The 2020 Weston Scholarship Judges!
Darkroom Portfolio Competition
Kim Weston
Kim Weston is a fine art photographer from California who specializes in nude photography. Weston was born to one of the most influential and creative families in American history and has been making fine-art nude photographs for over 35 years. Kim Weston's largest body of work consists of silver gelatin prints made from 6×7 (56mm x 69mm), 4×5, and 8×10 negatives. In addition to the 8×10 format he prints in 11×14 and 16×20 sizes. He also prints in Platinum and lately he has added paint to his photographs.
Robin Robinson
Robin V. Robinson is a 5th generation California central coast native. She received degrees in Engineering and Music from Stanford University and Cal Poly, SLO. She studied photography with West Coast Photography mentors and at City College of San Francisco and Foothill College. Robinson shows her work in community venues and art galleries internationally, in corporate spaces, private collections and museums. She has received top awards in international photographic competitions, and her work is in the permanent collection of the Monterey Museum of Art, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and the Mariners’ Museum in Virginia. Robinson was a Fine Print artist at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA, and is a board member of the Monterey Friends of C.G. Jung. Her work recently appeared in Dark Mountain, issue 13.
Robinson embraces the element of chance, both underwater and in her Monterey, California, darkroom. “My time in the darkroom is full of ‘what-ifs.’ The experimental nature of chemistry allows me to explore pathways which are magical, alchemical in feeling, transformational in the end. This type of play and chance are what I love about analog photography, not to mention a satisfying original print.”
Rick Murai
Born, raised and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area, Richard Murai recently transitioned away from academia after thirty five years teaching creative photography in Northern California's Central Valley. His ongoing fascination with documenting sacred sites has generated travel to locations within Asia, India, South America, the Middle East, Russia, Western Europe and Oceania.
In addition to passionately pursuing his art, Richard actively exhibits, is widely collected and his work has been published here and abroad including Lenswork, Camera Arts, Silver Shotz International (AU), BBC Online and other respected journals. Recent honors include first place awards from the Travel Photographer of the Year (UK) in 2008, 2010 and 2011; a Jurors Award from the 2010 California State Fair; Best in Show from the Center for Photographic Art's (Carmel, CA) 2015 International Juried Portfolio Competition, and honorable mentions from the 2008 Pilsner/Urquell International Photography Awards.
Richard conducts ongoing regional and foreign photography workshops to locations such as Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Morocco, South East Asia, and also hosts small-group instruction as well as individual mentoring.