Image Credit: “Misted Barrier” ©Ron Lucero, 2019

Threshold 2025

Juror: Karen Haas

NOVEMBER 21, 2025 – JANUARY 3, 2026

Opening Reception at Colorado Photographic Arts Center

1200 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO 80203

Saturday, November 22, 2025

5 – 8 pm

This event is free and open to the public

About the Exhibit

The Colorado Photographic Arts Center presents Threshold, a new juried biennial exhibition that explores contemporary photography through the images of 36 artists. Juror Karen Haas, Lane Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, selected these artists from a pool of 140 photographers and 716 images, located across the globe. Copies of the exhibition catalog can be purchased on Blurb for $20.

At the Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony on November 22, CPAC Executive Director & Curator Samantha Johnston presented Haas’ selections for First, Second, and Third Place, as well as Honorable Mention. All award winners received an exhibition catalog in addition to cash prizes.

Congratulations to the Threshold 2025 Award Winners:

First Place – Wheaton Mahoney

Second Place – Jesse Egner

Third Place – Joann Brennan

Honorable Mention – Linda Plaisted

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Geoffrey Ansel Agrons, Susan B. Anthony, Dan Baumbach, Neil Berkowitz, Mat Bobby, Joann Brennan, Daniel Brenner, Julia T. Brown, Emily Burke Buckley, Maureen Ruddy Burkhart, Mark Coggins, Tom Crawford, Rajan Dosaj, Jesse Egner, Jeff Foster, Susan Goldstein, Cynthia Greig, Denise Hawkins, Shay Lari-Hosain, Saeed Khazaie, Ian Lipton, Ron Lucero, James Lynxwiler, Joanna Madloch, Ellen Mahaffy, Wheaton Mahoney, Agustina Mistretta, Linda Plaisted, Allison Plass, Steve Rappaport, Sally Scott, Saba Sitton, Laurie Smith, Matthew Steaffens, Susan West, Kathryn Winograd

Juror’s Statement

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to jury this year’s Colorado Photographic Arts Center biennial exhibition, Threshold 2025. Threshold is a term that has countless meanings—ranging from doorway to entrance, boundary to beginning, even tolerance to brink. It was interesting to see so many subtle references to these ideas in the mix of works submitted and I was struck by the number of photographs that blurred the boundaries of traditional genres. Few of them are standard portraits, still lifes, landscapes, or street photography and most seem to fall instead into a difficult-to-define category somewhere in between. Poised and stilled, almost seeming to hold their breath, many of the subjects I was most captivated by were those alluding to transitions, portals, passages, borders, and liminal spaces.

The experience of seeing so much work that was completely new to me was inspiring and eye opening—even a bit daunting. It was challenging to whittle down such a large field of artists, but the process was a great reminder of what it was that brought me to the field of photography in the first place. Blind judging of photographs on a screen is a humbling experience and a good reminder of just how dependent we can become on name recognition and the written texts that so often accompany works of art. It is always good to do.

Narrowing the show down to the final 36 pieces was made somewhat easier, because I limited my choices to one photograph per artist, and I gave preference to work that displayed a consistency of vision and drew me back to look again and again. Unlike exhibitions that I organize at the MFA, these photographs were not chosen to hang together either formally or thematically, but it always fascinates me to recognize the many ways in which they ultimately do.

Thanks to all who sent in photographs for consideration and to CPAC’s Executive Director and Curator, Samantha Johnston, for inviting me to take part. This was a great pleasure and I hope to meet many of you in the future.

Karen Haas
Lane Senior Curator of Photographs,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

About the Juror

Karen Haas is the Lane Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she is responsible for a large collection of photographs by American modernists, Charles Sheeler, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Imogen Cunningham. The Lane Collection numbers more than 6,000 prints and ranges across the entire history of western photography. Her MFA activities include exhibitions such as Faces in the Crowd: Street Photography; Barbara Bosworth: The Meadow; Ansel Adams in Our Time; (un)expected families; Charles Sheeler from Doylestown to Detroit; Imogen Cunningham: In Focus; Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott; Edward Weston: Leaves of Grass; and Bruce Davidson: East 100^th Street. She has recently co-authored Reframing Photography: Multiple Histories, with her MFA colleagues, and her other publications include Edward Weston: The Early Years; An Enduring Vision: Photographs from the Lane Collection; Ansel Adams; and The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American Modernist.