Light Dreams

Light Art Space is a gallery at 209 West Broadway in Silver City, New Mexico, with a program focused on alternative and historical process photography. "Light Dreams" is the gallery's juried exhibition for 2026 — the brief explores light as an internal, psychological, and symbolic presence, asking how light and dreams intersect through hand-made photographic processes.

Eligible media span the full range of alt-process work: cyanotype, platinum/palladium, silver gelatin, wet-plate collodion, gum bichromate, and other historical and alternative processes. Digital negatives are acceptable as long as the print itself involves a hand-made process. Straight digital and AI-derived work are ineligible. 3D and experimental approaches are explicitly encouraged.

The 2026 jury is Jill Enfield, the photographer and educator known for her own substantial alt-process practice and her instruction on collodion, wet plate, and other historical techniques. The exhibition runs July 4 through September 6, 2026, with an opening reception July 5. Sponsor support is provided by Freestyle75.

The gallery actively invites submissions from LGBTQ+, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and artists of color, framing this not as a separate track but as part of the broader open call.

Entry fee is $35 for 3 images, with a $20 student rate. Submissions go through CaFÉ. Eligibility is open globally to artists 18 and over. The 2026 deadline is May 19 at midnight MST; results announced May 24.