Alaska Positive 2016 | Juror's Statement
Alaska Positive is a most excellent statewide photography exhibition and is a testament to the creative and imaginative culture of photography in Alaska. If you sift photography down to its essence, it nearly always has to do with some kind of narrative, whether it's a mysterious whisper in the winds, or it has to do with a beautiful way of visualizing nearly anything. This is a plain, no nonsense way of describing artistry.
The cool part about photography is its ability to be enigmatic or poetic and still have it instantly convey some kind of strong imprint on the viewer. Sometimes the meaning is left to the viewer to figure out and hopefully the viewer may also have fun intellectualizing what it may be about if that's part of the visual aesthetic. At its best, photography is a reflection of real life, warts and all. Let's face it, sometimes life is hard and artists sometimes have the ability to heal with their work.
On the other hand, photography is often about the beauty of what we see every day, or something funny or ironic. These Alaska Positive photographs succeeded so well because they told a collective story of place, identity and the times in which we're living. It's a multilayered grouping whose psyche echoed what's unfolding in the here and now, which I liked a lot and is at the spirit of what's appealing about the Alaska Positive photographers.
These days it's nice to see a sense of well-crafted compositions and technique, especially as it informs content, because this is one pathway to artistry. In this sense, it's good to see various photographic techniques, although it's not paramount by any means. A gifted photographer may make a photograph with a mobile phone or antique film camera, and it's their vision that still counts most.
Lots of us are nearly always captivated by mundane everyday scenes that are made to look extraordinary, whether it's by the use of dramatic light or something like an ironic juxtaposition of unexpected subjects. We're still very captivated by photographs that are evocative, and prompt some kind of latent emotion from the viewer, and catches them somewhat off guard, like an unexpected gift left on the doorstep.
Alaska has a vitality that is sometimes gritty and hard edged, and full of people who have had to overcome big odds in order to make some kind of lives for themselves. The land provides as it has since ancient times and is sometimes beautiful beyond words, where the spirits live and you have to quiet your mind and listen carefully to the land in order to reap from it, whatever that means. It's readily apparent to me that a lot of these very gifted Alaskan photographers have spent a lot of time doing this and are quite adept at it, which shows in their beautiful photographs. And we thank them for that; I hope you enjoy seeing all of these works.
Larry McNeil
Juror, Alaska Positive 2016
