To be seen means to be recognized. To be photographed, or captured, means to be seen in a certain way: by the photographer, the mechanical eye, the viewers of the image, and the economic and social systems in which the photograph (and its photographed subjects) will circulate and be evaluated. Portraits hold a unique form of power, and can exist in various photographic languages; from ID cards to institutional archives, from museum collections to family albums. Portraits can be instrumental or conceptual, they can convey fragmented and complex identities, or arrest all other possible meanings by offering a single interpretation to one’s face and environment.

This call is curious about the conversations and connections enabled by portraiture, suggesting that the photographer and mechanical eye can inhabit and further problematize such limitations and photographic histories or undo them by offering a view rooted in compassion and understanding. In that sense, this call suggests that the photograph can enable a dialog anchored in empathy and acceptance. This open call invites submissions for images that consider photographic portraits as a possibility for connection and unexpected encounters, whether those exist in the worlds of conceptual, documentary, digital, or candid photography.

The Juror

Shana Lopes, PhD, is an Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, The SECA 2024 Art Award, People Make This Place: SFAI Stories, and Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules. Over the past fifteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.