Nadine Barth
Director, barthouse
Berlin, Germany
barthouse.de

Nadine Barth is a curator, editor, and art advisor. With her agency barthouse, founded in 2006, she cultivates publications, organizes exhibitions and cultural events while working for companies, publishers, galleries, museums, and other institutions. Recent exhibitions curated by Nadine Barth include Ellen von Unwerth: Devotion – Thirty Years of Photographing Women at Fotografiska Stockholm, as well as the brand new Fotografiska New York, and Bling Bling Baby! for NRW-Forum Dusseldorf and Museum Hilversum, Amsterdam. With her expertise, she has been involved in over 100 art books to date. Recent publications include Inez & Vinoodh: I See You in Everything (2019) and This Place (2019), featuring works by Wendy Ewald, Stephen Shore, Thomas Struth, and Jeff Wall, among others. Nadine Barth also heads the photography program for the art publisher Hatje Cantz.

Barth is interested in reviewing landscape, cityscape, and documentary photography with a strong visual language. She likes fashion photography when it flirts with art without becoming too commercial. She is not interested in conceptual abstract works, photoshop experiments, videos, or nudes.

She can provide curatorial insight for portfolios and book projects, guidance on the art market, and in the best case scenario, opportunities to take part in exhibitions.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: German, English

Alexa Becker
Editor & Independent Publishing Consultant
Kehrer Verlag
Heidelberg, Germany
kehrerverlag.com
alexabecker.de

Alexa Becker is a freelance representative for Kehrer Verlag, a Germany-based international publisher focusing on photography and art. In her position as Acquisitions Editor, she was responsible for selecting and acquiring new photography-related projects for the publishing house. Whilst representing Kehrer Verlag on occasions like portfolio reviews, Alexa is an independent freelance consultant, advising and coaching photographers in various stages of their careers. Her expertise ranges from publishing & bookmaking to editing and promoting the work internationally.

Alexa serves as juror for several leading photography competitions and has been a reviewer at international portfolio reviews since 2008.

Alexa is particularly interested in reviewing documentary and personal work. She is not interested in reviewing commercial work.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, German

Fabian Goncalves Borrega
Exhibitions Coordinator, Art Museum of the Americas
Washington, D.C., United States
museum.oas.org

Fabian Goncalves Borrega is primarily interested in reviewing developed and innovative bodies of work. All types of imagery are welcome for review, from documentary to landscape, still life to conceptual, including artist books. Aside from offering criticism and critique of the photography itself, its technique and conceptualization, Mr. Goncalves Borrega will evaluate whether the artworks are suitable for a solo or group exhibition at the AMA Photo Gallery. As part of the Organization of American States (OAS) Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), the Photo Gallery serves to promote the core values of the OAS by providing a space for dialogue and learning, highlighting themes such as democracy, development, and human rights.

LANGUAGES PROFICIENCIES: English, Spanish

Rafael (Rafa) Cruz
Photographer, Art Museum of the Americas
Washington, DC
museum.oas.org
rafacruz.com

Rafa Cruz began his career as a commercial photographer in his beloved Puerto Rico. He developed his craft as a portrait artist, photographing more than 200 weddings, working with companies such as Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy, Esposa Moderna Magazine, Airbus, and the Latin Chamber of Commerce of Washington, DC.

Since 2016, he has worked with the AMA | Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States (OAS), Washington, DC, photographing hundreds of modern and contemporary artworks of the Americas for art criticism books, archival databases, exhibition catalogs, and other publications. He travels frequently, documenting cultures near and far from an anthropological, spontaneous, human perspective.

LANGUAGES PROFICIENCIES: English, Spanish, basic Italian

Jessi Bowman
Founder & Director
FLATS
Houston, TX, United States
flatspresents.com

Jessi Bowman is a Houston-based photographer, curator, and arts organizer dedicated to building sustainable, community-centered spaces for lens-based artists. She served as Exhibitions Manager at Houston Center for Photography for eight years, where she organized numerous exhibitions and public programs. Her experience also includes work with other notable institutions such as FotoFest International, United Photo Industry, and Project Row Houses, helping to shape programming that centers artists and audiences alike.

In 2016, Jessi founded FLATS, a nomadic exhibition series that has since evolved into Houston’s only community darkroom and photo lab. Under her leadership, FLATS has grown into a vital hub for Southern photographic artists—offering film processing, printing, exhibitions, workshops, and public programs. The space is known not only for its technical resources, but for its commitment to accessibility, inclusion, and community.

Jessi is also the Founder and Editor of FLAT Files, the only magazine dedicated to highlighting photographers and writers from the American South. Now in its fifth issue, FLAT Files has become a platform for emerging and established voices, celebrating the unique visual language and cultural nuance of the region.

Her passion lies in forging collaborative partnerships, bringing art into non-traditional spaces, and creating infrastructure that supports long-term artistic growth in the South. Whether through curating exhibitions, publishing artists, or developing public programs, Jessi’s work is rooted in a deep commitment to place, memory, and the power of photography as a tool for connection.

Jessi is particularly interested in reviewing work by photographers who are from, living, or working in the American South. Her focus is on helping to create a stronger home for Southern lens-based artists. She is drawn to work that engages with themes of Southern identity, culture, geography, memory, and history—as well as more aesthetic or formally driven projects rooted in the region.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Madison Brown
John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Curatorial Fellow in Photography
Harvard Art Museums
Cambridge, MA, United States
harvardartmuseums.org

Madison Brown is a writer and curator who specializes in the history and theory of vernacular media cultures. Situated at the intersection of photo archives and everyday life, her work explores the politics of visual culture through questions of memory, absence, and power differentials. Madison received her Ph.D. in Screen Cultures from Northwestern University and is currently the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Curatorial Fellow in Photography at the Harvard Art Museums.

Madison likes to look at everything, but she is particularly interested in discussing the conceptual and historical elements of work that engages historical archives, questions of documentary ethics, and mixed media approaches. She is also interested in projects related to home, family, and autobiography, broadly construed.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, French

Julie Castellano
Director
Edwynn Houk Gallery
New York City, NY, United States
houkgallery.com

Biography Forthcoming

Renaikha Cruz Fermin
Executive Director
SF Camerawork
San Francisco, CA, United States
sfcamerawork.org

Biography Forthcoming

Mia Dalglish & Lisa Woodward
Co-Curators
Pictura Gallery at The FAR Center for Contemporary Arts
Bloomington, IN, United States
thefar.org/pictura-gallery

Lisa Woodward and Mia Dalglish work collaboratively as Co-Curators for Pictura Gallery, a non-profit contemporary photography space housed in the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts in Bloomington, IN. They have worked together for 15 years, producing a wide range of exhibitions and advising photographers through different phases of their careers.

Dalglish and Woodward are open to projects with the capacity to push past the boundaries of the frame and into broader installations. Pictura looks for opportunities to pair its photography shows with other creative mediums for some unexpected collaborations with poets, chefs, dancers, musicians, etc.

They are particularly interested in seeing excellent craft, a balance of aesthetic and conceptual concerns, emotionally meaningful work with well-considered ideas. They are not so interested in reviewing still life projects of personal artifacts from the past, nudes, or strictly commercial work. They can offer critique and feedback to strengthen work aesthetically and conceptually. They can sort a new edit for consideration and help talk through ideas for display. Projects do not need to be completed to be considered but must show a high degree of thought and cohesion.

Woodward and Dalglish are looking for exceptional projects for the gallery’s 2027 exhibition programming and the Curious blog. If the work is a good fit for the gallery, exhibition opportunities may be offered at a later date. They welcome photographers to bring any specific questions or goals to their session.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Arturo Delgado
Curator, ALMANAQUE fotográfica
Mexico City, Mexico
almanaquefotografica.com

Arturo Delgado is the founder, director and curator of ALMANAQUE fotográfica, an art gallery and contemporary art agency dedicated to contemporary photography and its intersections with the arts, presenting more than 40 international awarded artists in more than 20 exhibitions, collaborating with museums and institutions including the Victoria & Albert Museum London, Centro de la Imagen Museum, IPC, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico as well as numerous magazines including Aperture, Photography is Art Honk Kong and Aesthetica. Almanaque’s group show “Gender Blurred,” curated by Arturo, was nominated “Best International Photography Gallery Exhibition” at the Lucie Photo Awards NYC.

Delgado studied Law and holds postgraduate degrees in Critical Studies of Visual Arts, Cultural Management, Literature, and a Masters in Contemporary Arts from the Australian National University. Prior to working as a cultural promoter for the last 15 years, Delgado was a diplomat, an attaché to Mexico while in Australia, Director of the Centro Cultural del Bosque, and Head of Office for Mexico’s Undersecretary of Culture.

In addition to authoring many articles, Delgado has also written a book, titled Horror al vacío: (arte contemporáneo en ciudades variegated), which was published in 2017 with the Textofilia publishing house. The book was presented at the Tamayo and the Guadalajara International Book Fair in 2017. His contemporary art radio magazine, Lo Sonado, which was broadcast for five years on Horizonte 107.9 FM of the Mexican Institute of Radio, won him the first place award of the International Radio Mexico Biennial in 2006. He has also been a professor at the Centro and CIDE universities in Mexico City.

Arturo is particularly interested in reviewing new media, expanded photography, photo-sculpture, abstraction, and staged photography, as well as series previously shown at museums, institutions or galleries, single works, and awarded series and portfolios. He is not interested in reviewing photo books, travel photography, or personal diaries.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Spanish

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

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. She is not interested in reviewing nudes or figure studies.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Jennifer Friess
Associate Curator of Photography
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
umma.umich.edu

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 recent exhibitions featured a commission by Andrea Carlson that surfaced histories and futures of Indigenous sovereignty and displacement in Michigan and the first solo exhibition of artist Jarod Lew that explored how photography functions as a repository of personal and communal histories. Her next project features the work of photographer and artist Terry Braunstein.

Jennifer is interested in reviewing projects in all stages of development by emerging or established photographers who are open to a dialogue about the conceptual and formal choices and intentions surrounding their practice. I can provide insights into the strengths of projects, modes of display, socialization strategies, and the contextualization of your work. She is not interested in reviewing commercial photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Jens Friis
Independent Curator & Publisher
KATALOG – Journal of Photography & Video
Kerteminde, Denmark
katalog-journal.com

Jens Friis is an independent curator and publisher of the bilingual publication KATALOG – Journal of Photography & Video. Before becoming publisher in 2015, he was the editor of KATALOG, while also serving as curator of Museet for Fotokunst in Odense, Denmark, and artistic co-director of the museum’s photo festival FotoTriennale.dk from 2003-2016.

Now in its 37th year, KATALOG has an editorial “flexi-board” as well as contributors and subscribers from all over the world. The journal has been an international platform for projects such as Nordic Photo Festival Network, the Creative Europe partnership Parallel, and the international Fast Forward – Women in Photography, which was launched at Paris Photo and Tate Modern in 2019. The journal has collaborated with festivals in Braga, Cardiff, Glasgow, Houston, Landskrona, Lisbon, and more.

Friis has authored numerous articles and introductions, and has contributed to anthologies such as Danish Photographic History (2004) and The History of European Photography 1970-2000 (2016). Aiding the advancement of new talents, he has served on international nominating committees for awards such as Photo Lucida (Seattle), Voies Off (Arles), Kolga Tbilisi (Georgia) as well as on the advisory committee of the Spanish magazine EXIT. He holds a master’s degree in the History of Photographic Art.

He is interested in all types of photographic art. Since his debut as a portfolio reviewer at FotoFest in 2004, he has participated in more than 80 festivals and seminars sharing his knowledge, advice and connections, but also gathering valuable material for exhibitions and future issues of the journal KATALOG.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, German, Scandinavian

Aron Gent
Owner
DOCUMENT Gallery
Chicago, IL, United States; Lisbon, Portugal
documentspace.com

Biography Forthcoming

Angel Luis Fernandez Gonzalez
Director
Photo Ireland; International Centre for the Image
photoireland.org
image.museum

Biography Forthcoming

Rachel Hooper
Curator
University of Kentucky Art Museum
Lexington, KY, United States
finearts.uky.edu/art-museum
Learn more about Rachel Hooper's work and research on ORCID

Rachel Hooper, Ph.D. is curator of the University of Kentucky Art Museum, which is the primary caretaker of the Lexington Camera Club’s legacy. She organizes the UK Art Museum’s Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series and photography exhibitions drawn from the museum’s permanent collection. Recent exhibitions include Self and Others: Japanese Photography after 1968; In a Social Landscape: Nathan Lyons and American Photography after 1966; Zhang Huan: Ordinary Life; A-Tisket, A-Tasket: A Celebration of Black Girls and Girlhood; and Focus on Lexington: 100 years of Photography.

Dr. Hooper was previously an Andrew W. Mellon fellow in the photography department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, art editor at Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, and associate curator and Cynthia Woods Mitchell fellow at Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. She has contributed to For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979; Spot: The Journal of the Houston Center for Photography; and Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes.

She is interested in reviewing work that blends memory and imagination as well as images that are infused with personality and demonstrate conceptual rigor. Work related to archival, activist, and experimental traditions are especially of interest. As a museum curator, she would like to learn about histories, communities, and cultures she may not have seen authentically represented in museum exhibitions previously, and she can help photographers develop strategies for display and identify their unique achievements.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, French, German

Leo Hsu
Executive Director, Silver Eye Center for Photography
Managing Editor, Fraction Magazine
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
silvereye.org
fractionmagazine.com

Leo Hsu is interested in getting to know photographers. Relationship building and creative growth are core values of Silver Eye, which strives to make every exhibition engagement an opportunity for creative growth. Hsu is more interested in forming relationships with artists than he is in hearing pitches for shows that are ready to hang. He is interested in contemporary photography broadly, including traditional processes and mixed/multimedia work and photography in an expanded sense. He is interested in understanding what your work means to you and what it can mean to audiences – in work that you feel compelled to make, that speaks to your own experiences, and that you feel compelled to share. He is interested in recent work and work in progress, the work that you have focused on most intensely, and the project that you have under your bed.

Hsu prefers not to review fashion or architecture photography unless the work reflects some aspect of the photographer's own way of being more than it does norms and genre expectations. He may be interested in seeing older work if it helps him to understand your current direction, but generally he is less interested in work that is not ongoing or recent.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Mandarin Chinese

Arpad Kovacs
Associate Curator of Photographs
J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, California, USA
getty.edu

Arpad Kovacs is an associate curator in the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. His exhibitions have focused on twentieth century and contemporary photography, with a specific interest in conceptual practices and time-based media. He organized the monographic exhibitions Hiroshi Sugimoto: Past Tense (2014); Werner Herzog: Hearsay of the Soul (2014); Tacita Dean (2022); Uta Barth: Peripheral Vision (2023); as well as thematic shows, including In Focus: Animalia (2015); Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media (2017); Encore: Reenactment in Contemporary Photography (2019); among others. He is currently working on an exhibition and accompanying publication that will survey the work of German photographer Ursula Schulz-Dornburg. He is a graduate of Queen's University and York University.

Kovacs is particularly interested in conceptual photography, documentary photography, and process-based practices. He is not interested in reviewing commercial, wildlife, fashion, or editorial photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Celina Lunsford
Artistic Director and Chief Curator, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany
fffrankfurt.org

Celina Lunsford is a curator of photography and other media. She is the artistic director of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (FFF), a major photographic art center founded in 1984. Lunsford is responsible for the exhibitions program, the FFF Academy, and is co-curator for the RAY Triennale. Diverse global perspectives in photography have long been present in artists she chooses to exhibit or support.

Lunsford has been a juror and nominator for many prizes, including the Shpilman International Prize, Vonovia Award, Prix Pictet and the Deutsche Börse Photography Award; and has curated and written for other organizations such as Fundación Mapfre, Fundación Telefonica, Photography Festival Lodz and Lianzhou International Photography Festival. She writes for photographers and has mentored for Olympus Recommended Award, the Joop Swart Masterclass and ASEF (Asia-Europe Foundation) Forum for Photographers.

Recent publications include New Beginnings: Philippine Photographic Art (2025), Ideologies: RAY 2021 (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2021), Peter Fink. My Mind’s Eye (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2020) and Picture Languages, Photographic Art from Georgia (Societäts Verlag, Frankfurt, 2018).

Lunsford was 2010-2018 the Vice President of the DFA (German Academy of Photography). In 2022 Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences named her Honorary Professor.

Lunsford is particularly interested in reviewing long-term documentary photography, journalistic work, and investigative practices that reveal new information about its subject matter. She is also particularly interested in work from or related to the 1980s LGBTQ rights movement and NYC subcultures of the 1980s. She is not interested in reviewing commercial photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, German

Sameen Mahboubi
Curator of Exhibitions
Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
Toronto, ON, Canada
gallery44.org

Sameen Mahboubi is a curator and arts administrator based in Toronto (Tkarón:to). He is the Curator of Exhibitions at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, sits on the board of directors of Art Metropole and the editorial committee of Silverfish Magazine. Since 2021 Mahboubi has worked as a studio assistant and archivist for Michael Snow Studios and in 2019 co-founded Hearth, a DIY project space also in Toronto. Mahboubi is interested in ecology, geography, urbanism - and the relationships we all share with public space.

Mahboubi is particularly interested in reviewing work that uses experimental film and/or development processes.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Farsi, some French

James E. Maloney
Private Collector
Houston, TX, United States

*REVIEWING ON THE FOLLOWING DAYS:
- Friday, March 13
- Saturday, March 14
- Sunday, March 15

James E. Maloney is a private collector in Houston, Texas, and a practicing attorney specializing in trial work, which he has been engaged with for around 50 years.

Maloney became interested in photography in the late 1980’s and began to collect. He shortly thereafter became involved with FotoFest, and was at one time a member of its board of directors and the chairman of that board for some years. He was also a member of the advisory board at the Houston Center for Photography. Maloney became a member of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston photography subcommittee some 30 or so years ago and is presently co-chair of that committee. He is a Trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Maloney’s collection is a fair snapshot of 20^th century and early 21^st century photography from the United States and much of Europe. He has acquired quite a few pieces from the Meeting Place over the years. Some of his images have been exhibited by the MFAH, FotoFest and other institutions over the years.

Maloney is not interested in reviewing landscape photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Spanish

Anne Leighton Massoni
Executive Director and Curator
Houston Center for Photography
Houston, TX, United States
hcponline.org

*REVIEWING ON THE FOLLOWING DAYS:
- Friday, March 13
- Monday, March 16

Anne Leighton Massoni is Executive Director & Curator of the Houston Center for Photography (HCP) in Texas. Before joining HCP, she was the Dean and Managing Director of Education at the International Center of Photography in New York City. Massoni graduated with an MFA in Photography from Ohio University and BAs in Photography and Anthropology from Connecticut College. She co-edited The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography with Marni Shindelman in 2018; and has curated over twenty exhibitions including dust to dust, which included Christine Elfman, Granville Carroll, Jonas Yip, and Adrienne Simmons.

The Houston Center for Photography is an organization dedicated to the art of photography. Starting in 1981 as a small visual artists’ organization, its mission has always been to promote the art and practice of  photography in all its forms through various programs. HCP is comprised of three galleries and over 200 feet of linear exhibiting space, and located within Houston's Museum District.

Massoni is particularly interested in work that addresses identity, contemporary societal issues, and/or challenges the practice of photography through new or re-envisioned technologies.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Ben McBride
Curatorial Assistant, Photography
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, TX, United States
mfah.org

Biography Forthcoming

Jacqueline McGilvray
Curator & Exhibitions Director
Contemporary at Blue Star
San Antonio, TX, United States
contemporarysa.org

Biography Forthcoming

Mark Murrmann
Photo Director, Mother Jones
The Center for Investigative Reporting 
San Francisco, CA, United States
motherjones.com

Mark Murrmann is Photo Director at Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting. He oversees and assigns all photography for the website and magazine. He has been at Mother Jones since 2007, having previously been a freelance photojournalist and music writer. He teaches documentary photography at City College of San Francisco, is a writer, a former board member of SF Camerawork and remains an active photographer who regularly self-publishes photozines.

Murrmann is particularly interested in reviewing documentary projects, editorial work, and portraiture. He is especially excited to see works in progress, on which he can give constructive feedback regarding sequencing and editing, strategies for publishing, and guidance on exploring avenues to expand a project. He is not interested in reviewing architecture, landscape, or lifestyle photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Anne Nwakalor
Founding Editor and Curator
No! Wahala Magazine
Manchester, United Kingdom
nowahalamag.com
annealagbe.com

Anne Nwakalor is a British-Nigerian Curator and Writer within the art space. She is currently based in Manchester, UK and is the Founding Editor of one of Africa's first contemporary photography magazines called No! Wahala Magazine, which is a print photography publication championing authentic visual stories told by African creatives.

Her practice developed whilst studying a BA in Photojournalism and Documentary photography at the University of The Arts London and an MA in Media, Ethics and Social Change at the University of Sussex. Her interests revolve around ethical storytelling within the photography space, Afrofuturism, representation, and elitism within the art world alongside a range of other topics.

Nwakalor is a critical writer, usually writing on topics such as 'Othering' 'Exoticism' and Colonialism within the Photography industry, and a curator, curating photography exhibitions that showcase work from underrepresented photographers.

She frequently facilitates workshops on photography, ethical storytelling and printed media. She has sat on panels for numerous photography competitions, reviewed work at several portfolio reviews and has delivered presentations, talks and lectures at universities, exhibitions, art events and photo festivals.

Nwakalor is particularly interested in reviewing documentary photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Brian Piper
Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings
New Orleans Museum of Art
New Orleans, LA, United States
noma.org

Dr. W. Brian Piper is the Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), where he previously served as the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in Photographs. At NOMA his curatorial credits include Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers (2022), Picture Man: Portraits by Polo Silk (2022), Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything (2023), Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories (2018), and the forthcoming Show and Tell: A Brief History of Photography and Text (2024). Piper holds a PhD in American Studies from the College of William and Mary and has written widely on a variety of photographic subjects.

Piper is especially interested in new and emerging work, and developing projects that have a specific and cohesive point of view. Special areas of interest include: historically focused subjects; political and cultural inquiries; portraiture; landscapes; camera-less photography; work about everyday photography and histories of image-making. NOMA does not publish or acquire artist books or photobooks, so he is not particularly interested in reviewing those. He is not interested in overtly abstract work. Projects that are deemed complete, or that have no room for collaboration or future development are also of little interest.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Christopher Rauschenberg
Co-Founder, Board Chairman & Exhibition Committee Member
Blue Sky Gallery
Portland, OR, United States
BlueSkyGallery.org

Christopher Rauschenberg is co-curator and board chairman of Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Blue Sky was established in 1975 by Mr. Rauschenberg and four other photographers. Since then, Mr. Rauschenberg has co-curated 1,008 solo exhibitions by 829 different artists, plus 64 group shows. Mr. Rauschenberg has been a photographer since 1973 and has had 131 solo shows of his own work in eight countries.

Blue Sky Gallery is a non-profit artists' space which produces 22 solo exhibitions per year and an occasional group show. Over the last seven years, Blue Sky has produced 177 print-on-demand catalogs for our exhibiting artists. The gallery's focus and passion is on promoting emerging artists. Over the last 25 years, it has presented solo shows by over 200 photographers from festivals like FotoFest. Blue Sky has presented solo shows by artists from 46 countries.

While Mr. Rauschenberg likes to look at everything, Blue Sky does not tend to exhibit fashion or classic nudes, traditional portraits or traditional scenic photography (in the style of Edward Weston or Ansel Adams, for example). The many landscape and portrait exhibitions the gallery presents tend to have strong documentary and sociological content. As with all portfolio reviewers, you should look at our website to see if you and the gallery are a good match. Bear in mind that we are looking for coherent bodies of work, rather than isolated great pictures.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Marijana Rayl
Assistant Curator, Photography
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City, MO, United States
nelson-atkins.org

A happy generalist in the history of photography, Marijana Rayl is the Assistant Curator of Photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where she has curated the exhibitions More Is More: Reinventing Photography Beyond the Frame (2025), Still Performing: Costume, Gesture and Expression in Nineteenth Century European Photography (2024), and Cities Are for People: Street Photography 1945-1970 (2023). Current projects include Photography and Abolition in the Age of Pictures (2027, co-curator with April Watson). Rayl was previously a Curatorial Assistant in the Photography department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she contributed to numerous exhibitions of work by historical and living artists. From 2014-2018 she worked at Christie's and Phillips auction houses in New York as an Associate Specialist of Photography.

Previously, Rayl has held positions at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned her MA in Art History from the University of Arizona and completed Ph.D. coursework at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rayl enjoys seeing work/ideas in progress, discussing the relationship between subject and presentation, introducing historical context, helping edit or sequence, and providing insight into the needs and processes of large museums. Video and new media, fine art, documentary, and commercial photography all welcome. Rayl is less interested in pure landscape and traditional nudes.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Rixon Reed
Director & Founder
Photo-Eye
Santa Fe, NM, United States
photoeye.com
visualserver.com

Rixon Reed is the founder and director of Photo-Eye in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Established in 1979, Photo-Eye is the United States’ largest photography bookstore and one of the oldest in the world. Photo-Eye Gallery represents over 30 photographers and showcases many more online.

Photoeye.com is the premier photobook resource, featuring a database of over 34,000 titles. VisualServer.com, which is owned, developed, and managed by Photo-Eye, is a website creation tool designed to make it easy and affordable for artists and photographers to build and maintain their own professional websites.

Rixon has participated in over 15 portfolio reviews across the United States and internationally, including in France, Russia, and China. With decades of experience, he is interested in reviewing photobooks in various stages of completion along with original, contemporary photography for exhibition and representation. Alternative processes used in innovative ways are among his varied interests. He is not interested in reviewing commercial or fashion photography.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Mariana Rettore Baptista
Exhibitions Manager and Curator
World Press Photo Foundation
Amsterdam, Netherlands
worldpressphoto.org

Mariana Rettore is an Exhibitions Manager and Curator at the World Press Photo Foundation (WPPF), based in Amsterdam. She started in the position in 2023 and currently oversees the presentation of the annual World Press Photo exhibition in approximately 25 locations worldwide, as well as other curatorial projects within the organization. Recent exhibitions include the thematic show Down to Earth - Climate Crisis and Climate Futures, in which she acted as project lead and co-curator.

Prior to WPPF, she worked as a producer and assistant curator at the Tiradentes Photo Festival in Brazil between 2018 and 2023. In 2021, she led the coordination of an international open call for lens-based artists that culminated in an exhibition at Rotterdam Photo. For this project, she also served as a programmer and moderator of a series of webinars and discussions on photography. Mariana has acted as a jury member for the W. Eugene Smith Student Grant, and on the Nomination Committee for the Documentary Practice & Visual Journalism award of the 2026 ICP Infinity Awards.

She can be helpful in editing and sequencing documentary work, exploring strategies for exhibition display and multimedia storytelling. She is happy to also talk about WPPF, and share her insights about the world of photo festivals. Originally from Brazil, Mariana holds a bachelor's degree in Political Economy and a master’s degree in Creative Industries, awarded jointly by the University of Glasgow, Uppsala University and Erasmus University of Rotterdam.

Mariana is particularly interested in reviewing documentary work (including artistic approaches to documentary work), photojournalism, multimedia projects, and lens-based photographic art. She is not interested in reviewing fashion photography, sports photography, or AI-based projects.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Portuguese, French, intermediate Spanish

Jaehyun SEOK
Artistic Director & Curator
ArtSpace LUMOS
Chungmu Art Center
Climate Change Photo Project
Daegu, Korea
artspacelumos.com

Jaehyun SEOK, born in Daegu, South Korea, studied Visual Communication at Ohio University in the United States. His career spans photography, education, and curatorial work. His early experiences as a freelance photographer for The New York Times and Korean GEO laid the foundation for his multifaceted professional path.

Seok was one of the founding organizers of the Daegu Photo Biennale in 2006. Since then, he has curated numerous international exhibitions, including Imaging Asia in Documents (Daegu Photo Biennale, 2006); ON KOREA (Istanbul & Ankara, Turkey, 2013); Women in War (Daegu Photo Biennale, 2014); Blooming Silk Road (Seoul, 2014); The Eye of Istanbul: Ara Güler (Seoul Museum of Photography, 2015); Imaging Korea (a traveling exhibition across Europe, 2016–2018); The Glorious Life: Wang Qingsong (Seoul Museum of Photography, 2019); Korean Shamanism GUT (Europe-wide traveling exhibition, 2020–2023); and Korean Contemporary Photography: Insight into Nature and Humanity (Budapest & Rome, 2023).

He has been actively involved in international photography festivals such as the Dali International Photo Festival (DIPF, China) and Foto Istanbul, serving as a guest curator. He has received the Best Curator Award three times from DIPF. From 2020 to 2024, he served as the Artistic Director of the Busan International Photo Festival. Since 2023, he has also held the role of Artistic Director for the Climate Change Photo Project hosted by Chungmu Art Center in Seoul.

Seok has been invited as a nominator and juror for prestigious photography awards, including the LEICA Oskar Barnack Award, the DIPF Award (China), and Vogue Italia.

Seok is particularly interested in reviewing documentary and conceptual work, as well as projects related to climate change and other environmental issues.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English & Korean

Mary Virginia Swanson
Author and Advisor to Artists and Arts Organizations
M.V. Swanson & Associates
Tucson, AZ, United States
mvswanson.com
www.publishyourphotographybook.com
@maryvirginiaswanson
@publishyourphotographybook

Mary Virginia Swanson is an author, educator, and advisor who has spent her career helping lens-based artists find the strengths in their work, identify audiences, and present their work in a timely, professional manner. Swanson’s broad experience includes exhibiting, collecting, commissioning, licensing, marketing, and publishing photographs; previous positions include heading Special Projects at Magnum Photos NYC, later founding Swanstock, a unique agency established to manage licensing rights for fine art photographers. She is an active member of the contemporary photobook community, having engaged with bookmaking and publishing communities in India, Korea, and Japan in the past year.

Swanson is the co-author with Darius D. Himes of Publish Your Photography Book. First released in 2011 and now in its updated 3rd edition, (Radius Books, 2023, Korean language 2024 from Datz Press) this acclaimed resource has helped countless photographers bring their projects to publication. The dedicated website for the book offers extensive free & downloadable resources to help photographers on their publishing or self-publishing journey, including a 32-page workbook: www.publishyourphotographybook.com

Swanson is interested in seeing projects intended for the book form (in-progress or completed) and can help participants with questions relating to their publishing journey ahead, from identifying potential sponsor(s), determining whether to self-publish or identifying publishing partners through planning now for the marketing of their book.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English

Marta Szymanska  
Curator
Fotofestiwal International Festival of Photography 
Lodz, Poland 
fotofestiwal.com 

Marta Szymanska is a photography curator from Poland. Since 2005 she has been co-creating Fotofestiwal International Festival of Photography in Lodz, where she is responsible for the program. Marta was a vice-director of the Archeology of Photography Foundation which deals with saving, developing and promoting the archives of Polish photographers. Her curatorial experience includes also cooperation with Museum of Art in Lodz, Poland; Month of Photography in Minsk, Belarus; CinEast Central and Eastern Film Festival in Luxembourg and others. 

She edits texts on photography and teaches how to create short and compelling texts for own art projects. She is also an active reviewer. ”I see the role of the reviewer primarily as an attentive viewer who, at the right moment, asks a question that you would not ask yourself. I am interested in all types of photography that are based on authentic research and an empathetic outlook. I would be especially happy to see archival and social practice in photography.”

At the Meeting Place, Marta Szymanska is interested in reviewing documentary photography, social engaged practices and projects based on photography archives. She is not interested in reviewing fashion photography. 

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Polish 

Barbara Tannenbaum
Curator of Photography and Chair of Prints, Drawings and Photographs
Cleveland Museum of Art  
Cleveland, OH, United States
clevelandart.org

Barbara Tannenbaum is Curator of Photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where she has organized exhibitions of work by Tyler Mitchell, Matt Eich, Ilse Bing, Louis Draper, Hank Willis Thomas, TR Ericsson, Hank Willis Thomas, Lois Conner, Aaron Rothman, and Barbara Bosworth. Other exhibitions include DIY: Photographers & Books, the first museum show of print-on demand photobooks; American Vesuvius: The Aftermath of Mount St. Helens by Frank Gohlke and Emmet Gowin; and Detroit Disassembled: Photographs by Andrew Moore. From 1985 through 2011, Tannenbaum was chief curator at the Akron Art Museum, where she grew the photography collection from 500 to 2,500 works and organized over 85 exhibitions including the first large-scale international exhibition chronicling women’s historic achievements in fine art photography, co-curated with Naomi Rosenblum, and the 1991 Ralph Eugene Meatyard retrospective, co-curated with David Jacobs. Dr. Tannenbaum serves on the board of the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the world’s top comprehensive museums and tells the story of the history of world art through masterworks. Living artists exhibited and acquired are usually mid- or late career. Dr. Tannenbaum has (hopefully sage) advice and guidance to offer artists of all levels and especially looks forward to discussing exhibition and book projects still in their development phase. She is interested in seeing many different kinds of work, but prefers not to review photography that is primarily commercial in nature. Nudity is okay as long as it is truly at the service of artistic expression.

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English, French, German (some)

Johan Trujillo Argüelles
Independent Cultural Manager and Curator
Mexico City, Mexico
instagram.com/trujillojo
threads.com/@trujillojo
x.com/trujillojo

Johan Trujillo Argüelles (Mexico City, 1983) is a cultural manager, curator, educator, and image theorist. She served as Director of the Centro de la Imagen from 2020 to 2024. She has been dedicated to cultural management for over 15 years, during which she has conceptualized and organized conventions, lecture series, and academic programs to discuss visuality and Mexican contemporary photography.

Her intellectual work explores the image as an affective and sensory experience, deeply influenced by the legacy of blind photographer Gerardo Nigenda, whose practice she has examined through exhibitions, writings, and public lectures. She is author of the photobook Triálogo (2023), which was shortlisted for the Prix du Livre at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2024. Trujillo Argüelles has contributed to the international photography community as a jury member, award nominator, and portfolio reviewer at festivals in Mexico and abroad.

Trujillo Argüelles is open to reviewing all types of photographic work. However, she is particularly interested in engaging with artists who are open to conversation and feedback, particularly those presenting works-in-progress.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCIES: English, Spanish

Asha Iman Veal
Independent Curator and Arts Professor
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL, United States & Paris, France
curatorsintl.org/asha-iman-veal

Biography Forthcoming

Lisa Volpe
Curator, Photography
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, TX, United States
mfah.org

Lisa Volpe is Curator, Photography and Head of the Department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Previously, she was the Curator of the Wichita Art Museum, held various curatorial roles at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), and fellowships at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her 2021 exhibition catalog, Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer, was one of two finalists for the Association of American Publishers Prose Awards. Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power, published for the 2022 exhibition, was named a “must read” by Esquire and New York magazines.

Volpe will not be making any acquisitions or offering any exhibitions as a result of reviews at the Meeting Place 2026. What she can do is help photographers think through the place of their work in a historical context, and answer questions about flow, editing, clarity, etc. She would like to talk to artists who are still working out problems with their series, not those who think they have an exhibition package ready to go. She does not wish to see nudes and pure landscapes.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: English