Lenscratch Prize Talks – Nov 9 (Online)

About

The Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) is pleased to host an online event featuring the 2023 Lenscratch Prize Winners, moderated by Aline Smithson.

Winners

1st Place

Christian K. Lee (b. 1991; Chicago, IL) draws from his experiences to utilize Art as an investigative tool. Christian’s goal is to create imagery that reflects the world in which he currently lives. His work has been exhibited internationally and has been featured in The Washington Post, NPR, Forbes Magazine and several others.

Instagram:@chrisklee_jpeg

2nd Place

Nykelle DeVivo is a southern California visual artist working primarily with lens based mediums to explore the crossroads between the physical world and that of our ancestors. Employing the languages of Afrofuturism, queer/trans expression and alter work, Nykelle uses their art as an extension of their spiritual practice. They studied theory & photography at the San Francisco Art Institute before going on to have their works acquired by permanent museum collections across the country, becoming an inaugural Google Image Equity Fellow, and exhibiting their images in numerous exhibitions. Nykelle is currently pursuing their MFA in visual art from the University of California San Diego where they expect to graduate in 2025.

Instagram: @nykelle_devivo

3rd Place

Anna Rotty lives on Tiwa land in Albuquerque, NM where she is an MFA candidate and instructor of photography at the University of New Mexico. Anna investigates water, light and infrastructure, informing her understanding of orientation and place. Anna’s work was recently shortlisted for the Frankenthaler Climate Art Award. She has been published by Southwest Contemporary, Humble Arts Foundation, Aint-Bad and Six Feet Photography. Anna recently exhibited her first solo show in New Mexico at Strata Gallery Santa Fe and has participated in group exhibitions at Form & Concept, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, San Francisco Camerawork and Incline Gallery in San Francisco. This fall, she had a solo show at Book & Job Gallery in San Francisco alongside the launch of her first book, Poll Work, recognizing the people behind the scenes making elections happen. This year, Anna is working as part of Collective Constructs, a group of artists and art historians responding with art and public visual scholarship to selected works from the permanent collection of the UNM Art Museum. The group poses questions as to how a collection is formed, and how can we contextualize what is unseen through sound, spoken word, and affect, through an American Indian Curatorial practice perspective. She is 2023 recipient of the Center for Regional Studies Fellowship and the Graduate Studies Dissertation award at UNM. Anna was selected to speak at the Society of Photographic Educators (SPE) national conference this March and aspires to continue teaching post graduate school.

Instagram: @annarotty

Moderator

Aline Smithson is a visual artist, editor, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She has exhibited widely including over 40 solo shows at a variety of international institutions and her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and PDN.

Aline is the founder of Lenscratch, a daily journal on photography. She has received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography and the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER. In 2014 and 2019, Smithson’s work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50. In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her retrospective monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography, and in 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Smithson to create a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. In 2018 and 2019, her work was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the Taylor Wessing Prize. Kris Graves Projects published her book, LOST II: Los Angeles and included her work in SOLACE and On Death. Peanut Press released her monograph, Fugue State, in fall of 2021.

Aline has been a juror for a host of organizations and galleries and reviewer and educator at photo festivals around the U.S. Besides her iPhone, she only shoots film.

Instagram: @alinesmithson

Details

• One Session
• Date: Thursday, November 9th, 4-5:30 pm PST
• Tuition:$10, Free for college/university students and Members (Become a Member today!)
• Location: Online

A details email complete with the Zoom link will be sent to the attendees prior to the start date. Please read the instructions included in the email. If you have additional questions please email info@lacphoto.org.

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