Imagined Realities 2014

Jurors' Statement

We would like to thank each artist/photographer who put themselves and their work out there for this process. It has been an honor reviewing your works.

Let's face it, originality is hard work. Acting as jurors, we sifted through hundreds and hundreds of submissions. This was no easy task as we relied on our collective judgment. So which images made the cut? As usual images that grabbed our attention, gave us pause, and offered a new view into another reality, either disturbing or sublime, never boring or derivative.

     - Shana and Robert ParkeHarrison

About the Jurors

The photographs of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have been displayed in 18 solo exhibitions and over 30 group shows worldwide. Their work can also be found in over 20 collections, including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and the George Eastman House.

Their book, The Architect’s Brother, was named as one of 'the Ten Best Photography Books of the Year' of 2000 by The New York Times.

My photographs tell stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration within landscapes scarred by technology and over-use…. [I] strive to metaphorically and poetically link laborious actions, idiosyncratic rituals and strangely crude machines into tales about our modern experience. —Robert ParkeHarrison

Many of his images are of ParkeHarrison himself, in costume and interacting with specific scenes, objects, and landscapes. Due to this aspect of performance in the images, they can be viewed as part stand-alone photographs, part documents of a singular instance of performance art.

"We create works in response to the ever-bleakening relationship linking humans, technology, and nature. These works feature an ambiguous narrative that offers insight into the dilemma posed by science and technology's failed promise to fix our problems, provide explanations, and furnish certainty pertaining to the human condition. Strange scenes of hybridizing forces, swarming elements, and bleeding overabundance portray Nature unleashed by technology and the human hand.

Rich colors and surrealistic imagery merge to reveal the poetic roots of the works on display. The use of color is intentional but abstract; proportion and space are compositional rather than natural; movement is blurred; objects and people juxtaposed as if by chance in a visual improvisation that unfolds choreographically. At once formally arresting and immeasurably loaded with sensations—this work attempts to provide powerful impact both visually and viscerally."

See their work at https://www.parkeharrison.com/.

Call for Entries 

Photography has always had strong links to the imagination. From the work of early practitioners like Julia Margaret Cameron to the highly esteemed work of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, artists have found countless ways to extend the recording function of the camera into the realms of the fantastic and the surreal. For the juried exhibition IMAGINED REALITIES we sought photographs that combine the real world with the imagined one in any form. Constructed images, historic processes, digital alteration, and multi-media work were all welcome. 

We are thrilled that Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison were the jurors for this exhibition. Internationally known, the ParkeHarrisons have exhibited their work around the world in a variety of solo and group exhibitions. Their books, The Architect's Brother and Counterpoint have become photo classics.

The ParkeHarrisons chose 40 photographs for display at PhotoPlace Gallery. They also selected 35 additional photographs for the gallery's Online Annex. All selected work will be included in a full-color exhibition catalog available for purchase. To help artists defray costs, PhotoPlace Gallery offers to mat and frame work selected for exhibition free of charge, providing artists print their images to our pre-cut mat and frame sizes.