Qin Zhang says, "These pieces are parts of "California Dreaming" Project, where it started with the question of what makes people feel connected to a place, to nature, and to the world.  It seems that we feel connected to something if it responds to our views, ideas, or to our "dreams". But there is only one world.  So, are there commonalities in our dreams?  This is what I am trying to explore in this project.

I am developing several series of works related to my interests and understanding about human intelligence.  This is a process for me to further my understanding and raised awareness of certain issues related to human intelligence.  Some of my works have more expressionist touch, where I will be expressing my emotions and thoughts.   There are other pieces where I am mostly emotional neutral, and ask the viewers to investigate the psychological and emotional impacts the images will generate.  The lines between them often are not very clear, as even in pieces where I am expressing my thoughts and emotions, often viewers’ can find their own interpretations."

Qin Zhang was born in China, and currently is living in Los Angeles.  She is a self-taught abstract conceptual/minimalist artist currently working in photography.  She is also a philosopher, focusing on human intelligence, and an inventor in Artificial Intelligence, automation, and other software fields. She is a patent attorney, and a mechanical engineer.  
She also likes to sing and sometimes write poems.

www.qinzhang.me

Rob Krauss says, "Street photography has been my creative outlet since 2011. A passion for photojournalism turned me on to Street shooting and since then I have been enamored with exploring the streets and trying to catch momentary beauty. Street photography has taken me around the world and opened up my own neighborhood by teach me how to see.

I was taught photography at the age of 7, primarily through my Father and playing around with disposable film cameras. Through the years I saw photography as a stop gap, something to help with my childhood obsession with loss. If I could capture the perfect photo of something I would have it forever. As I grew, I became enamored with the art, seeing a beautiful composition out in ordinary life became so gratifying.

My aim is to capture emotion in fleeting moments, so as to connect with the subject I am shooting and thus provide the viewers of my images with that connection as well. I have traveled to many cities in the world to shoot Street Photography besides Los Angeles including New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Paris, London and Mexico City. I shoot primarily with the Ricoh GR.

I strive every time I go out and shoot to do more than the clichés, more than the shadow play, more than the geometry. I am pushing myself to see deeper and capture the nexus of the emotional and technically perfect moment in my photos."

www.robkrauss.com
 

Ruth Grimes says, "Urban photography has always thrilled me.  Sometimes things happen so fast I have to hurry home to view my images on my computer screen to see if I captured something weird or interesting.  Los Angeles is one of my favorite cities to photograph.  LA is not the most majestic city, nor the prettiest, but when it comes to the people it has got to be the most colorful.  Sadly, I don't get to LA often enough so I tend to explore cities closer to home; Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Francisco.  I am finding these cities have lots of personality too.

The images here were taken for therapeutic purposes.  In the light of continuous bad news stories, I have tried to photograph signs of a united humankind. I personally need to see people sharing, laughing, and loving.

I have been influenced by some of the greatest pioneers in street photography; William Eggleston, Saul Leiter, Trent Parke, and more recent street photographers such as Philip Brookman, Valerie Jardin, and Marie Laigneau.  Black and white is rare for me."


www.ruthgrimes.photography

Image- 'Check This Out'::  I loved these two older ladies at the Women’s March in Santa Cruz earlier this year.  I’d love to know what they were looking at on their tablet.  
 

Image 'Coolin Downl'::  This was downtown San Jose in 109 degree heat.  Rather than stay indoors, crowds of people, young and old, were out having fun. 

Image 'Love Ur Bum':: Los Angeles! Where else would a walk to the train station cross paths with hundreds of naked cyclists?  This was my lucky day because it was also the day of LA's World Naked Bike Ride.  Zooming in on this photo was quite a lot of fun.

SameSource says about 'Chung King Road', "Throughout the 20th Century, the iconic Fong’s sign on Chung King Road in Los Angeles’ Chinatown was featured in dozens of movies and televisions shows, and it even served as the backdrop for the bestselling novel, On Gold Mountain. 

In 2014, I had the honor and pleasure of shooting the very last photos of this location, just hours before the sign was removed at dawn the following morning."

SameSource is a photographic artist with over two decades of professional experience recording images. 

SameSource fine art photography spans both landscape and bodyscape, often exploring human sexuality and its relationship with art.  With recent showings from the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, to Art Basel, Miami Beach, SameSource was recognized in the international Lumiere Award for 2017.  Coagula Gallery in Los Angeles included SameSource in its Ten Top Artists exhibition for 2016 in a show curated by Tulsa Kinney of Artillery Magazine. 

SameSource work has been featured in The Huffington Post and American Photo magazine, and SameSource has twice been profiled by Silvershotz International Magazine of Contemporary Photography for the Apples and Apples Reinterpreted series.  Fabrik magazine selected SameSource as one of thirty international photographers for a 2017 exhibition on street photography at Fathom Gallery in Los Angeles. 

In addition to being featured in numerous photography books, SameSource is the author of three fine art photography books, Objects of Ruin (ISBN: 132013419X), Apples (ISBN: 136615598X), and Apples Reinterpreted (ISBN: 1366155858).

SameSource has origins in the rural Midwest. After studying music and philosophy in a liberal arts education, the artist went to Italy and became immersed in the works of the Renaissance. A return to the US brought the pursuit of graduate work in music and cinema, with an eventual arrival on the west coast via the USC film school. In addition to the full-time pursuit of photographic fine art, SameSource output has included notable works as a recording artist, writer, and filmmaker.

Learn more at SameSourceFineArt.com and follow SameSource on Facebook and Instagram; SameSourcePhoto on Twitter; SameSourcePhotography on SaatchiArt.

Solo Shows:

Bodyscapes: The Fine Art of SameSource, October 2017 (Pure Pleasure Gallery, Santa Cruz, California)
SameSource Works at LA Emerging Designers, October 2015 (LA Fashion Week at the Dream Factory, Los Angeles)
Objects of Ruin, November 2014 - January 2015 (Main Street Gallery, Kansas City)
Objects of Ruin, September - October 2014 (Hamilton Galleries, Santa Monica)

Group Shows:

EMS Nude Survey 6, September – October 2017 (Sin City Gallery, Las Vegas)
12" of Sin Obscura, July 2017 (Sin City Gallery, Las Vegas)
Images 2017, June ¬– July 2017 (MSA Gallery, San Raphael, California)
Word Jumble, May – June 2017 (BG Gallery, Santa Monica)
Exposed: Nude Photography Exhibition, May 2017 (1650 Gallery, Los Angeles)
On the Street, Fathom Gallery, April-May 2017 (Los Angeles)
Seattle Erotic Art Festival, April-May 2017 (Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, Seattle)
Photo Independent International Exposition of Contemporary Photography, April 2017 (The Reef, Los Angeles)
Detroit Dirty Show, February 2017 (Russell Exhibition Center, Detroit)
YourDailyPhotograph.com Winner of Be My Valentine Contest for Apples: Footsie 2-2-2017 (Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles)
Snap To Grid Exhibit, December 2016 (Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles)
FANFARE-LA, November 2016, (Stockroom Exhibition Hall, Los Angeles)
Tranarchy Benefit for homeless trans youth, November 2016 (Super Future Studios, Los Angeles)
Round Hole-Square Peg Selections, August - October 2016 (Gochis Gallery, Los Angeles)
Photo Art Fair, July 2016 (Duncan Miller Gallery at Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica)
Spectrum-Gestalt 3, June – July 2016 (BG Gallery, Santa Monica)
Streetscapes, June 2016 (1650 Gallery, Los Angeles)
Girls, Girls, Girls!, May 2016 (1650 Gallery, Los Angeles)
Photo Independent International Exposition of Contemporary Photography, May 2016 (Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles)
Monster Gestalt, May 2016 (BG Gallery, Santa Monica)
12" of Sin IMMERSIVE, April 2016 (Sin City Gallery, Las Vegas)
On the Edge 6, February 2016 (SOMArts Gallery, San Francisco)
Detroit Dirty Show, February 2016 (Russell Exhibition Center, Detroit)
Round Hole-Square Peg, January - February 2016 (Artists Corner Gallery, Hollywood)
Top Ten Show, January - February 2016 (Coagula Curatorial, Los Angeles)
Photo LA 25th Annual International Photographic Art Exposition, January 2016 (The Reef, Los Angeles)
Take Home a Nude, January 2016 (Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida)
Snap To Grid Exhibit, December 2015 - January 2016 (Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles)
Scope Art Miami Beach, December 2015 (Art Basel, Miami Beach)
YourDailyPhotograph.com Winner of Supermoon Contest for Moon Over Culver Hotel 11-15-2015 (Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles)
Visions Photography Show, October - November 2015 (Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento)
Halloween Art Show, October 2015 (Culver City Foshay Lodge, Culver City, California)
Masquerotica, October 2015 (S Factory, San Francisco)
State of the Arts, October 2015 (R.G. Endres Gallery, Prairie Village, Kansas)
The Art of the Striptease, September - October 2015 (Artists Corner Gallery, Hollywood)
City of Overland Park Juried International Photography Exhibition, September - November 2015 (Tomahawk Ridge Gallery, Overland Park, Kansas)
 
Spectrum-Gestalt 2, August 2015 (Bleicher/Gorman Gallery, Santa Monica)
Exposure Art Photography Collection, July 2015 (Musée du Louvre, Paris, France)
YourDailyPhotograph.com Winner of Love Contest for Apples: Heart 5-10-2015 (Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles)
Dab Art Neoteric International Juried Exhibition, April - May 2015 (HUD Gallery, Ventura)
Photo Independent International Exposition of Contemporary Photography, May 2015 (Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles)
12" of Sin & Le Salon Des Refusés du Péché, May - July 2015 (Sin City Gallery, Las Vegas)
On the Edge 5, February 2015 (SOMArts Gallery, San Francisco)
Nu Art • Nu Artists, February 2015 (Wiznu Gallery, Los Angeles)
Detroit Dirty Show, February 2015 (Russell Exhibition Center, Detroit)
Nude Nite, February 2015 (Mcleod Road, Orlando)
Kendra Cryan Curated Exhibition, January 2015 (2nd Street Cigar Gallery, Los Angeles)

Print:

Fabrik Contemporary Art & Design, Special Feature: Winners of the Lumiére Awards, Issue 36, Summer 2017. Fabrik Media.
Apples Reinterpreted, 2017. SameSource Fine Art Publications, ISBN: 9781366155856
Apples, 2017. SameSource Fine Art Publications, ISBN: 9781366155986
SilverShotz International Magazine of Contemporary Photography, Artist interview on Apples Reinterpreted series, Volume 11, Ed. 7, April 2017. ISSN: 1836-3105
SilverShotz International Magazine of Contemporary Photography, Lumiere Award Winners, Volume 11, Edition 6, March 2017. ISSN: 1836-3105
The Beauty of Humanity Highlights from 2015 Scope Art Miami. 2016. SeeMe Publications.
12" of Sin, Edited by Dr. Laura Henkel. Vol. 4, 2015. Sin City Gallery, LLC. ISBN: 9780996434034
The Exposure Award Art Photography Collection, Edited by William Etundi, Jr. 2015. SeeMe Publications.
SilverShotz International Magazine of Contemporary Photography, Artist interview on Apples series, Volume 9, Experience 6, April-May 2015. ISSN: 1836-3105
Objects of Ruin, Standard Edition Book, 2014. Blurb Publications, ISBN: 9781320134125

www.SameSourceFineArt.com
 

Additional note about “Loback Meat Co.”: 

People look through flowers that now fill the florist stand beneath the iconic neon sign for Loback Meat Company at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.  The neon sign dates to 1947 and has been preserved as part of the heritage of the community. 

Additional note about “Piggy Bank”:

A random passerby deposits money into Rachel, a brass piggy bank sculpture by Georgia Gerber collecting donations for the The Market Foundation in downtown Seattle. 

Sarah Rooney says, "I have always been interested in making photos on the street. I am naturally an outgoing and curious person and love capturing spontaneous moments; slices of time. 

A year and a half ago I began to study street photography. Therefore, I am much more aware of why I am making the photos that I am making.  I find that I make the same image, over and over, in different times and spaces.  I have learned to listen to these images and now realize how much I am revealing about myself through people, animals, or objects that I find on the street. 

The selection of photos that I am entering into this competition is a small selection of a series that I started at the Anti-Trump Protest, Downtown Los Angeles, November 14, 2016 and continue through November 2017.  My images are metaphorical self portraits and often more moody and more vulnerable than I ever consider myself to portray in my real life.  These images are the mirror to my soul."

Sarah Marie Rooney grew up in Connecticut and obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Musical Theatre, from Syracuse University. After graduating Sarah continued her vocal studies in the UK and New Zealand and performed more than fifty solo vocal recitals and operas in the United States, Australia, the UK and New Zealand.  

Sarah was also the Business Manager and Executive Theater Producer at BATS Theatre, Producer of Summer Shakespeare and Young and Hungry Theatre Company.  In addition to performing and producing, Sarah taught and directed classes for theater, voice and stage at the Wellington Theatre for Performing Arts (NZ), Oregon Children’s Theatre and School (USA), and St. Mary’s in Sydney (AU).   She also maintained a private singing studio for ten years.  

Sarah obtained her MBA, with Merit, from Victoria University, Wellington NZ, and Georgia Institute of Technology.  Sarah moved from Wellington to Atlanta Georgia in 2012 and spent two years working with Usher at his Non-Profit foundation, Usher’s New Look, as Director of Communications and Technology.  In 2015 Sarah moved to Los Angeles and began her photography studies at the Los Angeles Center for Photography (LACP), where she is currently part of the One Year Professional Program. 

Sarah was selected by Paula Tongarelli, Executive Director and Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography, to show work at the dnj Gallery for LACP’s Fourth Annual Member’s Exhibit.  Sarah has also shown work in “On the Streets of Los Angeles” at the LACP gallery in Hollywood CA.  

Sarah is a photographer for animal welfare, lobby and rescue organizations.  Sarah photographs events for Best Friends Animal Society, NKLA (No Kill Los Angeles), Angel City Pit-bull Rescue, and Wags and Walks.  Sarah lives in Manhattan Beach, CA with her furry, four-legged family (two rescue dogs and one rescue cat). 

Instagram account:  @sarahmarierooney
 

Sarah A. Husein says, "My name is Sarah A. Husein, I'm an analog photographer and (digital) filmmaker from L.A.

I typically side with self-portraits, but lately I've been searching for wild, intimate moments to shoot wherever my feet take me."

Husein grew up in a family whose prime idea of vacation centered around road trips: lots of beaches, sand dunes, many lakes, a few forests and handful of  tide-pools sums up her youth.

Thankfully, her parents had a camera, and gave her and her sisters a disposable to document it all. This was the start to her documentation of life and things and places and clouds (so many clouds).Many pleas led to Sarah taking a photography class when she was 13. It was a bunch of weird kids venturing out to DTLA with their introverted teacher who last week taught them about aperture and shutter speed. Sarah found her niche.

High school introduced her to the world of journalism. Staff photographer turned into head photographer. A national award and a film project for class led to a consideration into a film degree. Four years later, she got that degree and bought herself an analog camera to celebrate. She's been slowly snapping and winding ever since.

www.sarahhusein.com. 
 

Sasha Dylan Bell says, "My migration to the United States in 2014 acted like the opening of a faucet, exposing me to a rush of fresh surroundings and a new, diverse palette of people. The photographs in this collection represent some of this diversity, exploring humans in their every day environment, along with a focus on the environment itself.

As an artist I seek to stay present. I remind myself of this each time there is a quick lighting change, a technical challenge, or when I am inevitably caught unawares by unpredictable subjects on the street. This pursuit births often unpredictable results, sometimes good, often bad, but always earns me work that aims to be honest.

If the photographs in this collection have a mission, it is to capture and show people in those little moments of honesty and the environments that forge them.

This image, 'Afternoon, Mid-Town Manhattan',The chill of an early New York winter’s air clashes with the steam system on an up-market Manhattan street. A graceful, short-lived cloud carves through the afternoon sun, bouncing off a nearby building. Nearby pedestrians completely"

Originally a native of Australia, Sasha Dylan Bell studied filmmaking at the SAE College in Melbourne, along with the Cape Town Film & TV School in South Africa, where he focussed on film editing.

Over the last twelve years he has earned multiple award nominations for his editing work, including a Daytime Emmy & two Australian Screen Editors Guild (ASE) awards. Moviemaker Magazine named him one of "Five Editors To Watch" in 2012 and he has edited 6 feature films, along with almost three hundred television series, shorts, commercials & various short-form projects.

In addition to his editorial work, Sasha has directed dozens of music videos, short films, commercials and the occasional live television broadcast, where his taste for visual storytelling grew into an eye and passion for photography. Spending the past six years shooting street and portraiture, his focus is planted in capturing humanity and their environment. 

In 2017 his photography work was shortlisted at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.

www.sashadylanbell.com

Green Shoes:
A band performer has takes a moment to get her photos taken in the venue’s photo booth prior to the gig. 

Paradise:
As regular Venice Beach busker Nathan Pino performs as an eerie fog swallows the Californian coastline. The musician, framed by the ghostly Californian palm trees and beach’s homeless residents symbolizes the incongruity of Venice. A paradise, only for some.

Stephanie Sydney says, "Trained as a painter, I now paint with photographs. I use my own photographs and technology to compose my images.  My work deals with creating a dialogue between extremes and hopes to address the fragility of life on this planet.  I carry a camera wherever I go so I can capture whatever strikes me, often moments on the street.

I seek to create images that startle and intrigue.  I am fascinated by the cycles of life:  birth, aging, and death that apply to all and the relationships we have with our environment and the transient nature of all phenomenon.  I often use images of construction and de-construction as metaphors of this cycle. 

I am involved with finding a dialogue between opposites, or a common ground between extremes.  Chaos and order.  Old and new.  Strength and fragility.  Nature and man-made.  Beauty and ugly.  Large and small.  Useful and discarded.  Meaningful and meaningless.  Solid and Fluid.  Transient and permanent.

I collect series on construction, urban decay, transient phenomena, aerials, reflections, abstractions, collages. Studies to capture fleeting moments passing in the peripheral vision, wind, light and shadows and the flickering in-between.

I also have a series of self portraits reflected in windows where only my hair is recognizable, taken around the world mostly in store windows, a woman everywhere and unseen."

Born in London, England, Stephanie moved to Malibu with her family as a teenager.  Currently lives in Venice, California. While Stephanie was a painter from a very young age, because of her time constraints, she started exploring painting with a camera when she realized she could capture painterly like images on film, first double and triple exposures in the camera, then exploring abstrations and urban still lifes. This earlier work was well received and she was selected for “Pick of the Week” in the LA Weekly by Peter Frank for two shows.

With digital technology came new explorations of the transformative potential of imagery. She carries a camera wherever she goes because you never know when or where a photograph is waiting for you.
Stephanie studied art and photography at Santa Monica College and UCLA. She has taken dozens of classes at UCLA extension in photography, art theory and practice, and digital photography and printing. She studied with Laddie John Dill, David McDonald, Malaika Zweig, to name a few.  She has traveled extensively through Europe, Japan, Greece and the U.S. to photograph and absorb the culture and art. She is currently devoting more time to her art photography at her studio in Santa Monica.

Her work is in several collections, including Banque BNP Paribais and Morgan Stanley in New York where they have 13 of her images. She has been featured on “Your Daily Photograph” and Lenscratch, widely distributed email subscriptions and blogs on photography.

Recently she has been included in shows in Glendale, Santa Monica, Venice, Chinatown, L.A. and West Hollywood. She was “Pick of the Week” in LA Weekly by Peter Frank for two shows. She received awards at the California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, and at the Creative Art Center Gallery, juried by Jillian Coldiron in Burbank, and was the winner of the photography contest in Outdoor & Travel Photography magazine.

Her work has been published the following publications:  
Los Angeles Times; Outdoor & Travel Photography; LA Weekly; SITE Local, An Artist Journal; Seikyo Times, feature article “Portrait of an Artist” with photographs; World News, exhibition catalog, Muckenthaler Cultural Center; Catalog Encyclopedia Persona, Kim Abeles, Santa Monica Museum of Art.  Book: “Exploring Color Photography” 2nd edition, by Robert Hirsch. Glow exhibition catalog, City of Santa Monica, Annenberg Beach House, Brand 44 Exhibition catalog.

www.stephaniesydney.com
 

Stephen Spiller says, "Poets write of life as an endless exploration. But of what? And, to what end?

My work uses photography and text to address those questions, often asked, especially by the elderly, with the following different but compelling and poignant, words: “How did I get from there to here?” I have submitted three seemingly disparate images of people and cameos of their circumstances. But the works are actually threaded together by underscoring as common denominator that everyone, consciously or not, engages life employing a shared set of learned behaviors and feelings, i.e. we are humanized by our experiences, emotions and actions. 

My goal then is to recognize, and thereby value, simple, ordinary moments, even just thoughts, of all kinds – as if to say: “Hey, look! What’s happened/happening is part of the larger, cohesive experience of me, not something to shed or discard as so much detritus.” If we could fully “own” our experiences, coupled with, for example, an ability to replay them as video in a personalized rear view mirror, then each road traveled could be a contextualized, vibrant parade of events defining what was explored and why. I hope, also, to announce that by being mindful one can better understand the hunger and vulnerability involved in searching for one’s own pleasures regardless of externally imposed criteria, such as money or other venerated symbols of happiness.

Perhaps I can summarize by saying that this on-going body of work makes tangible my abiding belief that days on a calendar are far better collected, and neatly preserved, as if in a suitcase rather than summarily x-ed off a calendar with black magic marker as they march on by.

What I know about art is self-taught. My classroom has always been the streets in countless cities where I photograph, shooting primarily on instinct. 

My motivation is to learn how lives are shaped and individual passions formed. Central to my thinking is that people behave for reasons they don’t understand because they don’t explore issues surrounding identity formation. 

My process is to wander about, figuratively and literally, embracing doubt, and exploring change. I view my website as architecture, constantly evolving and encouraging new ideas, especially those with social, cultural and political themes. My Twitter and Instagram accounts provide raw material informing my views and, sometimes, even inspiration.

Over the past 10 years, I have participated in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions, both in the United States and internationally. Often my participation resulted from being selected in a juried competition. A brief sample locating my exhibiting experience follows.
United States: New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Miami Beach, FL; Nacogdoches, Texas; Bedminster, New Jersey; Attleboro, Maine; Lexington, VA; University Park, PA; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Minneapolis, MN and more.
International: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cakovec, Croatia; Arles, France; Malaga, Spain; Thessaloniki, Greece; Venice, Italy; Berlin, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Sardinia, Italy; Milan, Italy; Bologna, Italy; and more. 

I have also participated in panel discussions: Brooklyn, NY; online exhibitions: International Emerging Artists Dubai; digital group shows: Scope Miami Beach, Miami, Fl and See|Exhibition Space, New York, NY., and been published in Issues 2, 9, 11, and 12 of Musée Magazine."


Solo/2 Person Exhibitions:

2017
• Carter Burden Gallery, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions:

2016
• Atlantic Works Gallery, Boston, MA - the-biennial-project.com***
• 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
• The Palazzo Italia, Berlin, Germany 
• Newspace Center For Photography, Portland, OR 
• Spectrum-Miami Art Show, Miami, FL (The Artbox.Gallery, Zug, Switzerland)***
• Aqua Hotel, Miami, FL (Projects Gallery, Miami, FL)

2017
• Kelwood Contemporary Art, Baton Rouge, LA 
• Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, NY 
• 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
• Valid Foto Gallery, Barcelona, Spain 
• MAGMMA - Museum of Graphic Art of the Mediterranean Marchionni, Sardinia, Italy 
• Bologna Museo Cà La Ghironda, Bologna, IT
• Urbino Palace of the Raffaello College, Urbino, IT
• Czech China Contemporary Museum, Beijing, China (September 29 to October 13, 2017)
• Providence Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, RI (October 12 – November 3)

2018
• Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (Dec 10th, 2017 - Jan 12th, 2018)
• Valid Foto Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (April 10th - April 28th, 2018) 


* Exhibition accompanied by catalogue
** Participant in screen installation
*** Digital group show

Online Exhibitions:

2013
• International Emerging Artists Award (Dubai)

Juried Competitions/ Awards/Honors

2014
• 2nd International exhibition of art photography SOUL 2014: Accepted (Macedonia)
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: 6th Edition Pollux Awards: Fine Art: 1st Place
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: Summer Awards: Fine Art: (2 images selected for exhibit)
• Urban.dotart.it 2014: portfolio included in final ranking
• Gala Awards: 2014 Best Photo Award: Winner

2015
• Athens, Greece Photo Festival 2015: Shortlisted
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: 7th Edition, Pollux Awards: Fine Art: Runner Up
Gala Awards: 3rd Edition, Jacob Riis Award: Editorial: Finalist
• Venezia Open Art Collective Exhibition, Venice, Italy: Invited to exhibit
• Miami Photo Salon at Spectrum-Miami: Invited to exhibit (December 2 - 6)
• London International Creative Competition: Short List
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: 8th Edition Pollux Awards: Fine Art: Finalist

2016
• 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY: invited to exhibit: Sue Coe Curator
• Newspace Center For Photography, Portland, OR: Invited to exhibit: Claartje van Dijk, juror 
• The Artbox Gallery, Zug, Switzerland: Invited, digital group show at Spectrum-Miami, Miami, FL
• Projects Gallery, Miami, FL: Invited to exhibited at Square Foot Show, Aqua Art Miami, FL 
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: 9th Edition Pollux Awards: Alternative Process: Finalist
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: 9th Edition Pollux Awards: Documentary: Finalist

2017
• Kelwood Contemporary Art, Baton Rouge, LA, Juried Competition. Invited to Exhibit
• 2nd Charles Dodgson Black & White Award: Finalist: Street, Fine Art and Documentary Photography
• 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles,  CA: Invited to Exhibit
• Marchionni Prize (Italy): Top 30, selected to exhibit: MAGMMA - Museum of Graphic Art of the Mediterranean Marchionni, Sardinia, 
• Italy (June 10th - August 31st, 2017). This exhibit will travel to: Milan Archives Lazzaro, Bologna Museum Cà La Ghironda and Urbino Raffaello College.
• dotART Urban Photo Awards 8th Edition: Selected Photographer, Projects & Portfolios
• The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: 10th Edition Pollux Awards: Alternative Process: Honorable Mention
• Songzhuang International Photo Biennale (Songzhuang Photo), Beijing, China: Invited to Exhibit four (4) works
• Providence Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, RI, Juried Competition. Invited to Exhibit

2018
• Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, Juried Competition. Invited to exhibit. (Dec 10th, 2017 - Jan 12th, 2018)
• Valid Foto Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, Juried Competition. Invited to exhibit. (April 10th - April 28th, 2018)

Panel Discussions:

2016 
• Personal Is Political Is Personal: 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY


Publications:

2014
• Musee Magazine, Issue # 9 - Temptation

2015
• Musee Magazine, Issue # 11 - Vanity
Musee Magazine, Issue # 12 - Controversy

Professional Associations:

2017
• Los Angeles Art Assciation - www.laaa.org

www.stephenspiller.com
 

Steven Lopez says, "Reluctant and Recalcitrant. Those were some of the descriptors I once used to self-describe my artistic endeavors.

They were just such a personal matter (as they often are). I’d order a batch of supplies every now and again - works were primarily watercolor & gouache, some featuring acrylic embellishments. 24x36 and 30x30 are most typical sizing. Then eventually they were nearly all acrylics. But they were really, just for me. On view at parties in my old apartment in Queens. I would get offers of $1000. But, it took me years to overcome that cliché separation anxiety.

A trip to London for my 25th birthday in 2001, became a pivotal point in the life. At that time, I found myself working in the Entertainment Industry, as most LA residents do at one point or another. Being in London, made me realize I was not pursuing the life I wanted.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, I researched Art & Design schools in the UK, and was accepted to the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design. I relocated to England in 2002, and achieved a BA (Hons.) in Design Management, September of 2005. I immediately began work in the field I had just graduated from – and began working as a Design Project Manager. I completed my first major contract Autumn of 2006.

I moved to New York City, March 2007. It was there, in my apartment on the Brooklyn / Queens border, I decided I needed to once again, pick up the paint brushes. It had been years since I actually painted…at least maybe 8 or 10? I remember feeling fairly uncertain and nearly embarrassed by those first several “practice runs.” But those sloppy, messy, quick and dirty (luckily they were only 12x18) acrylic practice runs, gave way to watercolor and gouache. Which I opted for to force myself to wait and watch and contemplate how the pigments interacted with each other. After days of soaking into the canvas, the pigments would take on a nearly plasticine shine. One by one, the works came. Single panels became a full-fledged series. 2 panels, became 4, then 6. 

Maintaining my design career in Manhattan, I handled numerous Retail and Restaurant clients. I’ve opened projects in Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia and upwards of 8 restaurants and 9 retail establishments in Manhattan alone.

Among my most cherished openings were a restaurant inside Central Park (Le Pain Quotidien), a multi-million Euro couture showroom in Manhattan (Balenciaga) and the redesign and re-launch of an airport terminal (Boston Logan / Terminal C). In the midst of all these projects, the deadlines, budgets and incessant travel (including periodic travel to Paris for the Balenciaga project) one thing remained constant; my personal need to paint. Finding time and opportunity to appease the inner while maintaining the outer, pushed closer and closer to impossible. 

I left New York City autumn 2014 and returned to the West Coast after 12 years away. But for the first time many years – I was without any readily available studio space. To substitute my need to paint, I focused on photography. What I realized early on was that my photography style certainly mimicked the abstracts I favored. 
I took it as an opportunity to get reacquainted with my hometown. I made it a mission to find slants, curves and angles within the City of Angels, that typically go completely unnoticed. I sank myself head-first, thru the viewfinder into Abstract Photography.   

Summer 2017, I launched my own artist’s website called, The Abstract Latin
Winter 2017 – I relaunched my studio space.

I spent all of February 2017 in Mexico City. Drawing upon a month’s worth of photographic work, captured in the Mexican capital – I am in the beginning stages of producing a photography exhibition. The exhibition will highlight correlations between Mexico City and Los Angeles; their vast geographical command; 1st-2nd and 3rd World living conditions. Wealth, style, street art, respective entertainment industries. My goal is to have the show running MAY 2018. 

Born MAY 1976 in the working and lower-middle class Latino districts of Northeast Los Angeles.

My family are from Bogota, Colombia. I speak English, Spanish and some French. 
There are 96 pairs of Adidas in my personal footwear collection.

I have seen The Cure in concert 38 times in 15 different cities, 5 different countries and 2 different continents.

I consider Rothko, Siqueiros, Richter, Tamayo, Kline and Motherwell, my fundamental and primary artistic inspirations.

Currently, I split my time between Los Angeles and Mexico City."

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

DECEMBER 2017    Color: Photography Now / Black Box Gallery, Portland OR
APRIL – MAY 2015    Rebirth: Life, Death & Transformation / Downey Civic Theater & Symphony                                                 
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn NY / Boston MA / Los Angeles CA / Century City CA / Chicago IL

FEBRUARY 2017    
Drawing upon a month’s worth of photographic work, captured in the Mexican capital – I am in the beginning stages of producing a photography exhibition. The exhibition will highlight correlations between Mexico City and Los Angeles; their vast geographical command; 1st-2nd and 3rd World living conditions. Wealth, style, street art, respective entertainment industries. My goal is to have the show running MAY 2018. 

CREATIVE WORK CATALOGUE:

Long August                                      AUGUST 2016
Mitigated Happenstance                        AUGUST 2016
I Was Listening to a lot of William Orbit        APRIL 2015
Neo Gothic 1 & 2                                        MARCH 2015
Fever Dream 1 & 2                                   JANUARY 2015
Before & After: DNA                            JANUARY 2015
The Winter Behaviour                           FEBRUARY 2014
2 Humans                                            SEPTEMBER 2013
    

The Abstract Latin www.theabstractlatin.com

Sylvia de Swaan shares her images from Romania. She says, "I've spent several months in Romania in the course of my exploratory travels through Eastern Europe in the post communist era. I was born in northern Romania, a region which is now part of Ukraine. Presently I tend to travel more in Ukraine."

2015.odesa-biennale.org .ua/portfolio/sylvia-de-swaan/

www.sylviadeswaan.com/

www.worldphoto.org/blo gs/20-09-16/make-meaningful- work-sylvia-de-swaan-visura
 

Thouly Dosios says, "In photography I discovered from early on an entryway to places I did not belong. In the foreign, I look for the familiar. I find comfort in the minute but vital ways that connect us all. 

Walking the streets with my camera is when I am most present in the world and receptive to its innuendoes; the small, the fleeting, the invisible. I am drawn to the unknown and long for human connection. It can be a brief meeting of the eyes, or a long conversation. Oftentimes, it’s the mere act of making a picture that brings on an eternal bond with a complete stranger.

For the last 6 years I have been photographing the streets of Los Angeles, my adopted home. It’s a place I deeply love and respect, and one which constantly fascinates and challenges me. I strive to understand this complex city and capture an impression of its unique spirit. I’m drawn to the city’s openness, the co-existence of a multitude of cultures that both stand out triumphantly and mesh with each other, and the unspoken promise that everything is possible bringing here the tears, dreams and sweat of so many souls. I’m fascinated by the extremes and juxtapositions of this pulsating world nestled between wild tumultuous waters and the eerie stillness of the desert; ancient old traditions celebrated as pioneering thoughts take flight, immense wealth straddling along devastating poverty, a tireless merry-go-round of death and re-birth of dreams and identities. At the same time, I’m acutely aware of the cloud of loneliness that hangs over the sunny skies. Impermanence looms everywhere I turn. I’ve come to know well that a favorite street-corner may go up in smoke at any moment, and that, overnight, a beloved face may disappear."

Thouly Dosios holds a B.A. in Visual Studies from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Film Directing from UCLA. Thouly’s short films have screened in numerous film festivals worldwide receiving many distinctions, including a spot as finalist for a Student Academy Award. She is currently completing the documentary short, The Rituals of Waiting, about the aspirations of women refugees living in refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesvos. 

Thouly has photographed in the streets of Istanbul, Rome, Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Varanasi and Oaxaca, among others.

For the last six years she has focused on documenting daily life in the streets of Los Angeles, and since 2014 she has been a member of the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP). Thouly studied photography under Chis Killip and also interned with Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas.

She continued her photographic studies participating in intensive workshops with Mary Ellen Mark, Sam Abell, Julia Dean and Constantine Manos. Thouly’s photography has received recognition in international competitions worldwide, and has been showcased at group shows at the Umbrella Arts Gallery in New York, the dnj Gallery, The Perfect Exposure Gallery and LACP in Los Angeles, the Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center in Minneapolis, the Black Box Gallery in Portland, and the PH21 Gallery in Budapest.

Thouly Dosios grew up in Athens, Greece, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

EXHIBITIONS (Group Shows):

PH21 Gallery, “LOL” International Group Exhibition   Budapest, 2017
Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center, “The Portrait” Juried Exhibition              Minneapolis, 2017-18
Black Box Gallery, “Color: Photography Now”, Group Show, Online Annex            online, 2017
PH21 Gallery, “Stories” International Group Exhibition   Budapest, 2017
The Perfect Exposure Gallery, “A Room of One's Own,” Group Show Los Angeles, 2017
Black Box Gallery, “Photo Shoot: 2017”, Group Show, Online Annex online, 2017
PH21 Gallery, “Street Photography” International Group Exhibition            Budapest, 2017
Umbrella Arts Gallery, “Family”, Group Show, curated by Harvey Stein New York, 2017
LACP, “On the Streets in Los Angeles,” Group Show   Los Angeles, 2017
LACP, Fourth Annual Members Juried Exhibition, Virtual Gallery  online, 2017
LACP, “Street Shooting Around the World”, Group Show   Los Angeles, 2017
DNJ Gallery, Bergamot Station, “LA Street”, Group Show  Los Angeles, 2016
Photo Independent, Constantine Manos Workshop, Group Slideshow Los Angeles, 2016
Umbrella Arts Gallery, “Animal World”, Group Show, curated by Harvey Stein        New York,  2015
DNJ Gallery, Bergamot Station, “LA Street”, Group Show  Los Angeles, 2015

AWARDS/DISTINCTIONS:

National Geographic, Feb 15, 2017, “Daily Dozen” pick   2017
3rd “Street Shooting Around the World” Competition, LACP Gallery, Craig Semetko, Juror   2017

WORKSHOPS/AFFILIATIONS
Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP), Street Collective  2014-present
Constantine Manos Magnum Photos LA Workshop    2016
Sharperning your Photographic Vision with Sam Abell (weekend intensive)  2015
Mary Ellen Mark’s Workshop, Oaxaca, Mexico   2012

AWARDS/LABS
Berlinale Talents, 2012
Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation Scholarship
Jack Nicholson Distinguished Student Director Award
Lynn Weston Fellowship
Lew Wasserman Award

www.lastreetcollective.com/thouly-dosios/
 

CLICK ON LINK TO VIEW EXHIBITION #4:
www.laphotocurator.com/street-shooting-curator-julia-dean/exhibition-4/1