For the call for Conversations with the Archive, we are looking for work using historical, familial, or found photographs (or ephemera) to create a new visual language or expression. This reconsideration of other people's photographs, whether it be from a family album or a dusty thrift store bin, allows the creator to appropriate, construct, edit, and sequence in order to create something entirely new--sometimes in conversation with the photographer's own imagery, or sometimes as an artistic expression using only appropriated imagery.

Our juror for Conversations with the Archive is Aline Smithson. Aline Smithson is a visual artist, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, her work is influenced by the elevated unreal.

In 2007, Smithson founded LENSCRATCH, a photography journal that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day. She has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, a contributing writer for Diffusion, Don’t Take Pictures, Lucida, and F Stop Magazines.