The Denis Roussel Award was started in 2018 to honor the legacy of photographer and educator Denis Roussel and to highlight work done by photographers whose work is based on the historical/alternative photographic processes, including silver gelatin.

We would like to thank juror, author, and educator Christopher James who spent long hours reviewing the submissions. We know of no other competition where the photographers who enter are given care and handling in the way their work receives personal comments from the juror with observations and recommendations for future work.

Thank you to all of the photographers who applied for this award. The standard is set higher each year. It was very rewarding to see the wonderful work being submitted and to read your statements.  We were introduced to numerous new artist and know many of you will be recognized in the years to come. Keep creating. We will be publishing the entire portfolios as we publish the artist interviews.

Thank you to the Roussel Family and Josephine Sacabo for your ongoing support of the Denis Roussel Award.

Thank you to the following individuals and businesses.

Mark Nelson for the Precision Digital Negatives eBook and the “Precision Digital Negatives” custom 31 step standardized film step tablet. Precision Digital Negative.
Bostick & Sullivan for your support from the beginning.
Christopher James for his donation of a portfolio review.

 

Statement from Christopher James

Dear All,

Over the past six years, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with Connie and Jerry Rosenthal at Rfotofolio and serving as juror for the annual Denis Roussel Award. Each year, I’ve been moved by the deeply personal and expressive work submitted by international artists exploring alternative and integrated photographic processes.

Throughout my experience as juror for this unique competition, I’ve witnessed a growing
inwardness in the work—visual translations of personal experience, explorations of identity, and reflections on our relationship with the Earth and its ecosystem. These themes often emerge through the use of simple, traditional materials—salt, chemistry, nature’s offerings and hand-made marks—that invite play and embrace accident. In doing so, the alternative photographic processes that are submitted offer a quality often absent in AI driven or purely digital imaging: the simple element of gesture.

In my juror’s statement from 2023, I wrote: “One of the criteria I used as a marker for my
selections was respect for the essential spirit of Denis Roussel… a love of the natural world,
finding muse-worthy inspiration in the humble and non-spectacular discoveries of simple
observation… and a love of the hand-made image.” This sentiment continues to be true in this latest competition and is echoed in the care and eloquence of each artist’s writing. It’s rare for a juror to receive written expressions of concept and intention alongside the work. In my experience, only the Denis Roussel Award fosters this marriage of personal language and image. I’ve done my best to continue to honor that sentiment.

As you review this year’s awards, selections, and written responses, please know they represent just a glimpse of the juror’s reflections over several weeks. They are not judgments, but gestures of appreciation for work that likely reflects only a small part of each artist’s practice.

The Denis Roussel competition remains singular in my experience. It welcomes artists devoted to photographic image-making, light-marking, and hand-crafted processes. It offers a rare opportunity to tell one’s story in context—and uniquely, it invites the juror into a dialogue that is both personal and constructive. It was an honor to share in this experience with you all… thank
you.

Christopher James
August 2025
Dublin Studio Workshops

 

And now to the award winners for the 2025 Denis Roussel Awards.

2025 Denis Roussel Award
In the Garden  Donna Gordon

Photogravure

“Lovely work and beautifully crafted. I was immediately focused on the young woman in a garden at the end of a working day, outlined with diffused light and a mountain in the background which has the contours of the one that we live on in our Dublin, NH studio. The woman presents herself directly to the observer, immersed in the nature and abundant growth, feather in hand, she meets the viewer’s gaze with considerable confidence, neither performative or passive but content in the perfection of that time and place. Her smile is beatific, knowing, for me like the way it feels returning home after a long time away… a return to nature perhaps. This subject of this particular image, like others in the portfolio, is timeless. The presentation of the subject defines through its ambiguity and openness to viewer interpretation, the cyclical nature of the garden, connection to the earth and confidence in a secure feminine identity, the place itself and all that it represents. She represents, for me, the feel of satisfying labor tending the garden. The power of this image is in its restraint and the slow-burn of that beautiful moment.

The single image that occupies its own meaning is the interior still-life with its layering of traditional meanings and references… in both the pose of the primary subject and the environment the subject occupies. Unlike the majority of images in the portfolio, this image incorporates classical memes such as the posed demur nude, the white horse, the artist’s studio (the paintbrushes) and what appears to be the edge of a Steinway grand piano. At the same time, nature is brought inside as inspirational prompts for re-creation and interpretation. This image is different from the majority and appears to signal the artist’s dichotomy of interest, treasuring the exterior landscape with the same intensity of the more abstracted internal one. 

The last image I will reference is the one of the woman consumed and camouflaged by her floral-patterned dress and the light and shadows of the frenetic natural world. For me, it immediately brought to mind the spring season when all living organisms are hell-bent on rebirth and procreation and nothing is calm. When considering the image, I was thinking about Stravinsky’s 1913 avant-garde performance of The Rite of Spring and its parallel with the first minutes of David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet when the idyllic identity of a suburban neighborhood or the familiar progression of notes in a musical score are fractured and shattered beyond control. In this image there is a duality of urgency and chaos in tandem with peaceful light, stillness and calm. The viewer is given the opportunity of making the critical decision of how to see and experience the image.

This body of work is grounded in myth and meaning and is a satisfying experience for me as a visitor to the work.” Christopher James 

 

Work of Merit Award
Watermarks   Anne Gabriele

Cyanotype

“For me, the simplicity of each singular image is their power to evoke and represent the gracefulness and elegance of the portfolio and its intentions. I’ve spent a significant portion of my life in the ocean as a SCUBA diver and each immersion in that realm, in the day or night, had its own narrative and collaborative meaning. When I read your statement, that these elementary abstractions, performed as hand-painted cyanotypes on watercolor substrates, were done in daylight, on the seashore, in collaboration with the ocean and the beach itself, I was so impressed. It reminded me of the many times I experienced making cyanotype murals with children at the beach, racing into the ocean at the end of the exposure with the exposed cyanotype sensitized fabric to wash it out, and the joy that that physical act of creation inspired in the kids who were the subjects of the mural. As well, the fragile and undefined memories of being in the ocean’s influence, moving with the currents and the 360-degree ungrounded experience of immersion. Most of all, I love your working with the physical materials of nature to illustrate itself was so embedded in the philosophy of Denis Roussel’s Roussel’s work… and what this important annual competition represents. 

The absence of definition of subject invites the viewer to experience their own creative impressions and memories. Your watermark abstractions invite projection, and for me personally, melancholy and a restrained visual philosophy that is embedded in the concept of what is felt — rather than in what is seen. Wonderful work.” Christopher James 

Work of Merit
A Reckoning  Caroline Waterman

Platinum Palladium

“These images were made with a child’s plastic camera to visually interpret and represent the memories and events of a teenage girl’s life in Ireland during “the Troubles.” There is an emotional mosaic of moments remembered in this portfolio, each one singular when not in context, where the child’s camera is not simply an instrument of capture, but a conceptual gesture. The subjects of each image, often due to the limitations of the camera, are softly focused, grainy, dense with light and darkness, partial in detail and fleeting in the moment. The images themselves are like an act of reclamation and performative… exploring the unreliability of traumatic memory, which almost always resists detail and perfect representation. In this way, the very act of making beautiful images, for so many artists throughout the history of the arts, is a form of healing and restoration. 

The bird soaring above the canal represents an escape to the sea. In another image, the forensic doll-like visage in the sand is a surrogate body and communion-like innocence… and a symbol of a violent experience where the evidence is surrounded by large footprints in the sand. The hand painted sensitizer borders, far from being an aesthetic flourish, becomes a performative signature… declaring that there was nothing present before she arrived with her artistic intentions and that she alone is responsible for the photographic representation of her own experience.”Christopher James 

 

Christopher James Award
Immediate World  Katie Kindle

Bostick and Sullivan dry plate process on tin plates

“The immediate impression I get from your portfolio is one of a catalogue of things no longer present or alive — reading like a personal archive of objects once exquisite and now represented in a visual elegiac. That these are made using a difficult dry plate process on tin illustrates the degree of importance that your subject matter represents in your life.  As you wrote in your statement, “It is a process dependent on light, time, water, and alchemy – as is the process of creating the initial images. Working with the earth and the images reminds me of the power of being present in the moment and the ephemerality of life.”  This may be best exemplified in your X-ray like image of the black flowers, their bulbs and hairy roots… the anatomy of a tulip where the life-giving tendrils are as present as the once colorful and living flower itself.

Where most floral images celebrate the bloom, your image is monochromatic, full of the processes’ artifacts that yield an organic  physical quality to the work. The image, in its beautiful simplicity, doesn’t nostalgically depict the flower in the moment… it remembers it. I’m wondering if you know Olivia Parker’s work from the 70’s?

One other feeling I experienced while thinking about your images this past week was how you have reconstructed your subjects… the 38 flowers, the dead honey bees, the dragonflies… the tulips. They are suspended in time, playful in death, deconstructed for meanings that permit the viewer to find a personal impressions in the work. Your images are secure in their independence and philosophical examination and successfully satisfy your intentions and audience.” Christopher James 

Each year we have the pleasure of receiving entries from artists/photographers from around the world. This gives us a window into their lives and their reaction to how life has impacted them day-to-day or over a longer period of time. Each of the entrants had the courage and put forth the hard work of putting themselves and their art out into the world.

Each of our selections told a story and exhibited a high standard of craftsmenship. We often said while reviewing the work that we wished we had taken that image.

Thank you for sharing your work with Rfotofolio.

2025 Denis Roussel Award Rfotofolio Selection

J’ai hiverné dans mon passé François Pitot

Bromoil

To encourage creative work and the gifted practitioners that created it we are recognizing the following work as chosen by Christopher James and Rfotofolio

Special Recognition 

Aaron Packard

Palladium

“This is a beautifully realized portfolio of portraits illustrating a provocative combination of intimacy and detachment. The images feel deeply personal, but the vantage point from where the viewer experiences the subjects is oddly detached from that very intimacy. Where the camera is, is where the viewer is, and with an exception, placed in the role of a child or seated observation in contrast to the taller subject. From a cinematic perspective… a more powerful presence than the viewer.

The images are beautifully done and your craft is sublime. They all fit easily into a formal photographic tradition and the hand painted borders of the sensitizer adds a layer of tactile intentionality that signifies and reinforces an impression of agency. The trace of the brush strokes, the printed edges of the analog Kodak film stock, frame each image as an elegant artifact of dedicated, and wet, studio practice where patience and craft reward the artist. 

The images are portraits without context and are ambiguous in their meaning as a collection except for the fact that they are beautiful examples of their craft and your own dedication to the intimacy of the materials and process that you employ. The depiction of the subjects may be an exploration of identity, association or intimacy… possibly the politics of representation. In these ways, your portraits both reveal and conceal, and as is the case of a lot of the best work in this competition, allow the viewer to come to their own experience and conclusions about who they might want to hike a trail or have a beer with — giving the viewer the opportunity to integrate context and narrative. Like the very best of work, your images inspire questions and linger long after the immediate viewing is done.” Christopher James 

 

Andrew Burns

Coffee toned Cyanotype

 

 

Energy and Extraction  Bailey Russel

Cyanotype

 

Senses of Nature Rachael Short

Silver Gelatin

 

Rockey Mountains  Bill Hao

Wet Plate

Thank you to all the photographers who have shared their work with us.

About Christopher James

Christopher James – Professor Emeritus  

Director,  MFA Photography and Integrated Media 2011 – 2024

Christopher James is an internationally known artist and photographer whose photographs, paintings, prints and alternative process works have been exhibited in museums and galleries in this country and abroad. His work has been published and shown extensively, including solo and group exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman House, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art – Boston. Represented by the Lee Witkin Gallery in New York City for over two decades he has also exhibited at Pace-McGill (NYC), Contrasts Gallery (London), Michelle Chomette (Paris), Hartje Gallery and Photokina (Berlin), Centre d’Art Contemporain (Geneva), Rosa Esman Gallery (New York), Carpenter Center (Harvard) and Lizardi Harp Gallery (Los Angeles). Christopher has published extensively including Aperture, Camera (Switzerland), American Photographer, Solstice (for short fiction), and Interview magazine and in books such as The Antiquarian Avant Garde, á Prova de Aguà: Waterproof, Human Documents, and Handcrafted: The Art and Practice of the Handmade Print(China).

All three editions of his book, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes have received international critical acclaim and are universally recognized by artists, curators, historians, and educators as the definitive text in the genre of alternative photography and photographically integrated media. A significantly expanded 900 page / 700 image, 3^rd edition, was published in 2016. Christopher, after 13 years as an Associate Professor at Harvard University, is presently Professor Emeritus and the creator and former Director of the MFA in Photography and Integrated Media program at Lesley University College of Art and Design (2011-2024). He received his undergraduate degree from Massachusetts College of Art and his masters from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a photographer, printmaker, painter, graphic designer, author and a professional scuba diver. Please visit Christopher’s web site by clicking on his name .

 

About Denis Roussel

If you where lucky enough to have a conversation with Denis or to be a student of his you knew how much Denis loved photography.  He was always willing to share his knowledge with others. 

Denis worked on projects where even the compost bin was his muse, showing us that there is beauty everywhere. His landscapes and portraits have been an inspiration to many.
Their beauty transcends time. 

He was an educator as well as a gifted artist. 

In 2017, Denis lost his battle with cancer.  All of us lost the pleasure of seeing new work and learning from this creative and resourceful artist.  His work and generous spirit inspires us and is the foundation of the Denis Roussel Award

To learn more about Denis Roussel please visit his page at Denis Roussel.

To learn more about the photographers please click on their names.

2025 Denis Roussel Award  Donna Gordon

2025 Work of Merit Award  Anne Gabriele

2025 Work of Merit Award Caroline Waterman

2025 Christopher James Award  Katie Kindle

2025 Denis Roussel Award Rfotofolio Selection  François Pitot

Special Recognition Aaron Packard

Special RecognitionAndrew Burns

Special Recognition Rachael Short

Special Recognition Bill Hao

Special Recognition Baily Russel

Featured Comments

“Bravo! Such splendid, thoughtful work—all of the selections have an esthetically profound and emotive effect.” Micheal Pointer

“I look forward to viewing the results of the Denis Roussel Awards each year, and this year’s selections are full of wonderful images. Nowhere else am I able to view a collection of images that, all at once, honor the past while celebrating the present and future of photography.” Norm Snyder

“Beautiful and inspiring selections.” Lynda Faye Braun