Kathryn Dunlevie says of her series, 'THE TAXIDERMIST'S IMAGINARIUM', I have always been intrigued by apparent inconsistencies in time and space, and by each individual’s unique and shifting sense of reality.

As I fracture and combine photographs, everyday images are transformed into scenes that hint at intangible extra dimensions.​

In 'The Taxidermist’s Imaginarium' I am creating photomontages by combining my photographs of nature, zoos, natural history museums and botanical gardens with those of contemporary urban settings. The works suggest disruptions in space and time and the strange bedfellows these disruptions create.

As I add layer upon layer, interweaving elements from the natural world with images from artificial and constructed worlds, animal harbingers materialize in anomalous locations. These new arrivals seem stunned to find themselves in alien surroundings - disoriented, mistrustful, even forlorn - reminding us that, although natively distant strangers, we are somehow all connected."

Kathryn Dunlevie is a photography-based artist whose work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Cathy Kimball, Executive Director of the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, writes of Dunlevie’s work: 'Through brilliant compositional detail and manipulation, she creates disconcerting, surprising, inexplicable spaces and scenarios – swimming pools that have many points of entry, cloisters with multiple arched domes, streetscapes that elude mapmakers, and interior settings that are almost, but not quite, right.'

​Dunlevie has always been intrigued by spatial and temporal inconsistencies, and by each individual’s particular and shifting sense of reality. She fragments, reassembles and layers photographs to suggest the intrusion of alternate worlds. Her photographs of everyday images are transformed into compositions that hint at mysterious underlying structures and intangible extra dimensions.

Born on the east coast, Dunlevie lived in six different states by the time she was 12, and in Paraguay when she was 16. She has a B.A. in fine arts from Rice University, and studied art history and film at the University of Paris, painting at California College of the Arts, and photography in Madrid. She lives in Palo Alto.

Dunlevie has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Fellowships. Her work has been exhibited at FotoFest International since 2002, at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, at Studio Thomas Kellner in Germany, in the US Art in Embassies Program in Moscow and in Saatchi Arts’ Best of 2014.

Her work has been reviewed in Spain’s La Fotografia Actual, Korea’s photo + and  Germany’s Profifoto, as well as in The New York Times, Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, Photo Metro, Artweek, and Artlies.

Career Highlights:

Eight solo exhibitions at FotoFest in Houston (2002 - 2018)

Included in China's PingYao International Photography Festival (2017)

Included in Saatchi Art's "BEST of 2014"

Reviewed in Korea's Photo+ magazine, (2013)

Included in "Parallax Views", San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California 

​Included in Germeny's "Photographers Network Selection" four times (2006-2013)

Included the US Art in Embassies Program in Moscow (2012) 

Two time Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Fellow with cash awards and solo exhibitions at the Triton Museum of Art, California (2001 and 2005)

Included in "Fresh Work IV: Actualities", Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida (2004)

Included in "Timekeepers", San Francisco Camerawork,California (2000)

'FotoFest 2018: The Taxidermist's Imaginarium' - Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Feb 24 - Mar 31, 2018
'Alternative Realities (facts)' Pingyao International Photography Festival, China

www.kathryndunlevie.com
 

Joyce P. Lopez’s photography, often composited photos, are beautiful, unique and often distill important issues facing the planet today into a single image.

Her work falls squarely into the category of Fine Art and not documentary which she leaves to others. 

Born in Chicago, she has mostly lived in the Chicago area as well Copenhagen, Ethiopia,Tanzania and now Florida.  She has exhibited across the US as well as in Berlin, Barcelona, Istanbul, etc. receiving many awards. 

Her work in included in many private and public collections including Sony of America, and the State of Wash. etc. and was an artist in residence 
at Ragdale in Illinois.

www.joyceplopez.com

 "Ever since she can remember, Joan Proudman has been telling stories with images and through the medium of dance.

As a child, when she wasn't dancing, she was obsessed with drawing the human body in motion. As long as she could move or manipulate figures visually, she felt fulfilled.

Such were the happy days of her childhood spent with dancing shoes on or pencil in hand. Paper dolls and ColorForms figured into her approach as a visual artist as well, and she lived in a beautiful fantasy world of her own making. 

Joan spent many years training to be a ballerina. This aspiration lead to a full scholarship and apprenticeship with Boston Ballet at the age of sixteen. She later toured and performed with the company throughout New England and in Chicago, Ill (The Lyric Opera). 

Later, Joan attended colleges in New Hampshire, Washington State and Maine before settling in Maine and earning a BFA. She taught dance and performed ballet and modern dance in Maine for many years until multiple injuries brought her visual art into clearer focus. At this time, she could begin to express her deep sensitivity to physical movement and healing through her imagery.  

A self-taught digital artist, Joan has been perfecting digital techniques and making composites since 2008, telling her story through a symbolic and metaphorical language developed from revelations discovered through contemplation and healing.  

AWARDS/PUBLICATIONS

2018   Cover Art Space Heart, A Memoir in Stages, Burrow Press, Florida

2016   Best in Show, Portfolio, Still Point Arts Gallery, Still Point Arts Quarterly Winter Edition

2016  Shadow and Light Magazine (Photography Publication) 

2015   Cover Art, Shantic, Shamanic Trance Music, CD and Book by Tatjana Branoff and Bernd Bechtloff, Austria          

2014    Cover Art , Biodynamics of Osteopathy, Phase Nine by James Jealous D.O., Tames Prepress

2013  Cover, TimWorld Dhoom CD, Goat River Productions

2013  Belfast, Maine’s Ninth Poetry Festival Banner image, Bird Brain, ‘13

2009   hear if you dare, Poetry and Art by Lauren Murray and Joan Proudman, Illuminated Sea Press

2006    Cover Art, Heart Songs and Other Legacies, Linda Buckmaster, Illuminated Sea Press

JURIED EXHIBITIONS

2015  Waterfall Arts Clifford Gallery, Belfast, ME   Fermentation Show 

 Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME  Spring Show
Featured artist, InspireFirst Online Journal

2014   Limner Gallery (Slow Art Magazine), Hudson, MA 
Strange Figurations
Featured artist, Escape Into Life Online Journal

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015-current   Evolve Sanctuary for the Soul, Belfast, ME  

2012  Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME Seeing Through

Kramer Gallery, Belfast, ME Thirteen Stories

2008   The Gallery at Wren, Bethlehem, VT Seeing Through

2005   Coffee By Design, Portland, ME  Inner Sky

www.joanproudman.com 

Jeffrey Milstein says, "The natural world is encountered in our relationships to other beings, both animal and human; and through the geography of places we inhabit."

Woodstock, NY-based Jeffrey Milstein was born in the Bronx in 1944. He received a degree in architecture from UC Berkley in 1968, and practiced as an architect  before turning to photography in 2000. 

Milstein earned his pilots license at 17, and his passion for flight led to his well known typology of aircraft photographed from below while landing. In 2007. The work was presented in a solo show at the Ulrich Museum of Art in 2008, in a year long solo show at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 2012. In 2016 it was on display at the Brandts Museum in Odense, Denmark.

In recent years Milstein has reversed the direction of the camera creating award winning unique aerial images of man-made landscapes that are iconic and emblematic of the modern world.

His photographs have been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and Europe, and are represented by Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles, Benrubi Gallery in NYC, Bau-Xi Gallery in Canada, and ARTITLEDcontemporary in Europe. His photographs have been published in New York Times, LA Times, Esquire, Fortune, Time, Harper’s, GQ, European Photography, American Photo, Eyemazing, Die Ziet, Wired, PDN, Esquire, Conde Naste Traveler, and featured on the CBS evening news with Scott Pelly. Abrams published Milstein’s aircraft work as a monograph in 2007, and Monacelli published his extensive body of work from Cuba as a monograph in 2010.

His work has been collected by museums including LACMA, the Smithsonian Museum, the George Eastman House, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Akron Art Museum. 

SELECT EXHIBITIONS

Leaning Out, Benrubi Gallery, January 25-March 17, 2018

Jeffrey Milstein, Gilman Contemporary Gallery, December 15, 2017-January 26, 2018

Land and Lens, Middlebury College, October 4-December 15, 2017

LANY, Bau-Xi Photo Gallery, December 2-16, 2017

LANY Kopeikin Gallery, LA, (Solo), October 28-December 23, 2017

Shifting Perspectives, Brooklyn Historical Society, May 19 – September 10, 2017

The Dream of Flying, Brandts Museum of Photographic Art, Odense, Denmark, March 18, 2016 – September 4, 2016

LA NY, Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY (solo), July 9, 2015 – August 22, 2015

Into the Air, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, (solo), July 18, 2015 – August 22, 2015

SELECT PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS

Lensculture, November 3, 2017

Texas Photographic Society, first place winner in Drone & Aerial Photography, 2017

Lenscratch, October 21, 2017

AOPA, October 21, 2017

Exit Magazine, July 2017

fotomagazin, June 2017

Creative Quarterly 100 Best of 2016, 2017

TIME, April 10, 2017

Bloomberg, February 14, 2016

Travel + Leisure, November 2016

GQ, October 10, 2016

Fortune, September 15, 2016

CNN Connect the World, September & November 2016

Creative Quarterly, 100 Best of 2015, 2016

Fortune 500, June 2016

Communication Arts 2016 Photography Annual, Competition Winner, July/August 2016

TIME, February 2016

Popular Photography, February 2016

Creative Quarterly, 100 Best of 2015, 2016

International Photography Awards, First place in Architecture-Cityscapes, October 2015

BOOKS

LANY, Thames and Hudson, 2017

Cuba: Photographs by Jeffrey Milstein, hardcover monograph, Monacelli Press, April 2010

AirCraft: The Jet as Art, hardcover monograph, Abrams, May 2007

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

AT&T Collection

Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

Bank of America Collection

Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH

George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

LACMA, Los Angeles, CA

www.jeffreymilstein.com
 

Fran Forman says, "The love felt between the young woman and the chicken corroborates the human-non-human connection. Jenny (who I assume is the woman) gently caresses Emily, whose body is nuzzled into Jenny's cheek and shoulder, Emily's little web foot hugging her waist. What gives power to this image are the textures and patterns of Jenny's arms, her red hair, red-checked dress, and the red and green leaves surrounding the two. It’s a happy image that made me smile."

Janet Holmes says, "In early 2017, during my volunteer shift at the Wild Bird Fund in New York City, I met a hen suffering from severe and chronic reproductive illness.

I discovered that her ailments were common for laying hens. As I learned more about chickens, I discovered a network of vegans (primarily women) who rescue and care for them. I thought about how many women still struggle to control their own bodies and obtain adequate reproductive health care, and how people, in turn, are socialized to exploit hens’ reproductive systems. Even across species, it seems that society expects to dictate how females use their own bodies.

And what about the roosters born to laying hens? Orphaned, unneeded and unloved, most are killed or abandoned soon after birth.

Hundreds of millions of chickens die every year to satisfy our appetites. A very few are fortunate to be rescued by people who only want to heal and care for them. Just like cats and dogs, these chickens become part of the family, loved for themselves rather than for what their bodies provide to us. These portraits of chickens and their rescuers are intended to honor both the birds who have suffered so much and the women who invest so much love, time and money caring for them.
 
Holmes has always loved animals, but for many years she was afraid to get involved in rescuing them because she couldn’t imagine how she would deal with the heartbreak. About five years ago, she decided that animals needed her more than she needed to be comfortable, and so she began volunteering with rescue groups as a caregiver and photographer.

As she spent more time experiencing animals as individuals through the lens of her camera, she started questioning how she could profess to love them yet continue exploiting them for food, clothing and other materials. She committed to become vegan and use photography to advocate for animal liberation.

She completed the International Center of Photography's Continuing Education Track Program in 2015 and now devotes much of her spare time to portraiture of rescued animals. In 2017, she was recognized by Photo Lucida as a Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist, and she has exhibited and won awards for her animal portraits in juried exhibitions throughout the United States. Curriculum Vitae

EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions

Someone Not Something, Tréo (New Orleans, LA), 2017 (as part of PhotoNOLA)
Portraits at Catskill Animal Sanctuary, The Homestead (Saugerties, NY), 2016
Group Exhibitions 

2018
Portraits, A. Smith Gallery (Johnson City, TX), juried by Alyssa Coppelman
Through a Lens: Our Female Gaze, Connections Gallery (Toronto, ON)

2017
Photocentric 2017, Garrison Art Center (Garrison, NY), juried by Francis M. Naumann – Director’s Award
Alleghany National Photography Competition and Exhibition, Alleghany Arts Council (Cumberland, MD), juried by Shannon Thomas Perich – 2nd Place (Color)
Glass, New York Center for Photographic Arts, juried by Traer Scott – 3rd place
TPS 26: The International Competition, Texas Photographic Society (College Station, TX), juried by Allison Nordström – 3rd Place
6th Annual Juried Exhibition, Sohn Fine Art Gallery (Lenox, MA), juried by Laurie Norton Moffatt, Stephanie Habokus’ Plunkett and Jesse Kowalski – 3rd place (photography)
Animalia, A Smith Gallery (Johnson City, TX), juried by Traer Scott – Juror’s Honorable Mention
The Really Affordable Art Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists’ Coalition (Brooklyn, NY), juried by Laura Phipps – Certificate of Recognition
3rd Annual Group Show, Davis-Orton Gallery (Hudson, NY), juried by Paula Tognarelli
30th Annual Members Only Show, Texas Photographic Society (Houston, TX), juried by Malcolm Daniel
Animalia, Center for Fine Art Photography, juried by Arlette Kayafas
Aviary, Griffin Museum of Photography Lafayette City Center Annex (Boston, MA), juried by Paula Tognarelli
Center Forward, Center for Fine Art Photography, juried by Hamidah Glasgow
Photo ’17, Multiple Exposures Gallery (Alexandria, VA), juried by Molly Roberts
Photography as Response, Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), juried by Christy Havranek
Portals, PhotoPlace Gallery (Middlebury, VT), juried by Aline Smithson (online gallery)
Portraits, Center for Fine Art Photography, juried by Karen Marks
Singular/Signature, Center for Fine Art Photography, juried by Alyssa Koppelman
Strength & Beauty: The Women’s Show, SXSE Gallery (Molena, GA), juried by Molly Roberts

2016
Up Close & Personal, PhotoPlace Gallery, juried by Kathleen Clemons – Director’s Award
Photowork ’16, Barrett Art Center (Poughkeepsie, NY), juried by Karen Irvine – 2nd Place
2nd Annual Group Show, Davis-Orton Gallery (Hudson, NY), juried by Paula Tognarelli
Soho Photo National Competition 2016 (New York, NY), juried by Elisabeth Biondi

2015
Really Affordable Art Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (Brooklyn, NY), juried by Carolyn Ramo - Honorable Mention
Animal World, Umbrella Arts Gallery (New York, NY), juried by Harvey Stein
HONORS
Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist (2017)
PUBLICATIONS
Why Would Anyone Rescue a Chicken?, photos and text, self-published (Blurb, 2018)
Love and Healing at Catskill Animal Sanctuary, photos and text, self-published (Conveyor Arts, 2016)
EDUCATION
Master class in portraiture and other studies with Neal Slavin (2014-16)
Master class in printing and other studies with Ben Gest (2014-2017)
International Center of Photography Continuing Education Track Program (2014-15)

www.frogoutofwater.ca 
Instagram: @frogoutofwaterphotos
 

Isabella La Rocca says of her series, "Censored Landscapes', "In February of 2012 in Turlock, CA, 50,000 hens were abandoned in a battery cage facility - left to starve in cramped rusted cages.

I first photographed the abandoned facility a year later (please see submitted file Isabella_LaRocca_Battery_Cage_Facility.jpg). This inspired my current ongoing photographic series, CENSORED LANDSCAPES, consisting of large scale photographic landscapes that include sites of animal agriculture, including livestock auctions, slaughterhouses, meat processing centers, egg farms, “broiler” chicken farms, turkey farms, rabbit farms, goat farms, squab farms, duck farms, dairy farms, feedlots, and fish farms. The animals that have been made invisible in the landscapes are represented by numbers in bold black.

From Carleton Watkins to Ansel Adams to Robert Adams, American landscape photography has evolved in conjunction with the conservationist and environmental movement. In the late 20th century, landscape photographers, particularly those associated with the New Topographics movement, explored the human presence in the landscape. But non-human animals have almost entirely been omitted from the genre, despite their prodigious numbers (in the U.S., approximately 10 billion land animals and 20 billion marine animals are slaughtered every year for food).

Their exclusion from landscape photography reflects their exclusion from environmental activism even though animal agriculture is a leading cause of climate change (rising temperatures and sea levels; melting glaciers and permafrost; increased drought, wildfires, tornadoes, and hurricanes), deforestation, ocean acidification, wildlife habitat and ecosystem destruction, loss of biodiversity, and mass species extinction. 

The industry has a vested interest in suppressing any understanding of the environmental destruction, cruelty, health effects, and worker exploitation of animal agriculture and has attempted to pass “ag-gag” laws that criminalize photographing sites of animal agriculture in more than half of U.S. state legislatures.  Despite the unconstitutionality of such laws, they have passed in seven states."
 
Isabella La Rocca is an artist working primarily with photography and motion pictures. Her work is part of a long tradition in photography: to bring to light and find beauty in the disregarded. Awards for her work include the Ferguson Grant from the Friends of Photography in San Francisco, CA for excellence and commitment to the field of photography.  

Her photographs have been exhibited throughout the United States including a solo show at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY.  She currently teaches Photography and Moving Image in the Studio Art Program at Centre College.  La Rocca received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.F.A. in Photography from Indiana University. More of her work can be seen at www.glissi.org.
 
 

 

Abandoned Battery Cage Facility (Hens), 2013 from the series CENSORED LANDSCAPES

Heather Williamson says, "Hello, my name is Heather. 

It's been some years to say my name and feel good about it. Many lives I've lived and had to rid (in just this lifetime) and I've realized, my name can be very important. It can be the name associated with the ones who are forgotten, and it can be the name I go to when I have forgotten about myself. 

Photography is the air I breathe. It allows me to feel something other than me, but it also allows me to see something that is me in everything. When I don't want to feel a certain way or if I'm not feeling at all, the subjects of my work offer me courage, strength, empathy, and humility. They help me continue.  

Sometimes I'm the only one who can see "it" and most times, it's suffering. (Occasionally it's happiness and that's when I can get a bit envious) Either way, feelings are very valuable to me. They are like names, they too are currency. But you know? Just because someone looks or dresses a certain way (or even smiles) doesn't mean they're ok and sometimes, the ones thought broke and poor, the ones thought to be suffering, are exceptionally wealthy. Most shots are right after I felt like I was about to snap, die, "lose it" and fly... 

Far away from this world, these ways, these laws, and this pain... But somehow, someone or something appears and I'm saved. 

When I'm behind the camera no one is aware of the pain in my mind and if anything, the pain gives way to understanding and for that short amount of time behind the camera, I feel right. 

Maybe you can imagine why... 

Why it's important for me not to tell you how to feel or what to think and/or say. 

I want to see and show what is, what you and I just may be... Intrinsically.  

I will wait, take one shot then walk (or drive) away."

Growing up Native American (with Gypsy roots) under the politically active and watchful eye of her adoptive grandmother, Heather collected and redeemed many qualities while absorbing endless ways and points of view. After her grandmother's death, she found herself catapulted into emancipation at the age of 14. This would also be the year she dove deeper into film photography.  

In 2003, Heather moved to Los Angeles which became her home for the next decade. In LA she embraced photography, music, film and writing, while also working along-side others for commercials, music videos, indie films and photo shoots. 

Towards the end of 2012 she found herself isolated, depleted and upon her return from Cuba, her passion for life absorbed into a life barely alive.  "I found myself slowly isolating, not knowing where to go or who I was or was becoming. How does anyone know what to do when they see someone's face change? I was so afraid. I stopped everything. I stopped making."   

In 2014 after multiple moves, suicide attempts and hospitalizations, Heather found herself in the California Desert where she would be in treatment for over a year. She learned while being there, the most valuable piece of currency is her name. A long drawn out dusty and dirt road lay ahead, but she didn't mind. Why? Because she also realized, your name is just as valuable as hers.   

In the present the subject of all her work is herself. No longer is anyone far from her, for she too (has) is waiting in government lines, below poverty lines and trying to make sense of self and time.  

“YOU HAVE TO GO OUT OF YOUR MIND TO COME TO YOUR SENSES”- Timothy Leary 

She has a blog for her writing, "The Recovering Life", a mixture of prose, lyric, epic, as well as opinion, magical realism and open letters about manipulation, gaslighting, race and disease. She is getting closer to solidifying a script and has written the first series of books for its prequel. She's also working on a series using American Flags for voice as well as language depicted. She collaborates with a friend for music where she is the songwriter. She doesn't consider herself as singer, more of a Poetic Thug. She makes short films and is a bit obsessed with recording, everything. She records herself and possibly you too.  She calls these, "Noisy Letters". 

Heather currently resides in the California Desert. 

She does Zazen, enjoys Paul Bloom and is interested in human behavior, psychology, theology, philosophy, linguistics, religion, past lives and current ones.  She enjoys horses, driving on dirt roads, and watching dust fall off her boots. 

Awards: 

2014 Analogue Portrait Project Winner  

Publications: 

Genlux magazine 4.08.14   
Hamburger Eyes 3.18


Website for photography:
www.krop.com/aestheticthieves

MAIN website is www.goldsrite.com which umbrellas all creative mediums (including film photography)

Gauri Chopra says, "As an aware artist, my goal is to create awareness about the importance of the symbiotic relationship between nature and the human species today, especially in the digital space.  “Art itself is a passionate journey, hence art can create awareness and value only when it is accessible to the world. 

Before attending Brooks Institute of Photography, I was already working as a freelance photographer in India, for commercial advertising agencies and television Shows.
​
During my second year of my bachelors degree program ( industrial scientific photography) at the Brooks Institute of Photography, I was already working for a local high-end architect, for photographing beautiful and spacious homes on large properties on the Rivera in  Santa Barbara, California. In my last 6 months before graduation, I interned with Mr. Martin Waugh, for high speed drop photography in Portland Oregon.

After graduating in 2010, I started my career by assisting Richard Pierce in New York (mid town west), for 3 months, and I assisted for brands like Estee Lauder, Clinique and Neutrogena to name a few. 
A month later I started interning at Sora Photography In Long Island City ( Queens), with Mr. Shinichi Maruyama. After few months of interning I started assisting Mr Maruyama with high speed videography and photography for brands like, Carlsberg  Smirnoff, Speedo,  Baileys, Budweiser and other such high-end brands from ( United States, United Kingdom and Japan).
Later I also assisted Mr. Maruyama's art projects for Bruce Silverstein's Gallery in New York. 

Even though I was multitasking with commercial and art projects in the studio, the experience of learning the art aspect of photography, created a wave within my being, as Mr. Maruyama mentored me though the process to help me understand the difference between , commercial and art ,as an artist. This is when the shift within me happened and I started working towards looking to create something more valuable and inspiring with my art. 

A few months later I left the job and discovered the ocean though my lens. Even though I had found what I wanted to express through my art, I still found myself stuck in a commercial job on a liveaboard, in India photographing and making videos for the company who owned it. 

During this time I also started creating my personal images, while studying the ocean and its inhabitants. At that point in time I also, I spent time creating an educational iTunes application, which has just been released. Its sole purpose is to create awareness about the importance of our ocean and how it contributes to the very air we breath.The entire application has been made by me (over 5 years) using Photoshop CC."

Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Gauri Chopra began her career in 2002, when she transformed her childhood hobby of photography into her passion as a self taught nature and commercial photographer.

In 2010 Chopra graduated with a BA in industrial scientific photography from the prestigious Brooks Institute of photography in Santa Barbara, California. This newly acquired knowledge of scientific techniques changed Chopra’s perspective towards photography, after which she started her commercial career in New York.

In the midst of her commercial journey she realised that her art itself was calling for a larger purpose in life. A purpose via which she could create more value through her art and share the knowledge with others. “Art itself is a passionate journey, hence art can create awareness and value only when it is accessible to the world.

In the search for creating more awareness of the artist within herself, in 2012 Chopra discovered the ocean through her lens, after which she quit her commercial work and dedicated 5 years of her life to studying and capturing the wonders of our oceans and its inhabitants in the Indian ocean.

In the process she learned about how tropical coral reefs are productive ecosystems, and not only do they support enormous biodiversity, but they are also of immense value to the human species. Her ocean portfolio aims to create awareness about the coexistence of the symbiotic relationship between humans and the ocean today. This helps understand a basic fact, we need the ocean as much as it needs us. 

Chopra says about the Images, "More than 75% of the earth is covered by ocean

And only 4% of the planet's oceans have been discovered

Ocean plants contribute about 60-75% of the oxygen in the atmosphere

We cannot afford to ignore the existence of a symbiotic relationship between humans and the ocean today. The solution is awareness

These images aim to create awareness about the coexistence of the symbiotic relationship between humans and the ocean today, which helps understand a basic fact…“We need the ocean as much as it needs us”.

www.finebalancephotography.com

www.instagram.com/chopragauri/
Ocean Wonders Website: www.oceanwonders.in

 

Donna Bassin says, "I bring the urgent project of transforming relationships of domination to a day at the zoo.

The interrogation of the human=animal dualism illuminates relational moments of mutuality across species. Managing the tension between sameness and difference without collapse into a hierarchical configuration, the human-animal connection may take its place in the project of transforming relationships of domination and extending the circle of ethical care. 

Work within the field of animal studies has suggested that the interrogation of the human=animal dualism is a necessary condition for all ethical questions.
For much of my life, I have related to animals as objects—objects of entertainment, education, food, and clothing—even pets I cared for were objects of my subjectivity. And as for many of us living in the Civilized Western world, other than occasional sightings of rogue animals trespassing human space, or visits to the zoo, animals were a  small part of my social world.

Life in progressive zoos for apes and certain monkeys has changed. No longer displayed in cement cages with painted faux replicas of their native habitat and visitors, animals at the Bronx Wildlife Conservation Park are increasingly housed in some recreation of their natural habitat. Gorillas live and freely roam in a 6.5-acre natural lowland rain forest. Built inside and snaking within the gorilla habitat is the human habitat—a mostly glass tunnel-shaped and climate-controlled enclosure, complete with toilets, benches, and educational material.

It is along this meandering glass edge, where animal and human habitats intersect, that theoretical commitments to the deconstruction of the unethical master-slave dichotomy may be usefully employed and the radical vision of transformed relationships, even across species, might be briefly enjoyed.

Despite the language barriers between the human visitors and the gorillas, instances of call-and-response through gesture and gaze define cross-species encounters. Gorillas, no longer mere passive captives, become active subjects initiating and responding to attempts of attunement and assertion."

Donna Bassin is an artist, clinical psychoanalyst, and documentary filmmaker residing in Montclair, New Jersey. 

Donna has held multiple solo exhibitions in the Montclair area from 2003 to 2017, beginning with The Afterlife of Dolls at the Montclair Art Museum. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions ranging from New York to Los Angeles. Her award-winning documentary, Leave No Soldier (2008), has been screened at various film festivals in the tri-state area.The Mourning After (2017), her most recent film, has been awarded the prestigious Gradiva Award.

Career Highlights: Professional psychologist and filmmaker - directed and produced two documentaries: "Leave No Soldier" in 2008 and "The Mourning After" in 2016-2017, both of which have received Gradiva Awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. I have also had several photographic shows since 2003 starting with "The Afterlife of Dolls" at the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey. 

www.donnabassin.com

Charles Chin says, "As a humble photographer and aspiring decent human being based in New York City. I studied photography at the Parsons School of Design, and literature at the City College of New York.  I am a lover of photography, art, poetry, and family. Also, of humor, travel, politics, music, sports, food - I guess you can say of LIFE.

I try to capture small slivers of life and beauty, insignificant fleeting moments in time in photographic images. I also spend a lot of time gazing at the often stunning work of my fellow talented artists who inspire me every day."

www.charles-chin.pixels.com 

Carol Lyon says, "I have always had an affinity for animals and a knack for pulling the simple from the complex. 

The clarity from and delight in my subjects is distilled into portraiture and interpretive animal photography. Shooting pictures of what amuses and touches me is the controlling factor in my work.  I like to exalt the familiar, celebrate the ordinary, and honor the creatures of the world. 

Whether “painterly” animal portraiture, abstractions, or assumption challenging composites, the purpose of my photographs is to pull the viewer in to a more intimate experience of the natural world."

Carol Lyon’s career path took her from fashion model to live theatre owner to teacher to zookeeper to photographer.  

After moving from California to Texas, Carol turned her attentions to her 1st love: animals.  She became a zookeeper.  

Carol began her photography career ten years ago when the 50 pound feed sacks began to take their toll and she transitioned into the zoo’s staff photographer.  Self taught, she began by doing the zoo’s signage in exchange for keeping the rights to the pictures she took.  That transition lead her into artistic recognition and showing her images throughout the art festival circuit.  Along the way, having garnered many national and international awards and having been shown in 28 galleries, she remains faithful to her love of animals. 

She credits her success to growing up surrounded by artistic mentors and, by being the shy kid, absorbing the knowledge gleaned from careful observation. 

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:

3rd Place - Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3) in Wildlife 
Finalist - 2 categories - 10th Annual Pullox Award (WPGA) 
Finalist - 2nd Charles Dodgson Black & White Awards
Honorable Mention - Texas Photographic Society International Competition
Nominee - 3 categories - Fine Art Photography Awards, London
Top 10% of all 2016 images - Viewbug
Winner - 8th Edition Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers 
Exposure Awards Reception - Animals Collection @ The Louvre, Paris
Honorable Mention - Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3) in Fine Arts/Book Proposal
Top 10% of all 2015 ViewBug images (3.2 million images)
2nd Place TX State University Photography & Sculpture Exhibit
Merit Award - TerraBella Media International Open Portfolio Contest
Finalist - 3 categories - 7th Edition Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers
Runner up & Finalist - 2 categories - 7th Pollux Awards
1st Place  - Worldwide Photography Gala Awards/Pollux Award - Wildlife

www.CAROLLYON.COM
 

Amy Jasek says, "We think we are conquerors. 

We have a false sense of ownership over our fragile planet; we look at nature as something that must be tamed.  We reach out and grab the land we want, molding it to our human view of progress.  Our hold strangles, but is temporary.  Eventually, we leave, and the earth breathes again.  The wasteland we inflict is only an illusion; with our absence comes resurrection.  Our mark is erased by the glory of nature's renewal.

I visited Langtry, TX on a trip through southwest Texas in 2014.  The journey itself was, for the most part, notable for the heat, the glaring sun, and the lack of people, and the town of Langtry rose up to become a physical representation of all those things. 

On the day I set my feet there, the population sign read 12.  This was astonishing to me, as was the beautiful act of both decay and growth happening simultaneously in the ruined homes left behind.  People moved out, and the land moved back in.

Native Texan and photographer’s daughter, my life has been shaped by photography from my first moments.  I grew up hanging out in my father’s darkroom, being patiently taught the craft of traditional film techniques whenever I would listen.  I received my first camera and made my first silver gelatin print at the age of 7.

I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance in 1999.  I took up photography seriously in 2003, and began exhibiting work with the Mamaroneck Artists’ Guild in 2009.  The main focus of my work is narrative / candid and documentary in nature; people are what I enjoy photographing most, although I also explore both the natural and manmade aspects of my surroundings."

Selected Featured/Solo Exhibitions:

2017: “Cyanimals,” solo show of cyanotype work, Papi’s Pies, Round Rock, TX
2017: “Photography by Four,” Georgetown Public Library, Georgetown, TX
2017: “Women Who Shoot Film,” FEED Gallery, Kankakee, IL
2017: “What is Nature?,” Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2017: “Shootapalooza: Cyanotype Chandelier,” Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ

2016: “Stereotypes,” Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX
2016:  “A Prayer, A Hope, and A Dream,” Houston FotoFest, Houston, TX
2016:  “NSEW: Film Shooters Collective photo exhibition” group show, Kranzberg Art Center, St. Louis, MO
2016: “Blue 2,” A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX
2016: “Trees” A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX
2016: “Imagine,” Round Rock Arts/Texas State University Round Rock Campus, Round Rock, TX

2015: “Art Hop,” City of Georgetown, Georgetown, TX
2015: “Three Photographers,” Round Rock Arts/Williamson County Jester Annex, Round Rock, TX
2015: "Among Wolves: Photographs of werewolves among us and Round Rock Ballet Folklorico's Dia de los Muertos celebration," Williamson Museum, Georgetown, TX
2015: “Imagine, Round Rock Arts/Texas State University Round Rock Campus, Round Rock, TX

2014: “Art Hop,” City of Georgetown/Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX
2014-present: Numerous exhibitions, ArtSpace, Round Rock, TX
2014-present: Numerous exhibitions in 120Art, Taylor, TX
2014: “Imagine, Round Rock Arts/Texas State University Round Rock Campus, Round Rock, TX (Recipient: Honorable Mention award)

Selected Publications:

2017: She Shoots Film's magazine, “Self Portrait” premier issue

2015-Present: regular contributor/content manager, Film Shooter’s Collective

2013: Film Shooters Collective, “North, South, East, West (NSEW)"

Awards:

Imagine 2014: Honorable Mention 
Professional Organizations:
Film Shooters Collective (regular contributor / content manager) www.filmshooterscollective.com/contributors-1/amy-jasek-4-13
Shootapalooza  www.shootapalooza.com/ 

www.texasgirlphotography.com
www.instagram.com/amyjasek
amy@texasgirlphotography.com
 

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NATURAL ENCOUNTERS HOME PAGE:
http://nyphotocurator.com/natural-encounters-fran-forman
 
FIRST PLACE WINNER:
http://nyphotocurator.com/natural-encounters-fran-forman/first-place-donna-bassin-gorillas-8----/1
 
SECOND PLACE WINNER:
http://nyphotocurator.com/natural-encounters-fran-forman/second-place-jefferey-milstein-barry-koffler----/1
 
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
http://nyphotocurator.com/natural-encounters-fran-forman/honorable-mentions-heather-williamson-from-this-place-janet-holmes-emily-and-jenny-michael-kirchoff-redwood-joyce-lopez-drought-yvind-hjelmen-broken-shadow-6----/1
 
EXHIBITION #1:
http://nyphotocurator.com/natural-encounters-fran-forman/exhibition-1/1
 
EXHIBITION #2:
http://nyphotocurator.com/natural-encounters-fran-forman/exhibition-2/1