Traveling Exhibit Alaska Positive 2025

Left to right: Katie Ione Craney, what we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene), 2025; Amber Johnson, Ice Studies #8018, 2025; Petra Lisiecki, Real/Ethereal - The Swimmer, 2023

Since 1970, Alaska Positive has encouraged photography as an art form in Alaska. Now in its 55th year, this juried photography exhibition highlights the role of Alaskan photographers in today's visual culture. This statewide juried photographic exhibition is organized and toured by the Alaska State Museum. 

About the Juror

Patrice Aphrodite Helmar
Tin Foil Crowns with Dolly Girl, 2020Alaska Positive 2025 guest juror, Patrice Aphrodite Helmar, is a photographer and artist engaged in the poetics of lived experience and everyday life. Their multidisciplinary work is concerned with issues of labor, class, queerness, and the politics of representation.

Helmar was born in Juneau and grew up working in their father’s small-town camera shop and darkroom. Their work has been shown at PARTICIPANT INC, the Jewish Museum, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Gaa Gallery, the National Museum of Iceland, and other spaces.

They received an MAT from the University of Alaska Southeast in 2013 and an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University in 2015. They studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2022 and received a 2025 MacDowell Fellowship. Their work has been shown at PARTICIPANT INC, the Jewish Museum, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Gaa Gallery, the National Museum of Iceland and is in museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Helmer is a Lecturer on Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University and Columbia University's Visual Arts MFA program. They live and work in Juneau and New York City.

Helmar selected 37 photographs by 33 photographers for the exhibit.

The top award, the Juror’s Choice Award, went to Katie Ione Craney of Fairbanks for a photograph titled what we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene). The Awards of Recognition went to Amber Johnson of Anchorage for Ice Studies #8018, a C-type print, and Petra Lisiecki of Anchorage for Real/Ethereal - The Swimmer, also a C-type print. Awards are sponsored by the Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum.

Final Photographs Selected for Alaska Positive 2025