50 images were selected by famed photographer, Keith Carter for Texas Photographic Society’s 35th Annual Members Only Show. First Place was awarded to Becky Wilkes, Second Place to Michael Mulvey, and Third Place to Laury Sahakangas.
Article for Abilene Scene Magazine January/February 2023 Issue
The Center for Contemporary Arts is honored to host the Texas Photographic Society’s 35th Annual Members Only Show, juried by acclaimed photographer Keith Carter. The annual competition show is an international exhibition.
Carter states on the Texas Photographic Society’s (TPS) site: “I tend to think of photography as the most important graphic medium of the last two centuries, clarifying the world as factual, poetic, voyeuristic, and participatory… all at once. It’s a beautiful thing when it works. What I enjoy most—what I look for in a photograph—is what the artist finds interesting in the world. I look for moments of revelation when the world is at once both mysterious and crystal clear. I believe the future of photographic and photographically integrated image-making is a bright one … residing in the brave, the visionary, and the democratic.”
No stranger to Abilene and the Big Country, Carter has exhibited at The Grace Museum and his work is included in the permanent collections of The Grace as well as The Old Jail Art Center in Albany. Previous jurors for this international competition include Jill and Dan Burkholder (2021), Bill Wright (2020), Catherine Couturier (2019), and Roy Flukinger (2018). The Center for Contemporary Arts is honored to have hosted the TPS Member’s Only Show for the past three years.
ABOUT THE JUROR
Keith Carter photographed by Libby Vinnels
Keith Carter’s work explores time, place, and vernacular culture. Described as a “Poet of the Ordinary” by the Los Angeles Times, his photographs have been exhibited in over one hundred fifteen solo exhibitions in thirteen countries. Sixteen monographs of his work have been published, along with two documentary films: Keith Carter: The Artist Series, Ted Forbes and A Certain Alchemy, Anthropy Arts. A 50-year retrospective book, Keith Carter/Fifty Years, was published in fall 2018 by the University of Texas Press. In addition, he has contributed to nine other anthologies over the years and has been the recipient of the Lange-Taylor Prize (1991) from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In 2009, he was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts.
He holds the Endowed Walles Chair of Art at Lamar University in Texas where his awards include the University’s highest teaching honors: the Regents’ Professor Award, University Professor Award, and Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Prize.
His work is included in numerous private and public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the George Eastman House, and the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University. His photography was featured on the nationally televised program CBS Sunday Morning in 1997.
The TPS 35th Annual Members Only Show is on-view in the Wright Photography Gallery from Feb. 2 to March 18. The Center will host a reception and an artist talk by Keith Carter during the exhibit. More information about the event can be found on the Center’s Facebook page.