Working Assumptions Project Grant Recipient 2024

After my fair share of grant rejection letters, I received this long-awaited email and shed tears of joy.

"Dear Debe,  Congratulations! We are thrilled to inform you that you have been awarded a Working Assumptions Project Grant in the amount of $10,000 for your outstanding project one, one thousand…." "Originally planning to fund six, we were so inspired by the quality and creativity of the submissions that we decided to award two additional grants... that inspire viewers  to look at family in meaningfully new ways through photography."

Stay tuned for this next phase where I am incorporating augmented reality into the images giving viewers a sense of what it’s like to be a lifelong family caregiver and the one being cared for.

Spaceman

Critical Mass 2024 Top 200 

I'm thrilled my series Witness is a Critical Mass Top 200! It is an affirmation of my work and to have two very different series (this and one, one thousand...) recognized by Critical Mass each time I have submitted is a thrill and an honor. This year, the competition is fierce! Fingers crossed, I make it to the Top 50! 

FRESH 2024 People's Choice Award 

Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

I am thrilled to receive the People's Choice Award with my image Witness No.1   During May 13th – 27th, one photograph from each Fresh 2024 Finalists was posted onto the Klompching Gallery’s Instagram profile. The public voted for their favorite image, by LIKING it. The work of each finalist is stellar making the final selection a very close win!

FRESH 2024 FINALIST AWARD

Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

Witness  No.10

I'm honored to be named a finalist among 19 stellar artists from around the world. In its 13th year, this award is "held to the highest standards by one of the leading contemporary art galleries. FRESH looks for the very best examples of new contemporary fine art photography. "

This series continues my exploration of meditation and spirituality, using the landscape as a portal entering into an alternate reality of conscious awareness.

Catalogs are available through Klompching Gallery

Memory Orchards: Photographers and their Families

I am thrilled to have six images from one, one thousand... in this tender book alongside Guggenheim recipients, teachers of mine, and fellow colleagues whom I greatly admire. 

Featuring 186 photos from 60 photographers, Memory Orchards presents a broad survey of family experience, through highs and lows, lust and loss, creating a survey of work that reflects our understanding of ‘family’ in this moment. The work is derived from long term documentary projects to archive-based explorations, noting mundane interactions, moments of intimacy, family snapshots, and artful portraits. Some artists write of their desire to remember and document their own peculiar and beautiful realities. Others share their experience in hopes of adding to larger conversations about representation or identity. Taken as a whole, this engaging collection of work is complex and personal but deeply relatable.

ORDER HERE

Publisher by Candela Books

Essays by Rebecca Senf, PhD, curator at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, and Andy Grundberg, independent curator, writer, and educator.

Edited by Gordon Stettinius, founder and senior director of Candela Gallery.

Members' 2024 Juried Exhibition

Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, California

Witness  No.6  [Dreaming Yosemite- working title]

Juror Catherine Couturier selected 45 photographs for the gallery exhibition and 45 for the online gallery from over 2600 entries submitted. Couturier is the owner and director of the Catherine Couturier Gallery in Houston, Texas.

The catalog is available for purchase in the gallery or online at Magcloud.

Tell Me a Story: The Role of Storytelling in Photography 

Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver, Colorado

Artist Reception November 20, 2023

On view thru January 6, 2024

Exhibiting “one, one thousand…” in Colorado is extra special for my family who live there.  My parents, sisters, nephews, plus Lori and David get to see our personal family narrative on the walls of galleries and University Campuses. It pulls at the heartstrings and strengthens my commitment to keep going.

"When I was jurying this exhibition, I looked for quiet but visually engaging photographs that suggest emotionally complex stories about everyday life. I was less drawn to depictions of sensational moments or exotic locations, favoring ones that are literally and figuratively closer to home. I looked for signs of slow and careful looking as well as subjects who appear at ease in front of the photographer and their camera." ~Juror Mary Statzer

Dispatches From the Present

November 20 - January 13, 2024

Los Angeles Center of Photography

252 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

Exhibiting stuggle to express myself  from the scene & heard series.

"Like a carefully assembled time capsule, the works included here reflect key questions that drive photographic practice – in their curiosity about the meeting points between past and future technologies, in their open-ended approach toward storytelling and photography’s capacity to re-shape and re-organize how we see the world. From vast landscapes to intimate geographies, from experimental techniques to views of still life, these works provide a nuanced outlook on contemporary—and ongoing–preoccupations." LACP

Los Angeles Center of Photography

In is a small but meaningful way to give back to LACP, an organization that has continually inspired me with its commitment to visual storytelling, I contributed Polka Dots and Butterflies for LACP's online print auction.

Las Foto Projects

October 2023

It was my pleasure to donate THIS IS IT  along with 60 women and gender-expansive photographers in support of their mission to nurture creativity among young girls and gender-expansive youth from communities of color in Los Angeles. 

Their dedication to empowering these teens and effecting positive change in society is truly commendable and reflected through the joy on the kids’ faces as they hold their cameras. It's a testament to the organization and its mentors.

one, one thousand...  

a 46 print Solo Exhibition

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Fulginiti Pavilion for Humanities and Biothethics Aurora, Colorado 

September 6, 2022 - February 13, 2023

February 7th, 2023 

Hybrid Panel Discussion including a neurologist, an art therapist, an art advocate, my sister Lori Sandler and me in REVEALING: Art + Disability + Stigma + Compassion

EVENTS:

Hybrid Panel Discussion February 7, 2023 • CU Anschutz & ZOOM RSVP

Presentation with the Sisters November 1, 2022 • Lennox-Gastaut National Awareness Day 

Walk-through and discussion with Lori • January 2022

Walk-through and discussion with Lori  for CU medical students • September

Ted for the Head Talk October 2022

PODCASTS:

The Candid Frame, Vulnerability in Life & Art 

PUBLICATION FEATURES:

Feature Shoot, FRAMES Magazine, F-Stop Magazine, Shadow & Light Magazine, Strange Fire, ZO Magazine, 

Yup, that's my sister Lori and me on installation day with a poster of Lori and her son, David at the Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics & Humanities at CU Anschutz

Walking this Path, 2021

LensCulture Winner, Summer Open 2022

My project one, one thousand... was recognized by LensCulture and exhibited at the Essex house during PhotoLondon in 2023

one, one thousand...   

All About Photo Solo Exhibition

I had the honor of having my work selected by juror Harvey Stein  (acclaimed photographer, educator and author of seven books) for the month of October 2022 

Indian Photo Festival  2022

Hyderabad, India

For my debut in India, "one, one thousand..." is the only  representing the United States!

The Indian Photo Festival (IPF) - Hyderabad, a not-for-profit initiative of Light Craft Foundation is India's longest running international photography festival showcasing photography from India and around the globe.

18th November - 19th December, State Gallery of Art, Madhapur and other venues across Hyderabad. 

Strange Fire Interview 

Interviewed by Jess Dugan - June 16, 2022

Jess Dugan recently selected one, one thousand... for CENTER's Social Award Honorable Mention. It is a privilege to be interviewed by them for Strange Fire, an artist collective "of interdisciplinary artists, curators, and writers focused on work that engages with current social and political forces." 

We talk more about Lori and David, how the title came to be, and how I got David's permission to make this work. I share why I use text and image, "straight" photographs, altered images, and talk about the artists who've influenced me. Jess's thought provoking questions that had me look more deeply at the "why's" about the work which are articulated here.

 The Art of Photographic Capture

 Teaching this summer :  Los Angeles Center for Photography

July 25 - July 29, 2022

Photography is an art form used to express observations or communicate a story. This workshop invites students (ages 12-18) to observe the world around them and discover the overlooked. Designed for all levels of photographers. 

FRAMES Magazine Interview 

Interview by Diana Nicholette Jeon - May 31, 2022

Diana has me waxing about my career and each project that has led me to the work I make today. In doing so, I learned a bit more about myself through the process.

Diana: To leave you with a final thought from Arlook, she says, “We’re making this work to champion caregivers and bring awareness to this rare syndrome. We hope to raise funding to enable more research into the many unknowns about LGS. To learn more about LGS, visit the LGS Foundation website.

CENTER  Social Award Honorable Mention

Juried by Jess T. Dugan  one, one thousand...   

I was impressed by the quality and diversity of the work submitted to the Social Awards. Seeing projects from around the world that address a variety of meaningful social issues, such as climate change, immigration, activism, systemic racism, socioeconomic inequity, chronic illness, neurodivergence, aging, family systems, the effects of the pandemic, and LGBTQ+ rights was very moving. In addition to the subject matter, the formal and technical execution of each project was critical to my selection; I was looking for cohesive bodies of work comprised of strong individual images and was most drawn to projects where the artists spoke about social issues from a highly personal vantage point, using their own stories as a point of departure. As I was viewing all of the submitted work, one of my favorite quotes by Diane Arbus came to mind: “The more specific you are, the more general it’ll be.”

The two Honorable Mentions, one, one thousand… by Debe Arlook.  one, one thousand… tells the story of Arlook’s 28-year-old nephew, David, who has Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, an incurable seizure disorder, and severe autism, rendering him non-verbal and in need of full-time care. Arlook’s images show David and his mother, Lori, alongside her handwritten text describing aspects of their lives and relationship.

- Jess T. Dugan, Artist & Co-Founder, Strange Fire Collective

Griffin Museum of Photography 28th Annual Members Juried Show

July 7 - September 4, 2022        Artist Reception July 10, 2022 4-6pm 

My sister Lori and I will be there, we hope to see you. Over 2,000 images were submitted to  jurors Frances Jakubek and Iaritza Menjivar, and narrowed to 60.

Center Forward 2022  

Exhibition at Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins

The artist reception was an extra special event with my nephew, sister and family in attendance.

Juried by Alyssa Coppelman and Christy Havranek, June 1 - June 28, 2022

Meditation No. 5, Foreseeable Cache

The Artist of Possibility, Issue #5  

Published article written by Debe Arlook

A few weeks into the March 2020 lockdown, I became ill with Covid. We were in Idaho for a one-week trip. Then the world literally stopped. The virus lasted seven weeks...we stayed for three months not wanting to return to city life in Los Angeles. Testing was scarce, we had a president prescribing bleach as a cure-all, and no one knew anything. Two years later, with vaccines, boosters and new variants, a sick friend told me she couldn't image what it was like being sick without the vaccine. I can tell you, it was no picnic. It messed me up emotionally, physically and mentally for many months. 

In the fall of 2020, I wrote an essay about my experience for The Artist of Possibility, a spiritually minded magazine conceived by meditation teacher, Jeff Carreira. Published in January 2021, the issue about Loss, Grief and Transformation. Images from Foreseeable Cache accompany the essay.