Kael Alford Wins Michael P. Smith Award for Documentary Photography

 
Dallas-based photographer Kael Alford has just been awarded the Michael P. Smith Award for Outstanding Documentary Photography. 

This well-deserved award goes to Alford for her portfolio Bottom of da Boot: Losing the Cost of Louisiana, work also in the Picturing the South show now up at the High Museum in Atlanta.

There is more about Alford here and an essay on her work by Brett Abbott, the Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art, here.

Jennifer Schwartz also alerts us to the fact that Alford will give an artist lecture at the High at 6:30 pm on July 19th. On the 20th, Fall Line Press (who published a book featuring photographs from Bottom of da Boot) will throw a Cajun-style party at the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery.

As they say, laissez le bon temps roulez!

Alford clearly deserves this award, but there is also wonderful work among the other Finalists for this award, almost all of it made in the South and all of it by Gulf Coast Photographers.

The New Orleans Photo Alliance provides links to most of this work:

Jeremiah Ariaz
Tucumcari, New Mexico
www.JeremiahAriaz.com

David Armentor
The Sugar Mill Sessions
www.thesugarmillsessions.com/splash

Lizzie Chen
Serving God and Country
www.lizziechen.com

Dennis Church
Public Attire
www.dennischurch.com

Jennifer Kaczmarek
Love for Alyssa
www.jenniferkaczmarek.com

Tomas Montoya
Uprising:  The Diasporic Festive Cultures of Santiago de Cuba, New Orleans, and Haiti

Raymond Thompson
Justice Undone
www.raymondthompsonjr.com

Mary Lou Uttermohlen
Structure Out Of Chaos
www.marylou.us/chaos

Michel Varisco
Shifting
michelvarisco.dphoto.com

Monique Verdin
For the Record: LA Identite
www.moniquemverdin.com