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PhotoAlliance is proud to display this online exhibition of selected work from submissions for the 2020 Bay Area Current(ly) photographic competition. Bay Area Curent(ly) highlights trends in contemporary San Francisco Bay Area photography by recognizing a coherent body of work from each of thirty-seven area artists.

While all the work selected for the exhibition was highly significant jurors made the difficult choice to select three artists to be interviewed. Those artists are:Laura Plageman, Rolls and Tubes and Anna Rotty. These artist interviews appear on the PhotoAlliance YouTube channel.

Exhibition Walk-through and Celebration via Zoom on Sunday, January 17 at 2:00 PM PT.

List of Exhibitors

Julie Alland, Bob Aufuldish, Kimberley Bermender, Lois Bielefeld, Nick Block, Barbara Boissevain, Jeffrey Braverman, Sarah Christianson, Laura DeAngelis, Kathryn Dunlevie, Andrew Faulkner, Adam Gerlach, Barbara Hazen, Mark Johann, Anton Kuehnhackl, Xiaopeng Liu, Amanda Marchand, Michelle McDonald, Mitchell Nelles, Charlotte Niel, Mark Overgaard, Sylvia Paret, Laura Plageman, Steven Raskin, Cynthia Rettig, Chris Roche, Anna Rotty, Amir Saadiq, Keman Sheng, Mika Sperling, Liz Steketee, Martin Venezky, Beth Waldman, Melanie Walker, Harry Wilson, David Wolf, and Rolls and Tubes.

*Showing single images from selected artists. Please click on the images for visiting the selected portfolio from artists.

Competition Jurors:

Binh Danh earned a BFA from San José State University and an MFA from Stanford University. His awards include a Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, and recently, a 2019 Creative Work Fund, collaborating with the Visual and Performing Art Department at the California State University, Monterey Bay. His work has been collected by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and San Jose Museum of Art, among others. He is an Assistant Professor of Art at San José State University.

Ann M. Jastrab is the Executive Director at the Center for Photographic Art (CPA) in Carmel, California. CPA strives to advance photography through education, exhibition and publication. These regional traditions—including mastery of craft, the concept of mentorship, and dedication to the photographic arts—evolved out of CPA's predecessor, the renowned Friends of Photography established in 1967 by iconic artists Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock and Cole Weston. While respecting these West Coast traditions, CPA is also at the vanguard of the future of photographic imagery. Before coming onboard at CPA, Ann was the gallery manager at Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco where she incorporated contemporary artists with the living legends photography. Ann also worked as the gallery director at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco for 10 years until their closure in 2017.

Chris Johnson is a photographic and video artist, curator and writer. Johnson studied photography with Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Wynn Bullock and has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation (w/ Hank Willis Thomas). He is a full Professor and Chair of the Photography Program at the California College of the Arts. His photographic artwork has been published and exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute, the Oakland Museum and numerous galleries and is represented in collections including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson Arizona and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Juror Statements:

Binh Danh
"It was an honor to be part of the jury team and make the final selections based on so many stunning portfolios representing such exciting and diverse work. No matter what stage of talent you are, doing the work and putting it out there have made this area renowned in the creative photographic practice. Thank you!"

Ann M. Jastrab
"It was my pleasure and honor to jury the Bay Area Current(ly) Exhibition alongside Binh Danh and Chris Johnson. We had the challenging task of picking just 36 artists for this show. With so much strong work, this was daunting and we each had to let go of photographers whose work we respect. Thanks to all the artists for sharing your projects with us and for reminding us how vibrant the photography community is in the Bay Area. Congratulations to everyone! I'm looking forward to the upcoming interviews as well as to seeing more of your work!"

Chris Johnson
"First let me say that it was a great honor to be on the Jury Panel for this important exhibition. I really enjoyed working with Binh and Ann and and Linda and Lonnie and this gave me a perfect opportunity to see how much great creative work is being generated here in Northern California. The hard part was having to make selections that did not include some beautiful work that, for various reasons, did not make the cut. This includes some work by friends and others I know and that was challenging. But, of course, there will be other opportunities to share your work and other curators and collectors for you to work with. The important thing is to keep working. We have never needed the creativity of our community more than this moment in our cultural history. Stay safe, calm, and compassionate… this too shall pass!"