LA Photo Curator 2019

L.A. Photo Curator Results
Theme: ‘Lost at Sea’ curated by Michael Behlen (Founder of Analog Forever Magazine)   Note to entrants from Michael Behlen:
“Your work was powerful. Narrowing down this great selection of submissions was a challenging task that took me up until the deadline deciding which images to include. Your work captured both the insanity of modern society and the calmness we can find within the artwork that allows us to escape it. Thank you for submitting your work and allowing me the opportunity to spend time with your images, it was an excellent experience. I appreciate each and everyone one of you!”
  Behlen’s notes on chosen images:
“I selected Lost as Sea as the title for this exhibition because the sea has had a great effect on me over the years and its imagery is easily applicable to all sorts of situations and dilemmas. The dilemma I have been pondering the most recently has been our constant bombardment by all things electronic and how that affects us on a personal, emotional, and spiritual level. It is my personal belief that our relationship to electronic conveniences and relationships have left us marooned on an island made up of likes, shares, website metrics. One of the ways we, as photographers, escape from being stranded on the internet is through our art. Photography allows us to see past the feelings of digital isolation into the calm seas of self-expression and community. 

In my original prompt, I asked photographers to show us images that represent the places, people, activities, and things that help you escape from the daily hustle and allow you to live peacefully on your own personal island. The winning image, The Blue Locker by Sarah Manriquez, did exactly the opposite of this. Her image shows us the panic we should all be feeling in today’s world where it is easy to feel a drowning sensation with the overwhelming flow of social media being inhaled in with our every breath. With her powerful submission, she broke the rules of what we were asking photographers to submit as all artists should, and I think it’s a great example to live by. So go breathe in a new mentality by breaking societies current rules of our digital prison by logging off, signing out, and tuning out all the things that are creating your digital isolation.

My second-place pick is Rolling in the Deep by Erica Reade. Her image showed exactly what I was looking for when I wrote the original call for entries. The individuals in the image appear to be making their own personal world just outside the confines of the general populace and by extension are able to be truly free. Though the rest of the world is just a few hundred yards away they seem to be in complete peace within the moment they are sharing together. It is a wonderful image that represents so much about today’s world that makes it an instant classic and a new personal favorite photograph of mine.”
  First Place- Sarah Manriquez- ‘The Blue Locker’ 
Second Place-  Erica Reade-  ‘Rolling in the Deep’
Honorable mentions- James Baturin – ‘Solitudes’
James Niven – ‘Northern Beaches Sydney’
Nils Karlson- ‘Earth Stands Still III’

Congratulations to Sarah,Erica, James and Nils for your selection and thought provoking work. Also a big thank you to the Juror, Michael Behlen and founder of LA and NY Curator, Laurie Freitag for selecting my image, “Northern Beaches Sydney” and for the opportunity.