The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture is a $20,000 prize awarded annually by Maine Media Workshops + College to a photographer whose work demonstrates a compelling new vision in photographic portraiture. Lisa Elmaleh's portraits in the powerful project Promised Land give identity to the lives impacted by the construction of the border wall along the US/Mexico border from Boca Chica in the Gulf of Mexico to the border of Tijuana on the west coast.
ROCKPORT, Maine, Sept. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- https://www.mainemedia.edu/anp-winners-2022/
ABOUT THE WINNER: Lisa Elmaleh is an American visual artist, educator, and documentarian based in Paw Paw, West Virginia. She specializes in large-format work in tintype, glass negative, and celluloid film. Since 2007, she has been traveling across the US documenting American landscapes, life, and culture.
Born in Miami, Florida (1984), Lisa completed a BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2007, during which time she was awarded the Silas Rhodes Scholarship. Upon graduating, she received the prestigious Tierney Fellowship to work on a project that evolved into an in-depth visual documentation of the impact of climate change on the Everglades. The culmination of this project resulted in a book titled Everglades published in 2016 by Zatara Press.
Elmaleh's work has been exhibited nationwide and recognized by the Aaron Siskind Foundation, Puffin Foundation, The Tierney Foundation, among others. Her work has been published by Harper's Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, CNN, The New York Times, National Geographic, Oxford American, Garden & Gun, and NPR, among others. Lisa travels in truck containing her bed, and a portable wet plate darkroom. She has a traditional black and white darkroom where she prints in West Virginia.
ARTIST STATEMENT: "Promised Land is a series of portraits of those whose lives have been affected by American policies implemented during the construction of the border wall. In an attempt to shed light on the lives that are impacted, I am photographing along the US/Mexico border from Boca Chica in the Gulf of Mexico to the border of Tijuana on the west coast. I am working with a large format 8×10 camera to create these portraits. Utilizing its slowness as an asset, I am able to spend time with each person who sits in front of my lens, hearing their stories. To create these images, I am volunteering with humanitarian aid groups on either side of the border. I have photographed and worked with migrants, nuns, volunteers, border patrol, groups that leave water on known migrant trails, and groups who search for missing migrants in the desert of the United States."
– Lisa Elmaleh
2022 FINALISTS: The finalists this year include Anna Grevenitis for REGARD, Andrew Kung for The All-American, and Rania Matar for Where Do I Go? (Lawen Ruh لوين روح)
2022 HONORABLE MENTIONS: Robert Andy Coombs for CripFag, Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer for Between These Folded Walls, Utopia, Matt Eich for Bird Song Over Black Water, Sam Geballe for Self–Untitled, David Lombeida for Resistencia, and Rebecca Moseman for The Irish Travelers: A Forgotten People.
ABOUT THE AWARD: The Prize is funded by the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation and administered by Maine Media Workshops + College. The influential and revered photographer and educator, Arnold Newman, enjoyed a decades' long association with Maine Media, where he taught numerous photographic workshops over the years. The Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation has continued his legacy at the College, supporting scholarships, media production, a distinguished lecture series, and the prestigious Arnold Newman Prize in Photographic Portraiture–a cash prize of $20,000 accompanied by an exhibition awarded annually to a photographer whose work demonstrates a compelling new vision in photography.
The winner and finalists for the 2022 Arnold Newman Prize in Photographic Portraiture are invited to participate in a museum exhibition.
ABOUT THE SELECTION PROCESS: Selected by a jury of visionary curators and photographers the 2022 jury Adriana Letorney is the Founder & CEO of Visura.co, a startup that is re-envisioning the future of work and marketplace for visual content in media and journalism. Rashod Taylor is a contemporary photographer whose work is a window into the Black American experience and the recipient of the 2021 Arnold Newman Prize. Ellen K. Willas is a Norwegian curator and art dealer based in Stockholm.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: The Griffin Museum of Photography will exhibit Elmaleh's work, as well as that of the finalists, from October 4 through 30. A virtual awards ceremony will take place on October 6. The exhibition reception will be held at the Griffin Museum on Saturday, October 8, 2022.
ABOUT THE ARNOLD & AUGUSTA NEWMAN FOUNDATION: Thanks to a generous gift of $1.125M from the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation, the largest philanthropic contribution in the history of Maine Media, the resources from this permanent endowment will be used to cultivate and celebrate the photographic arts. "Arnold Newman had a profound influence on photographers in the latter half of the 20th Century," noted Maine Media President Michael Mansfield. "That his legacy continues to shape conversations around photography, to support new generations of image makers – portraiture in the 21st century – is truly inspiring."
For more information and to view the work from the 2022 awards please visit https://www.mainemedia.edu/anp-winners-2022/. To schedule an interview with Maine Media's 2022 Arnold Newman Prize winner Lisa Elmaleh, please contact Elizabeth Greenberg The Arnold and Augusta Newman Provost at Maine Media.
Media Contact
Elizabeth Greenberg, Maine Media Workshops + College, 1 207-236-8581, [email protected]
SOURCE Maine Media Workshops + College
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