The Saltzman Family Foundation—in cooperation with the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) and PHOTOFAIRS New York— announced Keisha Scarville as the recipient of the coveted new arts award: the Saltzman Prize, an award for Emerging Photographer of the Year.
This prestigious new annual prize will honor Scarville with a $10,000 award, and give additional funds to support a solo exhibition of her work within the CPW booth at PHOTOFAIRS New York at the Javits Center on September 6–8, 2024, with a VIP Preview on September 5. Scarville will also be honored on April 20, 2024 at the CPW Vision Awards. The Saltzman Prize is presented in cooperation with CPW / PHOTOFAIRS New York.
Since the early 2000s, Scarville has been exploring ideas around belonging, place, and embodied narratives across mediums, particularly photography. Scarville’s personal background merges two distinct geographies, Guyana and America, which act as a large source of inspiration throughout her work.
Many of her works reflect on the symbolism of Caribbean and African diasporic figures and the immigrant experience of her Guyanese-American parents. In one of her most important series, Mama’s Clothes, Scarville created portraits using her deceased mother’s clothing, making a collaboration between absence and landscape to foster a space that enables the reemergence of her mother’s presence through her own body and identity.
“It is a wonderful honor to be awarded the inaugural Saltzman Prize,” said Saltzman Prize winner Keisha Scarville. “Photography has been my obsession from the first time I stepped into a darkroom. It has brought me solace and entangled me at the same time. I feel the utmost gratitude to be the recipient of an award that advances and fosters the path for future image makers.”
