Marie Barbier
Photo Editor
CNN Digital
New York City, NY, United States
cnn.com
cnn.com/world/photos

Marie Barbier is a Photo Editor for CNN Digital, where she cultivates the visual coverage of current events, breaking news, long-form articles and live stories, along with the production of photo galleries and interactive projects. A graduate from the Sorbonne University in Paris, she previously held roles in photo agencies as well as in book and magazine publishing, where she commissioned original photography, oversaw photo shoots and managed meaningful content research, selection and curation.

Her work as part of CNN Digital’s photo team has contributed to enhancing visual storytelling and engagement on the network’s digital platforms on a variety of news and feature topics, analysis, and in-depth profiles, with a special focus on business and socio-economic stories (labor and workforce, cost of living, climate and environment, media, technology, innovation and more), and a strong interest in how events impact individuals, communities and society.

Barbier is particularly keen on reviewing original and timely editorial bodies of work that are completed or near completion, in all kinds of fields and subject matters. She is open to reviewing multimedia work, but is not interested in commercial work.

Mary Bisbee-Beek
Independent Book Publicist
READ/SEE
Portland, OR, United States
marybisbeebeek.com

Mary Bisbee-Beek has worked in book publishing for the greater part of 40+ years, with added experience as a photo archivist at The Oakland Museum, and the director of The Cartoon Art Museum in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a book publicist, her clients often include photographers, as well as poets, literary novelists, and creative non-fiction authors.

In addition to book publicity, the Read/See office actively concentrates on Publishing Sherpa services which help authors and photographers gain perspective about audience, publishers, and strategic next steps whilst they are planning a publication project. The Sherpa often makes introductions to editors, writers, and potentially interesting associations with publishers and event venues. Clients of Bisbee-Beek have included Phaidon Publishing and Schilt Publishing, clients of Kehrer Verlag and University of Georgia Press, and other independent entities.

FOCUS: Bisbee-Beek is open to all genres of work including social documentary work, art photography and nature photography. Her feedback centers on a portfolio’s content, focusing on editorial and publishing advice with an eye toward publication and possibly exhibition.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

William Boling
Publisher, Fall Line Press
Atlanta, GA, United States
falllinepress.com

William Boling is an artist, writer, photographer and publisher. In 2011, Boling founded Fall Line Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to limited edition photo and art books, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Boling lives with his family on a small farm near Milledgeville, Georgia where he specializes in near misses.

Marina Chao
Curator
The Center for Photography at Woodstock
Kingston, NY, United States
cpw.org

Marina Chao is a curator at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, in Kingston, NY. She has previously held curatorial positions at the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She was awarded a 2019 Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for a project exploring the intersections of image, language, and technology.

FOCUS: Chao is particularly interested in seeing conceptual, feminist, and research/archive based work.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Kathy Cho
Curator-in-Residence
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
Omaha, NE, United States
bemiscenter.org
kathycho.info

Kathy Cho (she/they) is a curator who produces exhibitions, events, images, and writing to collectively archive loose narratives of lived experiences. Ongoing research includes expanding the visual and dialogic lexicon of (Asian) diaspora artists, and exploring the physical and digital architectures of affect.

She received an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, was a Curatorial Intern at Tate Modern in 2018, and the 2020-2021 Curatorial Fellow at The Kitchen. She is currently the Curator-in-Residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, and has previously contributed to art ecosystems in New York, London, Philadelphia, Chicago and online.

FOCUS: Cho is particularly interested in reviewing work that explores physical/digital space and identity, and work that expands the conceptual and material issues around photography. They are not interested in reviewing heavily edited images with digital effects.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Paris Chong
Gallery Manager & Curator
Leica Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, United States
leicagalleryla.com

Paris Chong is the gallery director of the prestigious Leica Gallery Los Angeles. With over two decades of experience as a curator, she has represented galleries and artists at events, including Photo LA, Photo SF, Paris Photo, Paris Photo LA, and The Palm Springs Photo Festival, in addition to promoting Leica Gallery Los Angeles at international shows such as Art Basel and Photo Paris.  

Chong has also served as a respected and sought-after portfolio reviewer for The International Photography Awards (IPA), LACP, Photoville, The Palm Springs Photo Festival (PSPF), Rencontres de Arles, PISPA, Exposure LACP, Focus photo l.a., OpenWalls Arles, Photolucida, ASMP, and the ongoing Meet the Curator portfolio reviews for Leica Akademie USA.  

Chong's extensive involvement in the art community has seen her coordinating intimate and large group events at Leica Camera’s flagship store in West Hollywood. These events have featured celebrated artists, from the legendary Henri Cartier Bresson and Sebastiao Salgado to contemporary powerhouses such as Neal Preston, Julian Lennon, Lenny Kravitz, Maggie Steber, Mary Ellen Mark, and Ralph Gibson.   

Chong also gives back to the community on multiple levels, such as serving as a Board Member for The Foundation for The Aids Monument (FAM), a nonprofit formed to secure funding for a memorial monument in West Hollywood and The West Hollywood Design District (WHDD).   

Further to her philanthropic side, Chong curates still life photography showings for The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) at its historic Hollywood headquarters.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Whitney Cole
Gallery Director, Candela Books + Gallery
Richmond, VA, United States
candelagallery.com

Whitney Cole is Gallery Director of Candela Books + Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. She has a BFA in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University and over ten years of experience working within various fields of photography.

Candela is a commercial fine art photography gallery holding 6-10 exhibitions a year for regional, national, and international artists. The gallery program seeks to elevate the discourse around contemporary photography through compelling narratives and concepts with an emphasis on science and politics, as well as experimental applications of the photographic medium, including alternative processes, cameraless photography, and mixed media works. Notably, Candela hosts an annual (free) open call called UnBound!, which serves as a survey of the medium in the moment and offers an additional collection opportunity to accepted artists.

Candela has published ten books over thirteen years, working with their roster of featured gallery artists to publish and exhibit projects including Chris McCaw’s Sunburn, 100 Views of the Drowning World and Dr. Falke’s Oraculum by Kahn & Selesnick, and most recently, Memory Orchards, an anthology about photographers and their families.

FOCUS: Whitney is interested in reviewing work that utilizes experimental applications of the photographic medium, especially those featuring unique photographic objects or strong conceptual threads. As a small operation, Candela is very selective about publishing, but Whitney is happy to give guidance about layout and sequencing for artists working on book projects.

She prefers not to discuss conceptually weak nudes, nor travel portraits of people who "look interesting." In other words, she is not interested in work that could be considered exploitative of the subject.

LANGUAGE PROFECIENCY: English

Alyssa Ortega Coppelman
Independent Photo Editor and Photobook Consultant
Austin, TX, United States
alyssacoppelman.com

Alyssa Ortega Coppelman is an independent photo editor and photobook consultant based in Austin, Texas. For two decades, she served as half of the art department at Harper’s Magazine, most recently as Deputy Art Director. Currently, she is Art Editor at the Oxford American, which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2016 and has been nominated thrice since in that category. She is also the Archival Producer on the Emmy-nominated PBS NewsHour series, Brief But Spectacular, for which she sources creative visual accompaniment for short interviews with a wide variety of guests. Several artists she has pitched have been guests on the show.

Working directly with photographers, Alyssa provides oversight in editing, sequencing, design, and editorial aspects of photobook projects and portfolios. Alyssa serves as guest lecturer to undergraduate and graduate photography students, and enjoys the intensity of teaching day-long photo editing workshops.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Hernease Davis
Assistant Curator of Education and Public Programs
Visual Studies Workshop
Rochester, NY
vsw.org

Hernease Davis joined the Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) as Assistant Curator in 2021. VSW, founded in 1969, nurtures experimental and expansive approaches to photography and media arts, and builds community among artists and the public through exhibitions, publications and esidencies. Hernease develops  programming that focuses on contemporary conversations in the photographic arts.

Hernease is most interested in reviewing works that push the boundaries of photography and use the medium as an expressive form. She is most interested in abstraction, alternative processes, the use of vernacular, photography that incorporates other mediums, and expansive approaches to traditional genres (i.e. landscape, portraiture, documentary, still life, etc). She is particularly interested in subjects around autobiography, diasporic community conversations, immigration, migration and de-colonialism. Hernease is also an actively exhibiting photo-based artist, and is open to reviewing ongoing, unfinished bodies of work that would benefit from discussions around exhibition or process strategies.

Crista Dix
Executive Director, Griffin Museum of Photography
Winchester, MA
griffinmuseum.org

REVIEWING SATURDAY ONLY

Crista Dix is the Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography, assuming that role in January of 2022 after two years as the museum's Associate Director. The Griffin Museum of Photography produces approximately fifty exhibitions annually in its Winchester and satellite galleries across New England. In 2024 the museum created new residency programs, scholarships and public art projects as part of the  museum’s mission to enhance our connection to photography and outreach to our artists, patrons and public.

Before coming to the Griffin Museum in 2020, Ms. Dix spent fifteen years operating her own photography gallery, wall space creative, closing it in 2020 to make the move to New England and the Griffin. In addition to curating exhibitions and mentoring photographers, she has written essays about photography, been a member of panels and discussions on the craft, juried creative competitions, and has participated in major portfolio reviews across the country.

The Griffin Museum is thrilled to be looking toward the future of contemporary works and projects revolving around photography. Our exhibition programs aim to bring photography off the walls supporting experiential and immersive projects. Ms. Dix is open to view all types of photography, including moving images, installation and public projects. She is open to providing feedback on projects not yet completed and answering questions concerning next steps for projects or series not yet realized.

LANGUAGE PROFECIENCY: English

Steven Evans
Executive Director
FotoFest
Houston, TX, United States
fotofest.org

Steven Evans is a curator and director of the award-winning organization FotoFest, based in Houston, Texas. FotoFest created the first and longest-running international biennial of photography in the U.S. He is responsible for its artistic direction, exhibitions, programs, and Biennial.

Evans has organized and co-curated many exhibitions for FotoFest, including the FotoFest Biennial 2024 Critical Geography, Biennial 2022 If I Had a Hammer, Biennial 2018 India: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art, and Biennial 2016 Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet. He co-edited their respective related publications and FotoFest’s book African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other (2020) and Velvet Generation (2019).

FOCUS: Evans is looking for bodies of work with a well-defined purpose, fully formed or near completion, either in still photographs, video, or new media. He is particularly interested in work that addresses identity, technology, social awareness, gender, and/or sexuality.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Jon Feinstein
Curator and Co-Founder
Humble Arts Foundation
Seattle, WA, United States
jonfeinstein.com
hafny.org
instagram.com/humbleartsfoundation

REVIEWING SATURDAY ONLY

Jon Feinstein is a curator, photographer, writer, and co-founder of Humble Arts Foundation. Jon has curated countless exhibitions for over 15+ years at galleries and institutions, including: Photoville; Blue Sky Gallery, PDX; The Ogden Museum in New Orleans for PhotoNola; Photographic Center Northwest; Colorado Photographic Arts Center; and Barclays Arena in Brooklyn, NY for ArtBridge. He is a recipient of the 2019 BlueSky Curatorial Prize and the 2021 Peter S. Reed Photography Grant. His writing on photography has appeared in VICE, Aperture, The Adobe Blog, TIME, Photograph, Hyperallergic, and Lenscratch.

FOCUS: Feinstein is particularly interested in reviewing art photography, conceptual work, social documentary, portraiture, still life, collage, landscape, and video. He is not interested in reviewing nude portraits of women by straight male photographers.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Stephen Frailey
Founder and Editor
Dear Dave, magazine
New York City, NY, United States
deardavemagazine.com

Stephen Frailey is a photographer, writer and educator, and is the founder and editor of Dear Dave, magazine since 2007. A book of his short essays about contemporary photography, Looking at Photography, was published by Damiani Editore in 2020.

He was the Director of the photography program at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College from 1998 to 2004, and was the Chair of the BFA Photography and Video Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1998 to 2018. He is the co-founder of the MPS Fashion Photography Program at the School of Visual Arts and created the Auction for Photographic Education in Afghanistan to create a photography department at Kabul University in 2003. He is a Chair Emeritus of SVA The School of Visual Arts.

His work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the International Center for Photography, New York; the Princeton University Art Museum; the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University; and Vassar College. He has received two MacDowell Colony Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and an Aaron Siskind Foundation Grant. His critical writing on photography has appeared recently in Artforum, Aperture, The Brooklyn Rail, Frieze and photograph magazine.

FOCUS: Frailey is interested in reviewing all genres and sensibilities, and work that is original, surprising, and undermines conventions. He is not interested in clichés.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Jennifer Friess
Associate Curator of Photography and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, MI, United States
umma.umich.edu

REVIEWING FRIDAY ONLY

Jennifer M. Friess (she/her) is the associate curator of photography at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She joined UMMA in 2016 as the museum’s inaugural curator of photography and has since curated numerous exhibitions on themes of memory, place, and identity. Jennifer's current exhibitions feature a commission by Andrea Carlson that surfaces histories and futures of Indigenous sovereignty and displacement in Michigan and the first solo exhibition of artist Jarod Lew that explores how photography functions as a repository of personal and communal histories.

FOCUS: Jennifer is interested in reviewing projects in all stages of development by photographers who are open to a dialogue about their conceptual and formal choices; she can share insights into display modes, socialization, and contextualization. She is not interested in reviewing commercial photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English

Erica Garber
Vice President of Development and Public Programs, CatchLight
San Francisco, CA, United States
catchlight.io

REVIEWING FRIDAY ONLY

Erica Garber is the Vice President of Development and Public Programs for CatchLight, a visual media nonprofit that leverages the power of visuals to inform, connect, and transform communities. She leads efforts to fund CatchLight’s Global and Local fellowships and organizes public programs such as the annual Visual Storytelling Summit (San Francisco) and Night of Photojournalism (Paris). She has worked in the arts for 15+ years in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, organizing exhibitions and public programs at the Museum of the African Diaspora, and has worked as a curator with private collections. She curated exhibitions including: Envisioning Jazz, works by Kwame Brathwaite (Columbia University), Claiming Space (Third Text Africa), and exhibitions at MoAD including: Decoding Identity: I Do it for my People, American Icons: Bay Area, and Sacred Arts of Haiti. She has reviewed portfolios at National Geographic Summit, Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, and PhotoAlliance reviews.
In 2011, she was awarded a OYASAF Fellowship to study contemporary art in Lagos, Nigeria. She earned a BFA in Art Education at the University of Arizona and a MA in Modern Art History: Critical and Curatorial Studies at Columbia University.

Garber is particularly interested in reviewing work by artists who are exploring how they can connect their work with different audiences through experiences, activations, and public exhibitions.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Photo by Christopher Michel

Viviette Hunt
Director
Richard Levy Gallery
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
levygallery.com

For over 2 decades, Viviette Hunt has served as director for Richard Levy Gallery. Although the gallery represents diverse mediums, photography has been heavily represented in the gallery program since the doors opened in 1991. During her tenure, Hunt has supported artists by providing strategic opportunities for exposure in New Mexico, online and within the international marketplace. She has curated approximately 250 gallery exhibitions and pop up events within the state of New Mexico and has attended or exhibited at more than 200 international art fairs throughout the world. In addition to selling art to the collectors and institutions, Hunt is a fine art archivist and independent consultant.

Hunt leverages art and creativity for positive impact and is dedicated to providing visibility for artists working with social justice and climate awareness within the commercial market. She is currently most interested in reviewing work by artists exploring concepts of restoration, regeneration, interconnectivity, and interdependence through an artistic lens whether achieved by documentary, conceptual or more experimental practices.

LANGUAGE PROFECIENCY: English

Haley Berkman Karren
Founder & Director, Karren Art Advisory
Houston, TX, United States
karrenartadvisory.com

REVIEWING FRIDAY ONLY

Haley Berkman Karren is an art advisor, appraiser, independent curator, and writer. She is the also Founder and Director of Karren Art Advisory, where she specializes in modern and contemporary art, photography, and digital art. She enjoys working with artists to place their work in collections and to create site-specific commissions.

She has previously held curatorial positions at the Menil Collection; the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Department of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Pentagram Stiftung, Venice. She also has previous experience in auction houses, galleries, and art consultancies. She holds a B.A. with honors in Art History and Archaeology from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.A. in the History of Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she focused on contemporary art and photography.

Karren is interested in reviewing conceptual photography, documentary photography, and work that utilizes historic and alternative processes. She prefers seeing portfolios that feature work from at least one resolved project, but is also happy to speak with emerging photographers. She is interested in speaking with photographers who are considering NFTs and would like to learn about the NFT space.

Language proficiency: English

Nick Larsen
Managing Editor
Radius Books
Santa Fe, NM, United States
radiusbooks.org

Nick Larsen is an artist and book editor living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He studied at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Ohio State University, where he received his MFA in Sculpture.

Larsen has had over a dozen solo and collaborative exhibitions, including Old Haunts, Lower Reaches (Nevada Museum of Art, 2024), and has participated in many notable group exhibitions, including several editions of New American Paintings. Since 2022, he has been the managing editor at Radius Books, a non-profit art book publisher in Santa Fe, where he has overseen the publication of over forty-five photography, fine art, architecture, and poetry books.

FOCUS: Larsen is most interested in reviewing fine art photography and mixed media work incorporating photographic processes. He prefers not to review photojournalism or strictly documentary work.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Wiktoria Michałkiewicz
Founder and Talent Agent
REZO Agency
Lisbon, Portugal; Warsaw, Poland; Stockholm, Sweden
rezo.pl/en
@wiktoriami | @rezo.agency | @rezo.artadvisory

Wiktoria Michałkiewicz, PhD is an interdisciplinary expert and creative entrepreneur with extensive international experience in talent development, talent management, creative strategy, and photography. Alongside her academic achievements—holding five degrees from six European universities, including a PhD in Sociology—she has established a career as a contributing editor for prestigious international magazines like National Geographic, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue. In 2022, Michałkiewicz founded REZO, a consulting agency specializing in global career strategies for visual artists, talent development, international art PR, and art advisory services. Operating globally from Lisbon, Warsaw, and Stockholm, she often works with prestigious international art events, galleries, organizations, and venues as a contributor, jury member, speaker, and consultant.

Michałkiewicz has also excelled as a film and photography producer and exhibition curator, playing pivotal roles in producing and curating exhibitions for renowned artists and collaborating with international festivals and institutions. She has worked with some of the most celebrated photography artists, including Deborah Tuberville, Sebastião Salgado, Paul Nicklen & Cristina Mittermeier, Ralph Gibson, Mary McCartney, Ragnar Axelsson, Paul Hansen, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Bastiaan Woudt, Paolo Verzone, Ciril Jazbec, and Cooper & Gorfer, among others. In one of her roles, she was part of Fotografiska Stockholm and Fotografiska International, contributing to its global expansion to Tallinn and New York. She serves as a judge and nominator for international photography awards and as a portfolio reviewer at international festivals, including the Prix Pictet, Xposure International Photography Awards, and Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography, among others. She often shares her know-how during workshops and masterclasses for institutions such asHouston Center for Photography and the World Press Photo Foundation (Joop Swart Masterclass).

FOCUS: Michałkiewicz is most interested in completed projects that are ready to be exhibited, as she can help artists create strategies for exposing the work effectively in an international context. She also has interest in socially and environmentally engaged work. Michałkiewicz is less interested in projects in very early stages of development.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Polish, Swedish

Laura Noble
Founder and Director
L A Noble Gallery
London, United Kingdom
lauraannnoble.com
@lanoblegallery
@lauraannnoble

Laura Noble is the founder and Director of L A Noble Gallery in London (LANG), launched in 2012, and FIX Photo Festival since 2016. She is also a multidisciplinary artist, curator and author of The Art of Collecting Photography, with primary essays in many photobooks including monographs, catalogues and anthologies alongside articles for numerous journals worldwide. She is a proud feminist and is currently working on a new book focusing on the role of women in the photography industry. As an avid collector, Laura prides herself on discovering new talent, also lecturing and consulting on all aspects of collecting photography, professional and gallery practice globally.

Laura is a nominator for the Prix Pictet Prize, and a judge for many photographic competitions and residency programmes worldwide. She reviews at photo festivals globally.

Laura curates at LANG and independently worldwide for museums and other art organizations. Her recent curation includes LANG artist’s: Wendy Aldiss My Father’s Things – Oxford, Roy Mehta Revival London 1989-1993 - Brent Museum and Archives Magazzini Fotografici in Naples with Chris Steele-Perkins work Japan and the 50th Anniversary of Rencontres d’Arles at the MRO Foundation, Yvonne De Rosa Negativo 1930 as well as the curation of the prestigious London Art Fair Photo50 exhibition Occupy the Void, were received with much critical acclaim.

With a commitment to emerging photographer’s L A Noble Gallery offer regular portfolio reviews, mentoring and bespoke consultations for artists. L A Noble Gallery also participates and exhibits at several photography fairs and festivals worldwide.

Laura loves to see all types of photography and photobooks including nudes, however minus misogyny.

Maarten Schilt
Founder, Publisher and Gallerist, Schilt Publishing & Gallery
Amsterdam, Netherlands
schiltpublishing.com

Schilt Publishing is a publisher of high profile journalistic, documentary and art photography books. Schilt Publishing is also the long-term publishing partner of World Press Photo. Since 2010, Schilt Publishing has co-published the Biennial catalogues of FotoFest, Houston. From 2014 on this cooperation has extended to co-publishing comprehensive overview books about the themes of the Biennials (2018: INDIA/ Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art). In the spring of 2017, a cooperation started with LensCulture, resulting in the books The Best of LensCulture Today, Volumes 1, 2 & 3. Ingram Publisher Services distributes Schilt Publishing in North America. Thames & Hudson distributes our books in all other countries of the world.

In 2013 Schilt Gallery was erected, a logical next step which provides an even broader basis in the international photography world. Spring 2017 we decided to merge the publishing house and the gallery into Schilt Publishing & Gallery.

Maarten Schilt reviews portfolios at esteemed photo festivals all over the world.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: Fluent in Dutch, English, and German; adequate knowledge of French and Italian

Sandra Stevenson
Deputy Director of Photography
The Washington Post
Washington, D.C.
washingtonpost.com
sandramstevenson.com

Sandra M. Stevenson is an award-winning Writer, Visual Editor and Curator in the photography department at The Washington Post. As a deputy director of photography, she manages a team of picture editors who work on International, Climate, and Health + Science.

Prior to joining The Post, Sandra was an associate deputy director of photography at CNN, where she managed picture editors who curated the home screen, edited stories and newsletters, as well as special projects. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Editor who oversaw digital photo editors on the news desk, and worked on visual content for Race/Related and the Gender, in addition to exclusive projects such as "Overlooked" and “This Is 18.”

After receiving a BA in English from Syracuse University, Sandra spent four years working at NBC – first as a Page and then working on various news programs. From there, she became the program coordinator for the Black Filmmaker Foundation. During her time there, she held a deep commitment to helping people of color enter the film industry at various levels.

Sandra then returned to the news industry, by taking on a position at The Associated Press, where she spent eight years moving up from photo assistant to overseeing photo news coverage for Latin America and the Caribbean. She also took time to work on and an advanced degree in multimedia from l’Universite Toulouse in France.

Sandra was a contributing writer in the book Unseen: Unpublished Black History from The New York Times Photo Archives. She was the picture editor and co-curator on the book This Is 18.

FOCUS: Stevenson is particularly interested in reviewing documentary and multimedia work.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, French

Monica Suder
International Coach to Creative Professionals
San Francisco, CA; Freiburg, Germany
monicasuder.com

As an international creative consultant and career coach commuting between Europe and the United States, Monica Suder assists photographic artists in carving out a strong creative identity, developing original websites and highly personal fine art projects, such as books and exhibitions. She edits portfolios and helps photographers connect with publishers, galleries and institutions.

She brings to her multi-cultural consultancy over 40 years of professional experience. She has been an award-winning photo editor, director of photography and consultant. As an editor, she worked at Magnum, Time-Life Books, Rolling Stone, and Outside Magazine. She has been a guest lecturer at the School of Visual Arts and has presented workshops and lectures on creativity.

Over the years, Monica worked with some of the world's legendary photographers and artists such as Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Andre Kertesz, Peter Beard, Ernst Haas, Rene Burri, Marc Riboud, as well as some of the old Life Masters, who introduced her to the art of a strong edit.

Suder has been a portfolio reviewer at the Rencontres in Arles, France for over 10 years and many other events in the US and in Europe. She is a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California.

FOCUS: Monica is interested in any original fine art project, and work by artists using photography as a tool to create work outside of convention. She is not interested in still life, fashion or nude photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, German, French

Johan Trujillo
Independent Cultural Strategist, Researcher, Curator and Educator
Mexico City, Mexico

Johan Trujillo Argüelles (Mexico City, 1983) is a Mexican cultural strategist, researcher, curator, and educator whose reflections on imagery are inspired by the figure of the blind photographer. She has helped strengthen skills for formulating solid cultural initiatives and visual discourses, while disseminating and reflecting on contemporary Mexican photography through exhibitions, publications, educational programs, and networking events. She is co-author with Gerardo Nigenda of the photobook Triálogo (The Third, 2023), which was a finalist in the author's book category for the Prix du Livre 2024 at Les Rencontres d'Arles 2024 (France). She led the Centro de la Imagen as Director (2020–2024), having previously held the position of Head of the Education Department (2012–2017). She has served as a jury member, portfolio reviewer, and speaker at contests and festivals in Mexico and internationally.

Trujillo is open to review any type of photographic work.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English and Spanish

Gary Van Zante
Curator of Photography, Art & Design
MIT Museum
Cambridge, MA, United States
mitmuseum.mit.edu

Gary Van Zante has been curator at the MIT Museum since 2002, where he has also been interim Director of Exhibitions, Director of the Wolk Gallery and, since 2012, curator of the Kurtz Gallery for Photography. His exhibitions in the Kurtz Gallery have ranged from American daguerreotype portraiture, Bauhaus photography and monographic exhibitions on György Kepes and Berenice Abbott, to contemporary photography of place. He curated the first American solo exhibitions for many European photographers including Joël Tettamanti, Gabriele Basilico, Patrick Tourneboeuf, Mila Teshiaeva, Júlio de Matos, and Ulrich Wüst.

Van Zante has recently been visiting research professor at the University of Paris VII Diderot. He has been contributing curator for exhibitions at the Photography Collection/August Sander Archive, Cologne; the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow; Huis Marseilles photography museum, Amsterdam; Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA; and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

He has published articles and books on these topics, including a monograph on the nineteenth century photographer Theodore Lilienthal (Merrell, 2008); essays on the photographers Berenice Abbott (Mapfre, 2019; Ryerson Image Centre, 2022); Harold Edgerton (Steidl, 2019); and on Polaroid photography (Thames & Hudson, 2017). His monograph on the Berlin photographer Ulrich Wüst (Kerber, 2022) was recently recognized with an honorable mention in the annual book prize for 2023 of the Photography Network, College Art Association. His latest publication is an essay on the work of German photographers Ute and Werner Mahler (Ein Dorf 1950–2022, Hartmann, 2024).

FOCUS: Van Zante is especially interested in photography of place, urban and architectural photography, and scientific photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Asha Iman Veal
Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Photography
Chicago, IL, United States
mocp.org

REVIEWING FRIDAY ONLY

Asha Iman Veal is Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Her exhibitions Beautiful Diaspora/You Are Not the Lesser Part and LOVE: Still Not the Lesser brought together cross-diasporic conversations between global artists Xyza Bacani, Widline Cadet, Sunil Gupta, Ngadi Smart, and more; and celebrations of love and desire by Jorian Charlton, Jess T. Dugan, Mous Lamrabat, and others.

She has curated exhibitions for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and more. Her biennial exhibition and radio-broadcast series RAISIN vol 1. commissioned several new artworks and generated community among more than 30 global artists including Işıl Eğrikavuk, Amanda Williams, and Tintin Wulia; and was featured by international cultural organizations such as Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam and Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago. Veal has worked on projects and/or arts research in the United States, Asia, Europe, and South America.

Asha Iman is additionally Associate Professor Adj at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she's expanded direct curricular links to global arts and culture discourses by inviting and hosting more than 100 virtual and in-person discussions with guests such as Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, the late Bisi Silva, and ballet dancer, movement adviser for robot technology David Ennio Minor. Additionally, Veal bridges interdisciplinary relationships between the arts, government, corporate, and nonprofit sectors through her role as a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action (EU/UK/US), BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, and Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Emerging Leader. Veal was a board member at Experimental Sound Studio.

Asha Iman is not interested in reviewing sex scenes or nudes that are intended to satisfy the photographer's own social fetish.

NOTE FROM MEETING PLACE STAFF: Photographers, if this is the type of work you intend to show, please email Sarah Ansell to let her know so she can ensure that you will not receive an appointment with Asha.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

The Meeting Place Virtual Portfolio Review is open to lens-based and image-based artists and photographers who seek feedback on their portfolios and have at least one complete or very near-complete body of work ready for exhibition or publication.

Participating photographers must have access to an internet connection, a computer with a reliable webcam, microphone, and speaker, and a workspace free from distractions.

Each virtual review lasts 25 minutes with scheduled breaks in between.

Your registration to the Meeting Place Virtual Portfolio Review comes with several benefits beyond meeting with top Reviewers. All participating photographers receive:

• Free access to training sessions (covering best practices for virtual reviews, navigating screen sharing and showing portfolios on Zoom, and testing Zoom functions)
• Free access to live Q&As with program facilitators
• Inclusion in a digital Photographer Catalogue (provided to all Reviewers and participating photographers and made available for public view on FotoFest’s website)
• Eligibility to have your portfolio considered for the next iteration of FotoFest’s exhibition, Ten by Ten: Ten Portfolios from the Meeting Place

Present your portfolio in the way you feel most comfortable navigating. Examples include showing your portfolio in PDF form in Adobe Acrobat, JPG form on your computer’s native image viewer, or any image form in Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, or another software.

We recommend presenting your portfolio in PDF form due to its ease of navigating and ability to be emailed to potential collaborators.

All virtual reviews will be held via Zoom using the share-screen function to view the portfolio(s). Learn more about screen sharing on Zoom at this link.

Participating photographers can select their preference of Reviewers using our Reviewer preference ranking system, which will be available starting in late January. You will be asked to rank your top 15 Reviewers in order of preference, with #1 being your first choice.

All participating photographers will be listed in a digital Photographer Catalogue provided to all Reviewers and participating photographers and made available for public view on FotoFest's website. Each participating artist is represented with an image of their work and their contact information.

The Photographer Catalogue is an important reference material created by FotoFest staff for each in-person and virtual portfolio review. It is a resource for each photographer's contact information, social media, and website. Reviewers frequently utilize this visual compendium to familiarize themselves with your work and as a tool for networking.

Refunds will be processed with a 15% fee. Please allow up to two weeks for refund processing. No refunds will be given after January 15. Registrations to the Meeting Place Virtual Portfolio Review are non-transferable.

We look forward to helping you! Read All About Portfolio Reviews or contact Maureen "Mo" Munley, Program Associate of the Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews, at maureen@fotofest.org or 713.223.5522 ext 13.