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Guest Room aims to spark collaboration. Black feminist theorist of visual culture and contemporary art Tina Campt, who is a Professor of Humanities at Princeton University, has decided to join forces with photo-based artist Keisha Scarville.

To guide your submissions for this Guest Room, they have developed the following framework: "Poetics of Darkness."

As both a technological medium and a rich modality of cultural expression, photography is both taught and theorized as a manipulation of light, specifically, how photographers respond and position themselves, their cameras, and subjects in relation to light. It is in this way a practice that implicitly seeks to move away from darkness. What would it mean to embrace a counter-intuitive understanding of photography that inverts this structuring logic? Put differently, rather than focusing on how light interacts with the subject, what would it look like to focus on how photographic subjects interact with and respond to darkness and shadow? What might it look like to engage darkness as itself an active site of illumination? And what would it mean to activate shadow in ways that make darkness resonate?

"We are interested in images that activate shadow and darkness not as a negative void, but as dynamic and expressive space. We encourage the submission of images that explore multiple implications of shadow as a poetics, as action (verb, adverb, agent), as active rather than passive, and as charged rather than inert. We welcome imaginative photographs that bend our vision toward a capacious embrace of darkness rather than light."

Selection

    • Yvonne Venegas, Francisco, 2022, Santa Rosalia, MEX, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Yvonne Venegas, Francisco, 2022, Santa Rosalia, MEX, 2022
    • Visule Kabunda, Untitled, Kabwe, ZMB, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Visule Kabunda, Untitled, Kabwe, ZMB, 2023
    • Wolfgang Feik, untitled (Inner Portrait), DEU, 2013 | DER GREIF
      Wolfgang Feik, untitled (Inner Portrait), DEU, 2013
    • Savannah Faith Jackson, In Line, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Savannah Faith Jackson, In Line, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, 2023
    • Sibusiso Gcaba, Beautiful Dream, Johannesburg, ZAF, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Sibusiso Gcaba, Beautiful Dream, Johannesburg, ZAF, 2022
    • Susanne Middelberg, Nike, Den Haag, NLD | DER GREIF
      Susanne Middelberg, Nike, Den Haag, NLD
    • Conner Gordon,  8x25 44°19'22.83" N 124°6'22.52" W (Collision), Oregon, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Conner Gordon, 8x25 44°19'22.83" N 124°6'22.52" W (Collision), Oregon, USA, 2023
    • Jalen Williams, My Brothers Keeper, Charleston, SC, USA, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Jalen Williams, My Brothers Keeper, Charleston, SC, USA, 2022
    • Ibi Ibrahim, Rashida, from the series Black Tears, Washington, D.C., USA, 2012 | DER GREIF
      Ibi Ibrahim, Rashida, from the series Black Tears, Washington, D.C., USA, 2012
    • Anique Jordan, shantel, RI, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Anique Jordan, shantel, RI, USA, 2023
    • Aya Ali, A Moon Shall Rise, Alexandria, EGY | DER GREIF
      Aya Ali, A Moon Shall Rise, Alexandria, EGY
    • Aleruchi Kinika,  Sweet, Tart and A Little Bit of Both, Uyo, NGA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Aleruchi Kinika, Sweet, Tart and A Little Bit of Both, Uyo, NGA, 2023
    • Aaron Turner, Untitled (Dick Rowland, 1921 Tulsa), USA, 2021 | DER GREIF
      Aaron Turner, Untitled (Dick Rowland, 1921 Tulsa), USA, 2021
    • Andrea A. Gluckman, Embodied, Rochester, NY, USA | DER GREIF
      Andrea A. Gluckman, Embodied, Rochester, NY, USA
    • Alessandro Puccinelli, Shorelines, what's left, Alentejo, PRT, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Alessandro Puccinelli, Shorelines, what's left, Alentejo, PRT, 2023
    • Abeer Aref, Longing, Sana'a, YEM, 2021  | DER GREIF
      Abeer Aref, Longing, Sana'a, YEM, 2021
    • Björn Nilsson,  Untitled #3, Farsta, SWE, 2024 | DER GREIF
      Björn Nilsson, Untitled #3, Farsta, SWE, 2024
    • Bruno Silva, Untitled, Ermo, Porto, PRT, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Bruno Silva, Untitled, Ermo, Porto, PRT, 2022
    • Carloman Macidiano Cespedes Riojas, jinete en tinieblas, Buenos Aires, ARG, 2019 | DER GREIF
      Carloman Macidiano Cespedes Riojas, jinete en tinieblas, Buenos Aires, ARG, 2019
    • DuoHan Longbow Zhang, Weak Theology 04, Hangzhou, CHN, 2023 | DER GREIF
      DuoHan Longbow Zhang, Weak Theology 04, Hangzhou, CHN, 2023
    • Lucas Bullens, detail 3, Sonoran Desert, MEX | DER GREIF
      Lucas Bullens, detail 3, Sonoran Desert, MEX
    • Laila A. Stevens,  Tianna, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Laila A. Stevens, Tianna, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2022
    • Lisa Brown, The Darkness, Washington DC, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Lisa Brown, The Darkness, Washington DC, USA, 2023
    • Lorraine Forte, Heavy Fog, Bolgna, ITA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Lorraine Forte, Heavy Fog, Bolgna, ITA, 2023
    • Mamu Unu, Portrait of my Grandmother, Warri, NGA | DER GREIF
      Mamu Unu, Portrait of my Grandmother, Warri, NGA
    • Nonzuzo Gxekwa,  Solitude, Johannesburg, ZFA | DER GREIF
      Nonzuzo Gxekwa, Solitude, Johannesburg, ZFA
    • Marcel Omen,  Bagged Leg on Pedastal, Houston, Tx, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Marcel Omen, Bagged Leg on Pedastal, Houston, Tx, USA, 2023
    • Marcel Omen, crucible (dodging and burning), Houston, Tx, USA, 2024 | DER GREIF
      Marcel Omen, crucible (dodging and burning), Houston, Tx, USA, 2024
    • Marcel Omen, fugitivity (tryin' not to get shot), Houston, Tx, USA, 2024 | DER GREIF
      Marcel Omen, fugitivity (tryin' not to get shot), Houston, Tx, USA, 2024
    • Maximilian Koppernock, Whisper, Berlin, DEU | DER GREIF
      Maximilian Koppernock, Whisper, Berlin, DEU
    • Michaela Haider, Untitled, Helsinki, FIN | DER GREIF
      Michaela Haider, Untitled, Helsinki, FIN
    • Monika Wanat, Not for us II, Kuene Region, NAM, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Monika Wanat, Not for us II, Kuene Region, NAM, 2022
    • May Alkharafi, Matter Memory 4, KWT, 2023 | DER GREIF
      May Alkharafi, Matter Memory 4, KWT, 2023
    • Ogorogile Nong, Look, Protea Glen, ZFA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Ogorogile Nong, Look, Protea Glen, ZFA, 2023
    • Aaron Turner, Untitled, USA, 2015 | DER GREIF
      Aaron Turner, Untitled, USA, 2015
    • Nonzuzo Gxekwa, Angie, Johannesburg, ZFA | DER GREIF
      Nonzuzo Gxekwa, Angie, Johannesburg, ZFA
    • Laila A. Stevens, Her Holding Me, Holding You, Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Laila A. Stevens, Her Holding Me, Holding You, Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA, 2023
    • Nora Obergeschwandner, 2, Vienna, AUT, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Nora Obergeschwandner, 2, Vienna, AUT, 2023
    • Paola Tornambè, 1 Escaped © Paola Tornambè, Sicily, ITA, 2019 | DER GREIF
      Paola Tornambè, 1 Escaped © Paola Tornambè, Sicily, ITA, 2019
    • Mandana Mahdavi, Mahdavi ÂME 1, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, USA, 2022 | DER GREIF
      Mandana Mahdavi, Mahdavi ÂME 1, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, USA, 2022
    • Oleksandr Shevchuk, Road, Kempten, DEU | DER GREIF
      Oleksandr Shevchuk, Road, Kempten, DEU
    • Christien Holden, Cotton and Silk, New York City, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Christien Holden, Cotton and Silk, New York City, USA, 2023
    • Pavel Bukreev, Crossing Meridien, Lausanne, CHE, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Pavel Bukreev, Crossing Meridien, Lausanne, CHE, 2023
    • Richard Louissaint, TYRA2023-301, New York, USA, 2023 | DER GREIF
      Richard Louissaint, TYRA2023-301, New York, USA, 2023
    • Stephen Mosblech, III, Osaka, JPN | DER GREIF
      Stephen Mosblech, III, Osaka, JPN
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