10.11.2011

Soho Photo 2011 Alternative Processes Competition

Snakeroot, from Natural History
cyanotype over archival pigment print, 2011


Soho Photo is pleased to announce that its November show will feature the winning entries in the Seventh Annual Alternative Processes Competition.This year’s Alternative Processes Competition presents the winning images of photographers from across the United States. The images that were submitted for this competition represent a wide range of alternative methods that can include beeswax paper negative, Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, platinum/palladium, gum dichromate, gold toned salt print, tintype, and ziatype. This year’s juror was gallerist, educator and photographer Michael Paris Mazzeo. As an educator, Mazzeo has long been a practitioner of antiquarian processes; he’s taught at the School of Visual Arts, ICP, New Jersey City University, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.


The top three winners are:

First Place: Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Chicago, IL Second Place: Denyse Murphy, Haverhill, MA Third Place: David Zimmerman, Taos, NM


After judging all the entries, Mazzeo issued a statement, an excerpt of which follows: He said, “My criteria for selecting work for this exhibition included technical proficiency, compelling imagery, and consistency of vision. I looked for work that was intelligent, thoughtful, engaging, entertaining, humorous and challenging, devoid of kitsch, cliché, and the obvious. Above all, my priority was to reward those artists whose work communicated distinct ideas through the effective use of their chosen process.

My top choice was Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman's exquisite portraits of elderly women adorned with botanical specimens by way of cyanotype photograms. An elegant elegy to old age and the passage of time, this work also nicely references Anna Atkins, an English botanist and the first recognized female photographer, who is credited with publishing the first book of photographic illustrations, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.


OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 6-8 PM

Gallery Hours: Wednesdays–Sundays, 1–6 PM, and by appointment.

Contact: Wayne Parsons, info@sohophoto.com or 212.662.5532


Clematis, from Natural History
cyanotype over archival pigment print, 2011

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