Four galleries in Savannah's Starland Arts District are joining forces this fall to celebrate photography as an art form. Jointly, they have created Savannah Loves Photo, a citywide salute to photography. The galleries (ARTS Southeast, Cleo the Project Space, Cute Tomatoes Gallery, and Savannah Center for Photography) are within walking distance of each other, making it easy to visit all four openings in one evening during Starland First Friday on Oct. 2.
Joshua Yates, President of the newly opened nonprofit Savannah Center for Photography, is enthused.
“There’s a lot of energy around photography in Savannah right now, and it’s bringing in work from all over, not just local photographers," he said. "Four exhibitions opening on the same night in Starland
is a fantastic way to see where that energy is heading.”
Yates has assembled a stellar board of directors to lead his nonprofit that’s dedicated to advancing the craft. Through a community darkroom, workshop space, and rotating gallery exhibitions, SCP provides accessible resources and education to support image-makers at all levels and foster appreciation for diverse photographic work throughout the community.
Savannah Center for Photography (2205 Price Street) shows “There are Names for What Binds Us,” an exhibition of gelatin silver photographs by Atlanta-based photographer Mark Cáceres.
Born in Buenos Aires, Cáceres became interested in photography while studying anthropology at Emory. He later earned an MFA from the University of Hartford, and his work has shown across the US and Europe and has appeared in Oxford American, HuffPost, Lenscratch, and other publications. His exhibition explores injury, resilience, and intimacy in the face of mortality, and blurs the lines between fact and imagination. Caceros will travel from Atlanta to Savannah for an artist talk at SCP on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m., which is free and open to the public.
Meanwhile, Cleo the Project Space (2424 Drayton Street), a nonprofit contemporary arts organization dedicated to supporting artists financially, shows “P.S. or Postscriptum”, an exhibition by photographers Casey Joiner and Matthew Finley, produced with Atlanta photobook publisher Fall Line Press. The show invites viewers to step into brief moments of personal and intimate history and is guest curated by Sidney Pettice who received her M.A. in Curatorial Studies at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.
New Orleans-based Casey Joiner’s series “Housekeeping” was created to navigate the grief of her father. At the same time, the photographs function as brief memories--or glimpses and moments that contend with their relationship, and the person he was as well as the person she became through her memories with him.
Matthew Finley, whose work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, The Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, and the Center for Fine Art Photography, shows pieces from “An Impossibly Normal Life.” These images were created in response to learning this his uncle, who passed soon after he was born, may also have been gay. Finley builds his uncle’s life story with love, legacy and feeling.
Cute Tomatoes Gallery (218 E 41st Street), founded by artist Phil Musen in January of 2025 as a space to exhibit work from our vibrant visual arts community (see my coverage of his gallery) shows multidisciplinary artist Rebecca Braziel’s “Edge Conditions.”
Braziel graduated with a BFA in Fibers from SCAD in 2008 and today has a thoughtful practice that includes fiber installations, mixed media sculptures, and paintings on paper. Her solo exhibition was born from her experience of being with her children at the beach and seeing trash in the sand.
“As I walk the border between the beach and the ocean, or the meeting of grass and road, I find debris and begin to collect, record, and explore edge conditions," she said. "Papermaking, photography, and sculpture become a means of sampling materials and observations from the natural world as it exists today… I will be partnering with local organizations dedicated to protecting our natural environment. During the exhibition, staff members from the various groups will be on hand to provide you with information and ways to engage.”
Finally, ARTS Southeast (2301 Bull Street), the nonprofit with a mission to make Savannah a destination for art and culture in the Southeast by supporting established and emerging artists, shows “No One Belongs Here More Than You.” This beautiful group exhibition has been curated by Executive Director Emily Earl and features work by five Southern photographers.
Miami-based Josh Aronson who had a residency with the nonprofit and was in their most recent IMPACT Arts & Culture Magazine, shows work from his “Florida Boys” series. Marsalis Eason, local photographer, displays pieces from an extended project on Black rodeos; Savannah-based Robin Elise Maaya shows work from her decade-long body of work documenting identical twins Dani and Beni; and Savannah-based (and heavily pregnant!) Anna Ottum shares brand new work not seen before.
“It’s gorgeous," Earl said. "Her mom’s side of the family lives in this beautiful little town on the coast of Maine and when she goes up there she’s been documenting her mother’s sisters because her mom died when she was incredibly young. She’s learning about her mother through them and now bringing her son up there, she’s finding herself. So, it’s very special, very personal work.”
The fifth photographer, Earl continues, is José Ibarra Rizo who works at the Atlanta Center for Photography and whose images are in the collection of Atlanta’s High Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and the Michael C. Carlos Museum.
"He’s been documenting the Hispanic community in Atlanta," Earl said. "His earlier work was very direct portraits, but he’s thinking about current immigration issues and is more conscious of no longer showing their faces. So that works speaks to safety issues but also to the visibility, or lack thereof, of this population.”
The photographers in “No One Belongs Here More Than You” are exploring the idea of relationships – between sisters, friends, young men, and family – and their place in larger communities. A sense of belonging is key, and these five emerging photographers ask us to explore our own sense of belonging alongside them as they capture the complex experience of connection.
“Importantly, we are also doing a 20-page spread in the next issue of IMPACT Magazine featuring their work,” Earl said. Pick up your copy at ARTS Southeast during the opening and Street Fair on Oct. 2 or attend the magazine-release party at The Thompson Savannah on Oct. 8.
“The four Starland-based galleries are excited to make Friday’s event an annual celebration of photography," Earl said. "It’s amazing to see the interest in photography in Savannah within the last few years…Between Josh’s new space [SCP], the Savannah Photo Club [which hosts monthly photo walks for photographers of all levels] and the new Savannah Film Lab on Henry Street, it’s incredible. When we got together with the other galleries, we all had some very cool ideas that will grow out of this collaboration. It’s extremely exciting.”
All four Savannah Loves Photo’s opening receptions are on Friday, Oct. 2, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., as part of Savannah's First Friday art walk. Find more information and a map of the four galleries at www.instagram.com/savlovesphoto
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Four Savannah galleries launch 'Savannah Loves Photo'
