For our annual issue of Aint–Bad Magazine, we have teamed up with an amazing selection of curators, editors, gallerists, educators, and publishers to offer a chance to have your work seen by some of the best names in the industry. All of our guest curators have trained eyes and know what they are looking for in a photograph. The goal of issue No.13 is to put your work directly in front of eyes of these curators. Lara Orawski recently had the chance to ask Alan Rothschild a few questions concerning photography and his thoughts on the medium. Learn more about what motivates Alan Rothschild and what he is thinking about today!

Lara Orawski: As the founder of the Do Good Fund in Georgia, your organization seeks to highlight and subvert traditional dialogues of race and religion in America. Your archive extends from post-segregation America of 1954, how do you select visual narratives that you feel provoke a contemporary discussion on race in America?

Alan Rothschild: A couple of years ago, we made the decision to extended our collecting window back to 1945 (Post-WWII), which is in line with the “art world’s” definition of contemporary art and also in recognition of the impact WWII had on race relations/civil rights movement.

Now on to your question — Typically, the Fund selects new photographers based on recommendations from its network of advisors and photographers already in the collection. We then select particular images from the chosen photographer’s body of work.

For example, John Lawrence at LaGrange College in LaGrange, GA, introduced us to Dennis Darling and we were immediately drawn to his KKK series from the 1970’s. We, somewhat naively, as it turns out, chose two of these images to preserve a chapter of past Southern history. But the Friday night march in Charlottesville last summer quickly reminded us of Faulkner’s admonition, “The past is never dead. It is not even past.”

Many images in Gordon Parks’ Segregation Story series and Charles Moore’s iconic Birmingham image address civil rights head on, while Henry Clay Anderson’s depiction of a separate black society in Greenville, MS, in the decades after World War II and Paul Kwilecki’s all-white Junior-Senior Prom in Bainbridge, GA, speak to the same issues in a much less direct, but in my mind no less powerful, way.

LO: Given the nature of your work, what has been the most resonating image or series for you?

AR: That’s like asking which of your children you like best! One image that I continue to be drawn to is RaMell Ross’s iHome, 2013, in which an out-of-focus structure) that is still recognizable as an antebellum home) is framed in-focus in the foreground on an iPhone held by a brown hand. This simple image of three objects throws you off bARce for a second, and then you just soak it all in. A wonderful piece by a photographer with a very interesting background, as well as a new documentary film on the Alabama Black Belt that is receiving rave reviews.

LO: I understand you grew up in Georgia, which has a long and powerful history with civil rights and you also have been a practicing lawyer for most of your professional career, can you describe a pinnacle moment or influence that sparked your fascination with the history of civil rights?

AR: Photography has been very influential on my understanding of the history of where I grew up, and where my father, grandfather and great-grandfather lived most of their lives and are now buried.

Matthew Brady’s images from the Civil War, Walker Evans’ Hale County, AL, images from the Great Depression, and for someone who was too young to remember the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and early 60’s, the iconic photography of the era which defined the movement in my mind – Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial, white students heckling their new black classmates in Little Rock, Oxford and Tuscaloosa, John Lewis on Bloody Sunday, the fire hoses and German shepherds in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park and the twisted windows of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

But after studying American history in college and coming to appreciate how World War II laid the groundwork for the movement that followed, I think the image by the famous African-American photographer P. H. Polk of Eleanor Roosevelt’s flight with Tuskegee Airman “Chief” Anderson from the Tuskegee Air Field in 1941 really is one of the most significant images of the Civil Rights movement ever taken.

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ISSUE NO.13 – CALL FOR ENTRY

 

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For our annual issue of Aint–Bad Magazine, we have teamed up with an amazing selection of curators, editors, gallerists, educators, and publishers to offer a chance to have your work seen by some of the best names in the industry. All of our guest curators have trained eyes and know what they are looking for in a photograph. The goal of issue No.13 is to put your work directly in front of eyes of these curators.

While there is no specific theme for this call for entry, we are asking to see your best work! Take a look at the list of curators working with us on this publication. Look into their practice, see what they like. Take a look at the Aint–Bad Archives to get a sense of the imagery that we have been publishing over the last few years both online and in print. Does your work have what it takes to be selected as a printed artist in issue No. 13? Show us! Submit today! This call for entry will end on August 10th, so while you are enjoying this hot summer weather, be sure to dig through your hard drives and select work that will impress the curators, and the world!

Each curator will select two photographers from the submissions to feature and interview for the printed publication. Fifteen curators. Thirty photographers. This issue is collaboration at it’s finest. The final result will be a beautiful, hand-curated issue of the best contemporary photography in existence today. In addition to all of the above, we hope to partner with the curators further to exhibit work from the issue in various galleries and institutions around the world.

Please let us know if you have any questions. First, take a look at our FAQs at the bottom of this page.

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Submission Deadline
August 10th, 2018

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Meet the Curators

 

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FAQ :

How much does it cost to submit?
You can submit up to twenty photographs for $25.

Why is there a fee to submit to this call?
We are asking each photographer to pay a submission fee in order to help with the costs of printing this publication. Printing aint cheap! Aint–Bad strives to use the best materials available to create a publication that is a work of art in itself. All funds collected from submission fees will be used to produce this issue of Aint–Bad Magazine.

Can I submit more than one project?
Yes! However, each submission fee is valid for ONE body of work. We want to see your strongest body of work. If you feel that you need to submit a second body of work, you may do so by paying another submission fee and submitting a different project.

When will I be notified if I am selected for this issue?
All selected artists will be notified by mid-August. Photographers that are chosen for this issue will be required to answer interview questions from the guest curators.

What happens if I am not chosen for print?
If you are not selected by our guest curators for print, your work will be passed to the Aint–Bad Editors, and will have an opportunity to be published on our website as an article or interview. You will be notified via email if your work is chosen for an online feature.

Can I submit a collaborative project?
Yes, you can submit a project that has been created by yourself and other artists. Please submit under the name that you would like to appear in print if you are selected.