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Anna Van Lenten
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The Center for Photography at Woodstock Announces Winner of the Saltzman Prize for Emerging Photographer
Kingston, NY, March 11, 2024–The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is delighted to announce Keisha Scarville as the winner of its inaugural Saltzman Prize, presented in cooperation with PHOTOFAIRS New York. The Saltzman Prize recognizes extraordinary achievement by an emerging photographer, one whose work has recently gained visibility and whose voice adds new perspectives to the discussion around photography and visual culture. Scarville will be awarded the prize at the CPW Vision Awards in Kingston, NY, on April 20, 2024. She will also receive a $10,000 award, and a solo exhibition of her work at CPW’s booth at PHOTOFAIRS NY (Javits Center, New York, September 6–8, 2024).
Keisha Scarville makes photographs that explore the elusiveness of cultural identity, transformation, and loss. Born in Brooklyn to Guyanese parents who had emigrated to New York in the 1960s, Scarville’s experience of growing up as a first-generation American was defined by a sense of in-betweeness. Her Passport series (2012–ongoing), for example, alludes directly to immigration, using dozens of identical black-and-white passport photographs of her father that have been painted, collaged, or scratched. These small works offer a wry commentary on the shifting status of immigrants, and on place, longing, invisibility, and censorship. In her series Mama’s Clothes (2015-ongoing), Scarville created portraits using her dead mother’s clothing, exploring the collaboration between absence and landscape to foster a space that enables the reemergence of her mother’s presence through her own body and identity.
Scarville has shown her work at the Studio Museum of Harlem, The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, and Higher Pictures Gallery. She has also participated in artist residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Baxter Street CCNY, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In addition, her work has appeared in various publications, including Nueva Luz, Hyperallergic, and the New York Times. Her book, lick of tongue, rub of finger, on soft wound (Mack Books), was shortlisted for the prestigious Aperture-Paris PhotoBook Awards in 2023. Currently, Scarville is an adjunct faculty member at the International Center of Photography and Parsons School of Design in New York.
Scarville was a participant in the CPW artist residency Woodstock AIR in 2003. In accepting the Saltzman Prize, Scarville said, “I am deeply honored to be the recipient of the inaugural Saltzman Prize. CPW holds such a significant place in my development and journey as an image maker, and I feel immense gratitude to be part of such a rich and brilliant legacy.”
The recipient of the 2024 Saltzman Prize was determined by a jury consisting of Dr. Deborah Willis, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University; Susan Meiselas, photographer and President of the Magnum Foundation; and Yasufumi Nakamori, Director, Asia Society Museum, New York.
About the Saltzman Prize
The Saltzman Prize is awarded annually by the Saltzman Family Foundation, and was conceived by CPW Trustee Lisa Saltzman. The prize honors her parents, Ralph and Muriel Saltzman, passionate art collectors, passionate art patrons and art philanthropists. Ralph Saltzman’s company, Designtex, founded 60 years ago, is now a leader in the the design, corporate, and government sectors for sustainable textiles, wallcoverings, and applied materials. Its first product was a flame-retardant drapery knit called Varel, for the Seagram Building on Fifth Avenue. Saltzman himself, a Bronx native and graduate of New York University, credited his family with the success of Designtex, once noting, “My wife typed sample cards, describing the fabric and my mother, grandmother, and her sister stapled sample tickets at the kitchen table.” His curiosity and collaborative spirit live on in the legacy of innovation he left behind. Via Designtex, the partnership that emerged between William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, won First Prize in the International Design Sense competition at the Design Museum in 2000.
About the Center for Photography at Woodstock
Founded in 1977, the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is a not-for-profit arts organization with a two-fold mission: to support artists working in photography and related media; and to engage audiences through creation, discovery, and learning. At the heart of CPW’s mission is programming that is community-based, artist-centered, and collaborative. To foster public conversation around critical issues in photography, CPW provides exhibitions, workshops, artists’ residencies, and access to a digital media lab. In 2022, CPW relocated from Woodstock to 474 Broadway in Kingston. Last year, CPW acquired a 40,000-square-foot factory building at 25 Dederick Street, which is being renovated as its future headquarters, a photography museum, educational and community center. Each year, the CPW Vision Awards gala honors leading figures in photography. As this year’s gala inaugurates the Saltzman Prize for emerging photographer, it also celebrates the 25th anniversary of CPW’s nationally recognized residency program, Woodstock AIR.
About PHOTOFAIRS New York
A contemporary art fair dedicated to photography and new media, PHOTOFAIRS New York is a distinct new addition to the global fair calendar, providing a dedicated space for galleries and audiences to explore an expansive view of the photographic medium. It returns to the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side on September 6-8th, with a VIP Preview on September 6th.
Press images and interview requests
To request high resolution images for press reproduction and interviews, please click here, or contact CPW here.