First Place: Thouly Dosios 'The Net'
L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - 'Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet' First Place: Thouly Dosios 'The Net'
THE NET by Thouly Dosios
FIRST PLACE & PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR (2023)
(Click on image for larger view)

Review by Curator Laurie Freitag: "I can almost hear the hilarity, the laughs, the extreme sounds of joy that children make when they are doing something that surprises them and tickles their funny bone. The trust in each other, the abandon, the extreme discovery of doing something a little crazy-that only can be discovered through the intimate play that two people share growing up together. 

The photograph becomes a timeless window into the purity of the shared human experience, reminding us of the profound impact that a single, well-timed photograph can have in encapsulating the magic inherent in everyday moments.

Can you speak a bit about 'The Net'? Are these your children and if so, you must have endless images of siblings, why did you choose this image to submit. What about it spoke to you?”

Thouly Dosios says, “It was the family photo albums that my dad meticulously maintained that drew me into the magic of photography. Growing up I found immense pleasure in perusing them over and over again. The images helped me weave together loose threads of narrative from our collective family history. Most importantly, however, scrutinizing these intimate moments frozen in time, seemed to offer a glimpse into my parents’ and other loved ones’ inner existence in a way I could not otherwise access. 

As a teenager, my dad gifted me his Pentax and, overnight, I became the unofficial official documentarian of the family. This was the start of a lifelong commitment to photographing daily life, my camera an extension of my living and breathing alongside family, exploring and expressing my feelings in a way that felt intuitive, unfiltered, and more comfortable.

The two siblings in the image, playing with a mosquito net, are my son and my daughter. The image was taken during the first year of the pandemic, a time when our already airtight family quartet became, due to the monumental circumstances, even more insularly enmeshed.

The net, for me, expresses both the idea of capture and confinement, and that of a nexus, a lifeline, a safe and interdependent ecosystem that provides support, security, and nourishment. Although I made the image as part of my ongoing exploration of my own experience of motherhood, what speaks to me most about it is the sense of intimacy, trust, and playfulness it captures between my two kids. Their utter delight to be with each other, even when the world has shut down, and the exuberant joy they’re able to express unabashedly, speaks to me of the net of siblinghood as both harbor and armor and also, in some personal way, provides a compass to my own journey of motherhood. “

Freitag asks, “Are there specific artists or photographers that have influenced your work?”

Dosios says, “There are numerous artists from all sorts of disciplines I deeply admire and whose work I’m certain has influenced me subliminally. But the ones who’ve undoubtedly had an immense impact on my psyche and my creative expression have been the teachers and mentors I’ve been lucky to have crossed paths with. As an Undergrad, I studied photography with Chris Killip and filmmaking with Dusan Makavejev. Their mentorship stirred in me a personal revolution of sorts, in regards to how I viewed my pursuit of learning and was instrumental to my dedication to the visual arts as a lifelong practice; Susan Meiselas  gifted me with my first internship opportunity over the course of an inspiring and formative summer; Gyula Gazdag who mentored me throughout the development of my short films has had a tremendous influence in shaping how approach my creative process; Julia Dean offered me a vital photographic community in LA; my fellow artists at the Los Angeles Street Collective are a source of a vibrant and fertile dialogue; and Mary Ellen Mark reignited my love for and commitment to the medium, her thoughtful mentorship during her workshop in Oaxaca having pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone while providing encouragement at a critical juncture in my life. These artists have influenced me in profound ways, not only through their remarkable work, but also as models of rigor, perseverance and humanism.“

Thouly Dosios is a photographer and filmmaker. She holds an M.F.A. in Film Directing from UCLA and a B.A. in Visual Studies from Harvard University where she studied photography under Chris Killip and interned with Susan Meiselas. 

Thouly has since participated in workshops with Mary Ellen Mark, Sam Abell, Julia Dean and Constantine Manos.

For the last decade she has documented life in the streets of Los Angeles, as well as intimate moments of her own family life. She is a member of the Los Angeles Street Collective.

Thouly grew up in Athens, Greece, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Her image 'The Net' garnered her L.A. Photo Curator of the Year (2023). To read the review of the image go to this link:
https://laphotocurator.com/2023-best-of-l-a-n-y-photo-curator/2023-photographer-of-the-year/1

www.lastreetcollective.com/thouly-dosios/
www.instagram.com/cameraylouth/
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HOME: SIBLINGS
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SECOND PLACE: https://laphotocurator.com/siblings-laurie-freitag/second-place-natalie-obermaier-panache----/1


HONORABLE MENTIONS: https://laphotocurator.com/siblings-laurie-freitag/honorable-mentions-thouly-dosios-matching-chaplins-prescott-moore-lassman-wigs-and-meghan-e-jones-carnival-laughs----/


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SIBLINGS EXHIBITION:
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