The Crux of Visibility: Portraits, Vision, and Empathy

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. 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.