The Griffin Museum of Photography is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2024 John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship, Bridget Jourgensen. Her series Homeshadows captivated this year’s jury to earn her a monetary award, an upcoming exhibition and artist talk at the Griffin Museum as well as a volume from the collection of photographer John Chervinsky.
Over 281 photographers submitted applications to be considered for the scholarship this year. The jurors, Arlette and Gus Kayafas, Frazier King and Bruce Myren have selected Bridget Jourgensen as the 2024 recipient of the John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship.
The exhibition of Homeshadows will be December 11, 2024 – January 5, 2025. We will announce programs and artist reception later this fall.
Homeshadows is a study of solitude. Over the course of a year and at the height of the pandemic in 2020, I found myself in a new home and very much alone on a day-to-day basis. As an introvert and sometimes anxious person, it was a bit of a dream come true. But while I wasn’t exactly lonely, I was yearning to use my time creatively and feel connected to something while the world outside raged. I began to document the light and shadows that streamed through the windows of my house. Everything in my home was new to me, and I had the pleasure of watching the seasons unfold from the inside. I sometimes put myself in the images to round out the developing narrative. I worked to capture light and manage composition with great attention to mood and detail in order to convey the sense of solitude, beauty, and mystery that I was experiencing during this period of time. Although I had been taking photographs for many years, this was my first intentional series and attempt at cohesive storytelling through images.
About Bridget Jourgensen:
My love of photography began as a young girl leafing through my mother’s Vogue magazines and feeling enthralled by the lush images within. As a pre-teen I made images of my family with a Kodak Instamatic 100, and documented the mundane details of my day-to-day life. It seemed that everything looked more glamorous printed on 4×4 squares, accompanied by strips of eerie negatives. I was hooked.
As an adult photographing a world which is increasingly complex, my lens seeks out simple, quiet subjects that are familiar yet presented in a distinctive way. Influenced by the work of Vivian Maier, Gordon Parks, and Sally Mann, I’m drawn to photographing people in the world around me. Whether that world is within my own four walls or a country I’ve never stepped foot in, my desire to observe others is the foundation for a great deal of my work. By sharing my images, I hope to spark human connections and emphasize our commonality through a moment captured in time.
About the John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship
Photographer John Chervinsky, whose work explored the concept of time, passed away in December of 2015, following a typically resolute battle with pancreatic cancer. The modesty and unassuming character John conveyed in life belies the extent to which he is missed, not only by his family and friends, but also by the entire photographic community of which he was so proud to be a part. The John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship was announced in June 2016 to recognize, encourage and reward photographers with the potential to create a body of work and sustain solo exhibitions. Awarded annually, the Scholarship provides recipients with a monetary award, an exhibition of their work at the Griffin Museum of Photography, and a volume from John’s personal library of photography books. The Scholarship seeks to provide a watershed moment in the professional lives of emerging photographers, providing them with the support and encouragement necessary to develop, articulate and grow their own vision for photography.
We extend our gratitude and thanks to our jurors for their work in reviewing submissions and selecting our winner, and thank you to the artists who submitted their work for consideration.
I love the collodion process and I have since the first workshop I ever took years ago in Los Angeles. I have always loved the handmade photograph in all the possible iterations, and when I started graduate school I was working in collodion for the most part. I don’t think it was so important that this had to be told in collodion in the beginning, but as I worked on the pore conceptual side of why I love alternative processes and collodion specifically it did become pretty clear to me that the importance of collodion to the concept behind the work and the digital/analogue work process compared to the surreal behavior expectations that are so rooted in the Victorian era in a lot of churches, specifically the one I grew up in. I like what you said about the permanence- the process also becomes a part of the catharsis as well as the finished product.
Because this work is deeply personal, What do you want us as viewers to walk away with after experiencing it? 
