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What makes a photograph distinctly contemporary? How do photographers respond to the contemporary world, and how is it different from past photographic art practice? These questions frequently came to mind when considering and selecting work for this exhibition the first juried exhibition at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography i(DCCP).
In viewing such an amazing of range of work, submitted without any prescribed theme or definable territory, I found that subjects, styles and interpretations relevant to contemporary photographic practice are perhaps deliberately indefinable, without categorization and absolutely limitless. It was a wonderful and completely liberating realization for a juror who found as well that the most compelling submissions were those not bound to photographic traditions of the past, specifically those traditions informed by narrative structure or the medium of black-and-white photography. One consideration that tied many of the selections together, as diverse as they may be, was the mindful ability of selected artists to elevate and define our contemporary world, its general appearance, as well as its ordinary occurrences and scenery from everyday life into revelatory visual experiences through the medium, for the most part, of color digital photography.
In a city with so few exclusive venues for the exhibition of photographic work, these selections offer a welcome and hopefully broad but not entirely definitive glimpse into the world of contemporary photographic image-making for individuals visiting the DCCP in the here and now.
