A portrait begins with attention.

It is an act of looking — and of being looked at. Every portrait holds a tension between appearance and interior life. A face, a posture, a gesture, a setting — each carries information, but also ambiguity. Some portraits are direct and documentary. Others are constructed, performative, or conceptual. Some reveal intimacy; others explore distance, anonymity, or self-invention.

To make a portrait is to engage another presence — or to turn the camera toward oneself — and to consider how identity is shaped, expressed, withheld, or transformed through the photographic frame.

Praxis Gallery seeks photographic portraits that explore the depth and complexity of the human subject. We invite work that reflects lived experience, psychological presence, cultural context, or formal exploration through the lens. All lens-based photographic and lens-based art practices are welcome. Juried by Elizabeth Flinsch.

Juror | Elizabeth Flinsch
Elizabeth Flinsch is a photography educator, curator, and the editor of SHOTS Magazine. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, SHOTS is an independent print journal of black and white photography founded in 1986. Elizabeth curates submissions, interviews featured artists, and designs the magazine from cover to cover. Elizabeth’s own artistic roots in traditional printmaking show up in her affinity for alternative photographic processes. She is deeply committed to her vision for the photography landscape as a more equitable realm for women-identified, queer, and BIPOC artists.

^{Image: © Larry Browntein}