Still Life: Elevating the Mundane

Juror: Kimberly Witham
Gallery exhibition: September 5 - 29, 2018

Juror's Statement

Still life is a deceptively difficult subject to capture well. In order for an image to be successful, light, composition, color, line, texture, and form must all work seamlessly to elevate simple objects to something more. In making my selections, I first looked for skillful use of light. Some of the images I selected have dark or moody light while some have a brighter more cheerful tone. In each of the selected works, the light evokes an atmosphere or feeling that contributes to the success of the piece. On a personal level, I am attracted to beauty, whimsy, mystery and humor. I am looking for images with a story to tell. 

In jurying this exhibition, I was impressed by the creativity, technical skill and passion evident in the images submitted, and I thank all of those who shared their imagery with me. If your work was selected – congratulations!  If your work was not chosen, don’t despair. At the end of the day a juror is one person looking over thousands of images to select a handful for an exhibition. 

    – Kimberly Witham

Call for Entries

Still life images pepper our lives. Eyes linger on objects that catch the light, or on curved lines that flow against a harder edge or a blank wall. Within stillness, texture, color, subject, light, and shadow all intertwine to tell a story. Something happened here. Something was left.

Whether found or created, still life images may become quiet and powerful forms of personal expression. A compelling photographic still life will make us pause to look at what might have been considered mundane. For this exhibition, we seek images that represent subjects in new and interesting ways, and that perhaps push the limits of what we might consider “still life.”

We are very pleased that Kimberly Witham will be jurying and curating this exhibition. She will select approximately 35 images for exhibition in the gallery, and 35 for our Online Gallery Annex. The recipients of the Juror’s Award and the Director’s Award will each be entitled to a personal portfolio review by Ms. Witham.

See Kimberly Witham's website here.

About the Juror

Kimberly Witham was born and raised in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She earned a BA in Art History from Duke University and an MFA in photography from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Her photographs are strongly influenced by her studies in art history and her interest in the natural world. Since moving to New Jersey in 2006, her work has focused on the relationship between humans and wildlife. Her still life images include road kill animals, yard sale items, and flowers and fruit (often grown in the artist’s own garden).

Her work has been featured in Color Magazine, PHOTO+, BLOW photo,The Photo Review, BLINK, Foto and Wired (online) and has been used as cover illustration for books in the US and France. In 2016 National Geographic created a short film about Kimberly’s studio practice entitled “Making Roadkill Into Art.” She has won awards and grants including the Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Award, a fellowship at the Center for EmergingVisualArtists,an Honorable Mention for the Clarence John Laughlin Award and the Lindback Distinguished teaching award. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad and is held in numerous private collections. Kimberly is represented by KLOMPCHING Gallery in Brooklyn, Soren Christensen Gallery in New Orleans, and Gallery Kayafas in Boston.