September 1 – September 30, 2025
The Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 New England Portfolio Review Scholarship Program. Read below to learn about their projects.
Since 2009 the Griffin Museum has created a gathering space bringing reviewers and photographers together from New England and beyond for two days of discussion, networking, and gaining fresh perspective on one’s work.
NEPR serves photographers who are just embarking on their careers, and more established photographers, all hoping to reach new audiences and gain fresh perspective on their work.
The online format allows for an expansion of participants in volume and in location including reviewers such as gallerists, book publishers, museum professionals, critics, educators and advisors from all over the world who provide guidance and potential opportunities to grow artist practices.
Lauren Bertelson
Lauren Bertelson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist whose image-based work examines vision, familial dynamics, and the limitations of photographic representation through a combined photographic and sculptural practice. She is a recipient of the 2022 SOURCE Grant to develop Like Mother, Like Daughter, which centers on the generational obligations and rewards stemming from traditions and norms of domesticity.
Bertelson holds a BFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University and is actively pursuing an MFA in Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at Light Work, Studio 1608, Target Gallery, and other locations across the US.
Project Statement
Closed Loop | Double Vision (in progress) is a series of photographic self-portraits and image-objects that focus directly on photography and its entanglement with the construction of self and body. The camera is understood as both a tool that creates accurate, concrete evidence and a weapon that produces decontextualized fragments of time mutable to a desired narrative.
The pervasiveness of both the camera and its output are active elements that structure our lives and deeply influence our psychic space. Through an experimental cycle of photographing, collaging, shaping, and then re-photographing, the resulting image-objects toy with our understanding of photography as static and question what it means to be a photographed subject in our contemporary moment.
Jordin Tovin
Jordan Tovin (b. 2004) is an Atlanta-born documentary photojournalist currently based in Washington, D.C., where he is a senior pursuing a BFA in photojournalism at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University. His work focuses on uncovering human stories, creating meaningful photographs that highlight everyday moments within traditionally overlooked communities. With an intimate and respectful approach, Jordan seeks to give these moments the attention and dignity they deserve.
Project Statement
A Shaw Diary is a project meant to highlight the experience of one family, living in subsidized housing, navigating the indeterminate future of their neighborhood consumed by the effects of gentrification. Only ten blocks away from the White House, the historic Shaw neighborhood once stood as the cultural hub of Washington, D.C. Yet today, much of that same community that gave D.C. its identity is being pushed to the city’s periphery, as their homes, histories, and futures are threatened by the forces of redevelopment and displacement.
While the impact of gentrification reverberates across Shaw, this project seeks to explore how one multigenerational family stands as a mirror to the city’s shifting landscape. Rooted in the neighborhood for decades, their lives trace a story of endurance: of holding memory against demolition, of sustaining community against erasure. Their experience is not singular, but symbolic—echoing countless others who remain, fighting to preserve what is still theirs even as the ground shifts beneath them.
As Reece, the mother, put it, “We’re an average family trying to live through this whole situation, and we still try to be fly. We do. We still try to make sure we have our Uggs, our Jordans, and our North Faces on, but that shit hard… That shit hard.”
Kylee Sheehan
Kylee Sheehan is a Boston based portrait photographer working towards her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Her work documents the essence of human presence and connection. Each composed frame is an exploration of the intricate tapestry of emotions, stories, and vulnerabilities that define us as individuals. She is an award recipient from Copley Society of Art, the Gertrude Kasebier Prize from the photography department, and received a Gold Key from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Kylee is currently working at the Museum of Fine Arts.
Project Statement
If a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?
Kylee Sheehan
I have always found myself drawn to documenting people, specifically those existing on the fringes of society. In my work, I focus on stories told through experiences, struggles, and resilience, because I believe the power of photographs is to shed light on unique individuals.
The biggest example in my life, who has become central in my work, is my sister, Grace. She is transgender, navigating the complex journey of a major change. Grace’s story is deeply personal, and photographing her has allowed me to witness not just her transformation, but the subtle moments that make up her life. I have chosen to capture her in long exposures—moments emerging from the darkness, offering a glimpse into her identity, growth, and vulnerability. This work celebrates the complexities of self-discovery and the quiet power that comes from standing in one’s truth.
Within this journey of photographing Grace, she has prompted me to confront my own identity. I am challenged with questioning how I reflect my individuality; being adopted from China, unknowing of my birthplace, birth day, and birth parents, I struggle to dive inward with who I am or who I could have been. Grace has empowered me to take hold of my identity and push my own narrative.
In this project, I offer a space where Grace’s journey can be understood and celebrated, illuminated both literally and figuratively as she takes each step toward becoming her truest self.
Madelyn McKenzie
From Brockton, Massachusetts, Madelyn McKenzie comes from a short line of artists consisting of her father and grandfather, an analogue photographer. Thanks to her younger twin sisters and first camera, Madelyn’s love of portraiture grew quickly into a ceaseless obsession. Her work is often close-up still life when not portraiture, and Madelyn has enjoyed turning the camera around for self-portraits in which she becomes the alluring subject and observant viewer. Her work is inspired by Greek mythology, Bauhaus photography, and her experiences as a big sister. When not in the darkroom, Madelyn can be found tap dancing, crafting, or video chatting with her sisters and guinea pigs.
Project Statement
My photographic practice is rooted in an ever-lasting desire to know and steeped in an affinity for the human experience. Though portraiture is a practical tool and self-portraiture yields fruitful results, and while my camera is drawn to humans, my eyes yearn for the intricacies of still-life. For me, it is the objects we surround ourselves with that closely reflect our selves, rather than the humans amongst whom we concoct a self.
This series of photographs dives into the proliferation of the internal, personal self and the external, personable self, as well as the collapse of the self entirely into mere shared experiences. Mirrors and other reflective methods, referencing early 20th-century lesbian photography, speak to the discovery and construction of one’s inner self. This never-ending journey is, rather than self-absorbed, a radical act of dynamic creativity in a period fraught with short-lived trends fueled by mass production. Ultimately, these photographs respond to the question, “Which is the true self: the internal or the external?” by suggesting “both, and neither.”
Virginia Hanusik
Virginia Hanusik (b. 1992) is an artist and writer whose projects explore the relationship between landscape, culture, and the built environment. Her work has been exhibited internationally, featured in The New Yorker, Aperture, National Geographic, British Journal of Photography, Places Journal, The Atlantic, MAS Context, and Oxford American among others, and supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Pulitzer Center, Graham Foundation, Landmark Columbus Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. She regularly writes and speaks on landscape representation and the visual narrative of climate change, and is on the board of directors of The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans where she coordinates multi-disciplinary projects on the climate crisis.
Hanusik has been a recipient of the Decade of Change Award (2020), a Photography Fellow with Exhibit Columbus (2020-2021) where her multi-year project on the Mississippi River watershed explored the history of flooding and politics of disasters in the region, a Rising: Climate in Crisis Resident at Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods (2022), and a Creative Capital Award finalist (2022).
Her book, Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana (Columbia University Press, 2024), was shortlisted for the 2024 Paris Photo-Aperture First Photobook Award.
Rory McNamara
Rory McNamara is a photographer and printmaker from Amsterdam, New York. She earned her BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and is now living in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is pursuing her MFA in Print Media and Photography at Boston University. McNamara has exhibited her work at the William Harris Gallery and at RIT City Art Space, both in Rochester, New York, and the Leica Gallery in Boston. Her work was also featured in editions 17, 18, and 19 of DRAFT Magazine. McNamara has received various awards and scholarships including the RIT Presidential Scholarship, the RIT Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award, and the Constatin Alajalov Scholarship. Her current body of work explores the external world and how it becomes representative of her own internal landscape.
My current body of work is an exploration of my internal landscape as a means to better understand myself. As I move through the physical space that I occupy, I notice the environment transforming in tandem with my mind and body. I see myself reflected in my surroundings. A swarm of bugs quickly flying through the air speaks to the ways in which I feel restless, as if I am constantly trying to keep up with those around me.
My camera acts as a window not only into the world, but into myself. I use it to visualize these moments of isolation and transition where I am often unsure of what comes next. An image of a lonely house sitting on a hill among hundreds of dark trees and a thick layer of fog becomes a self-portrait—one that represents my own feelings of seclusion. In some of my images, I create a vast distance between myself and my subjects, giving weight to the emptiness. In others, I examine the microscopic, looking at my subjects through a magnified lens, similar to how I look at myself. This contrast in looking emphasizes how we perceive the world around us as well as ourselves.
The external world begins to represent my own internal landscape, challenging the viewer’s perceptions of place and the natural world. This exploration aims to reveal the dichotomy between comfort and fear as I search for contentment in the unknown around me.
Michael Totten
Michael Totten is a Los Angeles-based photographer whose work delves into the complexities of memory and space through constructed environments and portraiture. A graduate of Art Center College of Design with a BFA in Fine Art Photography, Michael’s practice interrogates how we reconstruct and reinterpret past experiences. His images explore the nuanced boundaries between reality and imagination, questioning the veracity of memory and focusing on the narratives we craft for emotional resonance. His Craigslist project, which began with spontaneous photo sessions of strangers, developed into an exploration of shared narratives, shifting from impromptu encounters to curated scenes that reflect the intricate dance between reality and constructed moments.
Carlos Paronis
Carlos Paronis is a recent graduate from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography in 2024. Born in Guatemala and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts at a young age. He merges conceptual and documentary work together to share real stories, feelings and experiences. Carlos enjoys experimentation in his photographic practice and likes to merge his work with other art mediums such as collage and sculpture.
Carlos Paronis (Cambridge, MA) creates work aiming to boost representation of individuals and communities that are often overlooked. His main focus has been a project about where he grew up, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The city is home to a diverse community that is slowly being pushed out by the increase in bio-tech companies moving into the city. He finds interest in the social dynamics of Cambridge. Although the city acts progressive, it often undermines the real problems many people face. These problems are due to the changes it allows and other issues it overlooks. By photographing the people who have lived in the city for generations he hopes to create representation and records of the beautiful community that makes Cambridge the unique city it is.
Along with the portraits he has also been creating layered images using a “Trichromatic” process. He does this by stacking photos taken from the exact same spot, but months apart. The photos are of new construction which produces vivid colors that stand out amongst parts of the landscape that haven’t changed. This is in order to show how the new buildings in the city often feel alienated and out of place.
Owen Dominguez
Artist Bio: Owen Dominguez is a student and photographer working with both digital and analog camera processes. Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, he began taking photos at age nine using a small digital point-and-shoot camera. Playing various sports throughout his childhood, he became drawn to sports photography in high school, continuing in the space to the present day. Upon arriving at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, he began working with analog cameras and developing his own black-and-white film. His most recent work is a collection of images from University Park, a public park across the street from the Clark campus. His photography has been featured in multiple galleries in Worcester, as well as Worcester Magazine and the Worcester Telegram. He is currently a junior at Clark University.
Project Statement
From early September of 2024 to August of 2025, I began almost daily walking across the street from the campus of Clark University to the aptly named University Park. Some days the people of the park would draw me in, others it would be the animals, and sometimes it would be as simple as the foliage. I grew very close with the park, learning the names of many frequent basketball players, or knowing when the geese would be most active on the water. I found University Park to be an encapsulation of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, all of its good with all of its bad. For almost a year, all of it was for me to see.
Liangsi Wang
Liangsi Wang is a photographer based in Medford, Massachusetts. Born and raised in Xi’an China, and a recent graduate of Sheridan College, Ontario, he is pursuing an MFA at Tufts University.
Project Statement
This project is based on a dream the artist had. An exploration of the uneasy space between fiction and reality. A tribute to the moon, home and memories of honey cakes.
