Overview effect: a juried exhibition at the Midwest Center for Photography demonstrates the diversity of the field
A selection of photos by 31 artists from around the world is on view at the Riverside gallery — and online — through March 28.
The Midwest Center for Photography’s 2025 juried exhibition, which opened on March 7, includes around 100 images by 31 different photographers. To assemble it, the gallery posted a call for entries online. Four artists who answered the call are from Kansas, and the rest hail from across the United States and the world.
Diverse in geography, the included artists are also diverse in their approach to photography, but the show achieves some coherence through its five award categories: architecture, close-up, landscape, portrait, and street photography. (The entire show can be viewed online on the MWCP website.)
Among the Kansas entrants, I was struck by the work of Pittsburg resident Rion Huffman, who has five photos in the show. Three are natural landscapes; two are architectural shots of skyscrapers. All share a moody aesthetic, with high saturation, high contrast, and low shutter speeds. A beach landscape shows water in livid blue, with a teal cast to the sky and a dark, nearly black foreground dotted with blurry yellow spots – mushrooms, perhaps? The image has a compelling sense of uncanniness.
Another standout image by Huffman is in black and white: a looming skyscraper in the International Style, with an older highrise reflected in its grid of windows, almost seeming to nest inside it.
Photographs by Rion Huffman. Photos courtesy of the artist.
Ron Cooper, of Englewood, Colorado, has four photos in the portrait category. Three are of people who appear to be 80 or older, gazing into the distance while the camera makes a study of their wrinkled skin. If I knew something about the stories behind these portraits — how Cooper found the sitters, or something of their biographies — I’m sure I would find them more compelling. But as images pure and simple, I feel I’ve seen their like before. Cooper’s posed portrait of a young, muscular man in a moment of repose shows his skill, and his website reveals him as a prolific portraitist.
Portraits by Ron Cooper. Photos courtesy of the artist.
Perhaps it’s just because I’m used to Kansas, which is notoriously lacking in elevation change, but I found some of the photos that look down from a height to be the most interesting and effective entries in the landscape category. These images place the horizon line near the top of the composition, or exclude it from the frame entirely. Jim Spizzo, of Scottsdale, Arizona, submitted a black-and-white photo looking down on a formal garden at the Château de Chambord, in France, with rows of trees and shrubs in strong contrast with the light gravel. Scattered groups of people walking and sitting nicely offset the symmetry of the garden.
A few photos in the landscape category have been extensively edited or manipulated, arguably crossing over from photography into the broader territory of digital art. UK photographer Liam Man’s image of a mountaintop (or a rocky crest?) during an annular solar eclipse would not look out of place on a metal album cover. Red-tinged mist rises, giving an impression of heat that contrasts with the icy blue of the crags.
Another international participant, Ilya Trofimenko of Germany, clearly started with landscape photos, but through either a digital or a darkroom process, he achieved a psychedelic, yet somehow grim, effect. In one image, the tree-filled horizon line takes a right angle turn and drops off the bottom of the composition. The trees are set off from clouds, above, and a less distinct region, below, by zones of yellow and red.
After visiting the Midwest Center for Photography, I followed up with owner Linda Robinson to learn more about her story and the gallery’s. When Robinson opened the MWCP in 2008, she was teaching photography at Wichita State. Looking for a studio space for herself, she saw an opportunity to open a gallery as well.
“I thought, ‘I am teaching students to become fine art photographers, and I want them to have a local gallery to strive to get into, as emerging artists, as a stepping stone in their careers,’” Robinson said.
Presenting shows with open calls for entries has turned out to be a successful niche for Robinson. She views her prompt-based shows as effective entry points for early-career photographers.
“You do an assignment for students to practice a certain type of subject matter, or genre. The calls for entries are similar: Here are the parameters, the framework, for the exhibition, and let’s see what you have. Some people do go out and take pictures for that, specifically, or they look through their archives to fit the theme,” she said.
You can view the 2025 Midwest Center for Photography Juried Exhibition both online and in Linda Robinson's Riverside gallery. Photos courtesy of Linda Robinson.
Robinson receives all entries digitally, then prints and frames them herself. New shows go up frequently, and there are always pending calls for entries on MWCP’s website. Upcoming shows at the gallery include “Petals and Leaves,” with photographs of plant life; “Personal Essence,” a portrait photography exhibition; and a monochromatic photography exhibition. Shows typically open during Wichita’s monthly First Friday Gallery Crawl, and the MWCP gallery is otherwise open by appointment.
The Details
2025 Midwest Center for Photography Juried Exhibition
March 7-28, 2025, Midwest Center for Photography, 1215 Franklin St. in Wichita
With entries in five categories, this annual exhibition includes around 100 images by more than 30 photographers. Director’s choice awards in each will be announced on March 28, when the show closes.
The show includes work by Nicole Asselborn (Salinas, California), David Carrothers (Ellensburg, Washington), Ron Cooper (Woodland, Colorado), James Davis (Fairfield, Iowa), John Diephouse (Lansing, Michigan), Michael Elenko (Vashon, Washington), Jane Feely (Highland Park, Illinois), Joseph Finkleman (Woodland, California), Linda Goldsher (Northbrook, Illinois), Jerold Hale (Hixon, Texas), Kylo-Patrick Hart (Aledo, Texas), Charles Hively (Brooklyn, New York), Rion Huffman (Pittsburg, Kansas), Bonnie Johnson (Sedgwick, Kansas), Luke Jordan (Lawrence, Kansas), Tim Keane (Hartland, Wisconsin), John Lofflin (Kansas City, Missouri), Andrea London (New York City) Liam Man (Surrrey, United Kingdom), James Mitchell (Wichita, Kansas), Fern Nesson (Cambridge, Massachusetts), David Rathbone (Virginia Beach, Virginia), Janet Roller Schmidt (Elmhurst, Illinois), David Skidmore (Sister Bay, Wisconsin), Jim Spizzo (Scottsdale, Arizona), Andreas Starke (Öræfi, Iceland), Leanne Trivett S. (Jackson City, Tennessee), Mary Tortorici (Richmond, Kentucky), Ilya Trofimenko (Dresden, Germany), Micajah Truitt (El Cajon, California), and Mike Vance (Stillwater, Minnesota).
The gallery is open by appointment. Admission is free.
Learn more about the MWCP and view the current exhibition online.
Sam Jack is a poet, a classical tenor, and the adult services librarian at Newton Public Library. He performs with several local groups, including Wichita Chamber Chorale, Wichita Grand Opera, and Opera Kansas. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Montana.
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