CB Adams Receives Honorable Mention at 2021 Art Through the Lens Exhibition at Yeiser Art Center

UPDATE to October 15, 2021 News:

At the closing reception for the 2021 Art Through the Lens exhibition at the @yeiserartcenter in Paducah, KY. juror Shannon Randol awarded “Checkerboards” by St. Louis area writer/photographer CB with an Honorable Mention. This year's show received 758 entries from 37 U.S. states along with three other countries. Forty-four pieces were juried into the International Exhibition.

Art Through the Lens Show Includes Two Prints by CB Adams

“Checkerboards” 16x20 silver gelatin print from large-format negative by CB Adams. This photograph received Honorable Mention and is for sale. Contact cbadams@qwerkyphotography.

Paducah, KY — Two 16x20 silver gelatin photographs by St. Louis-area writer/photographer CB Adams are featured in the 2021 Art Through the Lens international juried exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center. During the past 45 years, this exhibition has become one of the Mid-South’s most prestigious annual photographic events. This year’s call for entries received a record number of submissions — almost 800 submissions from 37 states and four countries.

Adams’s “Checkerboards” was selected by juror Shannon Randol, an Assistant Professor of Photography at Middle Tennessee State University and Curator for The Baldwin Photographic Gallery. Randol chose “Checkerboards” as one of 44 works from 758 submissions. The Yeiser Art Center staff juried 52 pieces into the Regional Salon and chose Adams’s “Pedal Another Cause.” Both framed (20x24) photographs are for sale through the gallery. This year’s exhibition marks the second time Adams has had work selected in this annual show. One of his toy camera-rendered photographs as selected in the 2019 Art Through the Lens.

Art Through the Lens is open Oct. 2 through Nov. 13 with a closing reception on Nov. 14 from 1-3 p.m. Yeiser Art Center is located at 200 Broadway St., Paducah, KY, 42001.

CB Adams, MFA, is an award-winning fiction writer and fine art photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. Adams works with a collection of more than 60 film-based and digital cameras in a wide range of formats from 4x5 to 35mm and toy cameras to create images. Through his Qwerky Studio, Adams has had works accepted to more than 30 nationwide exhibitions, including “summertime” at A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, “Krappy Kamera” at Soho Photo Gallery in New York City, “American Conversations at Art Saint Louis, “Architectonic” at The Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO, RAW: St. Louis Presents Grandeur, ”Visions” at Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA, “Somerville Toy Camera Show (2016, 2018 & 2019) in Boston, MA, and “Comestibles” at Columbia (MO) Art League. Recently, his photographs have been published in december, Midwest Review, Genre Urban Arts 7, Heirlock Literary Magazine and Tiny Seed.

Adams’s fiction has been published in River Styx (twice), Zoetrope All-Story Extra, Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies, Ponder Review, Conclave 2021, Vision Quest, Thoughtful Dog, The Distillery, and elsewhere. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards, the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The independent weekly Riverfront Times named Adams, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer.” Follow him at his website www.qwerkyphotography.com or on Instagram @qwerkystudio, Flickr @cbadams2, or Facebook @qwerkyphotography.

“Pedal Another Cause” 16x20 silver gelatin print from large-format negative by CB Adams. Available for purchase through the Yeiser Art Center.

In his artist statement, Adams said, “‘Pedal Another Cause’ and ‘Checkerboards’ were created from scenes rendered with a large-format 4x5 camera in New Orleans and St. Louis, respectively. In 2019, I was in New Orleans for the first time and noticed the mural on my way to the Lower Ninth Ward, and it was too interesting to pass up. I had exposed one sheet when I noticed a bicyclist heading toward me. I wanted to try and add an additional element to this scene. I strive to create images that require more than a passing glance or a swipe on a screen and offer a compelling ambiguity that invites the viewer to add their own experience or story to it. ‘Checkerboards’ is another example of this approach. I constantly seek access to places that are out of the ordinary and have a ‘what is that?’ quality that sets the photographs apart from the flood of images that bombard me -- us -- daily. As I work with each image in a wet darkroom, I discover elements that add complexity to the overall scene -- elements that were in my peripheral, but not conscious, vision.”

Picture credit: Katherine Dean- "plate no.1"

In 2013, Paducah was designated a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network in the area of Crafts & Folk Art. To embrace this international honor and reflect the international growth of the exhibition, the original Paducah Photo has taken on a new name, Art Through the Lens.

Juror Shannon Randol (1979) has served in various capacities in the Society for Photographic Education, most recently as Portfolio Coordinator for the annual conferences between 2009-2015. His work has been featured in national and international exhibitions and he is currently completing a body of work addressing boundaries in public spaces.

Art Through the Lens Show Includes Two Large-Format Photographs by CB Adams

Paducah, KY — Two 16x20 silver gelatin photographs by St. Louis-area writer/photographer CB Adams are featured in the 2021 Art Through the Lens international juried exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center. During the past 45 years, this exhibition has become one of the Mid-South’s most prestigious annual photographic events. This year’s call for entries received a record number of submissions — almost 800 submissions from 37 states and four countries.

Adams’s “Checkerboards” was selected by juror Shannon Randol, an Assistant Professor of Photography at Middle Tennessee State University and Curator for The Baldwin Photographic Gallery. Randol chose “Checkerboards” as one of 44 works from 758 submissions. The Yeiser Art Center staff juried 52 pieces into the Regional Salon and chose Adams’s “Pedal Another Cause.” Both framed (20x24) photographs are for sale through the gallery. This year’s exhibition marks the second time Adams has had work selected in this annual show. One of his toy camera-rendered photographs as selected in the 2019 Art Through the Lens.

Art Through the Lens is open Oct. 2 through Nov. 13 with a closing reception on Nov. 14 from 1-3 p.m. Yeiser Art Center is located at 200 Broadway St., Paducah, KY, 42001.

CB Adams, MFA, is an award-winning fiction writer and fine art photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. Adams works with a collection of more than 60 film-based and digital cameras in a wide range of formats from 4x5 to 35mm and toy cameras to create images. Through his Qwerky Studio, Adams has had works accepted to more than 30 nationwide exhibitions, including “summertime” at A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, “Krappy Kamera” at Soho Photo Gallery in New York City, “American Conversations at Art Saint Louis, “Architectonic” at The Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO, RAW: St. Louis Presents Grandeur, ”Visions” at Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA, “Somerville Toy Camera Show (2016, 2018 & 2019) in Boston, MA, and “Comestibles” at Columbia (MO) Art League. Recently, his photographs have been published in december, Midwest Review, Genre Urban Arts 7, Heirlock Literary Magazine and Tiny Seed.

Adams’s fiction has been published in River Styx (twice), Zoetrope All-Story Extra, Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies, Ponder Review, Conclave 2021, Vision Quest, Thoughtful Dog, The Distillery, and elsewhere. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards, the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The independent weekly Riverfront Times named Adams, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer.” Follow him at his website www.qwerkyphotography.com or on Instagram @qwerkystudio, Flickr @cbadams2, or Facebook @qwerkyphotography.

“Pedal Another Cause” 16x20 silver gelatin print from large-format negative by CB Adams. Available for purchase through the Yeiser Art Center.

In his artist statement, Adams said, “‘Pedal Another Cause’ and ‘Checkerboards’ were created from scenes rendered with a large-format 4x5 camera in New Orleans and St. Louis, respectively. In 2019, I was in New Orleans for the first time and noticed the mural on my way to the Lower Ninth Ward, and it was too interesting to pass up. I had exposed one sheet when I noticed a bicyclist heading toward me. I wanted to try and add an additional element to this scene. I strive to create images that require more than a passing glance or a swipe on a screen and offer a compelling ambiguity that invites the viewer to add their own experience or story to it. ‘Checkerboards’ is another example of this approach. I constantly seek access to places that are out of the ordinary and have a ‘what is that?’ quality that sets the photographs apart from the flood of images that bombard me -- us -- daily. As I work with each image in a wet darkroom, I discover elements that add complexity to the overall scene -- elements that were in my peripheral, but not conscious, vision.”

Picture credit: Katherine Dean- "plate no.1"

In 2013, Paducah was designated a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network in the area of Crafts & Folk Art. To embrace this international honor and reflect the international growth of the exhibition, the original Paducah Photo has taken on a new name, Art Through the Lens.

Juror Shannon Randol (1979) has served in various capacities in the Society for Photographic Education, most recently as Portfolio Coordinator for the annual conferences between 2009-2015. His work has been featured in national and international exhibitions and he is currently completing a body of work addressing boundaries in public spaces.

Honor Bound

After months of preparation and depleting my Qwerky Photography bank account to pay for silver gelatin paper, chemicals and framing services, I delivered my seven 16x20 photographs to Art Saint Louis in preparation for the delayed Honor Awards 2020 exhibition. What a long, strange trip it’s been to get my work to this moment.

The seven 16x20 silver gelatin prints (20x24 framed) made by artist CB Adams, delivered to Art Saint Louis for the upcoming Honor Awards exhibition. The prints, made from 4x5 large-format negatives, were developed and printed by Adams. Adams was one of 10 award-winning artists selected for this juried show.

To qualify for the annual Honor Awards, you have to been awarded an Award of Excellence from have the previous year's juried exhibitions. I’ve made it to that point twice before and this is the first time my work made it into the highly competitive Honor Awards exhibition. I just rewrote the previous sentence. The first iteration stated “…the first time I made it into the Honor Awards…” Not a profound change to you, but it marks a distinct maturation point for me as an artist. I have learned that there is a different and healthier approach between the art and its maker. In the past, when my work wasn’t accepted into an exhibition, I stomped around for far too long, considering the exclusion to be a personal affront. The juror or curator was clearly rejecting me.  

But no. They were passing on my work, not me. It’s cliché but nonetheless true: art is subjective. Now, I’m still disappointed when my work won’t be shown in a particular exhibit, but my focus is already on making new work and submitting it elsewhere. I’m confident my “audience” is looking for me somewhere and it’s up to me to seek you out.

This Honor Awards was delayed a year because of the global health crisis. This turned out to be a blessing because I had more time to reprint some of the work with some adjustments that perhaps only I could see. I also had a year’s worth of pay from adjunct teaching – my side hustle teaching pays for most of my photography.

So, I delivered the seven, carefully wrapped works. Originally, the Juror Amy MacLennan, chose eight of my photographs. Unfortunately, three days before delivery, a flooring contractor working on my home dislodged one framed piece from its closet shelf. It shattered the glass, bent the frame and damage the print itself. As fate would have it, this was the only print for which I had neither an artist’s proof nor extra copy. So only seven go on the wall.

True confessions: as gratified as I am to have finally made it into the Honors exhibit, seeing the seven pieces leaning against the wall seemed so…well, paltry. My first thought was, “Is that it?” I can’t speak about the relationship between other artists and their work, but mine recently continues to be, “It’s not enough. Work more.”

Is that healthy? Dunno. But it keeps driving me for now. One image at a time. Hoping to find a wall for each. Still trying not to think that it’s me hanging there.