Brie Castell is the owner and chief curator of Castell Photography Gallery in Ashville, North Carolina, one of the south’s finest galleries specializing in contemporary photo-based media. Ms. Castell works with both established and emerging artists from around the globe for exhibition and representation, and brings to Ashville leading authorities in the field of photography for educational programming. Ms. Castell has also been a working photo-based artist for over 13 years, has exhibited extensively around the country, and is in numerous public and private collections. She was a featured artist in the Fall 2009 issue of Eyemazing Magazine, an award winning Amsterdam-based photography publication. Ms. Castell received her MFA from East Carolina University, and currently is also Adjunct Professor of photography at Virginia Intermont College.

Ms. Castell is interested in viewing cohesive bodies of works from both emerging and established artists which would be suitable for gallery setting, and potentially at Castell Photography Gallery. Primarily, Ms. Castell is interested in fine art conceptual photography (non-commercial and non-documentary)—works, which are predominantly narrative, challenging, dynamic, and fresh. In addition to being a curator, Ms. Castell is also an artist and educator, and would be interested in reviewing bodies of work in progress, and discussing further development and realization of these images.

Alexa Dilworth
Alexa Dilworth is the publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, where she also runs the Awards program, which includes the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, the CDS Documentary Essay Prize for Writing and Photography, and the Lange-Taylor Prize. In 1995, Dilworth was hired by CDS to work for DoubleTake magazine, where she held the position of proofreader, managing editor, and then executive editor. She was also hired as editor of the CDS books program at that time and has coordinated the editorial, design, and production work for every CDS book since 1996—most recently (since 2010), One Place: Paul Kwilecki and Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia, In This Timeless Time: Living & Dying on Death Row in America, Literacy & Justice Through Photography, Iraq | Perspectives: Photographs by Benjamin Lowy, American Studies: Photographs by Jim Dow, Visual Storytelling: The Digital Video Documentary, and Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound, which she co-edited. CDS Books at the Center for Documentary Studies are works of creative exploration by writers and photographers who convey new ways of seeing and understanding human experience in all its diversity—books that tell stories, challenge our assumptions, awaken our social conscience, and connect life, learning, and art. Alexa Dilworth has a B.A. and an M.A., both in English, from the University of Florida, and an M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry) from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She was born in Japan; raised in Springfield, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida; and has now lived in Durham, North Carolina, for twenty-two years.

Ms. Dilworth is particularly interested in reviewing new and innovative approaches to documentary projects. (She would prefer not to review traditional nudes, fashion, or commercial/stock photography, as CDS does not present this kind of work.)


Dennis Kiel

Dennis Kiel has been Chief Curator at Light Factory Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film since 2007. As of January 2013, he is also serving as Interim Executive Director. Before joining TLF, Kiel served as the Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Cincinnati Art Museum for 24 years. During that time, he curated numerous exhibitions, including The Hollywood Photographs of George Hurrell (later a traveling show for SITES); The Human Experience: Photographs by Nicholas Nixon; and Borrowed Time: The Photograph as Music Album Cover. For five years, he taught a class in the history of photography at Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky. At The Light Factory, the exhibitions Kiel has curated include Group f.64: Photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, and Brett Weston; The Romance of the Road; Suspicious Minds: Surrealism in the 21st Century; Bring the Family; Body & Soul; The Calm before The Storm; Out in the Streets: Democratic National Convention, Chicago 1968; and the current show, Connected There but Not Always Here: Social Networking and the Power of Image. Kiel served as a member of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) panel titled “American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring” (2009) and has participated in portfolio reviews at Houston Fotofest (2008, 2010, 2012), “Our World” for Photo Alliance, San Francisco (2009-2013), Photolucida, Portland, OR (2011), and Review Santa Fe (2012). He was also a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass in 2011 and 2012.

Kiel received a BFA in Graphic Design from Ohio University and an MA in Art History from the University of Cincinnati. He also studied The History of Photography at Pennsylvania State University.

Dennis Kiel is interested in looking at and reviewing all areas of photography with the exception of commercial work (primarily advertising). He can offer inspiration, advice on exhibitions, and proper presentation. He can also help the photographer find a direction that will move his or her work to the next level.


Rob McDonald
Rob McDonald for twenty years has taught literature and writing at Virginia Military Institute, where he is currently Associate Dean of the Faculty and a professor of English and Fine Arts. In 1999, he began experimenting with photography as a creative extension of his academic interests in the literature and culture of the South, and since then his work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and in four books: BIRDHOUSES (Horse & Buggy, 2007), BIRTH PLACE (Nazraeli, 2008), POPLAR FOREST (Horse & Buggy, 2010), and—with Even Rogers and Sally Mann—CY’S ROLLEI (Nazraeli, 2011).
Rob’s new series NATIVE GROUND explores the role of place in shaping literary imagination. Examining the notion that writers compose out of a peculiar understanding and depth of connection to physical space, the series focuses on the homes and personal landscapes of more than twenty writers from the American South.
The recipient of a 2013 fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Rob’s work is in the collection of numerous private and public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. He is a native of rural Marion County, South Carolina, which he still considers home.

Rob McDonalds is enthusiastic about reviewing all kinds of photography, particularly documentary, fine art, and portraiture—all demonstrating a strong point of view. He is less interested in commercial or stock work or images that have been heavily photoshopped.
www.robmcdonaldphotography.com

Forest McMullin
Forest McMullin is a Freelance Photographer and Photographic Educator based in Atlanta, GA. For over twenty years he has been providing distinctive photographs to Fortune 500 corporations, graphic design firms, advertising agencies, and numerous business and general interest magazines. He specializes in photographing fringe social groups and is respected for his ability to bring out their dignity while still showing them with directness and honesty. He works regionally, nationally, and internationally. He has worked extensively in both still photography and video. His documentary projects have included such diverse subjects as men and women with extensive cranial and facial disfigurement, radical racists and neo-Nazis in Pennsylvania, the first prison boot camp in New York State, small-time WWE style wrestlers, and portraits of men and women involved with the S+M lifestyle. Since 2004 his focus has shifted toward his personal work and his photographs have been exhibited across the United States as well as in Paris and Beijing as he continues to cover assignments. His photographs are in numerous public and private collections.
McMullin also is a consultant to individuals and the photographic industry. In the last year he has delivered workshops in Maine, Nashville, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, and Seattle. Topics have ranged from portfolio development and business practices to lighting techniques and travel photography.
Currently he is a full time Professor of Photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta campus.

Because of his diverse background, Forest McMullin interested in looking at cohesive portfolios from any genre, including commercial, documentary, or fine art photography.


Kevin Miller
Kevin Miller is the Director and Curator of the Southeast Museum of Photography, a public museum located in Daytona Beach, Florida on the campus of Daytona State College. Since 2001 he has curated and presented more than 200 exhibitions and produced numerous exhibition catalogues and texts. He holds graduate qualifications in Art and Design, Photographic History and Theory, Cinema and Photography and Museum Studies. He previously held positions as the Department Chair of Visual Arts at Daytona State College, photography faculty at Southern Illinois University and as the head of photographic studies at Charles Sturt University in Australia. Prior to commencing his academic career he operated a freelance fine art and commercial photographic business. Mr. Miller is able to provide critique, insight and perspective on any developed body of work (no commercial illustrative work please) across a wide range of genres for potential inclusion in future museum exhibitions. The museum’s forthcoming schedule and regular exhibition slate includes a contemporary and emerging artist’s survey series of works from the American south.

Kevin Miller is able to provide critique, insight and perspective on any developed body of work (no commercial illustrative work please) across a wide range of genres for potential inclusion in future museum exhibitions. The museum’s forthcoming schedule and regular exhibition slate includes a contemporary and emerging artist’s survey series.