Meet The Curators – Anna Walker Skillman


Anna Walker Skillman
Owner / Director
Jackson Fine Art

Atlanta, Georgia

About : Anna Walker Skillman has been a loyal and active participant in the arts community for the last 26 years, and has owned and directed Jackson Fine Art since 2003. Exhibiting photography by both emerging and established artists, she continues her commitment to the arts in Atlanta and beyond.

For our annual issue of Aint–Bad Magazine, we have teamed up with an amazing selection of curators, editors, gallerists, educators, and publishers to offer a chance to have your work seen by some of the best names in the industry. All of our guest curators have trained eyes and know what they are looking for in a photograph. The goal of issue No.13 is to put your work directly in front of eyes of these curators. Lara Orawski recently had the chance to ask Anna Walker Skillman a few questions concerning photography and her thoughts on the medium. Learn more about what motivates Anna Walker Skillman and what she is thinking about today!

Lara Orawski: As Director of Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, your organization bridges the gap between contemporary artists and collectors, the nature of which is to commoditize the work of these artists. How do you find the market is responding to artist experimentation with new technologies versus traditional photographic methods?

Anna Walker Skillman: You are exactly right. Jackson Fine Art’s mission is to connect artists with collectors but also to cultivate strong relationships and nurture experiences surrounding the artwork itself. It is less about what the market is responding to and more about what contemporary artists are inspired by in the world around them. The market watches closely and responds to what is happening and the artists drive that vision. A trend in contemporary photography at the moment is “the abstract” but using traditional photographic processes of making work, you can see this in the work of John Chiara, Matthew Brandt, and Meghann Riepenhoff to name a few. It appears that artists are pausing for a moment and honoring those that came before them.

Of course with the iPhone, everyone is a photographer, everyday all day. When will we tire of these insistent images that bombard our daily lives?

Photography is the only art medium that the world has access to from the time you are two years old if not younger. How does the collector and artist alike navigate the constant visual noise that the digital
photographic image presents? Good question and hard to avoid.

My advice, work more and spend less time posting. Be present in your work-life balance and curate. The use of digital is here to stay but its use for the artist is changing. Artists are slowing down, taking note of the medium in a serious way and photography is not only used by the purist, the fine art photographer, but photography continues to play a large role in contemporary art as a whole. Photography has seeped it’s way into the studios of artists that work in ALL mediums as well as the top contemporary commercial art galleries.

LO: As a gallerist, what excites you most in selecting and curating a collection? And how can the artist help facilitate?

AWS: The curation process is collaborative for the artist and curator, always. I want their show to be their vision and am always open to ideas around installation.

What excites me the most is watching a collector and his or her space become transformed by the process of collecting. When a collector truly commits, the steps that follow from learning what inspires to watching the sheer enthusiasm from a newly hung piece, the glimmer in that collectors eye and how proud they are, almost feels like you are watching the creative process itself. As the collection evolves the collector evolves. It is amazing when you look back on a collection and it becomes a portrait of the collector and his or her own vision. That is the most rewarding.

LO: Do you have any advice to offer to young photographers seeking gallery representation?

AWS: My advice would be to know how to market your work and know your market. Be humble yet assertive and persistent. Know the history and the artists that came before you and have vision of the ones that will come after. Work every day and build a business and network around your artwork whatever that might look like either via instagram or gallery representation.

Today with technology, the world of selling art is more compelling and competitive than ever. Everyone is a photographer, everyone is an artist or in a creative field. How are you unique? The art world will not show up at your doorstep. You have to be innovative put yourself out in the world better and louder than others.

Lastly and ultimately, you have to make good solid work, meaning quality and craftsmanship. Your work has to feel like it was born by you and no one else and the execution and presentation is equally as important at the idea and image itself.


 

ISSUE NO.13 – CALL FOR ENTRY

 


For our annual issue of Aint–Bad Magazine, we have teamed up with an amazing selection of curators, editors, gallerists, educators, and publishers to offer a chance to have your work seen by some of the best names in the industry. All of our guest curators have trained eyes and know what they are looking for in a photograph. The goal of issue No.13 is to put your work directly in front of eyes of these curators.

While there is no specific theme for this call for entry, we are asking to see your best work! Take a look at the list of curators working with us on this publication. Look into their practice, see what they like. Take a look at the Aint–Bad Archives to get a sense of the imagery that we have been publishing over the last few years both online and in print. Does your work have what it takes to be selected as a printed artist in issue No. 13? Show us! Submit today! This call for entry will end on August 1st, so while you are enjoying this hot summer weather, be sure to dig through your hard drives and select work that will impress the curators, and the world!

Each curator will select two photographers from the submissions to feature and interview for the printed publication. Fifteen curators. Thirty photographers. This issue is collaboration at it’s finest. The final result will be a beautiful, hand-curated issue of the best contemporary photography in existence today. In addition to all of the above, we hope to partner with the curators further to exhibit work from the issue in various galleries and institutions around the world.

Please let us know if you have any questions. First, take a look at our FAQs at the bottom of this page.


 

Submission Deadline
August 10th, 2018


 

Meet the Curators

 


Anna Walker Skillman
Owner / Director
Jackson Fine Art

Atlanta, Georgia

About : Anna Walker Skillman has been a loyal and active participant in the arts community for the last 26 years, and has owned and directed Jackson Fine Art since 2003. Exhibiting photography by both emerging and established artists, she continues her commitment to the arts in Atlanta and beyond.


Kris Graves
Director
Kris Graves Projects

New York / London

About : Kris Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is a photographer and publisher based in New York and London. He received his BFA in Visual Arts from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally. KGP collaborates with artists to create limited edition publications and archival prints.


Rachel Reese
Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Telfair Museums

Savannah, Georgia

About : Rachel Reese is Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Telfair Museums in Savannah, GA where she organizes temporary exhibitions and stewards the growing permanent collection of contemporary art.


Michael Itkoff
Co-Founder
Daylight Books

Durham, North Carolina

About : Michael Itkoff is an artist and Cofounder of Fabl and Daylight Books and has been deeply involved in the publishing industry for over fifteen years. Michael’s monograph,‘Street Portraits’, was published by Charta Editions in 2009.


Jennifer Murray
Executive Director
Filter Photo

Chicago, Illinois

About : Jennifer Murray is an artist, educator, and curator based in Chicago. She is the Executive Director of Filter Photo, a nonprofit festival, exhibition, and educational space. She teaches at Loyola University Chicago and is an independent artists’ consultant.


Paul Kopeikin
President
The Kopeikin Gallery

Los Angeles, California

About : The Kopeikin Gallery has been active in Los Angeles and Internationally since 1991.


Susan Laney
Director
Laney Contemporary

Savannah, Georgia

About : Susan Laney is the director of Laney Contemporary Fine Art and manager of the Jack Leigh estate. The gallery specializes in photography and contemporary art with a focus on the South. She is currently co-curating an Elaine Mayes exhibition to open in Fall, 2018 at the SCAD Museum of Art.


Alan Rothschild
Owner
The Do Good Fund

Columbus, Georgia

About : Alan is the founder of The Do Good Fund, a Georgia-based nonprofit focused on buiding and exhibiting a collection of contemporary photography from the American South. Alan is past chair of the boards of The Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, and The Columbus Musuem, Columbus, GA.


Small Talk Collective
Womens Photography Collective
Small Talk Collective

Portland, Oregon

About : Small Talk is a photography collective comprised of seven women: Audra Osborne, Briana Cerezo, Jennifer Timmer Trail, Kelli Pennington, Kristina Hruska, Leslie Hickey, and Marico Fayre. As a group, we explore the nature of what it means to be a visual storyteller, pool resources, provide support and critique, and facilitate community events and discussions. We engage in the best kind of “small talk,” that which binds us together both as a collective and within a larger community of women and minority artists, fostering stronger work and collaboration. Our first book, We’re Always Touching by Underground Wires, was published in April 2018.


Zemie Barr
Exhibitions Manager
Blue Sky Gallery

Portland, Oregon

About : Zemie Barr is the Exhibitions Manager at Blue Sky Gallery and co-director of Wolff Gallery in Portland, Oregon. She gravitates towards surreal imagery and personal narrative, as well as conceptual, experimental, and interdisciplinary approaches to the photographic medium.


Jack Harris
Founder/Editor
The Heavy Collective

Sydney, Australia

About : Jack Harries is an independent curator and publisher based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder and editor of Heavy, an online platform and print journal dedicated to the discussion and promotion of contemporary photography.


Paloma Shutes
Photo Editor
The California Sunday Magazine and Pop-Up Magazine

San Francisco, California

About : Paloma Shutes is Photography Editor of The California Sunday Magazine. Previously, she worked in the photo departments at Wired and GQ, where she commissioned photography recognized by the Society of Publication Designers and American Photography.


Robert Lyons
International Limited Residency MFA Photography Program Hartford Art School
University of Hartford

Portland, Oregon

About : Robert Lyons lives in Portland, Oregon. He has taught extensively in the USA and Europe at various institutions including: Emily Carr College of Art & Design, Photographic Center Northwest, International Center of Photography, and the Ostkreuzschule in Berlin. He received an M.F.A. from Yale University in 1979. Lyons has received numerous awards for his work including: NEA Survey Grant, Ford Foundation Grants, and a MacDowell Residency. His work has been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe and is represented in numerous permanent collections including: The Metropolitan Museum, Seattle Art Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, Portland Art Museum, Hallmark Collection of Photography, Nelson–Atkins Museum, and Beth Hatefutsoth Museum of the Diaspora, Tel Aviv, Israel.


Amy Elkins
Photographer / Co-founder and Co-Curator of Women in Photography
Women in Photography

Los Angeles, California

About : Amy Elkins is a photographer and the co-founder/co-curator of the website Women In Photography. Her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally including The High Museum in Atlanta, GA; Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria; and The North Carolina Museum of Art among others.


Sasha Wolf
Director
Sasha Wolf Projects

New York, New York

About : Sasha Wolf Projects represents emerging and mid-career, fine art photographers. Additionally, Sasha works with a larger group of artists on career guidance, book development and production and other professional practices. Sasha’s area of interest is straight photography and process work..


 

FAQ :

How much does it cost to submit?
You can submit up to twenty photographs for $25.

Why is there a fee to submit to this call?
We are asking each photographer to pay a submission fee in order to help with the costs of printing this publication. Printing aint cheap! Aint–Bad strives to use the best materials available to create a publication that is a work of art in itself. All funds collected from submission fees will be used to produce this issue of Aint–Bad Magazine.

Can I submit more than one project?
Yes! However, each submission fee is valid for ONE body of work. We want to see your strongest body of work. If you feel that you need to submit a second body of work, you may do so by paying another submission fee and submitting a different project.

When will I be notified if I am selected for this issue?
All selected artists will be notified by mid-August. Photographers that are chosen for this issue will be required to answer interview questions from the guest curators.

What happens if I am not chosen for print?
If you are not selected by our guest curators for print, your work will be passed to the Aint–Bad Editors, and will have an opportunity to be published on our website as an article or interview. You will be notified via email if your work is chosen for an online feature.

Can I submit a collaborative project?
Yes, you can submit a project that has been created by yourself and other artists. Please submit under the name that you would like to appear in print if you are selected.