I realize it has been forever since I posted here. So much has been going on, between the pandemic, battling chronic depression, teaching at Photoworks, joining the board of directors at Photoworks, and launching Foto Inter/Cambio, the first large format/alternative process conference in Mexico, not to mention pursuing my own work, I’ve been kind of busy and my blog hasn’t gotten the attention it should. So to start with, the big one!

Foto InterCambio

This was an idea that my business partner, Gabriel Barajas, and I came up with back in 2019. We wanted to organize a conference for large format and alternative process photography to happen in Mexico City. The idea kicked around and just as we were starting to plan it in any degree of seriousness, the pandemic hit. So that got put on hold. In late 2022, Gabriel and I started planning again, once it was clear that the pandemic was abating. We launched our website, https://fotointercambio.com in March of 2023, and that kicked off a year full of planning, organizing, recruiting talent, and lots of advertising on social media. I’m writing this on the eve of the conference, and while it is smaller than I would have liked, nonetheless, that it happened at all is a huge success, and probably the proudest achievement of my life – if you had turned to me when I was 18 and said that in the future I would be organizing an international multilingual photography conference I would have said you were crazy. But 35 years later, here we are.

The short version of the conference description (you can read all about it on the Foto Inter/Cambio website) is three days of presentations, hands-on activities, and community building in the historic center of Mexico City. The conference’s statement of purpose is

Three days of building community and encouraging collaboration through intercultural exchange across the Americas and globally in the large format/alternative process photography family.

I will have more to share after the conference wraps.

Glen Echo Photoworks

I’ve been steadily more involved over the last year and a half at Glen Echo Photoworks. I’ve been teaching more, volunteering to help out with filling in for folks who can’t make it, and lots of logistics, so this month, the executive director and the head of exhibitions extended me an offer to join the board. It is a two-year term, renewable by consent of both parties. I’m very excited to step into this role in arts management – I will be helping out with exhibitions as well as taking on a leadership role in the education committee as we seek to overhaul how we offer classes to better align with student needs and expectations.

Timeless 2023

Timeless 2023 is the second iteration of the exhibition of work by the alternative process/handmade photography group at Photoworks. The initial exhibit was held in 2022 and was a great success. We had the opening reception for Timeless 2023 on Friday the 20th of October, and it was even more successful- over 100 people attended, which is a huge crowd to be in such a small space as Photoworks’ two galleries.

The above images are my work in the exhibit, including the statement print on the left of the second image, positioned at the front door. The portfolio displayed are a series of palladium prints, all taken with an 8×10 studio portrait camera using a Kodak Portrait soft focus lens. I combined two distinct types of images – portraits of people and still life images of objects – to draw parallels between them through the use of the formal stylization.

Foto Inter/Cambio Exhibit

This is the first time in I don’t know how long that I’ve had two shows running at the same time, and certainly the first I’ve had shows going in two different countries at the same time. As part of the Foto Inter/Cambio conference, the Museo Archivo de la Fotografia will be hosting a two-week exhibition of works by the presenters at Foto Inter/Cambio. Works displayed will include images by Julio Galindo the Mexican master photographer (and this year’s honoree), Arturo Talavera, Paty Banda, Mark Osterman and France Scully Osterman (this year’s keynote speakers), Matthew Magruder, Craig Alan Huber, Mary Quin, and yours truly, Scott Davis.

So yes, a LOT has been going on.

Update: I had five images in the exhibit at the Museo Archivo de la Fotografia in Mexico City. All five have found a home in the museum’s permanent collection! I’m very proud of this.