Announcing the 2024 JGS Fellowship for Photography Recipients
The JGS Fellowship for Photography is an $8,000 cash grant open to New York State photography artists living and working outside of New York City.
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced Nando Alvarez-Perez, Eric T. Kunsman, Jiatong Lu, Susannah Sayler, and Allie Tsubota as the recipients of the 2024 JGS Fellowship for Photography, an $8,000 unrestricted cash grant open to New York State photography artists living and working anywhere in the following regions of New York State: Western New York, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York, North Country, Mohawk Valley, Capital District, Hudson Valley, and Long Island. The support for this funding is provided by Joy of Giving Something (JGS), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the photographic arts.
“Howard Stein, the founder of JGS, had a desire to support photography that might have a positive impact on future events,” said Jeffrey Hoone, President, Joy of Giving Something (JGS). “Now JGS is pleased to build on that desire by helping NYFA support the next generation of artists working in photography, and we congratulate this year’s awardees,” he added.
Nando Alvarez-Perez (Buffalo, NY) investigates the individual’s relationship to the vast territory of history. He has exhibited at NADA and Lydian Stater Gallery, New York, NY; Buffalo Central Terminal, Buffalo, NY; Interface Gallery, Oakland, CA; Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA; Untitled Art Fair, San Francisco, CA; and Material Art Fair, Mexico City, MX; among many others. Alvarez-Perez was a resident of Light Work, Syracuse, NY in 2022. His practice extends to his work as a founding director of The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, an art and education nonprofit that models how culture can sustain communities through focused, practical engagements with contemporary art, and as editor-in-chief of Cornelia, a visual art review published three times a year for the Western New York and Southern Ontario region. A visiting professor at Alfred University, he lives and works in Buffalo, NY. Alvarez-Perez received a BA degree in Film studies from CUNY Hunter in 2011 and a MFA from The San Francisco Art Institute in 2014, where he was awarded the Master of Fine Arts Fellowship in Photography.
Eric T. Kunsman (Rochester, NY) is a photographer and book artist whose work is influenced by the death of the steel industry of his hometown of Bethlehem, PA. Kunsman, who studied under Lou Draper, is attracted to objects left behind, especially those that hint at a unique human narrative and a story waiting to be told. Kunsman’s current work explores one of those relics: working payphones hidden in plain sight throughout the neighborhood near his Rochester, NY, studio. Kunsman’s work has been exhibited at venues including Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY; Hoyt Institute of Fine Art, New Castle, PA; and Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA. He has also been a part of group exhibitions at venues including the Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY; A. Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX; SPIVA Gallery, Joplin, MO; San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo, CA; Atlanta Photography Group, Atlanta, GA; and many more. Kunsman works at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as an Assistant Professor in the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and is an adjunct professor for the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences. He holds an MFA degree in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia; as well as an MS degree in Electronic Publishing/Graphic Arts Media, a BS degree in Biomedical Photography, and BFA degree in Fine Art photography, all from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Jiatong Lu (Poughkeepsie, NY) is a Chinese-born visual artist working in photography and video. Her work, which has been exhibited internationally, focuses on exploring individual and collective dilemmas, delving deep into the connections between personal and shared experiences, societal culture, and social policies. Her current project, Nowhere Land, was featured in TIME magazine and shortlisted for the “Professional Portraiture” category at the Sony World Photography Awards, the LuganoAward photo contest, and the Three Shadows Photography Award, all in 2024. Her award recognitions include being a winner of the LensCulture Art Photography Awards 2024, the Annual Winner at the 2023 Tuchong OPENSEE Photography Awards, and receiving a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Photography. Lu graduated with an MFA degree in Photography, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts.
Susannah Sayler (Hudson, NY) works with a variety of media including photography, video, writing, and installation—often in collaboration with others, to deepen our understanding of ecology and the poetics of relation. Her work has been exhibited in diverse venues from art museums to public spaces and interdisciplinary institutions such as science museums, history museums and anthropology museums, including MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; The Momentary @ Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR; Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; and The American Writers Museum and Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (2023), New York Artist Fellowship (2016), the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2014), the Center for Art and Environment Research Fellowship (2013), and the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design (2008). In 2006, with her long-time collaborator, Edward Morris, Sayler co-founded The Canary Project, a collective project to produce art and media that cultivate emotional understanding of the climate crisis. In 2020, she co-founded a new long-term project in Hudson, NY, called Toolshed, which gathers and shares tools that empower individuals and communities to live ecologically. Sayler teaches at Syracuse University, where she co-directs The Canary Lab. Sayler/Morris’ archives are collected by The Center for Art and Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV.
Allie Tsubota (Beacon, NY) is an artist exploring intersections of race, visuality, and the formation of historical memory. Her work joins photography, video, photographic and cinematic archives, and text to examine the role of visual spectatorship across racialized space and collapsed historical time. Tsubota has received recognitions from Aperture, Google’s Creator Lab, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and PhMuseum, among others, and has been an artist-in-residence with Headlands Center for the Arts, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, and ARCUS Project. Her works have been exhibited across the United States and in Japan. In 2025, her work will be included in an exhibition titled In The Room at The Gallery at Heimbold VIsual Arts Center, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY. Tsubota presently teaches photography at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and The College of New Jersey. She holds an MFA degree in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design.
On being recognized with a JGS Fellowship, Allie Tsubota said: “Receiving the JGS Fellowship represents a transformative moment for my practice. This type of support will allow me to invest in my work–to finish lingering projects, push ongoing projects forward, and begin developing new ideas–with a dedication that would have not been possible otherwise. This meaningful support keeps open the possibility of engaging in creative practice and sharing this practice with others.”
In acknowledging this year’s recipients, Michael Royce, NYFA CEO, said: “Nando, Eric, Jiatong, Susannah, and Allie’s work, while rooted in photography, is multidisciplinary in nature. Their connections back to larger social spaces, experiences, and environments showcase how truly remarkable photography is and continues to be in helping us to understand the world we’re living in now, and what it can look like in the future. Thank you to the Joy of Giving Something for supporting this award and the work of these remarkable artists.”
Find out about our additional awards and grants here and visit NYFA’s Opportunities page to learn about other opportunities in the arts. Sign up for our free bi-weekly newsletter NYFA News to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.
