Recognition for the Recognized

The San Francisco Foundation announced recently that Doug Dubois will be awarded their John Gutmann Photography Fellowship, including a prize of $10,000. The fellowship, now in its sixth year, was created to honor "an emerging artist in the field of creative photography who exhibits professional accomplishments, serious artistic commitment, and financial need."

Let me start off by saying that Dubois absolutely deserves this prize. I am sad that I had not explored his work before this, but happy that this prize gave me the opportunity. Better late than never. Dubois's portraits of his family over the past 20 years, mixed with melancholic and/or witty still lifes from their homes, are haunting and beautiful. His images of Italian motorists and Japanese commuters have appeared in museums around the world and his editorial work routinely graces the pages of The New York Times Magazine.

I think what I take a tiny bit of issue with is the term "emerging," and what it suggests about the trajectory of most photographers' careers. Assuming they mean emerging from obscurity into relative celebrity, isn't it a slightly sad commentary that said photographers are also expected to already exhibit "professional accomplishment"? And then, of course, there is the kicker at the end, "financial need." There are sadly few photographers out there, especially ones pursuing fine art projects on their own time, who are not strapped for cash. But to be living one project to the next, counting on grants like this one, to still be struggling for recognition, and to have already garnered spreads in major magazines and shows at the New York and San Francisco MOMAs? Well, that's obviously where the "serious artistic commitment" comes in.

In such circumstances, it's not surprising that only the strong survive. So congratulations to Doug Dubois. And good luck to the thousands of other "emerging" photographers still waiting for their big break.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Doug Dubois/Courtesy dougdubois.com)