The lack of a title and statement carries the same ambiguity as the facial expression and adds to the enigma. You sense the image has a backstory, but you are left to make your own. The artist provides no clues.

I found the book a compelling hybrid of the handmade and the commercially printed. Stockdale takes us along with him on his travels, literally and metaphorically, allowing us to experience his highly personal journey.

Bradley began this project during the pandemic. As he walked his dogs, he would pick flowers to photograph during confinement. It initially started when Bradley needed something beautiful to focus on during the pandemic gloom, similar to what my initial thoughts surmised. But it blossomed into something much more profound.

I love this image for its paradox: Why is the girl prancing in a cape in an area marked dangerous? Why are the 'scary things' so pretty in color in such an ugly, industrial-looking area?

Several months back, before my year got crazy and I got way too far behind on the writing here, I saw this image by Emack on Instagram. I was immediately taken by how beautiful this work was. Emack, like many others, has been photographing her daughter for almost a decade. With the inclusion of her nieces as well, it resulted in the long-term project, Cousins, which has received a significant amount of attention, well-deserved, in my opinion.

I saw this image by Alon Goldsmith online the same day as the horrific pronouncement came from the Supreme Court. As he is the father of two daughters, I imagine he wonders about their future as women in this country.

I saw this image, Period of Existence, in the FRAMES Magazine Facebook group many months back. It caught my eye because the artist, Stephen Schneiderman, noted that he made this image in the darkroom in the early '90s. No Photoshop.

I was familiar with Schneiderman's much more recent, digitally composited work from his FB posts. But until he posted this image, I had no idea that he had taken a workshop with Jerry Uelsmann. Or, more impressive, Schneiderman had a letter written to him by Uelsmann congratulating him on his technical prowess.

Photographs and photography are a massive part of Carpenter's family story. Her family has been involved with photography since the 1930s; her mother, father, uncle, and grandfather were photographers. These images are from a series where Carpenter explored family stories, especially those related to the fallibility of memory and the fragility of the brain. She once thought she would tell this story in writing, but it seemed more fitting to make images given the family's ties to photography.

During the 26 months I have curated this feature, I've not written about an artist more than once. That's not because I like their work any less, but instead, I choose to keep showing a wide variety of great work by many living artists at all levels of their careers. Then this image crossed my path on Facebook, and in the current state of the American Experiment, I decided to break my own rule. Shane Balkowitsch is a master of creating flawless surface wet plate collodions. But that is not why I am showing you this image. It's the content. Because following the leak of the Roe document from the Supreme Court last week, several things happened in the U.S. at the state level.