WINNERS—LensCulture Summer Open 2022

Michael Foley opened his eponymous gallery in the fall of 2004 in New York after fourteen years of working with notable photography galleries including Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Yancey Richardson Gallery.

The gallery has since been invited to participate in over thirty international and national art fairs including Paris Photo, Pulse, AIPAD, VOLTA, and the London Art Fair. Gallery exhibitions and artists have been reviewed and written about in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Artforum, Modern Painters and ArtNEWS.

Foley is the founder of The Photo Community, which offers classes and commentary on contemporary photography. He continues his interest in education by serving on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography where he teaches and lectures on issues in contemporary photography.

Pauline Benthede is the Global Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska and Chairman of Fotografiska’s Exhibition Committee. She has worked at Fotografiska since the inauguration of Fotografiska Stockholm in 2010 and is today VP of Exhibitions for the locations in Stockholm, New York and Tallinn, as well as the future Fotografiska venues opening in 2023 in Berlin, Miami and Shanghai. She has produced, managed and/or curated a significant number of exhibitions with international artists such as Andres Serrano, David LaChapelle, Inez & Vinoodh, Hassan Hajjaj, Sarah Moon, Cooper & Gorfer, Ren Hang, Patrick Demarchelier, Martin Schoeller, Motohiko Odani, Anton Corbijn, Bettina Rheims, Isaac Julien and Sebastiao Salgado, to name a few.

Pauline Benthede holds a degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Gothenburg University and studied curating at Stockholm University and photography history at Umeå University.

Simon Bainbridge has spent much of his 25 years in arts journalism as editor of British Journal of Photography, taking over in 2003 and transforming the weekly trade journal into an award-winning monthly magazine. He has curated five exhibitions: Paper, Rock, Scissors: The Constructed Image in New British Photography at Flash Forward Festival 2010 in Boston (with colleague Diane Smyth); Time & Motion studies: New documentary photography beyond the decisive moment at Hereford Photography Festival 2011; Portrait of Britain (nationwide, 2016-18); and Ones To Watch at Peckham 24. He is working on two books; the first one based on the acclaimed public art project, Portrait of Britain, with Hoxton Mini Press, the other a book on portraits of artists. In additional, he has served as a judge or nominator on more than 100 photography contests, including the Deutsche Börse, Prix Pictet, Amnesty International Media Awards, ING Unseen Talent, CAP Prize and Organ Vida, and has been an expert at dozens of portfolio reviews across Europe.

Kris Graves is an artist and publisher based in New York and California. He is founder of MONOLITH EDITIONS, a Black-owned publishing house dedicated to showcasing work from artists of color across mediums that address issues of race, identity, equity, gender, sexuality, and class.

In his own photography, he uses a mix of conceptual and documentary practices to explore the subtleties of societal power and capitalism, among other important topics.

Graves also sits on the board of Blue Sky Gallery: Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Portland; and The Architectural League of New York as Vice President of Photography.

Arianna Rinaldo is a freelance professional who deals with wide-ranging photography. From 2012 to 2021 she was the artistic director of Cortona On The Move, an international festival of visual narratives. Since 2016 she has been the curator of photography of PhEST, a festival of photography and contemporary arts in Puglia.

The path undertaken by Arianna in the photographic field began in 1998 as Archive Director at Magnum Photos, NY; she continued her career, back in Italy, in the role of photo editor for Colors magazine. From 2004 to 2011 she worked in Milan as an editorial consultant and curator of exhibitions and special projects. For 4 years she was a photographic consultant for D, the weekend insert of La Repubblica. For almost 10 years she was the director of OjodePez, a bilingual documentary photography quarterly published by La Fabrica in Madrid.

Jim Casper is the editor-in-chief of LensCulture, one of the leading online destinations to discover new contemporary photography from around the world. As an active member in the contemporary photography world, Casper loves to meet with photographers and talk about photography. He curates art exhibitions, publishes books, conducts workshops, serves as an international juror, nominates photographers for key awards, and is an advisor to arts and education organizations.