WE, the Women's Caucus is a biennial juried exhibition of photo-based/light artists that are members of the Women's Caucus within the Society for Photographic Education.
WE, the Women's Caucus stands to celebrate Women, Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and our diversity with an honorable nod to our solidarity with our identity and medium. These photographic works are responsive pieces that illuminate, question, and challenge societal notions through our individual expression.
2022 EXHIBITION details
Searching For Life: Regrowth & Display
WE, the Women's Caucus exhibition stands to celebrate the Society for Photographic Education’s Women's Caucus members and our diversity through the lens. The photographic works are responsive pieces that illuminate, question, and challenge societal notions through our individual expression, discussing the relationship of power and gender, and the societal intersections.
CALL-TO-ARTISTS
Exhibition Title
Searching for Life: Re-growth & Display
Where
A.B. Cohen Center
1658 Musketeer Dr
Cincinnati, OH 45207
When
Exhibition Opens October 2022
CALL opens March 2022 & closes June 2022
selected artists will be notified in August 2022
Exhibition Description
The Society for Photographic Education’s Women’s Caucus perpetually reinvents the definition of the presumptive “photographic document” and recalls the many interpersonal relationships within their female identifying role, identities, and responsibilities. This ongoing photographic and cinematic experience creates and examines the personal, and transcends a reflections of dedications to the recollection of the female human existence. WE, the Women’s Caucus have a collective story to share— a story about bringing life to our struggles, repairing damaged connections, and finding strength in solidarity and isolation.
WE, the Women’s Caucus Exhibition is an international, juried call-for-work from the members of the ( Society for Photographic Education) SPE’s Women’s Caucus. SPE is a member-based nonprofit organization, a leading forum for fostering understanding of photography in all its forms and related media. SPE engages its worldwide membership and affiliated communities through a range of supportive platforms including year-long programming, conferences, events, exhibitions and publications.
How does it respond to 2022 FotoFocus Biennial World Record
The 2022 installment of the WE, the Women’s Caucus Exhibition responds to the Foto Focus 2022 World Record Biennial through an international call to women working with light and photography to process and reveal the adversities in life they have experienced. This dialog of re-growth and display through our shared search for life is not limited to current works, it will be a diverse collection of global, timeless submissions that penetrate the life of each artist selected. Together the works selected will prove to dismantle and expose a cyclical gaze. Historically the photograph is dominated by the male gaze, in this exhibition WC members break through these barriers in photography giving opportunity for the female gaze to stare back at the male dominated world.
Goals and Objectives
This exhibition creates opportunity for the WC members to display the versatile natures of the “photograph” while providing a platform for our global, nonprofit organization, SPE. Having Xavier University host this exhibition is a powerful and extraordinary opportunity, expanding conversations within the Jesuit community and beyond the Greater Cincinnati area.
Pulling from the XU website, they state "Jesuit Education is based on a 450-year-old tradition that aims to form high school and college students intellectually, morally and spiritually toward lives of solidarity, service and professional success. Emphasis is placed on learning through community service, interdisciplinary courses and the engagement of faith, theology, philosophy and ethics studies...These values prepare students to be wiser and more compassionate as they take the next step in their life journey as men and women for others.” SPE is a nonprofit organization where all of its members are within academia, ranging from tenure faculty to contingent, lecturers and visiting artists, archivists, artists, students and staff of institutions, k-12, and higher ed.
To pull from SPE, they state "The Society of Photographic Education’s declared mission is to 'provide and foster an understanding of photography as a means of diverse creative expression, cultural insight, and experimental practice. Through its interdisciplinary programs, services, and publications, the society seeks to promote a broader understanding of the medium in all its forms through teaching and learning, scholarship, and criticism.'
The Society’s goals of promoting personal expression and cultural understanding are contingent on, and harmonize with, a broader commitment to protecting the individual rights and personal safety of our members and our students.” These seemingly different cultures actually align quite harmoniously in many ways and will facilitate an expansive conversation beyond the gallery walls and both communities- hopefully bridging any gaps and debunking stereotypes, educating in solidarity.
Funding for WE, the Women’s Caucus exhibition was made possible by SPE Women’s Caucus members Jordanne Renner and Sarah Ann Austin alongside the grants received from FotoFocus 2022 Biennial World Record and support from Xavier University Art Department.
If you are a business or organization with Women, Trans, and/or GNC People as your leadership, or you are lifting up these communities WE would like to hear from you-- send an email to: WEtheWomensCaucusExhibition@gmail.com
CALL DETAILS
ELIGIBILITY
Must be a SPE Women's Caucus member by the time of exhibition/acceptance of.
Must be a member of SPE by the time of exhibition/acceptance of.
Make photographic, light-based art.
Explore themes of society, family, culture, gender, identity, women's rights, social justice, etc...
Identify as a Woman, GNC, or Trans.
REQUIREMENTS
Each artist is limited to 5 pieces of photographic art, professionally presented, and ready to
be displayed. **must become a member of SPE & SPE's women's caucus if invited to participate in the exhibition**
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Eligible Work:
From traditional to digital to alternative processes to video, all photographic techniques and approaches are welcome. Fine Art photography, documentary, commercial, mixed media incorporating photography, photo books & sculptures, and digital imaging and collages – are all eligible for consideration by the jury, but must fit the dialogue of the exhibition theme.
Installation type work should be tested prior to submission, and easy to install.
Submission Instructions:
1. visit www.spenational.org/shop to pay the entry fee
2. screenshot receipt of entry payment, label as: First InitialLast Name_receipt
-- STUDENTS-- , please include your student email, and screenshot of your previous or upcoming semester schedule, too!
3. submit required materials: up to 5 images in the correct format, image list (including: title, medium, size, price), artist statement (500 words max), and receipt of payment.
Files must be labeled as First InitialLast Name_image #.jpg (example: JRenner_01.jpg), First InitialLast Name_image list.pdf, First InitialLast Name_statement.pdf, etc.
Images must not exceed 3MB, 3,000 pixels on the longest dimension.
Save as Adobe RGB.
Please note: Improperly titled jpegs and/or missing information will result in your submission not being reviewed by the jury.
4. send all appropriately sized and labeled files to aJnRstudio@gmail.com via www.wetransfer.com
You will receive an email confirmation once the submission is successfully downloaded.
Q&A:
Jordanne Renner
exhibition organizer & curator
W: www.JordanneRenner.com
E: aJnRstudio@gmail.com