THE GREAT ESCAPE- Nancy Baron & Jennifer McClure > Best Series: Scottt Offen
Best Series: Scottt Offen
Scott Offen/Legs in the Woods
FIRST PLACE & BEST SERIES
FIRST PLACE & BEST SERIES
SCOTT OFFEN-First Place & Best Series
Jurors Nancy Baron & Jennifer McClure Comments:
"Legs in the Woods stopped us both in our tracks. The legs take a moment to register, as the eye travels leisurely through the giant tree trunks. But once spotted, the legs command attention. Are they reclined in repose? Has their attached body met an unfortunate fate, the greatest escape of them all? Where did the legs come from, and where will they go? This seemingly simple but conceptually masterful photograph plays with shadow and light both literally and figuratively. A myriad of readings are possible, all of them elegantly addressing the idea of escape in an original way."
Questions for Scott Offen:
Jurors:
"How does your image, Legs in the Woods,communicate your interpretation of the concept/feeling of Escape?"
Scott Offen:
"Escape is being away from urban life and social structures. Here in the woods Grace is alone, in an environment of her choosing. She is unencumbered, and free even not to show us her face. Showing just her legs there is a sense of playful unreality."
Jurors:
"Do you feel that the individual images within the series express your statement, or that they are most successful as a series?"
Scott Offen:
"I think this image can stand on its own defining escape. At the same time I think the series flashes out further the idea of an unreal world where she is free to act on her own impulse."
Jurors:
"Can you describe your process of collaborating with Grace?"
Scott Offen:
"Grace is a seven-year collaborative project within the context of a forty-one-year relationship. The foundation of our partnership is the intimate understanding we share, which allows us to create images almost wordlessly. Together we research the setting of every shoot. Grace selects her own costumes so that jointly we determine in advance where the photographs will be made and some visual components as well. We follow a rule that we make all the pictures either of us wants, and we decide together which ones belong in the series when sequencing the work.
More about the series:
"Our collaborative process is grounded in duration and repetition. Over time, we have developed a shared visual language that resists the traditional model of the male photographer and female muse. Instead, the work foregrounds co-presence, agency, and transformation. The resulting images explore how the aging female body, so often rendered invisible in both art history and popular culture, can be repositioned as a site of power, mystery, and authorship.
The series draws on elements of mythology, psychoanalysis, and landscape theory, while remaining rooted in the material conditions of our shared life. Indoors, traces of Grace’s presence—the imprint of a body, an object, a shadow—suggest absence as a form of narrative. Outdoors, she moves through spaces shaped by light, season, and terrain, inviting viewers to consider how identity is formed in relation to the natural world.
Grace is both a visual inquiry and a model for collaborative authorship, framed by an ongoing commitment to experimentation, embodiment, and place."
Scott Offen is an East Coast photographer whose work has been widely exhibited and prominently featured online.
His first monograph, Grace, was published by L’Artiere in 2025, accompanied by a book signing at AIPAD in New York City that April. That same year, he presented his first solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City, at The Curator Lab.
Scott holds both a BFA and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he received the Graduate Thesis Award in 2024. Working collaboratively with his wife, he creates images that immerse viewers in fairytale forest where logic and responsibility vanish. It is an uncanny world shaped by the rural landscapes of New England. Offen uses a range of photographic formats from 8x10 to digital. His work has recently been reviewed by Forbes, L’Œil de la Photographie, Sky Arte, Collater.al, and other publications.
Jurors Nancy Baron & Jennifer McClure Comments:
"Legs in the Woods stopped us both in our tracks. The legs take a moment to register, as the eye travels leisurely through the giant tree trunks. But once spotted, the legs command attention. Are they reclined in repose? Has their attached body met an unfortunate fate, the greatest escape of them all? Where did the legs come from, and where will they go? This seemingly simple but conceptually masterful photograph plays with shadow and light both literally and figuratively. A myriad of readings are possible, all of them elegantly addressing the idea of escape in an original way."
Questions for Scott Offen:
Jurors:
"How does your image, Legs in the Woods,communicate your interpretation of the concept/feeling of Escape?"
Scott Offen:
"Escape is being away from urban life and social structures. Here in the woods Grace is alone, in an environment of her choosing. She is unencumbered, and free even not to show us her face. Showing just her legs there is a sense of playful unreality."
Jurors:
"Do you feel that the individual images within the series express your statement, or that they are most successful as a series?"
Scott Offen:
"I think this image can stand on its own defining escape. At the same time I think the series flashes out further the idea of an unreal world where she is free to act on her own impulse."
Jurors:
"Can you describe your process of collaborating with Grace?"
Scott Offen:
"Grace is a seven-year collaborative project within the context of a forty-one-year relationship. The foundation of our partnership is the intimate understanding we share, which allows us to create images almost wordlessly. Together we research the setting of every shoot. Grace selects her own costumes so that jointly we determine in advance where the photographs will be made and some visual components as well. We follow a rule that we make all the pictures either of us wants, and we decide together which ones belong in the series when sequencing the work.
More about the series:
"Our collaborative process is grounded in duration and repetition. Over time, we have developed a shared visual language that resists the traditional model of the male photographer and female muse. Instead, the work foregrounds co-presence, agency, and transformation. The resulting images explore how the aging female body, so often rendered invisible in both art history and popular culture, can be repositioned as a site of power, mystery, and authorship.
The series draws on elements of mythology, psychoanalysis, and landscape theory, while remaining rooted in the material conditions of our shared life. Indoors, traces of Grace’s presence—the imprint of a body, an object, a shadow—suggest absence as a form of narrative. Outdoors, she moves through spaces shaped by light, season, and terrain, inviting viewers to consider how identity is formed in relation to the natural world.
Grace is both a visual inquiry and a model for collaborative authorship, framed by an ongoing commitment to experimentation, embodiment, and place."
Scott Offen is an East Coast photographer whose work has been widely exhibited and prominently featured online.
His first monograph, Grace, was published by L’Artiere in 2025, accompanied by a book signing at AIPAD in New York City that April. That same year, he presented his first solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City, at The Curator Lab.
Scott holds both a BFA and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he received the Graduate Thesis Award in 2024. Working collaboratively with his wife, he creates images that immerse viewers in fairytale forest where logic and responsibility vanish. It is an uncanny world shaped by the rural landscapes of New England. Offen uses a range of photographic formats from 8x10 to digital. His work has recently been reviewed by Forbes, L’Œil de la Photographie, Sky Arte, Collater.al, and other publications.
Scott Offen/Rock Climbing
Scott Offen/Grace Resting on a Hay Stack
Scott Offen/Grace with Sunflower
Scott Offen/Grace in Petasites Japonicus
Scott Offen/Grace Looking Through a Hollow Log
www.scottoffen.net
www.instagram.com/offen1645
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www.scottoffen.net
www.instagram.com/offen1645
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THE GREAT ESCAPE HOME:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure
FIRST PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/first-place-scott-offen-legs-in-the-woods/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/honorable-mentions-peter-kahn-tolowa-dunes-10-21-23-nadine-levin-silence-erica-martin-kelly-the-creek-emma-sywyj-taxi-at-sunset/1
BEST SERIES:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/best-series-scottt-offen/1
GROUP EXHIBITION #1:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/exhibition-1/1
GROUP EXHIBITION #2
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/exhibition-2/1
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure
FIRST PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/first-place-scott-offen-legs-in-the-woods/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/honorable-mentions-peter-kahn-tolowa-dunes-10-21-23-nadine-levin-silence-erica-martin-kelly-the-creek-emma-sywyj-taxi-at-sunset/1
BEST SERIES:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/best-series-scottt-offen/1
GROUP EXHIBITION #1:
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/exhibition-1/1
GROUP EXHIBITION #2
https://laphotocurator.com/the-great-escape-nancy-baron-jennifer-mcclure/exhibition-2/1
