21 Aug Celebrate Colorado Photo Competition: Show Us Your Downtown
CELEBRATE COLORADO PHOTO COMPETITION: SHOW US YOUR DOWNTOWN
AUGUST 21 – DECEMBER 31, 2026
CPAC is pleased to present Show Us Your Downtown, an online juried exhibition celebrating Colorado’s 150th anniversary of statehood.
Created in honor of this milestone year, the exhibition invited photographers across Colorado to capture the places that shape their communities. Open to photographers of all skill levels and all forms of photographic imagery, the call welcomed a wide range of interpretations—from historic main streets and civic landmarks to neighborhood corridors, public spaces, architecture, and the everyday details that define a sense of place.
Juror Darrin Alfred, Curator and Head of Architecture and Design and The Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum, selected 30 photographs that together offer a multifaceted portrait of Colorado. The featured images reveal how the built environment reflects the state’s history, culture, and continual evolution, while highlighting the unique character found in communities both large and small.
As Colorado marks 150 years of statehood, Show Us Your Downtown celebrates the places where history, identity, and everyday life intersect, inviting viewers to see familiar landscapes through fresh perspectives.
Pictured above: Welton Street – Five Points – Denver ©Shaquille Carter
Award Winners
Best in Show – Thomas James Austin
Honorable Mention – Leila Qari
Honorable Mention – Joel Fischer
Additional Photographers
David Batho
Paul Brandner
Daniel Brenner
Micheal Caparbi
Shaquille Carter
Don Garnder
Mario Gonzalez Rios
John Gudvangen
Lynda Hodge
Jeff Puckett
Rin Rios
Michael Roberts
Rich Rock
Janeen Sharma
Tony Soehner
Carl Steitz
Frank Varney
Shawn Whitney
About the Juror
Darrin Alfred is Curator of Architecture and Design and Head of Architecture and Design and The Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum (DAM). He oversees both departments’ exhibitions and programming, as well as one of the American West’s most significant collections of design and decorative arts, dating from the Middle Ages to the present.
Alfred’s curatorial projects at DAM include Knife Fork Spoon: Everyday Tools, Extraordinary Design (opening May 2026), Biophilia: Nature Reimagined (2024), Gio Ponti: Designer of a Thousand Talents (2021); Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America (2018), organized with the Milwaukee Art Museum; Pattern Play: The Contemporary Designs of Jacqueline Groag (2013); and The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-71 (2009).
Opening in October 2021, Alfred conceived and developed the DAM’s new design galleries. Spanning more than 11,000 square feet of new and renovated space designed by OMA New York, these galleries showcase the museum’s architecture and design collection through various thematic presentations and provide an engaging setting for a deeper appreciation and understanding of design.
Previously, Alfred held positions in the Architecture and Design department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. He has contributed to numerous publications such as Biophilia: Nature Reimagined (2024), Gio Ponti in the American West (2020), Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America (2018), Warhol in Colorado (2011), and Campana Brothers: Complete Works (So Far) (2010).
Alfred earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.
Click any image below to view photographer’s name and title of work.
