Welcome to the 15th Annual Fran Achen Juried Photography Exhibition. It is my privilege to serve as its chair for the 10th time. Reviewing the many, varied, excellent submissions is an inspiring and exciting experience that expands my visual literacy.

What a way to mark our 15th year milestone! I am very pleased to report that we received an all-time high number of entries this year! Considering that we barely squeaked through 2020 and 2021, thanks to the loyalty of our photographic and other friends, it was not clear if the event had much of a future. I hope you agree that this has turned out to be a rousing success story! Suffice it to say that I am very proud of where the exhibit stands today and am equally grateful to everyone who has continued to support us.

Our local event keeps getting more regional, too, with artists in this year’s exhibition from Wausau to Rockford, and from Milwaukee to Madison. This is a large, full gallery show with 95 photographs by 39 photographic artists, all displayed in the gallery exhibit, online virtual exhibit, PDF catalog, and printed catalog.

The Whitewater Arts Alliance (WAA) counts its blessings having as much fine gallery display space as we do but all spaces have their limits. We respect the artwork that artists allow us to display and we are commited to displaying it properly. Still, it is difficult to have to turn away so much deserving work, as we did this year.

This is, first and foremost, a gallery exhibition of printed photographs. Awards are based on both the content of the photograph and the quality of the print. Our gallery team works hard to curate and produce the best possible gallery exhibition. But it doesn’t stop there....

We want there to be more ways to experience the art that we are so fortunate to exhibit in our gallery. We are also committed to doing our best to present the work of our participating artists to the largest possible audience. Obviously, there is no substitute for being in the presence of a fine photograph, painting, sculpture, live performance, or what have you, but there are some good alternative experiences, each with their own merits. To that end, several years ago we began the tradition of presenting our online version of the exhibition which continues this year.

One of my personal objectives for the exhibit has been for all who enter their work for consideration to receive a nice artifact of some sort in appreciation of their participation. This year, we promised a free PDF catalog, and I am pleased that we have been able to deliver. Obviously, you say, as you read this in the PDF catalog—but, the even bigger news is that the dream of making the PDF into a printed book has become a reality!

Thanks to those individuals and businesses who so generously provided sponsorship, we are able to offer the exhibition catalog in commercially printed, full color, full sized A4 format. Each artist who submitted their work to this year’s exhibit will receive one free copy. I sure hope we can make this a tradition, too.

The remaining copies will be available for sale—yes, we are also a non-profit organization that will always need to raise money (just like all our peer non-profits)—and we genuinely appreciate your support. Still, I think it is significant that we are able to offer good value-for-money to those that pay a fee to enter their work for consideration.

We thank our judging team for their hard work in critically evaluating every photograph through two rounds of judging, first to select those for exhibition, and second for the even more difficult task of naming the award winners. An open-subject competition is, quite possibly, the most difficult type of show to judge because of the varied nature of submissions. Our jurors have the necessary depth and breath of artistic and photography-specific knowledge and experience. They have done a fine job.

Any event that survives and thrives over 15 years is backed by a committed organization. Volunteers, members, and sponsors are WAA’s life blood. Yes, we have some paid, part-time staff who are invaluable in so many ways and make it possible for us to operate. But, at the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of the work to produce, promote, fund, and deliver all the WAA programs and events comes from our crew of dedicated volunteers, members, and sponsors. WAA sincerely thanks them, along with all of the people who exhibit, perform, attend, or participate in its shows and events, the WAA Board of Directors, the City of Whitewater, and the Whitewater community.

Mostly, though, thanks go to all the photographic artists who submitted their work. Without them there would be no exhibit.

Enjoy the show!

Cheers,

Jeff McDonald

Exhibition Chair & President, Whitewater Arts Alliance