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Thank You For Everything

May 28, 2025 By Heather Goss

These are the remarks I offered at our finale to my incredible Exposed DC team, to the DC Public Library for archiving our entire collection, and to everyone who has been a part of this wonderful community for 19 years. You can watch the remarks here; they are slightly edited for reposting.

Good evening everybody. I’m so pleased to have you all here tonight for this celebration. My name is Heather Goss, and I kicked off this little venture called Exposed DC back in 2006.

We are here to celebrate two milestones tonight. We are inducting our entire photography collection into The People’s Archives here at the DC Public Library. And we’re celebrating the finale of Exposed DC after nearly two decades of featuring local photography.

Every year, as you all know, we host an exhibition that showcases life and culture in the District, through the eyes of the people who live, work, and love here. Over the last 18 years, many hundreds of photographers have shown us their vision of the city in one of our shows. Over that time, more than 10,000 people have joined us at celebrations just like this one to see your work.

We have been fortunate to have had many words written about Exposed over the years. But when people ask me what Exposed DC is, I often think about the words written by one of our own photographers, our friend Joe Flood. He wrote, “If I wanted to explain to someone what happened in DC in the last year, I would take them to the Exposed DC Photography Show. Full of feeling, the photos show what it was like to be alive during this time in Washington.”

When I think about why the photos in Exposed are so special, I often think about one of my favorite books on photography. It’s called The Ongoing Moment, by Geoff Dyer. In it, Dyer looks at the canon of American photography and he sees all these recurring, simple motifs—benches, street musicians, solitary woman or men in overcoats. He sees these scenes repeated over and over again, by Stieglitz and Evans, by Lange and Arbus. Each one lending their own vision to the scene. He says that together these photographers have created an “ongoing moment,” where these images and themes are continuously resonating and evolving through the eyes of each new photographer.

So you might see why I think about this when I think about Exposed. Our photographers find all the familiar scenes that make up our lives here in the District. From our daily metro rides and walks to the local bar, to the crowds at the cherry blossoms and protests on the Mall. Year after year, our photographers reshape these scenes into our ongoing moment, in beautiful and strange and sometimes absolutely stunning new ways.

I can’t think of a more natural place to capture that moment than at the DC Public Library, an institution that stewards our collective, cultural memory, and ensures it stays a living one. I could not be more proud that the Exposed DC Photography Collection will be a small part of the memory that they care for.

Thank you so much to Laura Farley, the assistant manager for digital initiatives at The People’s Archive, who has been so instrumental in helping us make this collection a reality. Thank you as well to Maya, and Ayahna and everyone here at the Library that helped us create this collection and our celebration event.

Before we toast, we have one more thing to celebrate—which is that this celebration is the finale for us at Exposed DC after nearly two decades. So if you’ll bear with me just a few more minutes, there are several people I need to thank for getting us here.

Many of you joined back when this was called the DCist Exposed Photography Show.  That’s where this whole thing began, back at what was then a start-up local news venture. We had a small army of DCist staffers who volunteered their time to learn how to perfectly hang a photo, or pour thousands of draft beers at a makeshift bar in the middle of a gallery. Our team at DCist made those first few years of Exposed possible, and also extremely fun.

After DCist, we became Exposed DC, a nonprofit organization that has grown and thrived through a staggeringly long list of partnerships with local businesses and community organizations. That includes the ones who have helped us throw our celebratory event—our friends at Aperturent and Capital Photography Center.

We’re also thrilled to partner with Robin Bell, an incredible DC-based multimedia artist who created a custom projection that’s showed throughout the event featuring our entire collection. I also want to give a shout out to DJ Sequoia and v:shal. They have played the soundtrack for many years of Exposed events, and I’m so happy to have them at our finale.

When it comes to support, I especially need to thank the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities. Their generosity has made our finale celebration possible, as well as so much of our work over the years.

Through all these partnerships, we have been able to stretch so far beyond the annual show, with community events and happy hours, classes and workshops, our Friday newsletter of all things photography, and so many special exhibits. We have been fortunate to have had our show hosted by what I think are some iconic DC venues, from our very first year at Warehouse—where Molly and Paul Ruppert trusted us with that first show—to our 10th anniversary at the Carnegie Library with the DC History Center, and all the way to tonight, on this incredible roof deck.

Nevertheless, Exposed has always remained a small organization. And many of our teammates have been with us since the very beginning. I do not have enough gratitude for my friend, James Calder. He was a photographer in the show, and asked to volunteer, and then quickly became my co-executive director for many years. He created so much of the infrastructure that allowed us to go from that first year into something we could recreate, year after year. And he’s a damn fine photographer that helped shape the early curation of this collection. 

Jennifer Wade is another great photographer who was also in the show, joined as a volunteer and is now one of our board members. She has brought the very important theater director role to Exposed, helping us keep the experience of the show as good as the images that are in it.

Leigh Bailey has brought her non-profit business expertise to us—and she’s also led and coordinated all of our volunteers who ran our celebration event. A huge thank you to those volunteers, as well as all the many, many volunteers over the years who have helped us pull all this off for so long. 

And a thank you to Board members Yonas Hassan, Sriram Gopal, Kim Keller, and Satya Ponnaluri. They have all generously volunteered their time and expertise to ensure Exposed DC’s success.

And then there is Noe Todorovich. Noe has led Exposed as the executive director ever since James and I basically ambushed her with the job offer many years ago. I cannot think of anybody who could have led Exposed through its second decade any better. She did it through the good times when we were juggling almost too many opportunities to handle, and she did it all the way through the pandemic, finding creative ways for us to continue to gather to keep celebrating photography and celebrating our community. She helmed us all the way to this launch, and I am both so proud and so grateful for her leadership.

And finally, a last remark for all of the photographers who have been part of our community for so many years. Our team at Exposed DC—we feel so fortunate to know you and to have been part of what you all created. This collection is our thank you to all of you.  

I offer a toast: To everyone who is here because you love photography, or maybe you love a photographer, or you just love this city. The collection we’ve created here is ours, but it is also now the People’s, so instead of the end, let us toast to our ongoing moment. 

Photo by Mariah Miranda

Filed Under: Announcement, Collection, Current Feature Tagged With: Exposed DC Collection

Friday Links: July 6, 2018

July 6, 2018 By Heather Goss

Photo by Mike Maguire

  • Momenta is offering tuition scholarships to photographers for its upcoming Project Puerto Rico workshop.
  • Artists can apply now to participate in Superfine!, a new art fair coming to Union Market this October, and which promises that over half the exhibitors will be from the metro area.
  • Photographers aged 18 and under can submit their images to Glen Echo Photoworks Gallery competition until July 13.
  • Audubon announced the winners of its 2018 photography awards, and one super-kid swept all three youth categories.
  • How does National Geographic get up close and personal photos of animals in the wild? With custom-made Crittercams, of course.
  • A strange new exhibit explores painter Winslow Homer’s inspiration by connecting it to the burgeoning Daguerreotype techniques being developed during his lifetime.
  • High speed photography isn’t just for sports—it can also capture exploding paint balloons to crashing waves and beyond.
  • Portrait photographer Donald Maclellan did his own version of Where Are They Now by tracking down his old classmates 35 years later. (If you happen to be in Mallaig you can visit Harry Potter movie locations and also Maclellan’s exhibit.)

Filed Under: Friday Links

Friday Links: June 8, 2017

June 8, 2018 By Heather Goss

Photo by Tom Mockler

  • The Focus on the Story International Photo Festival kicked off last night and there’s tons to take in this weekend. See the full schedule of workshops, photo walks, talks and book signings by big names like Martin Parr, an exhibit featuring Exposed alum Chris Suspect, and more. Tonight, find your fellow photography lovers at the opening party at Gallery O on H. Register here.
  • Head to Steadfast Supply in Navy Yard on Sunday for a camera workshop with D.C. photographer, educator, and Exposed alum, Amanda Archibald, 1 to 3 p.m. $75.
  • Enter the 2018 APA Awards in a slew of categories. Open to all, members get a discount.
  • Submit your work to be featured in the first issue of The Khollected, a D.C.-based art and design magazine.
  • The two biggest auction houses, Christie’s and Sotheby’s, are diversifying the photography they use for art, which means we’ll likely see fewer young women being used as props to sell things.
  • With primary season well under way, New York Times photographers were out this week taking portraits and talking to voters.
  • A photographer who toured with Prince talked to Getty Images about the late singer’s favorite photos of himself.
  • A year after Ryan Kelly took his Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo of Marcus Martin after being hit by a car during the Charlottesville rally, the two came together for a much better reason: Kelly photographed Martin’s wedding to Marissa Blair, who was also present that day, just out of frame.

Filed Under: Friday Links

Friday Links: May 25, 2018

May 25, 2018 By Heather Goss

Photo by Lorie Shaull

Our 12th annual Exposed DC exhibit is a wrap! A huge thanks to everyone who came out, and to all the photographers who shared their love of the D.C. area with us through images. If you saw a photograph you liked, you can buy a fine art print of it online here. Feel free to email us for more information. Sign up for our newsletter here. Share your photography with us all year on Flickr or by using the hashtag #exposeddc on Instagram. Keep your eyes peeled soon for our June happy hour!

  • The Washington Gardener Photo Show opens Sunday, June 3 at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens with a reception, 2-3:30 p.m, free to attend. The 17 winning photos will be on display through July 31.
  • Mark Seliger talks with NPR about his desire to “get something that no one else has gotten” when photographing well-known figures.
  • Black D.C. natives respond to Washingtonian’s “I’m Not A Tourist” campaign with counter photo shoot.
  • United/Divided 2 opens at Glen Echo Photoworks on June 3, 6 to 8 p.m.
  • Instagram is rolling out a mute feature. We won’t tell if you won’t.
  • L.A. Times photographers head to RuPaul’s DragCon and it’s just as vivid as you imagine.
  • Foxes are people! Well, no, but they’re pretty expressive when Ossi Saarinen finds them.
  • Women and minority photographers are using digital spaces to their advantage.
  • When you set up your remote camera too close too the rocket flames the results are…as expected.

Filed Under: Friday Links

Friday Links: April 27, 2018

April 27, 2018 By Heather Goss

Photo by Olaf Zerbock

Get your advanced tickets to our huge celebration featuring the winners of the 2018 Exposed DC photography contest. Join us at Dupont Underground on May 11 for this great display of local images.

  • SmugMug just bought Flickr and vows to revitalize the service. Fast Company thinks it’s positioning to be a real competitor to Instagram as a safe place for photographers.
  • Find out a bit more about Diane Arbus’ portfolio, “A box of ten photographs,” and then go see it for yourself at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  • Learn how to begin collecting photography with this lecture at Glen Echo Photoworks this Sunday, 4 p.m. Free but registration requested.
  • A U.S. appeals court has ruled that animals cannot sue for copyright infringement.
  • Last Friday was the eight year anniversary of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
  • Here’s the winning shot that got Noor Ahmed Gelal a food photographer of the year award.
  • Paul Morse talks to New York Magazine about his photo of four presidents and four first ladies.
  • Check out the world’s fastest camera car: a $200,000 Lamborghini with over $500,000 of modifications. Even with all the camera gear, its still got a top speed of 201 mph.
  • Cosmos magazine looks back at how John William Draper used science to develop early photographic methods.
  • The winners of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards were announced this week.
  • Do turtles have good table manners?

Filed Under: Friday Links

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