School of Art + Design announces call for entries for Alternatives, international juried photography exhibition

The School of Art + Design announces a call for photographic work for the upcoming exhibit "Image as Object: The Tangible in the Intangible,” a presentation of Alternatives, a biennial juried exhibition organized by Ohio University’s MFA Photography + Integrated Media graduate candidates. The exhibit, which will run in the Ohio University Art Gallery from Jan. 24 through Feb. 17, 2023, is looking for photographic work that considers the object-ness of the image. Submissions will be accepted through Sept. 25, 2022 and can be submitted online here.

Through the means of photography and visual media, we commemorate — a moment, a place, a person, a thought, a feeling, a concept. We work to recuperate and reimagine memories, dreams, and facades. How do photographs and their ‘object-ness’ memorialize that which is otherwise always in flux? What are we trying to hold onto, if anything, in our images?

Alternatives seeks submissions of poignant works that explore the artist’s interpretation of ‘image as object’, the physical manifestation of that which can’t otherwise be pinned down — the tangible in the intangible. Artists working broadly within the spectrum of image-based media, including conventional and non-traditional photographic processes, moving images and installations are welcome. 

In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of events will be presented as part of the opening festivities, as well as an artist talk by juror Deborah Orloff at Mitchell Auditorium on Feb. 17, 2023, to coincide with the show’s closing reception. 

Originally from New York City, Orloff moved to Ohio to accept a teaching position at the University of Toledo. She is currently a tenured professor and associate chair of the Department of Art where she is also head of Photography and Digital Media. She received her MFA in Photography from Syracuse University and her BFA from Clark University. Although her primary medium is photography, she has also worked in video and installation. Her artwork has been included in numerous exhibitions at national and international venues which include: the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Toyohashi Museum of Art & History in Toyohashi, Japan, The Museum of Fine Arts in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland. Orloff's ongoing series, Elusive Memory, was recently selected for inclusion in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's Midwest Photographers Project. 

Orloff has been the recipient of dozens of grants and awards, including corporate sponsorship by Hahnemühle Paper, the Ohio Arts Council’s 2019 Individual Excellence Award, and the University of Toledo’s 2021 President’s Award for Excellence in Creative and Scholarly Activity. See more of her work at deborahorloff.com.

Since its beginning in 1980, Alternatives has achieved national recognition for its leadership in forging new definitions in the medium by emphasizing the work of photographers in the conceptual forefront of the practice. The Alternatives Biennial is funded by the legacies of Clarence White—founder of the historically renowned Clarence White School of Photography in New York—and his son, Clarence White Jr., who re-established the school at Ohio University in 1948, creating the first degree-granting program in photography at a major university in the country. 

Follow along on Alternatives Instagram page: @Alternativesphoto. 
Find out more about the Ohio University Art Gallery in Athens, Ohio here or on Facebook: @ohiouniversityartgalleries or Instagram: @ohiouniversityartgalleries

For more information about the exhibit, contact oualternatives2023@gmail.com, or Annie Eversz, MFA Candidate in Photography + Integrated Media Program at the Ohio University School of Art + Design, by email at ae669420@ohio.edu.