One of the perks for those who make the Critical Mass Top 50 is the inclusion in the Top 50 exhibition. In previous years, we have worked with PCNW, Newspace Center for Photography, Rayko Photo Center, Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, the Southeast Museum of Photography, Cordon/Potts Gallery, and the Houston Center for Photography (where the CM13 exhibition ‘How One Thing Leads to Another’ is currently up!) to bring a strong show of contemporary emerging photography to the general public.
 |
| CM13 Top 50 Exhibition at Cordon/Potts Gallery in San Francisco. Image courtesy Clay Lipsky |
|
|
|
This year we are working with the GuatePhoto International Photography Festival in Guatemala City who will be hosting the Critical Mass 2014 TOP 50 exhibit during their 2015 Festival. I was fortunate to be invited to visit GuatePhoto in 2012 and was really impressed with the scope and content of the contemporary exhibits. Work by Roger Ballen, Erwin Olaf, Alejandro Cartagena, Noah David Bau and a multitude of others were exhibited throughout the city in spaces from the traditional to the creative: galleries with 40 foot high ceilings, underground parking garages, gorgeous historic former tile factories…along with projections, workshops, and panel discussions. In 2015, GuatePhoto programming will also extend into the Guatemalan city of Antigua, famous for its amazing colonial architecture. We are excited for the TOP 50 show to show in what will an incredible venue with a large audience.
 |
| GuatePhoto organizers Clara de Tezanos and JJ Estrada |
 |
| One of the contemporary galleries at GuatePhoto – Fototropia |
 |
| One of the 2012 exhibit venues: a historic tile factory |
 |
| Pieter Wisse (editor ‘500 Photographers’) inside tile factory |
|
|
|
 |
| |
Tiana Markova Gold and Ann Jastrab caged in Noah David Bau exhibit |
|
 |
| GuatePhoto staff prepares to hang David Favrod image |
Rebecca gives talks such as “The 10 Most Exciting Photographers I Learned About in the Last Year”, where she speaks about some of the emerging photographers in the field whose work she finds engaging. An in-depth interview with Becky Senf can be found here on Lenscratch!Critical Mass has had some pretty awesome curators for the TOP 50 shows over the years – Andy Adams, Todd Hido, Darius Himes, W.M. Hunt, and Jessica Johnson. We are happy that this year, Dr. Rebecca Senf has agreed to lend her curatorial talents to the TOP 50 exhibition. Rebecca is an important voice in the photographic community, holding the position of Curator both the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, and the Phoenix Art Museum as the Norton Family Curator, organizing major exhibitions of work by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Lola Alvarez Bravo and Richard Avedon. She also guides the Phoenix Art Museum’s INFOCUS group, juries work, attends Portfolio Reviews events, and…writes books! Recently published is Reconstructing the View: The Grand Canyon Photographs of Mark Klett and Byron Wolf (University of California Press, 2012), co-written with Stephen Pyne.
 |
| Center for Creative Photography Curator Rebecca Senf |
|
|
|
|
