FotoWeek DC and Curatorial Work

Michelle PritzlVisual Imagery teacherUniversity High School

November 2010

FotoWeek DC

• Fotoweek DC began 3 years ago as a local photo festival and has grown to be an international, week long intensive focus on photography that offers exhibits, competitions, seminars and education to the DC area.

Exhibits

• FotoWeek DC has an international photography exhibit that showcases work from top photographers across the globe including Pete McBride, Ed Kashi, Stephan Voss, Andrea Bruce and Richard Anset. To see all award winners see:

http://fotoweekdc.org/media/2010/awards/index.html

FotoWeek Kick-off Party and Awards

Projections at Night on District buildings

The projections were conceived by Margaret Adams, professor at The Corcoran College of Art and Design. The work being projected was submitted by current photo majors at the Corcoran and juried by Adams to light up the city each night of the festival. The projections draw inspiration from the cancelled Maplethorpe retrospective in the 90’s that was ultimately projected onto the Corcoran in protest of the cancellation.

District-Wide Exhibits

• During FotoWeek, all art galleries and public spaces take part in photographic exhibitions, from the National Gallery of Art to small galleries and restaurants.

Corcoran All-Photo Alumni Exhibit

• The exhibit showcased a diverse arrangement of work by 10 Corcoran photography alumni, and was juried by Colby Caldwell and Cynthia Conolly.

• Caldwell and Conolly are longtime participants in the DC photography scene. Conolly became known when she edited and printed images for a book that chronicled the DC punk scene and it’s rise in the 1980’s and Caldwell is a Corcoran alumni and former professor who now teaches photography at St. Mary’s College, MD.

• Caldwell and Conolly were looking to curate a show that exhibited the diversity found in the photographic world today. They sought out work that was an individual, cohesive body of work from each person in the exhibit. Ultimately they chose series that ranged from conceptual, to traditional silver gelatin and documentary. They chose work that represented an in-depth artistic endeavor.

In My Classroom

• The Irvine Fine Arts Center juries an exhibit of student work each year that is city-wide. My students were required to select and submit up to 5 images for the show, after we discussed the role of a juror in selecting work, and how to choose their best work, and critically decide what would stand out to judges in a competition. My students’ selected work will go on display in April.