REBIRTH AND RENEWAL- Ellen Friedlander & Nancy A. Scherl > Honorable Mentions: Mara Zaslove “Seeking Nature”, Lela Edgar “Secret Ash”, Jamie Riva “47 and Rising”, Kathryn Dunievie “The Jump “ & Vicky Stromee “Capturing the Light 4”
Honorable Mentions: Mara Zaslove “Seeking Nature”, Lela Edgar “Secret Ash”, Jamie Riva “47 and Rising”, Kathryn Dunievie “The Jump “ & Vicky Stromee “Capturing the Light 4”
Mara Zaslove/Seeking Nature
HONORABLE MENTION
HONORABLE MENTION
Mara Zaslove:
"This image highlights my personal experience with aging. There are bumps and bruises along the way, but I continually find myself moving forward with a buoyant attitude. My walks in the morning, tending to my garden or just watching my patio hummingbirds all infuse me with joy. Having been a dancer, the figure in these images merges my youthful self with my current, more limited physicality. Drawing from my past fluidity and moving forward, I accept this inevitable shift and adapt as needed. Living in the present and embracing the beauty around me continues to uplift me. The less one resists change, the more potential for "rebirth and renewal".
Mara Zaslove is a fine art photographer who thrives on creating visual conversations that embrace the diversity of the human spirit, the universality of aging and the beauty of the natural world. Her background as a therapist informs her photographic work and brings a heightened sensitivity to how she perceives the world.
It also assisted her in developing coursework to teach photography to typical and special needs children at a variety of institutions.
Mara has acted as a volunteer photographer for the Inner-City Arts program as well as the Donna Sternberg Dance Company. She also served as the Staff Photographer for Diavolo, an internationally renowned dance company based in Los Angeles.
Her photographs have been exhibited in juried group shows both nationally and internationally in such venues as the Los Angeles Center for Photography, Gallery 825 (LAAA), Photo LA, Griffin Museum and the SC Center for Photography. She has had multiple images posted on YourDailyPhotograph.com and has received numerous awards including Finalist and Honorable Mention in several categories of the 11th-25th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards.
She has been published in F-Stop Magazine and Shadow and Light Magazine on many occasions. A grouping of her images taken of the performance 'Mending' by the Donna Sternberg Dance Company were published in the L.A. Dance Chronicle.
Several of her images have been included in the book titled "California Love - A Visual Mixtape" curated by Michael Rababy. She has also been interviewed about her journey as a photographer which has been published in Voyage LA.
Image for Sale:
Seeking Nature - 14"H x 11" W
Archival paper
$350 unframed
Limited edition of 12
Signed on back
Contact: Mara Zaslove
zaslovemara@gmail.com
www.marazaslove.com
www.instagram.com/marazaslove4
"This image highlights my personal experience with aging. There are bumps and bruises along the way, but I continually find myself moving forward with a buoyant attitude. My walks in the morning, tending to my garden or just watching my patio hummingbirds all infuse me with joy. Having been a dancer, the figure in these images merges my youthful self with my current, more limited physicality. Drawing from my past fluidity and moving forward, I accept this inevitable shift and adapt as needed. Living in the present and embracing the beauty around me continues to uplift me. The less one resists change, the more potential for "rebirth and renewal".
Mara Zaslove is a fine art photographer who thrives on creating visual conversations that embrace the diversity of the human spirit, the universality of aging and the beauty of the natural world. Her background as a therapist informs her photographic work and brings a heightened sensitivity to how she perceives the world.
It also assisted her in developing coursework to teach photography to typical and special needs children at a variety of institutions.
Mara has acted as a volunteer photographer for the Inner-City Arts program as well as the Donna Sternberg Dance Company. She also served as the Staff Photographer for Diavolo, an internationally renowned dance company based in Los Angeles.
Her photographs have been exhibited in juried group shows both nationally and internationally in such venues as the Los Angeles Center for Photography, Gallery 825 (LAAA), Photo LA, Griffin Museum and the SC Center for Photography. She has had multiple images posted on YourDailyPhotograph.com and has received numerous awards including Finalist and Honorable Mention in several categories of the 11th-25th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards.
She has been published in F-Stop Magazine and Shadow and Light Magazine on many occasions. A grouping of her images taken of the performance 'Mending' by the Donna Sternberg Dance Company were published in the L.A. Dance Chronicle.
Several of her images have been included in the book titled "California Love - A Visual Mixtape" curated by Michael Rababy. She has also been interviewed about her journey as a photographer which has been published in Voyage LA.
Image for Sale:
Seeking Nature - 14"H x 11" W
Archival paper
$350 unframed
Limited edition of 12
Signed on back
Contact: Mara Zaslove
zaslovemara@gmail.com
www.marazaslove.com
www.instagram.com/marazaslove4
Lela Edgar/Sacred Ash
HONORABLE MENTION
HONORABLE MENTION
Lela Edgar:
"My Sadhu series was photographed at this year's Kumbh Mela in India, one of the largest spiritual gatherings in the world. These portraits capture ascetics who have renounced worldly life in pursuit of inner awakening. To me, they reflect the essence of renewal—not through material transformation, but through radical surrender. This is how they live. What I saw in their presence was stillness—an invitation to reflect on what we hold onto, and what we’re willing to release. In that space, the possibility of rebirth begins.
I’m a Los Angeles based photographer and documentary storyteller drawn to themes of resilience, transformation, and human dignity. With a background in psychology and a deep interest in spiritual life. My work includes series on acid attack survivors in India, Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and AIDS orphans in Kenya. My work has been published by Bustle, POPSUGAR, and Global Citizen, and shown in galleries internationally. I’m always looking for stillness and vulnerability—moments that speak without needing explanation."
www.lelaedgarphotography.com
https://www.instagram.com/lelaedgarphotography/
"My Sadhu series was photographed at this year's Kumbh Mela in India, one of the largest spiritual gatherings in the world. These portraits capture ascetics who have renounced worldly life in pursuit of inner awakening. To me, they reflect the essence of renewal—not through material transformation, but through radical surrender. This is how they live. What I saw in their presence was stillness—an invitation to reflect on what we hold onto, and what we’re willing to release. In that space, the possibility of rebirth begins.
I’m a Los Angeles based photographer and documentary storyteller drawn to themes of resilience, transformation, and human dignity. With a background in psychology and a deep interest in spiritual life. My work includes series on acid attack survivors in India, Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and AIDS orphans in Kenya. My work has been published by Bustle, POPSUGAR, and Global Citizen, and shown in galleries internationally. I’m always looking for stillness and vulnerability—moments that speak without needing explanation."
www.lelaedgarphotography.com
https://www.instagram.com/lelaedgarphotography/
Jamie Riva-47 and Rising
HONORABLE MENTION
HONORABLE MENTION
Jamie Riva:
Jamie Riva graduated with a BFA in photography from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU in NYC where she currently resides with her husband and two children. Years later, she furthered her studies at the International Center of Photography. Since then, Jamie has participated in numerous group shows, been featured in multiple publications, published her first book "Girlhood: Lost and Found," and continues to grow her many personal, fine art, and documentary projects with great passion.
""Spiritually speaking, the Phoenix is known to declare her own death, in order to resurrect herself. She is a symbol of releasing belief systems that no longer serve us. For the past few years as part of what I had been calling a midlife awakening, in honor of turning another year older, I have been making self portraits in nature with the intention of challenging the invisibility women begin to feel in a society that does not value an aging woman or her natural beauty. I made a self-portrait laid out on a boulder in honor of my upcoming 46thbirthday in the spirit of accepting my body’s natural process by surrendering to mother nature. In the moment, I felt empowered in my changing body, using nature to remind me that the new lines and textures time was carving out on my body were as beautiful as the ones I admired in the natural world. What I did not realize at the time that photo was taken, was that my midlife awakening was about to take an unexpected turn into midlife crisis territory instead. I had just released a very personal book that had me feeling exposed, and so much perfectionist pressure. This, along with changing identities and transitional phases of life at home, intense hormonal shifts of perimenopause, and long untreated OCD would culminate into a perfect storm, and I would suffer a massive panic attack that would leave me forever changed. I had entered a dark night of the soul. The night of the attack, I literally left my body, and it would take a while to return. When I officially turned 46, I gifted myself a birthday session with my long time trusted spiritual advisor. She informed me that I had a powerful bird, Phoenix, who had arrived to help me recreate myself. She told me not to be afraid, and said Phoenix chose me because she brings liberation and power, and after the pain of this “cathartic healing crisis,” I would be flying. She assured me that what caused me pain gives me power, and that there is great power in knowing you can rebirth yourself over and over. Then Phoenix told my teacher friend, “She doesn’t even know it yet, but she IS the Phoenix.”
I spent the rest of the year healing old wounds I did not know were still open, and looking fear dead in the eye. My lesson in surrender had only just begun when I took that photograph on the rock. Instead of fighting fear, I learned to welcome and embrace it. I began a deep love affair with my shadow side, and I learned to fall in love with the darkest and most vulnerable parts of myself. It was some of the hardest work I had ever done, but eventually it became clear my crisis was actually a more epic midlife awakening than I could have previously imagined, and Phoenix was right. I was liberated and flying. A year later I returned to the same spot where I took that self-portrait on the rock. I had been wondering, should I continue the photographic birthday tradition I had started? Although I stilI stood by my previous messaging, my level of self love felt so different, and I did not want to force anything that was not true to my evolution. That’s when I looked down and discovered a beautiful dead bird, lying in a position that mirrored perfectly how I had laid my body on that rock the year before. I knew Phoenix was still with me, and acknowledging my continued rebirthing journey.
After photographing the bird for some time on my knees in the rocks, I looked to my left and saw the pink flower that is included in this submission, growing ever upwards despite rough, rocky conditions. This flower felt like the self-portrait I had been longing for, and just so happened to be the same colors as the portrait I took in the field a week prior that I wasn’t sure worked. But nature once again would align me with my truth, and show me how to see beauty and strength in myself. Together, they became a celebration of new growth, and like the Phoenix from the ashes, my determination to rise."
Image For Sale:
47 and Rising - 11"H x 14"W
Archival Paper
$350 unframed
Limited Edition of 15
Signed on back
Contact:
Jamie Schofield Riva
jamieriva223@gmail.com
www.intagram.com/j.s.riva
www.jamierivaphotography.com
-----------------
If viewing on a computer click on arrow to see additional honorable Mentions
Jamie Riva graduated with a BFA in photography from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU in NYC where she currently resides with her husband and two children. Years later, she furthered her studies at the International Center of Photography. Since then, Jamie has participated in numerous group shows, been featured in multiple publications, published her first book "Girlhood: Lost and Found," and continues to grow her many personal, fine art, and documentary projects with great passion.
""Spiritually speaking, the Phoenix is known to declare her own death, in order to resurrect herself. She is a symbol of releasing belief systems that no longer serve us. For the past few years as part of what I had been calling a midlife awakening, in honor of turning another year older, I have been making self portraits in nature with the intention of challenging the invisibility women begin to feel in a society that does not value an aging woman or her natural beauty. I made a self-portrait laid out on a boulder in honor of my upcoming 46thbirthday in the spirit of accepting my body’s natural process by surrendering to mother nature. In the moment, I felt empowered in my changing body, using nature to remind me that the new lines and textures time was carving out on my body were as beautiful as the ones I admired in the natural world. What I did not realize at the time that photo was taken, was that my midlife awakening was about to take an unexpected turn into midlife crisis territory instead. I had just released a very personal book that had me feeling exposed, and so much perfectionist pressure. This, along with changing identities and transitional phases of life at home, intense hormonal shifts of perimenopause, and long untreated OCD would culminate into a perfect storm, and I would suffer a massive panic attack that would leave me forever changed. I had entered a dark night of the soul. The night of the attack, I literally left my body, and it would take a while to return. When I officially turned 46, I gifted myself a birthday session with my long time trusted spiritual advisor. She informed me that I had a powerful bird, Phoenix, who had arrived to help me recreate myself. She told me not to be afraid, and said Phoenix chose me because she brings liberation and power, and after the pain of this “cathartic healing crisis,” I would be flying. She assured me that what caused me pain gives me power, and that there is great power in knowing you can rebirth yourself over and over. Then Phoenix told my teacher friend, “She doesn’t even know it yet, but she IS the Phoenix.”
I spent the rest of the year healing old wounds I did not know were still open, and looking fear dead in the eye. My lesson in surrender had only just begun when I took that photograph on the rock. Instead of fighting fear, I learned to welcome and embrace it. I began a deep love affair with my shadow side, and I learned to fall in love with the darkest and most vulnerable parts of myself. It was some of the hardest work I had ever done, but eventually it became clear my crisis was actually a more epic midlife awakening than I could have previously imagined, and Phoenix was right. I was liberated and flying. A year later I returned to the same spot where I took that self-portrait on the rock. I had been wondering, should I continue the photographic birthday tradition I had started? Although I stilI stood by my previous messaging, my level of self love felt so different, and I did not want to force anything that was not true to my evolution. That’s when I looked down and discovered a beautiful dead bird, lying in a position that mirrored perfectly how I had laid my body on that rock the year before. I knew Phoenix was still with me, and acknowledging my continued rebirthing journey.
After photographing the bird for some time on my knees in the rocks, I looked to my left and saw the pink flower that is included in this submission, growing ever upwards despite rough, rocky conditions. This flower felt like the self-portrait I had been longing for, and just so happened to be the same colors as the portrait I took in the field a week prior that I wasn’t sure worked. But nature once again would align me with my truth, and show me how to see beauty and strength in myself. Together, they became a celebration of new growth, and like the Phoenix from the ashes, my determination to rise."
Image For Sale:
47 and Rising - 11"H x 14"W
Archival Paper
$350 unframed
Limited Edition of 15
Signed on back
Contact:
Jamie Schofield Riva
jamieriva223@gmail.com
www.intagram.com/j.s.riva
www.jamierivaphotography.com
-----------------
If viewing on a computer click on arrow to see additional honorable Mentions
Kathryn Dunlevie/The Jump
HONORABLE MENTION
HONORABLE MENTION
Kathryn Dunlevie:
"I have long observed that far too many of us are susceptible to self-doubt, insecurities and inhibitions. With these "Femmes Futuristes" I want to inspire a jettisoning of such limitations, and a transformation of the self, where qualities and attitudes are chosen freely, independent of societal norms and familial pressures.
I start with my photographs and snippets of ephemeral printed matter. Selecting bits and pieces, I construct figures whose poses suggest a sense of empowerment and possibility. Next, I situate them in venues where they are free to create their own narratives.
These figures are viewed as if with x-ray vision - their patchwork interiors hinting at what they might have lived, their silhouettes offering clues as to how they have proceeded through time. They model a new energy and the prospect of a brighter future.
I hope we will all move forward with them, piecing together the best fragments of our personal histories and living our lives with daring authenticity."
Kathryn Dunlevie has always been intrigued by spatial and temporal inconsistencies, and by every individual’s particular and shifting sense of what is real. Fragmenting, reassembling and layering images, she suggests the fluidity of space and time, and the complex psychologies of the entities she portrays.
Born in Atlanta, Dunlevie lived in six different states by the time she was 12, and in Paraguay when she was 16. She has a B.A. in fine arts from Rice University and studied art history and film at the University of Paris, painting at California College of the Arts, and photography in Madrid.
She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Fellowships. Her work has been exhibited in China twice at the Pingyao International Photography Festival, in Moscow with the US Art in Embassies Program, at Toronto’s Gallery TPW, and in the United States at FotoFest International, San Francisco Camerawork, PhotoAlliance, the Southeast Museum of Photography, Washington DC’s Art Museum of the Americas, and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose.
Her work has been reviewed in Spain’s La Fotografia Actual, Korea’s photo +, and in Germany’s Profifoto, as well as in Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, Visual Art Source, and AestheticsToday.blogs.
www.kathryndunlevie.com
www.instagram.com/kathryndunlevie
"I have long observed that far too many of us are susceptible to self-doubt, insecurities and inhibitions. With these "Femmes Futuristes" I want to inspire a jettisoning of such limitations, and a transformation of the self, where qualities and attitudes are chosen freely, independent of societal norms and familial pressures.
I start with my photographs and snippets of ephemeral printed matter. Selecting bits and pieces, I construct figures whose poses suggest a sense of empowerment and possibility. Next, I situate them in venues where they are free to create their own narratives.
These figures are viewed as if with x-ray vision - their patchwork interiors hinting at what they might have lived, their silhouettes offering clues as to how they have proceeded through time. They model a new energy and the prospect of a brighter future.
I hope we will all move forward with them, piecing together the best fragments of our personal histories and living our lives with daring authenticity."
Kathryn Dunlevie has always been intrigued by spatial and temporal inconsistencies, and by every individual’s particular and shifting sense of what is real. Fragmenting, reassembling and layering images, she suggests the fluidity of space and time, and the complex psychologies of the entities she portrays.
Born in Atlanta, Dunlevie lived in six different states by the time she was 12, and in Paraguay when she was 16. She has a B.A. in fine arts from Rice University and studied art history and film at the University of Paris, painting at California College of the Arts, and photography in Madrid.
She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Fellowships. Her work has been exhibited in China twice at the Pingyao International Photography Festival, in Moscow with the US Art in Embassies Program, at Toronto’s Gallery TPW, and in the United States at FotoFest International, San Francisco Camerawork, PhotoAlliance, the Southeast Museum of Photography, Washington DC’s Art Museum of the Americas, and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose.
Her work has been reviewed in Spain’s La Fotografia Actual, Korea’s photo +, and in Germany’s Profifoto, as well as in Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, Visual Art Source, and AestheticsToday.blogs.
www.kathryndunlevie.com
www.instagram.com/kathryndunlevie
Vicky Stromee/Capturing the light-4
HONORABLE MENTION
HONORABLE MENTION
Vicky Stromee:
"My fascination with photography began at an early age. I got my first Brownie camera at age 8 and began shooting everything I saw. Watching the magic of an image emerge from the developing tray in my dad's darkroom; spending afternoons lying under the baby grand piano with waves of sound resonating around and through me; texture, pattern, fluidity, and change - these are my earliest influences and they continue to unfold in my work.
Most recently I have begun to create photomontages incorporating natural objects into both abstract images and scenes of imaginary realism.
My work has been featured at multiple galleries including Waxlander, PhotoPlace, Griffin Museum of Photography and Afterimage. Selected images are represented by Cynthia Byrnes Contemporary Art. My bodies of work have received multiple national and international awards including American Society of Media Professionals’ Best of 2015 and Best of 2024 awards; Silver and Golds awards from Tokyo International Foto Awards and Juror’s Choice Award from the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards. In 2O22, my series “Koo and the Long Dark Night” was selected for the Communication Arts Award of Excellence in Photography."
IMAGE FOR SALE-
Capturing the light 6"H x 6" W (6x6 image on 8x8 paper)
Archival paper
$150 unframed
open edition
Signed on back
Contact: Vicky Stromee vstromee@msn.com
www.vickystromeephotography.com
www.instagram.com/vickystromeephotography
----------------------------------
REBIRTH AND RENEWAL HOME:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl
FIRST PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/first-place-karen-numme-destroy-rebuild-la-23
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/honorable-mentions-mara-zaslove-seeking-nature-lela-edgar-secret-ash-jamie-riva-47-and-rising-kathryn-dunievie-the-jump-vicky-stromee-capturing-the-light-4---/1
BEST SERIES:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/best-series-leanne-trivett-s-self-portraits/1
EXHIBITION #1:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/exhibition-2/1
"My fascination with photography began at an early age. I got my first Brownie camera at age 8 and began shooting everything I saw. Watching the magic of an image emerge from the developing tray in my dad's darkroom; spending afternoons lying under the baby grand piano with waves of sound resonating around and through me; texture, pattern, fluidity, and change - these are my earliest influences and they continue to unfold in my work.
Most recently I have begun to create photomontages incorporating natural objects into both abstract images and scenes of imaginary realism.
My work has been featured at multiple galleries including Waxlander, PhotoPlace, Griffin Museum of Photography and Afterimage. Selected images are represented by Cynthia Byrnes Contemporary Art. My bodies of work have received multiple national and international awards including American Society of Media Professionals’ Best of 2015 and Best of 2024 awards; Silver and Golds awards from Tokyo International Foto Awards and Juror’s Choice Award from the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards. In 2O22, my series “Koo and the Long Dark Night” was selected for the Communication Arts Award of Excellence in Photography."
IMAGE FOR SALE-
Capturing the light 6"H x 6" W (6x6 image on 8x8 paper)
Archival paper
$150 unframed
open edition
Signed on back
Contact: Vicky Stromee vstromee@msn.com
www.vickystromeephotography.com
www.instagram.com/vickystromeephotography
----------------------------------
REBIRTH AND RENEWAL HOME:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl
FIRST PLACE:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/first-place-karen-numme-destroy-rebuild-la-23
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/honorable-mentions-mara-zaslove-seeking-nature-lela-edgar-secret-ash-jamie-riva-47-and-rising-kathryn-dunievie-the-jump-vicky-stromee-capturing-the-light-4---/1
BEST SERIES:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/best-series-leanne-trivett-s-self-portraits/1
EXHIBITION #1:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2:
https://laphotocurator.com/rebirth-and-renewal-ellen-friedlander-nancy-a-scherl/exhibition-2/1
