Rising Star – 2020
Arnika Dawkins, Photo credit: Allen Cooley
Arnika Dawkins is the owner of her eponymous fine art photography gallery established in Atlanta in 2012. The gallerist shows work by talented emerging and mid-career artists with a specialization in showing fine art photography by African Americans and images of people from the African Diaspora. Her passion is connecting collectors to photography that is significant, inspiring, and provocative. As a fine art photographer and avid collector herself, she is a valuable resource to collectors and artists alike. She is passionate about the medium, having obtained a Master of Arts in Digital Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
opens in a new windowadawkinsgallery.com
Presented by: Deborah Willis Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, Africana Studies, where she teaches courses on Photography & Imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. Her research examines photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, the photographic history of Slavery and Emancipation; contemporary women photographers and beauty. She received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Willis is the author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present; and co-author of The Black Female Body A Photographic History; Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery; and Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs (both titles a NAACP Image Award Winner). Professor Willis’s curated exhibitions include: “In Pursuit of Beauty” at Express Newark; “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” at the International Center of Photography and “Reframing Beauty: Intimate Moments” at Indiana University. Since 2006 she has co-organized thematic conferences exploring imaging the black body in the West such as the conference titled Black Portraiture[s] which was held in Johannesburg in 2016. She has appeared and consulted on media projects including documentary films such as Through A Lens Darkly and Question Bridge: Black Males, a transmedia project, which received the ICP Infinity Award 2015, and American Photography, PBS Documentary.
Photo credit: Alice Proujansky
Rising Star – 2015
Kat Kiernan
Kat Kiernan is the Editor-in-Chief of Don’t Take Pictures, a print and online photography publication.
opens in a new windowkatkiernan.com/
Presented by: Rising Star – 2014
Rebecca Senf
Dr. Rebecca Senf is the Norton Family Curator of Photography, a joint appointment at the Center for Creative Photography and the Phoenix Art Museum.
opens in a new windowwww.creativephotography.org/contact-us/rebecca-becky-senf
Presented by: Rising Star – 2013
Shane Lavalette
Shane Lavalette, Founding Publisher and Editor of Lavalette and the Director of Light Work in Syracuse, NY
opens in a new windowwww.shanelavalette.com/
Presented by: Rising Star – 2012
Aline Smithson
Aline Smithson, began her career as a fashion editor and is now a widely published and exhibited photographer, educator and blogger.
opens in a new windowalinesmithson.com/
Presented by: Rising Star – 2011
Eileen Gittins
Eileen Gittins, is Founder, President, and CEO of Blurb.
Presented by: Rising Star – 2010
David Bram
Based in Albuquerque, NM, Bram is editor, curator, and founder of the popular and influential Fraction Magazine, now in its sixteenth issue.
opens in a new windowwww.fractionmagazine.com/david-bram/
Presented by: Mary Virginia Swanson Marketing Consultant, Swanson makes it her goal to help photographers find the strengths in their work and identify appreciative audiences for their prints, exhibitions, editorial, and licensing placement. She will present the award to David Bram.
Rising Star – 2009
Rob Haggart
Haggart is the former director of photography for Men’s Journal and Outside magazines. He has received photo editing recognition from Graphis, American Photography, Society of Publication Designers, Communication Arts, American Society of Magazine Editors and Photo District News, and was chosen as part of the creative team of the year by Ad Week. He currently freelances as a photography director and runs APhotoEditor.com, a blog on photography.
opens in a new windowaphotoeditor.com
Presented by: Jill Enfield Jill Enfield, a fine art photographer, author and educator will present the award to Rob Haggart.
Rising Star – 2008
Jen Beckman
Jen Bekman is the Founder and Owner, Jen Bekman Gallery, New York
opens in a new windowjenbekman.com
Presented by: Rising Star – 2007
Sara Terry
Founder, The Aftermath Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping photojournalists document the aftermath of conflict.
opens in a new windowtheaftermathproject.org
Presented by: Sherman Teichman Director, Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University will present award to Sara.
Rising Star – 2006
Brian Clamp
Owner, ClampArt, New York
Presented by: 
