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.
View this link that will take you to another page on our website and will tell you more about John.
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. There is no application fee.
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. Producing a published (by a publisher) photo book would disqualify a candidate from receiving this scholarship.
Submissions
Submissions may be made directly to the Griffin Museum gateway only (now closed). 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 2020 awardee on this website by the date of (December 15, 2020). 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.
It is recommended that you prepare all the elements of the application in advance. Do not start the application if you do not have time to finish it. Wait until you have time to complete the application in one session.
Scholarship Dates and Deadlines
September 1, 2020: Next Application period opens. Apply Here (opened Sept 1, 2020)
October 4, 2020: Application period closes
The Chervinsky Scholarship awardee for 2019 was Michelle Rogers-Pritzl.
The three other finalists were Fatemeh Baimoradi, Kate Miller Wilson and Manon Van Scoder.
John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship awards 2019 Press Release
2020 Jurors and their websites:
Michelle Rogers-Pritzl
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The 2019 award for the John Chervinsky Emerging Scholarship went to photographer Michelle Rogers-Pritzl. View Michelle Rogers-Pritzl’s website which takes you off our site.
The judges, said, “Michelle’s modern adaptation of the antique tintype process mirrors her emergence from a fundamentalist marriage. The intense imagery of Not Waving But Drowning aptly illustrates her personal experience of abuse within her marriage.
Rogers-Pritzl’s photographs demonstrate her potential for depth and sophistication. Bodies of work that resonate such as Not Waving But Drowning, linger long past viewing and expose some sort of truth. Done well, the complexities of human nature unfurl in a different way as time is spent with each image. The layers of what is lost, and what is found, while exploring the implications of evangelical marriage, are masterfully handled with a gentle directness.
As jurors, we believe Pritzl will continue to develop photographically. We are excited to watch her work continue to make its way out into the world. It needs to be seen.”
Michelle Rogers-Pritzl submitted Not Waving But Drowning for consideration for the scholarship. Rogers-Pritzl says of the body of work:
“Not Waving But Drowning is a look inside an Evangelical marriage. These images show the truth of a life lived in the confines of oppressive gender roles, cult-like manipulation, and the isolation of Fundamentalism.
Each image is equivalence for the unseen, for the reality behind facade. Despite the smiles and appearance of perfection, Complementarianism is an abusive system in which a wife serves her husband as a helpmeet, remains silent, and prays for her spouse to become a better man.
I use self-portraiture to share my own experience within the Fundamentalist Lifestyle without being explicitly autobiographical. My chosen medium of collodion used with contemporary digital media represents the outdated behaviors and rules imposed on women by Fundamentalism.”
Michelle Rogers-Pritzl’s Statement of Purpose:
“Since I began graduate school in Boston in 2012 I have been on a journey of deconstruction of faith and reclaimation of my life for myself which catapulted me into a divorce in 2014. I knew then that I would eventually tell the story of this final step in leaving behind the faith I was raised in and an abusive situation. Not Waving But Drowning tells the story of my marriage and my escape. It is my own stand against oppression of any people by religion or other factors.
Although my work has been about my own journey I believe in the power of photography to change and empower people. I feel that it is more important than ever to stand up and tell my story openly. When I left my husband many people believed I should run away and hide in shame. Instead, living the life that is right for me, free from the stifles of religion has brought me joy I never imagined.
I want to share my photography with a larger audience, and to continue developing my career as an emerging photographer. The grant money would allow me to finish printing and framing this series, which would enable me to exhibit the series in its’ entirety.”
Image above of John Chervinsky © L. Barry Hetherington
The links below are to the 2016 – 2019 press releases and links to juror statement 2016.
2016 press release
2017 press release
2018 press release
2019 press release
