Analog Forever Magazine is pleased to showcase 35 images in this month’s online exhibition, entitled "Hybrid”. Curated by the founder and director at Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Jennifer Schlesinger. These photographs celebrate the various advancements of techniques in photography, not just by way of the process, but by way of creating something timely and different using all the photographic resources that abound by combing processes and digital techniques that combine photographic mediums to create new, innovative, and exciting works of art!

Jennifer Schlesinger writes: This call was one of the most exciting themes I have juried in a long while. The photographic possibilities are boundless in our contemporary digital age which leaves the continued exploration of discoveries in the medium a thrilling endeavor. As the call stated, I was looking to see what new ‘hybrid’ combinations of the photographic medium artists were using and how that would perhaps propel our medium forward. The submissions were impressive. Perhaps a mistake on our end would have been that we didn’t require an explanation of what the submissions entailed – many artists did, in fact, give this information, but other submissions were more mysterious to me and I had little to go on except for imagery to determine what hybrid combinations may have been taking place. I see a lot of photography on a daily basis, and I know an extensive array of mediums that are employed, which I suppose helped me in determining some of the mysteries. In those cases of mystery, I was left to determine the uniqueness of the submission based on the imagery, and some handed guess-work on what mediums may have been employed. In this case, admittedly I was not always completely informed in some of my decisions. However, it does go to show that while information is important, ultimately, imagery is even sometimes more important when we are indeed speaking of a visual medium to convey a message, strike a conceptual interest, as well as powerfully portray the artist’s intent. 

In my final choices, I felt that these selections did all of that, and in many cases even then some – sometimes I had more information and sometimes I did not. I spent many hours, and even days truly going over the submissions, and in the final selections, added a few in at the very end. I did not de-select anything, which is somewhat rare for me in my final selections. I think it says a lot about the powerful imagery and impact the work had on me. Thank you all for taking the time to submit, and as is always the case, if you’re work was not chosen, it does not mean it was not worthy – it may mean I did not have enough information to make an informed decision, or perhaps the work was interesting to me but also needed more development.

I was instructed to choose my ‘favorite’ work which is always so hard of a decision because there were so many wonderful selections. I kept coming back to the incredible imagery of Minh-Hoang Nguyen which successfully incorporated hybrid ingenuity through texture, medium, abstract representation, and of course, stellar imagery with powerful connotation. This work stayed with me throughout the entire jurying process and beyond.

Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity to view your work!

Gallery 

About the Curator

Jennifer Schlesinger is an Artist, Curator, Gallerist, and Educator based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Schlesinger has approached her fine art photography with an interest in the historical development of photography as an artistic medium - having influences from the age old camera obscura, to 19th century albumen process, to 20th century gelatin silver printing. She is interested in how the evolution of photography can expand upon the development of photography as an art form. Her artistic mediums of choice have been the 19th Century albumen process and gelatin silver printing processes and her work mostly focuses on the landscape and how humans philosophically interact with the natural world around them. She uses photography as a tool to capture the world around her both poetically and metaphorically, and is highly influenced by the investigation of life through philosophy.

Jennifer graduated from the College of Santa Fe in 1998 with a B.A. in Photography and Journalism. Schlesinger has exhibited widely at Southwest regional institutions such as the Marion Center for Photographic Arts (SFUAD), Santa Fe Art Institute and the New Mexico Museum of Art, as well as national institutions such as the Southeast Museum of Photography and the Chelsea Art Museum. Her work has been published online and in print with international publications such as Black and White Magazine (U.S and UK), the cover article for Diffusion Magazine Volume III, and Fotoritim in Turkey. Schlesinger is represented in many public collections, including the Southeast Museum of Photography, FL; The New Mexico Museum of Art, and the New Mexico History Museum / Palace of the Governors Photo Archives. She has received several honors in recognition of her work including a Golden Light Award in Landscape Photography from the Maine Photographic Workshops and the Center for Contemporary Arts Photography Award in Santa Fe, New Mexico, both in 2005. She has been awarded many distinctive nominations such as the Santa Fe Prize for Photography by the Center and the Eliot Porter Fellowship by the New Mexico Council for Photography. She was the Assistant Director of Santa Fe Art Institute from 2003-2005 and was the Director of VERVE Gallery of Photography since from 2005-2017.

She is now the Founder, Owner and Director at Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Schlesinger has taught Adjunct at the College of Santa Fe as well as workshops through the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, Art Intersection, and other venues. Schlesinger's photographic work is represented by the following galleries: Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston, TX; Vision Neil Folberg Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel; and Camino Silvestre, San Miguel de Allende.

Connect with Jennifer on her Website and on Instagram!