Juror's Statement 

There is a nostalgic feeling that I get when looking at a black & white photograph. Having studied the masters who came before me like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Harry Callahan, to Ralph Gibson and Jerry Uelsmann, and eventually owning prints by all of them seems so unreal. An older photographer that I once represented through my gallery, by the name of Harold Feinstein, told me that a good black-and-white photograph has all the colors of the rainbow. And I guess that’s how I see it as well.

But we live in a world that is oversaturated with visual imagery and moving pictures. They come in the forms of magazines, billboards, television, and most prominently through images that pop up on your handheld devices. Monochrome photographs help to give our eyes a break from the norm. They shake things up—they offer a perspective that is real, yet not. Sometimes it’s surreal.

There are things of this earth that baffle me, especially when I see them in photographs: unexplained patterns, the unwanted and discarded, the abstract, and the things that occur due to the celestial powers that only Mother Nature can explain.

To make my selection for this exhibition, I viewed over 2,500 photographs, many based in nature—trees, bodies of water, snow, sand, and animals. What struck me the most was that patterns played a large role in the things that you photographed—multiples, designs, the interplay of light and shadow, etc. This is something that I would always look for, too, when I was a photographer, then a collector, a gallery owner, and as an educator. Photographer Tina Barney once told me to look for patterns, shapes, and colors as they will help to train your eye to move through pictures and connect pictures to one another. This tip was specifically important to me when sequencing photographs in a gallery setting or when publishing a book.

Take for instance this pair of images by Matthew Norman and Beth Robbins. The waves of sand in one image versus the waves in the ocean—both create a ripple effect from the wind’s force, but on a vastly different scale. Over time, these waves change the shape of our landscape—dunes become rolling hills or deserts, while oceans erode coastlines. When I saw these two images side by side, it was uncanny how close they looked to one another.

Another thing I’d like to mention—it delighted me to see so many photographs that were an homage to some of the greats who have come before us like Ansel Adams, Andre Kertesz, and Edward Weston. I cannot tell you how important it is to know who came before you so that you can use their images as a reference point for your own picture-making process.

I’d like to leave you with two things to think about that you should all take to heart as you go forward with your photography:

1.) The more personal the photography project is to you, the better it will come across to your viewing public.
2.) What is it that you want the viewing public to know or learn from looking at your photographs?

I wish you all the best in the future. Be bold and continue your journey. It’s only just begun.

  -Jason Landry

About the Juror

Jason Landry is an independent curator, photography collector, and consultant with a BFA in Photography and an MFA in Visual Arts. He is the former Owner and Director of Panopticon Gallery in Boston, MA and the former Director of the MFA in Photography program at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Jason has participated in numerous portfolio review events in the past including FotoFest, LensCulture Paris, Photolucida, PhotoNOLA, and Atlanta Celebrates Photography.

He has curated and juried numerous exhibitions locally and nationally for places including the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Flash Forward Festival, and Long Beach City College. His publishing projects include the monograph Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective with Nazraeli Press and was an advisor on the publication, Rebirth of the Cool: Discovering the Art of Robert James Campbell by Jessica Ferber.

He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Photographic Resource Center and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA and was a past commencement address speaker at the New England School of Photography.

Most recently Jason juried the 2024 Massachusetts College of Art & Design 7th Alumni Biennial Exhibition for his alma mater and began consulting on a monograph for a former National Geographic photographer.

Call for Entries

Monochrome: Light, Shadow, Form, and Texture

In a world saturated with color, there is something timeless and powerful about the monochrome image. Stripped to its essentials—light, shadow, form, and texture—black-and-white photography invites us to see differently. It distills the world into tone and emotion, allowing mood and meaning to rise to the surface.

For this juried exhibition, we seek photographs that celebrate the monochrome palette in all its forms—from deep blacks to silvery grays, soft sepias to high-key whites. Whether analog or digital, documentary or abstract, we welcome images that embrace the expressive range of monochrome photography.

All photographic styles and processes are welcome.

We are honored to have Jason Landry as the juror for Monochrome. He will select up to 35 images in our Middlebury, Vermont Exhibition gallery and another 40 images for our Online Gallery. All 75 images will be reproduced in the exhibition catalog and remain permanently on our website, and be promoted on social media with links to photographers' URL. 

Submission Fee: $39 for 5 images, $6 for each additional image

Find more information about submitting your images here.

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