Portraits Without People – juried by Roula Seikaly

Sarah Malakoff
Kanaloa Tiki Statue. 2016
Digital C print, 24" x 20"

JP Terlizzi
The Hanging Shirt, 2018
photography, 30" x 20"

Mark Coggins
Mausoleum Chair, 2018
Archival Pigment, Print, 15" x 10"

Lynne Auld
Budir, Iceland, 2017
Archival Inkjet Photography, 16" x 20"

Timothy Durant
Block, 2018
Photograph, 16" x 24"

Jenny Balisle
SANDRA BLAND, 2019
clear braille on polymer (wall display), 6" x 6"

Trent Davis Bailey
Scott's Math, Paonia, Colorado, 2017
Archival Pigment Print, 32" x 40", 2019

Eric Ordorica
Frijoles, 2019
Silver Gelatin Print, 10" x 8"

Geoffrey Keillor
OD Green, 2019
12" x 12" photos
mounted on grid of
four Baltic birch
boards, 25" x 25"

Arielle Rebek
Untitled (For Visibility series), 2019
silver gelatin print, 16" x 20"

William Mark Sommer
Untitled (Drive), 2019
B&W medium format film, Archival Inkjet Print, 12" x 12"

Cheryl L. Guerrero
Esperanza, 2006
35 mm film printed on archival matte, 12" x 8"

Joseph Podlesnik
Seer Unseen, 2019
archival pigment print, 10" x 16"

PJ Sturdevant
913 Martin Street, 2018
Bromoil Print, 24" x 20"

Kimo Williams
284.7 – Self Portrait (Selfie) No.2
Digital Photograph printed on Satin in frame, 30" x 20"

Zach Pardos
Apartment in Hong Kong, 2019
Archival photographic paper, 12" x 18"

Michelle Ranee Johnson
The Parched Earth, 2014
Matted photograph in metal frame with plexiglass, 16" x 24"

Preston Gannaway
Watermelons, 2013
archival pigment print, 16" x 20"

Dave Jordano
Patriotic and Religious Front Yard, Wilson, North Carolina, 2018
Archival Pigment Print, 24" x 31"

Heather Briggs
Window to Success, Juvenile Detention Center, San Francisco, 2019
Silver Gelatin Print, 16" x 16"

G.S. Broz
GSB 780, 2017
35mm film photography, 10" x 15"

Brett Leigh Dicks
Mugshot, Execution Wing, Penitentiary of New Mexico, NM., 2018
Photography 10.5" x 10.5"

Sara Drower
C'est Moi -Thread, 2019
digitized photograph, 11" x 13"

Nicholas Gaffney
Orbiter 2019
Archival Pigment Print, 14" x 21"

Karen Larson-Voltz
Before the War.... , 2018
C-Print facemounted on Acrylic, 16" x 20"

David Wolf
Untitled (Tabula Rasa), 2016
Chromogenic Print on expired paper, 25" x 21"

Jacob Porta
Table #5, 2018
35mm Photography, 10" x 8"

Danila Tkachenko
Bas-relief on the monument to the Conquerors of Space. Moscow, 2016
Inkjet print, 48" x 48"

Installation view of “Portraits Without People” at Axis East Gallery, Sacramento, 2020.
Juried by Roula Seikaly.

Portraiture is a foundational photographic genre. It is a means of defining ourselves visually. But, how do we define ourselves beyond our physical presence? Can the definition of portrait expand to include what lies beyond our physicality to include passions, fears, places we live, the car we drive, the food we eat? Can photography convey who we are without including the human form?

Juror Roula Seikaly is an independent curator and writer based in Berkeley, CA, and Senior Editor at Humble Arts Foundation. Her curatorial practice addresses contemporary photography and new media, social justice efforts in contemporary art and exhibition making. She regularly contributes to print and online platforms including Hyperallergic, Photograph, BOMB, and KQED Arts.