HONORABLE MENTIONS: ARMINEH HOVANESIAN 'Sometimes we enter art to hide within', GRACE CLARK 'Untitled III (TerraForm), DAN COOK 'Thankful' & GORDON MCDONALD 'Moving In'
L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - 'Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet' HONORABLE MENTIONS: ARMINEH HOVANESIAN 'Sometimes we enter art to hide within', GRACE CLARK 'Untitled III (TerraForm), DAN COOK 'Thankful' & GORDON MCDONALD 'Moving In' (Click on image for larger view)
SOMETIMES WE ENTER ART TO HIDE WITHIN by Armineh Hovanesian
HONORABLE MENTION
(Click on image for larger view)

Review by curator Laurie Freitag: "The title, 'Sometimes we enter art to hide within' shows the subject hiding most of their face but revealing a grasp or hold on that decision. Each of Hovanesian's fingers are adorned with symbols of something precious or meaningful to her. Those same fingers gently reveal part of her face, almost shyly, but deliberately. Interesting choices."
 
Armineh Hovanesian says, "My photographs are not generally planned in advance, and I do not anticipate that the onlooker will share my viewpoint. However, I feel that if my photograph leaves an image on the viewer’s mind, something has been accomplished. I see what eye see!"
 
Bio: Awarded, Published & Internationally Exhibited Photographer: Born in Paris, raised in Tehran & Boston, with a little over 2 years of dormancy in Lisbon, Armineh is a photographer now based in Los Angeles, capturing moments since 2009. 

She is one of the early members of the iphoneography movement. She has had no professional training however her vision has been the driving force behind her creations. Her weapons of choice are her iPhone & Sony ILCE-6000 camera; she is hoping to work with a Sony a99 II or a Leica SL (Typ 601) Mirrorless camera someday!  For the time being, photography is a hobby.
 
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

2015 Recipient of 7th Edition -The Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers as one of the Top 15 Women Photographers. 
 
June 3 – September 30, 2015, Avatars / Self Portraits / Mobile Camera Club -MK2, Paris, France
 
July 13, 2015 - at a Private Event for See.Me, work displayed as part of the Black & White Collection digital display -The Louvre Museum in Paris, France 
 
2016 Mobile Photographer of the Year ‐ Lumiere Photography Awards
 
October 6, 2016 ‐ Participated in 4th Berlin Foto Biennale in  Berlin, Germany
 
March 12 ‐ 26, 2017 – The New Era Museum’s The Equinox Experience in Florence, Italy
L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - 'Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet' HONORABLE MENTIONS: ARMINEH HOVANESIAN 'Sometimes we enter art to hide within', GRACE CLARK 'Untitled III (TerraForm), DAN COOK 'Thankful' & GORDON MCDONALD 'Moving In' (Click on image for larger view)
UNTITLED III (TERRA/FORM) by Grace Clark
HONORABLE MENTION
(Click on image for larger view)

Review by curator Laurie Freitag:
"Terra Form is defined as having to do with the process of change to earth to make it habitable for human life. I love the choice to untitle this piece as to title it would limit what the change possibly is.

It could be that Clark is speaking about a personal change/conformity or it could be a larger view of how humanity must make changes to continue to inhabit the earth. A very provacative image."
 
Grace Clark says, "In the wild I am reminded of my form. I’m reminded that this form is all that separates me from the tumbleweeds or the ants at my knees. I am reminded that my atoms are no more or less valuable than those belonging to the lizard scurrying under the tent I’ve built to shelter my skin or the grains of sand sandwiched between my toes.

I am just a structure surrounded by structures – so diverse, yet so essentially similar. In the wild I find even my shape not to be my own."
 
Born in Idaho Falls, ID, Grace was raised in the Florida Keys and Minnesota. She graduated from the Perpich Center for Arts Education (2011) and Minnesota State University Moorhead (2015).

She directs three experimental artist residency programs, has worked for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and photographer Gregory Crewdson, and has exhibited work nationally. She currently resides in Western Minnesota. 
 
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
 
2018     Minnesota State Arts Board Lake Region Arts Council Quick Start Grant, Fergus Falls, MN
 
2018    Andrea Zittel’s A-Z West Work-Trade Residency, Joshua Tree, CA
 
2017-2018    Gregory Crewdson, Studio Assistantship, Great Barrington, MA
 
2017    Hinge Arts Residency, Fergus Falls, MN
 
2015     Cultural Landscapes, Rourke Museum, Moorhead, MN
 
 
 
L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - 'Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet' HONORABLE MENTIONS: ARMINEH HOVANESIAN 'Sometimes we enter art to hide within', GRACE CLARK 'Untitled III (TerraForm), DAN COOK 'Thankful' & GORDON MCDONALD 'Moving In' (Click on image for larger view)
THANKFUL by Dan Cook
HONORABLE MENTION
(Click on image for larger view)

Review by curator Laurie Freitag: "Dan cook's image 'Thankful' struck me as a vulnerable moment. The subject has undergone openheart surgery and frames the scar with an open shirt...but looks away from the camera. He seems to bow his head in reverence giving thanks to be alive. A beautiful moment."

Dan Cook says, "Creativity arises in conversation with constraints—the constraints enforced by the medium or media employed, by the long history of artistic attempts of those who have come before us and by the immediate circumstances of one’s life, attitude and self-imposed challenges.

A key constraint of photography is that it anchors one, however tenuously, to some version of the here- and-now....to some present moment that must be grappled with visually.

Photography, as I have experienced it, struggles with the tension between subject and form differently than other visually-oriented media to the extent that it lives off of some aspect of the world as given.

The streetscape, the varied and variable circumstances of light and shadow, the objects in the environment, among other things, all in some way have to be handled and taken into account. In this sense, I liken photography closer to sculpture than to painting."

Dan Cook is a resident of Philadelphia and a professor at Rutgers University-Camden. A self-taught, non-professional photographer, Cook teaches on, among  other things, visual research methods and visual ways of knowing. He is a member of the Copley Society of Art, the Sketch Club of Philadelphia and Philadelphia PhotoArts.

www.copleysociety.org/users/dancook

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L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - 'Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet' HONORABLE MENTIONS: ARMINEH HOVANESIAN 'Sometimes we enter art to hide within', GRACE CLARK 'Untitled III (TerraForm), DAN COOK 'Thankful' & GORDON MCDONALD 'Moving In' (Click on image for larger view)
MOVING IN by Gordon McDonald
HONORABLE MENTION
(Click on image for larger view)

Review by Curator Laurie Freitag: "Gordon McDonald's image, 'Moving In' is striking as he holds in the palm of his hand a new way of being, a loss of a part of his limb. By wrapping his fingers around his limb he welcomes and holds this new part of himself. He acknowledges the change and as a way to move forward, I assume, he moves into that space of acceptance."
 
Gordon McDonald says, "As an artist and survivor of a rare auto immune disease. I have been left with a somewhat disfigured body. I have had to look deeper than most to find a place of acceptance, forgiveness and self love. 
 
Through photography I have managed to change my own perception of my body, finding beauty through vulnerability. I have been able to move into my, “New Self”.
 
Its my goal to change the perception of my viewers, to invite them to see past their patterned perception. To look deeper within themselves, do they, “love thyself?
 
I have been an artist my whole life, a martial artist to mountaineer, ancient ivory carver to author. Photography is a fairly recent passion, it is the missing link to my artistic expression.
 
I love to capture the truth, a moment in time, my passion is to capture my subjects intention or story. I have said to my subjects, "I don’t do smiles, just the truth”.
 
I like to use hard light, especially in Black and White. I find it simple and uncluttered. I like to see the split between light and dark, uncovering only a portion, having a certain control over what is seen.
 
Having my work looked at here, no one has ever seen my work other than a couple of family.
 
While getting ready for a shoot I found my self triggered by a song. It triggered parts of my journey that weren't so pleasant. I had the remote handy and thought enough of it to press the shutter. I have included it more so for an opinion as I am still unsure where the line is, or if there is one? The line between truth, beauty and what makes a good photograph?

Image- Moving In- A reflection of acceptance forgiveness and self love. Moving In, the hand gestures not quite ready yet."
 

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