Application Guidelines
About the Scholarship
The John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship seeks 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 of $3,000, 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.
Eligibility Criteria
The scholarship is open to photographers who have produced individual works of photography and/or are in the process of producing bodies of work.
We are looking for candidates who are serious about photography, whose potential is emerging and whose photography will benefit from this scholarship. Candidates should not be currently enrolled in a photography degree program. There is no age limit. There are no residency requirements.
Photographers without gallery representation who have not exhibited solo in a commercial gallery, academic gallery (except for thesis shows), galleries in organizations like the Griffin Museum, Houston Center for Photography, Center for Fine Art Photography etc. or a museum setting or have not received significant (over $3000) grant funding are eligible (coffee shop, community gallery, library, academic thesis exhibitions, etc. are eligible exhibition settings). Past awardees of the Chervinsky Scholarship, paid employees of the Griffin Museum or their immediate families, Griffin Museum board members and jurors’ immediate families and those immediate families of Griffin board members or jurors’ paid employees are not eligible.
This scholarship is not for well-established photographers. Well-established photographers are individuals in mid-photography-careers and are seen by the public and peers as distinguished in the field of photography and have many accomplishments as a photographer. Please note again that an artist who has had SOLO exhibitions in established commercial galleries, academic galleries (except for thesis shows), photography nonprofit gallery spaces like the Griffin Museum, Houston Center for Photography, Center for Fine Art Photography etc. or a museum gallery or has gallery representation or received significant grant funding (over $3000) will be considered too accomplished to receive this scholarship. For example, receiving a Fulbright Scholarship would disqualify a candidate from receiving this scholarship.
Submissions
Submissions may be made directly to the Griffin Museum gateway only (See below). You will be asked for a brief biography and artistic cv (a single pdf that includes both bio and cv. In the pdf title include Chervinsky and last name and first name); a statement of artistic purpose/intent; a statement on the work supplied, and flattened rgb jpgs (1200 pixels on the longest side) of your photographs (minimum of 10/maximum of 14 photographs). Naming convention is Chervinsky_firstname_lastname-title.jpg.
Do not supply links. Our gateway will assemble your input into one area on our web host site and give the jurors the ability to go there to view and also download a pdf as needed. You will be able to insert text for artistic statement and project statement in the gateway application. No other means of submission will be accepted. All missing criteria will disqualify the submission. Emails will not be accepted as a method of submissions. It is recommended that great thought and effort be put into the artistic purpose/intent statement (see sample supplied).
We will post the 2019 awardee on this website by the date of (new date to come). We do not have the capacity to send nonacceptance notifications by mail or email. This is not meant to be disrespectful. We all do this scholarship facilitation, jurying and preparation in our own personal time.
Scholarship Dates and Deadlines
August 1, 2019: Next Application period opens. Apply Here (portal to come)
September 5, 2019: Application period closes
The next Chervinsky awardee will be announced here end of second week in December 2019
Jennifer Georgescu received the 2018 scholarship
On March 7, 2019, the 2018 Awardee exhibition opens at the Griffin Museum with a reception on March 10, 2019.
John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship awards 2018 Press Release
2018 Jurors
Crista Dix
The 2018 award for the John Chervinsky Emerging Scholarship goes to photographer Jennifer Georgescu.
The judges, said, “Jennifer Georgescu takes complex issues of humanity – motherhood, identity, legacy, mortality, fragility, insignificance – and spins a rich visual narrative that reassures us that we are not alone in figuring these things out. Jennifer’s work shows us she is serious about her photography career, her potential for future growth is evident and we believe this scholarship will assist her in further stretching her imagination.”
Jennifer Georgescu submitted Mother Series for consideration for the scholarship. Georgescu says of the body of work:
“Motherhood has the power to transform one’s sense of identity. It is a true incidence of blurring the line between self and other. Children must learn to realize that they are separate and the mother must learn to let go; to realize that her child is their own person.
It is a brutal and endearing task to raise a child. I wake numerous times throughout the night existing in a somewhat catatonic state. In the wee hours, my thoughts tend to go in unusual directions to occupy my mind while my body is occupied with feedings.
During the day I am in a mist; trying to scramble up some form that is me though everything has changed. I exist in a suspended mythological state where everything else has been put on hold. It is a place where I almost pity myself though I never want it to end.”
Jennifer Georgescu’s Statement of Purpose:
“I am a photographer who creates work based on life experiences and my inner dialogue. I am interested in research pertaining to the human condition, relating that information to my own personal life, and having the two intermingle until they have a sense of balance. When I make my pieces, I try to look at my life more objectively by seeing the ways that I am shaped by others, my insatiable fear of death , and how my inner voice has forged my sense of identity. By Working this way, I humble myself with my homogeny and allow for others to relate to my observations and experiences.
I have been turning the camera on myself for the past 20 years and it has become my way of living and interpreting the world around me. I see the representation of myself as a place holder for the every person. Through narrative tableaux, I transform my self-portraiture into conceptual symbolism and allow a space for my concepts to exist. When creating works about personal and sometimes tragic experiences I am able to describe myself and also relate to others through collective thought and experiences; this is the magic for me.
Through beauty, awe, and fantasy, I am able to portray topics that are difficult to discuss and invent them in new ways that are more approachable. I see art as a way to bring metaphor and awe to our life events so that we may grow from them. As introvert and an artist, I spend a lot of time alone practicing and reflecting. When exhibiting my work I am always humbled to connect with others who have had my same deepest inner thoughts. I make work that reflects beauty even in difficult experiences.”
Image above of John Chervinsky © L. Barry Hetherington
