perish to give way to what will come.

In the final image, I reflect on the saying that it is possible to count the seeds in an apple, but no way to know how many apples may come from a seed."

Prediger is an American who has lived in Germany and Ireland over the past 25 years. She is an emerging photographer with a background in software development and children’s animation, before reuniting with her early love of photography.

Presently she is shooting unit stills on film and television productions and personal projects including such subjects as Irish paganism, the LQBTQ community along the West Coast, as well as Irish landscape and wildlife.

She currently lives with her screenwriter husband and their two sons in Galway, Ireland.

Her work has been exhibited at / appeared in:  
Gallery of the National University of Ireland, Galway 
Brigit's Gardens Art and Sculpture Exhibition
"Helping Hands" photo book of G+ top photographers
The National Botanic Gardens, Dublin
Irish Wildlife Foundation Magazine
New York Times website
Irish Times website