Judges: Monica Alcazar-Duarte
While editing for submission is a struggle, judging is an equally delicate process. Visual artist Monica Alcazar-Duarte has been involved with the BarTur Award for over 5 years, most recently as a judge for the Climate Change award in 2020 and the Ann Lesley BarTur Award in 2021. Her personal work deals directly with ideas of progress, equality and representation. She was kind enough to offer some insight into how selections can be made.
HM: How did you first get involved with the BarTur Awards?
MA: I was kindly invited after having been a recipient for the BarTur Award in 2017. The award provided one of the most meaningful stepping stones of my career to date. It allowed me to publish my photobook on space exploration and contemporary ecological thought entitled 'The New Colonists'. It included the development of an Augmented Reality application, which at the time was something unusual to have as part of a publication of this kind. The book was recently acquired for the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Photography Centre and was included as part of their inaugural exhibition.
The New Colonists book
HM: Was there a particular image / body of work that stood out, and why?
MA: This is very subjective, and so for me the depth of a body of work is made evident by the clarity of its intention. This is reflected in the text and the captions that accompany a project. One of the bodies of work that has stayed with me since the first time I encountered it is Cocoa Laney's "Belle" which in Cocoa's words is described as follows:
"Belle is a project exploring Southern culture, shame, and religion among young women in my native state of Alabama. Over the course of six weeks, I visited fifteen different towns meeting young women and non-binary people, many of whom invited me to sleep in their homes for the night. Each participant in the project wrote a letter to the anonymous person I would meet on my next stop, sharing pieces of their individual experiences living in the present-day Bible Belt and creating a network of encouragement among strangers".
HM: Are there common themes among the images that do NOT get selected as winners?
MA: There is so much excellent work that is left out, and so for this reason I tell my students to not give up in their first attempt when entering a competition of this sort. I also think that every time one submits work the edit of it all improves, as one gains insights to the work with time.
HM: When considering an image, are there distinct qualities that make it excellent, or is it truly subjective?
MA: I think it is absolutely subjective, and it is influenced by one's own particular positionality and intersectionality. For this reason I think it is an immense honor and responsibility to be part of a selection panel. At the end of the day one has to make sure that the breadth of work represents as large a demographic as the one that constitutes the photography community. To do that the selection panel needs to be constituted by people from as many walks of life as possible.