Selected photographers for the 4th Edition 2023
Fred Watkins [ Guest of Honor 2023 ]
Fred Watkins has been a professional photographer for over 35 years, has traveled worldwide and photographed celebrities and heads of state from Nelson Mandela to Muhammad Ali. He is the only African American photographer to capture all the United States Presidents from George H. W. Bush to Donald Trump...
Jerry Siegel
Siegel was born and raised in Selma, AL, and graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta. He was awarded the Grand Prize of the first Artadia Award in Atlanta. While successfully maintaining a commercial photography studio in Atlanta since the mid 1980’s, he found his passion working on personal projects...
Ruben Contreras
Ruben is from Sacramento, CA, where he was taught how to use a camera at an early age from his father, who learned from his father. Turning passion into career, Ruben works as a cinematographer in both fiction and documentary spaces telling stories of underrepresented communities in a mission to bring visibility and empathy to a wider audience.
Victorine Alisse & JS Saia
JS, a volunteer with the association La Cloche, and Victorine, a photographer, met over coffee by way of the La Cloche, which is dedicated to creating social ties and changing the way people look at life on the street. From this meeting the desire to work together on a photographic project was born. Victorine begins by following JS to places that are part of his story...
Greg Hatton
Greg Hatton is an African-American Cinematographer // Documentary Photographer, born and raised in Los Angeles, California.
His love for image making came at a very early age. His family had cameras around, perhaps as much as any other family of the time; but what really sparked his interest in the art was when he discovered the family photo albums.
Frank Jackson
Mr. Jackson’s interest and appetites are diverse. He enjoys fresh air, strawberry milkshakes, and black and white film, though he admits the combination often gives him gas. “I prefer shooting in black and white”, says Jackson, because it forces the viewer to look at the essence of an image…
Gus Bennett
I've always believed that photography is more than just a profession or a passion—it's a calling, a ministry. For me, it's about using my camera to capture moments, emotions, and stories that can touch the hearts and souls of those who view my work. When I see myself as a visual storyteller on a spiritual journey, my perspective shifts. Every click of the shutter becomes an act of service and connection. I understand the power my images hold—the power to comfort, heal, and inspire. It's a responsibility I embrace wholeheartedly...
Ken Wong Youk-Hong
After winning the Jury Prize at the Nuits Photographiques de Pierrevert, Ken was invited to Selma, where he presented his photographic work in a series of portraits entitled "The After", taken during his stay in Selma Alabama...
Darrell Peacock
Darrell Peacock is a street/documentary and portrait photographer based out of Los Angeles, CA. Originally born and raised in Queen, NY, Darrell found a love for photography at the age of 19 while working as a camp counselor. Darrell would collect images on disposable film cameras and share them with his co-workers and campers at the end of each session....
Olivier Sanchez
Born in Calvi, Corsica, in 1962, Olivier Sanchez is an experienced News photographer.
Son of a photographer, he worked for the most famous French press agencies like AFP, Sipa, Gamma. But he started his carreer in the local newspaper 'Corse-Matin' and has always kept a local anchor.
Alain Licari
My photographic approach is close to that of a documentary, in that I take the time to produce my series and return regularly to the places I have previously photographed. This allows me to delve deeper into a subject, exploring it from different angles and observing its evolution over time...
Maria Catuogno
I am an author-photographer based in the south of France. After living for 9 years in Latin America, I studied
at the School of Fine Arts in Aix en Provence. At present, I am furthering my artistic career as a visual artist and a glass and bronze sculptor. My approach to photography was initially self-taught. I went on to study studio photography...
Laure Andrillon
Laure Andrillon is a freelance writer & photographer born in Martinique, France. She is currently based in San Francisco, CA. She speaks English, French and Spanish. Her work is largely focused on issues related to migrations, health, environmental justice and climate change...
Christophe Chevalier
Passionate about photography and computer science, it was quite natural that Christophe turned to digital photography and its graphic applications. He began his career around twenty years ago in the digital department of great professional parisian photographic laboratory, where he collaborated with famous photographers, and prestigious clients in domain of luxury, cinema, and fashion...
Louis-Laurent Dupont
I've always wanted and loved to understand what drives our societies and our social relationships. This curiosity has been nourished by extensive travel, historical, philosophical and sociological reading, and has been embodied in a thesis in anthropology and a profession as an urban planner, focusing on urban practices and the notion of territory...
Stephen Humphreys
Stephen Humphreys is a graduate of Princeton University and a US attorney with expertise in government corruption investigations. He pioneered innovative uses of racketeering laws and other criminal statutes in the fight for public integrity and accountability. He has served as an independent legal expert in the investigation of Russian election interference in the US, the Fulton County Georgia District Attorney’s criminal prosecution of attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and the anti-corruption legislation of the Ukrainian parliament.
Sue Dorfman
Sue Dorfman is a photojournalist, media strategist, and educator. She is a contract photographer for ZUMA Press, the world’s largest independent press agency and wire service. Sue has traveled more than 45,000 miles during several election cycles, including the 2020 and 2022 elections. During the pandemic, she traveled in an RV nicknamed Doc-cy, short for Documenting Democracy...
Laurent Elie Badessi
Laurent Elie Badessi, a Franco-American fine art photographer from a three-generation photography lineage, explored the photography medium from a young age. After studying language and communication sciences, he focused on the psychological dynamics between photographer and subject...
Nicolas KLEIN
Nicolas Klein is known for his love of encounters. Truly curious about his contemporaries, he captures them like a reporter or a portraitist. A master of the spoken word, Nicolas Klein engages in dialogue with warmth and naturalness, easily forging bonds. He could make do with words to express himself, were it not for his passion for photography, that other medium that marries art with ideas.
Quentin Renard Gunn
Quentin Renard Gunn, is an American photographer born in Birmingham, Alabama. At the age of five, his family was uprooted to Ft. Dix, New Jersey, a military duty station that gifted him not just a passport-stamped worldview, but a camera and an insatiable wonder for the unspoken stories around us...
Gregory Cattcuss
Born in 1985, CattCuss completed his engineering studies in 2010. In 2023, more comfortable with images than with words, he chose the photographic medium to tell his story; he then turned to photojournalism and documentary photography, he then followed training at the Spéos school and the POLKA magazine in Paris under the mentorship of Dimitri BECK...
Lionel Hahn
The exceptional encounters are a great source of enrichment and inspiration. On January 26, 2003, in San Diego, California, Lionel has the privilege to be granted a photo credential to cover Super Bowl XXXVII. He covered all of them for the last 17 years.
On February 2019, he was gifted with a double spread picture on Time Magazine with the celebration of Tom Brady and Julian Edelman after they defeated the Los Angeles Rams in Atlanta, Georgia...
Will Jacks X Troy University’s students
Will Jacks (Grand Prize from the Jury 2022) plans to bring students from Troy University to the Selma Festival. He’ll have them work on projects based on the shared screening format each night. These will be intermediate students – they’ve all taken a course on the darkroom as well as a basic technical course on digital cameras, and beyond that will adopt more conceptual approaches...
Karen Graffeo
Karen Graffeo is a multi-media artist working within photography, performance, and installation. She is a Professor Emeritus of Art and directed the photography program for the University of Montevallo in Alabama. There she was named University Scholar for her long-term documentary work in Roma communities and refugee encampments. She received the Southeastern College Art Fellowship in 2019 for her project “Witness: LGBTQ2 Cuba” which includes the work of Sonja Rieger and Carolyn Sherer...
Lorena Gheorghe
Romanian Native Lorena Gheorghe traveled the world playing professional tennis for over 20 years before living in Oahu, where she grew her passion for photography and film. At an early age, Lorena was inspired by her best friend Bubu's father, a film producer who would take photographs of the duo on their travels, tours, and tournament trips. Fast forward to the present; she's an entrepreneur, photographer, DJ, and Salsa Dancer.
Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher
Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have been photographing the rituals and ceremonies of Africa for over 45 years, travelling to 40 African countries and visiting more than 150 ethnic groups. They are among the most famous photographers in the field of African cultural traditions. Today over 40% of the rituals and ceremonies they photographed, no longer exist...
Sidney A. Foster
Sydney A. Foster Is An Established “Photo Native“, A Celebrity, Agency Approved, Published Photographer And Creative Director In Montgomery, Alabama. Sydney’s Work Has Been Featured In An HBO Documentary...
Andrea Birnbaum
Andrea Birnbaum is fine art and social documentary photographer and educator from the New York City area, and has been the Education Coordinator since the first year of the Photographic Nights of Selma. She will be working with after school students from the Edmundite Missions program and and Selma High School whose work will be shown on Saturday night.