Susana Raab Archives

2017 Best in Show Winner: Michael Kennedy

March 3, 2017 By Caroline Space

Michael Kennedy - Meridian Snowball Fight — Michael Kennedy – Meridian Snowball Fight

Here’s the third of our five Best In Show prize winners from the upcoming 2017 Exposed DC Photography Show. We invited each member of a panel of distinguished D.C. metro-area photographers to choose their favorite photograph from the 43 in this year’s show. The five winning photographers each receive a $100 cash prize from Exposed DC.

We’ll announce the remaining two winners next week, so check back with us then. Meanwhile there’s still time to get your advance tickets for our March 9 opening night!

Today’s Best in Show winner is “Meridian Snowball Fight” by Michael Kennedy, selected by fine-art and documentary photographer Susana Raab. Raab told us: “I chose this photograph because it stood out from the other entries as being a well-executed dynamic moment of action. It represents an under-appreciated aspect of Washington: we are a community that often comes together to engage in non-partisan fun.” I couldn’t agree more with Susana’s comments on Kennedy’s image. On a personal level, this image portrays two things that are very important to me that I’m missing right now: snow and camaraderie!

See more of Kennedy’s photographs on his website.

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Susana Raab is a fine-art and documentary photographer working in Washington, DC, creating personal work in addition to working as the photographer of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, documenting the East of the River communities in D.C. Her work is held in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History, The Library of Congress, Division of Prints & Photographs, The Art Museum of the Americas, among others.

2016 Best in Show Winner: Chris Suspect

March 2, 2016 By Meaghan Gay

Today is the third of our five Best In Show prize winners for the 10th annual Exposed DC Photography Show. We invited each member of a panel of distinguished D.C. metro-area photographers to choose their favorite photograph from the 47 in this year’s exhibit. The five winning photographers will each receive a $100 cash prize from Exposed DC.

We’ll be announcing the winners each day this week. Advance tickets are still available for the opening reception next Thursday, March 10!

Our third winner is “Untitled” by Chris Suspect, chosen by judge Susana Raab. Suspect’s image, like many of his photos, is a study in composition. The woman at the center of the photo is surrounded by a spiral of chaos, chairs and tables strewn about, and children in various stages of apparent meltdown. Her outfit and pose would be more fitting on a Caribbean beach, but instead she is the calm at the center of a very colorful storm.

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Susana Raab was born in Lima, Peru and raised throughout the United States. She is a fine-art and documentary photographer working in Washington, D.C., creating personal work in addition to working as the photographer of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, documenting the East of the River communities in the city.

The heart of her work is a search for the quotidian, archetypical and ordinary: man’s relationship with his environment, identity within that construct, and transcendence or evolution. Susana’s work has been exhibited internationally and nationally, at venues including: the Corcoran Museum of Art, the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid, the Pingyao Photo Festival, Noorderlicht Fotofestival in the Netherlands, and the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C.

Susana has been the recipient of the White House News Photographers’ Project Grant, a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship, Honorable Mentions in Center’s Project Competition and Curator’s Choice Awards, and a Puffin Grant, among others. Her work is held in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History, The Library of Congress, Division of Prints & Photographs, The Art Museum of the Americas, The EnFoco Collection, and the DC Public Art Bank.

2015 Best in Show Winner: Kashif Javaid

March 6, 2015 By exposeddc

Kashif Javaid - This reminded me of Diane Arbus — This reminded me of Diane Arbus by Kashif Javaid

We debuted Best in Show awards last year and they proved to be such a popular addition to the contest, we were eager to bring them back for our 9th annual Exposed DC Photography Show. Of the 42 photographs in this year’s exhibit, five have been recognized by a panel of distinguished D.C. metro-area editors and photojournalists. The five winning photographers will each receive a $100 cash prize from Exposed DC.

We’ll be announcing the winners daily through next Tuesday.

This year’s first Best in Show recipient is the superb “This reminded me of Diane Arbus” by Kashif Javaid. Well done Kashif! His photo was chosen by judge Susana Raab, a fine-art and documentary photographer working in Washington, D.C. She told us (before she know what Kashif titled it):

I selected this image because of its simplicity and the unusualness of the moment found within an everyday scene. I love how the awkwardness of the girl’s arms caught inside her coat and the gesture of her hands over her eyes creates an allegorical image – a blank canvas ripe for projection. The photograph has a Diane Arbusian appeal within its discomfort and tension. I think the photographer was successful in transforming the ordinary into an iconic image. [Read more…]

Special Judges for the 2015 Exposed DC Photography Show

January 20, 2015 By Heather Goss

We loved being able to reward a few talented photographers with a special award last year, granted by some of the most distinguished photographers in the D.C. area, so we’re doing it again!

This year our judges are photojournalists, fine artists, and picture editors, have images held in the private collections from the Getty to the Smithsonian, seen their work regularly published in The New York Times and by the Associated Press, and won armfuls of awards and fellowships. They’re already looking at the winning 42 images to find their favorites. Each winning photographer will get a $100 cash prize from Exposed DC.

Will the discerning eye of one of our judges pick yours? We’ll announce the winners just before the exhibit opens on March 12.

Now, meet our special judges: Lauren Stockbower, Cynthia Connolly, Randall Scott, Susana Raab, and Evan Vucci.

[Read more…]

Friday Links

April 11, 2014 By Meaghan Gay

This week’s exciting fare includes developments in Calumet’s bankruptcy case, lunar eclipse photo ops, the death of the White House selfie, and the announcement of an enormous photo exhibition space.

In huge museum news, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced Wednesday “the creation of the John and Lisa Pritzker Center for Photography, which will be the largest exhibition space for photography and among the most advanced photographic arts centers of any art museum in the United States.“
100 photographs taken by Irving Penn have been donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by his foundation. They’ll go on display in a retrospective opening in 2015.
Local photographer Susana Raab is documenting life East of the River: “Hidden behind the public face of its great monuments and political imbroglios, lies another Washington which situates the District of Columbia as the United States’ poorest state, second only to Mississippi.” This work can be seen on her website, as well as in a photo gallery on POLITICO.
Is there hope for a return of Calumet Photographic? Possibly. CalPhotoUS is buying up some of their assets, but there is no word yet on whether any stores will reopen.
Stars and Stripes has excellent photographs in their Military Photographer of the Year awards. You know you are in for some lovely images when the first of the series resembles the Pieta.
It is not too late to use this, but you should act fast. A Photographer’s Guide to the Cherry Blossoms, including locations that are not on the National Mall by Kat Forder.
Photographer Robert Dawson has been photographing public libraries across America for 18 years, and has released a book of the images. The photographs say so much about our culture.
Tickets are now available to the opening reception of Critical Exposure’s 9th annual exhibit of youth photography. The event is May 21, from 6:00-8:30pm.
Smithsonian Magazine announced the winners of their 11th annual photo contest.
On April 15 the tax man and the moon man will collide in a lunar eclipse. If you’re going to photograph it, check out our Night Sky Photography for Beginners guide.
“If you’re modeling light settings and defining the meter readings about a balanced image against white skin, the contours and shape of a white face, you’ve immediately erased 70% of the world’s population.” Interesting analysis of the racial bias built into camera and film technology.
Photographers – the industry may be shrinking, but know that you can always find work as a meerkat lookout post.
Photos of some the dogs Michel Vick owned and tortured. These are among a handful of the dogs who have been rehabilitated, and are in loving homes.
Oh Big Papi. You may be one of the greatest hitters of all time, but you may go down as the man who killed the White House selfie.
Ectoplasm and spirit photography? We don’t know either, but the results are pretty cool.
He may be Mr. Spock to most of us, but Leonard Nimoy is also a photographer.
The InFocus Project, based in Montgomery County, brought their autistic adult students to the Tidal Basin this week to photograph the cherry blossoms. You can see their work on their website.
The Library of Congress celebrated Eadweard Muybridge’s birthday yesterday, and showed off the work of the early photographer.
Public “surprised” at the sight of a tiger being walked on a rope leash in Xuzhou, China. We might have chosen a different word.