This year has been full of photography for me, making new work, new opportunities to show it, and best of all, new photography friends! Starting in January, I traveled to Los Angeles almost every month from Seattle to participate with a wonderful group of fellow photographers in an ongoing projects class with the always amazing Aline Smithson, culminating in a group show at the Los Angeles Center of Photography in September.
From there I participated in the Filter Photo Review in Chicago, presenting my book for the first time to esteemed and knowledgeable reviewers, gaining insight and opportunities into fine tuning and showing my work to a broader audience. The camaraderie of old and new photography friends was an added bonus!
As I was about to next embark on a long planned trip to the Hudson River Valley, I was informed that my Friday Night Dinners book had been accepted into a show at the Davis/Orton Gallery in Hudson, New York, right where I was going. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Karen Davis, especially after seeing her wonderful bathroom series outside the facilities at Mass MoCA, which is an art and architecture opportunity that is unsurpassable!
The 8th Annual Self Published Photobook Show, juried by Karen Davis and Paula Tognarelli of the Griffin Museum of Photography in WInchester, Massachusetts, is a dual show held both at the Davis/Orton Gallery through December 23rd, and again for a second show at the Griffin Photography Museum in March of 2018. All in all, very exciting!
And finally, I am ending this year with a promise to myself to introduce my handmade book, Friday Night Dinners, on my website, to accompany an earlier version of the images in print form. It has been a three year project for me, and one that did not want to let me go. I invite you to spend a few minutes engaging with it here, both in the book section and the projects section, and send me your comments. Thanks to anyone reading this, and hoping that the upcoming year will be one where our work will be seen and our voices will be heard.