Juror, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography for the New York Times Magazine says, “The photographers I selected for the 19th juried exhibition of the Griffin Museum have this in common: faith in photography’s ability to tell stories.”

“Their pictures make the reader listen. Some construct fictional narratives to deliver a social critique. Some use classic documentary methods. These photographers aren’t upending the medium,”she says. “They are embracing its documentary powers.”

Ryan served as juror of the 19th Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition, which is on display in the Main Gallery of the museum July 18 through September 1. An opening reception is July 18, 7-8:30 p.m.

Ryan says that “the usual mix of photographic genres was submitted to the competition.”
“Portraiture, landscape, still lives, and interiors are all here,” she explains.

There was a common element that Ryan noticed, too. She says, “Domestic life dominated the submissions and is well represented in this exhibition. There are lots of details of the interiors of homes—refrigerators, TVs, clothing, beds, flowered wallpaper, and windows. Sometimes there are people, presented feelingly.”

Of the Legacy Award recipient Ryan says, “Sarah-Marie Land’s elegant pictures of children in school uniforms are hypnotic thanks to the odd tension between their grown-up poses and warm, innocent surroundings. There is a hint of something sinister—perhaps naughty—behind these simple, precise pictures.”

Julia Cybularz, the Griffin Award recipient, “achieves something unusual,” says Ryan. Of her photographs she says that they are “beautiful pictures of a young girl dueling with a serious medical condition. She doesn’t intend to shock. Yet with exactitude, she portrays the back brace and body cast—the realities of scoliosis. We are surprised, and not surprised, to find that she suffers from the same condition.”

Sarah-Marie Land received the $1,000 Legacy Award. Julia Cybularz received the $500 Griffin Award. Honorable mentions were awarded to Juan Fernandez, Nancy Grace Horton, Mary Kocol, Monika Merva, and Joseph Ow.

The complete list of photographers selected for the exhibition is:
Bob Avakian
Margo Cooper
Francis Crisafio
Julia Cybularz- $500 Griffin Award
Barbara Diener
Steven Duede
Christian Farnsworth
Juan Fernandez- Honorable Mention
Emily Franklin
David Gardner
Eran Gilat
Meg Griffiths
Nancy Grace Horton- Honorable Mention
Daniel Jackson
Becky Jaffe
Phil Jung
Brian Kaplan
Ashley Kauschinger
Stefanie Klavens
John Kobeck
Mary Kocol- Honorable Mention
Alena Kuzub
Molly Lamb
Sarah-Marie Land- $1,000 Legacy Award
Walter Landry
Julie McCarthy
Mary Beth Meehan
Yvette Meltzer
Fabiola Menchelli Tejeda
Monika Merva- Honorable Mention
Charles Mintz
Sarah Nesbitt
Joseph Ow- Honorable Mention
Camilo Ramirez
Suzanne Revy
Michelle Rogers Pritzl
Eleonora Ronconi
Paul Sisson
Elizabeth Swain
Samantha VanDeman
Arthur Zachai
The Griffin Museum of Photography has selected four photographers from the submissions for future exhibitions in 2014:
Paul Adams
Manuel Cosentino
Marjorie Salvaterra
Rafael Soldi