2017 Jurors

Arnika Dawkins is the owner of her eponymous fine art photography gallery established in Atlanta in 2011. The gallerist shows work by talented emerging and mid-career artists, specializing in showing fine art photography by African Americans and images of African Americans. Her passion is connecting collectors to photography that is significant, inspiring, and provocative. As a fine art photographer and avid collector herself, Arnika is a valuable resource to collectors and artists alike. She is passionate about the medium, having obtained a Master of Arts in Digital Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

John N. Wall is a native of North Carolina who is a photographer, a writer, and a teacher at NC State University. He has exhibited his photographs in solo and juried exhibitions in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, and Chapel Hill as well as across North Carolina and the USA, from Vermont to Texas and from Florida to California.
His work has received numerous awards, both locally and nationally, including First Place and Best in Show in black and white photography. His photographs are in the permanent collections of NC State University, Meredith College, and Texas Tech University.
Wall holds a Certificate in Documentary Photography from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. His photography has been supported by grants from the United Arts Council of Wake County.
In 2008, Wall created The Southern Photographer, a blog about Fine Art Photography in the American South, at THE SOUTHERN PHOTOGRAPHER.
When he is not keeping up with Southern photography or making his own photographs, Wall is a Professor of English Literature at NC State University.