In celebration of its 50th Anniversary, the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) launched a six-month mentorship program pairing four early-career photographers with four established artists for sustained one-on-one mentorship, critical feedback, and professional development.

The 2026 Mentorship Fellows are alina balseiro, Jaypix Belmer, Libby O’Neill, and Nick Ortoleva, who were paired with mentors Rashod Taylor, Jess T. Dugan, Tommy Kha, and Jillian Guyette.

Throughout the program, each fellow met regularly with their mentor to develop their work, strengthen their artistic voice, and receive guidance on their professional practice. The program culminates in an exhibition at the PRC gallery, on view September 11–October 18, 2026, featuring work developed by the fellows during their mentorships.

The program will also be celebrated at PRC’s 50th Anniversary Gala on October 17, where all four mentors and four fellows will be present as honored guests.

Created as part of PRC’s 50th Anniversary, the program celebrates the importance of mentorship in photography while fostering meaningful relationships between emerging and established artists and supporting the next generation of photographers.

Mentorship Program Fellows

alina balseiro

Jaypix Belmer

Libby O’Neill

Nick Ortoleva

Mentorship Program Mentors

Jillian Guyette

Tommy Kha

Jess T. Dugan

Rashod Taylor

ARTIST STATEMENT

Turning Points

“You Are Black, You are a lesbian, and you’re a Tomboy. People will judge you, you have a lot of things against you in this world. Who will you be? – Nam

As I reflect on the patterns I’ve been executing, I am able to be intuitive to the past experiences photography has given me in reward over being perfect. Choosing creativity and movement over planning, and identity over everything.

You don’t have to change who you are, you just have to be who you are. Being creative through despair; photography was something I had to do. My passion and interest for transparency and the camera led to a series of portraits which has allowed me to work in honor and reverence for human beings. I have this sense of self sovereignty and respect for others beliefs. Photography and I began to provide a monumental moment for individuals at stages of their practice that provided a conviction and path toward their own vision lending a turning point to my own. My camera takes me to a sacred place where soul and relations build the culture we once came from.

The year 2006 was my first year in college. I started with an honest assessment of myself. I began to look at myself as valuable, worthy, something to hold on to, like my last polaroid shot. If I hadn’t begun to look at myself I wouldn’t have been able to proceed and develop. When photographing others our energy dialogue or silence can result in creative image making and overtime I am guided, I am advised by the moment
in its authenticity. First you have to see the greatness in you, Then suddenly you are released to visions of inspirations, desires and curiosities.

Here I affirm and honor my past through a victorious struggle of liberation and remembrance. I have a deep love for the photograph and the spirit that it holds. I am the ultimate creation that serves for the good of people. We all have a turning point that makes us who we are. Don’t turn on you.Turn into you.GALLERY

IMAGE GALLERY

1st Self Portrait WV

The Source

The Recipe

Startdate

Self Portrait

Sojourner Truth

Picha

No Judgement

Nam 38 years old

Lolita Parker Jr

Gold #1

Aziza Goodnight-Robinson

1/1

ARTIST STATEMENT

House in Mourning

In the weeks leading up to my senior year of high school, my family was evicted from our home of fourteen years. We were given six days to pack up our entire life. Suddenly, I was homesick for a place that no longer existed—a physical space I had loved, lost, and never properly mourned.

Growing up, home was a red farmhouse with cream-colored trim, a tire swing hanging from a towering tree, acres of hayfields, and a driveway that always announced when you had arrived. It was where my family grew up, where memories lived in creaking floorboards, walls covered with artwork, and shelves littered with knick knacks.

Years later, I remain fascinated by how we carry our homes with us. I’ve begun to think of home as something beyond a physical place—the people, landscapes, cultures, and familiar rhythms that create a sense of belonging. Looking back, I realize that what made that house feel like home was deeply rooted in everything surrounding it.

This collection of photographs and keepsakes considers home as both a physical place and an emotional landscape—what we leave behind, what we inherit, and what remains long after we are gone. Blending present-day photographs with family archives, historical documents, and personal keepsakes, the work moves between past and present in search of what home has been and can be.

IMAGE GALLERY

Babydoll

Woodsom

Wires

Wallpaper

TV Computer

Snow

Silhouette

Receipt

Penders

Pallets

Painting

Market Basket

Mail

Key

Haunted House

Ghost

Forsythia

Fog

Fan

Diner

Dad

Curtain Fabric

Check

Boxes

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ARTIST STATEMENT

i woke up from top surgery with my chest burning. even with the pain, i finally felt relief. 

in to hold & be held, i use self-portraiture to depict the emotional impact of my experience with gender-affirming care. the work acts as a visual journal that memorializes each state of my being. when what was given to me became unbearable, i took the risk of choosing my needs over obligation to the past. i simultaneously feel connection to my flat chest while mourning the loss of a body i’ve always known. through the process of image making, i am learning how i envision my new reality.

IMAGE GALLERY

-10 days

-67 days

43 days

102 days

118 days

256 days

273 days

1/1

IMAGE GALLERY

Looking Over the Hills, Towards the Lonely Tree

Untitled (Self Portrait, under 30 seconds of Moonlight)

Into the Meadow

Mum, the Keeper of Green, with a Bundle of Flowers from the Lake

Wandering in the Meadow, Under the Moon

A Moment During Dusk

The Scar of the Stream Behind the House

The Field I Used to Look for the Moon at

Pop, Like the Blue the Water Holds, at the Cove

Me, in the Periwinkle, Along the Edge of the Woods

1/1

Attendees will receive an email from Eventbrite with instructions to access the event.

At the time of the program, simply return to the Eventbrite event page through the link provided in your registration email, where you’ll be able to access the Zoom link and join the event.

Thursday, September 3  •  6 PM – 8 PM EDT

Subscribe to the PRC Event Calendar and never miss an event.

The Photographic Resource Center (PRC) is seeking three interns for the Fall of 2026 to assist with gallery sitting, administrative tasks, social media management, and exhibition preparation and installation. This internship is an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a nonprofit photography center, working directly on exhibitions, artist relations, and digital outreach.

Responsibilities Include

• Assisting with social media content creation and scheduling.
• Providing general administrative support.
• Assisting with exhibition preparation, installation, and deinstallation.
• Helping with gallery monitoring and visitor engagement.
• Supporting drop-offs and pick-ups of artworks.
• Assisting with event coordination and PRC programs.
• Photograph PRC events.

Internship Structure & Commitment

• The internship requires 180 total hours.
• Three interns will rotate gallery shifts each weekend to help monitor the space. Shifts will rotate weekly (for example, Intern A one week Friday, the next week Saturday, etc), and applicants must be available to gallery sit for one shift per week.
  
  Fridays: 12 PM – 6 PM
  Saturdays: 12 PM – 6 PM
  Sundays: 12 PM – 4 PM
  
• Additional weekday hours will be flexible and based on availability.
• This internship is unpaid but must be eligible for school credit.
• This position reports to the Executive Director.

Qualifications

This internship is ideal for students studying Photography, Art History, Arts Administration, or a related
field who are interested in gaining experience in a nonprofit arts organization.

Candidates should be:
● Able to work independently while also collaborating with the PRC team.
● Interested in social media marketing, exhibition planning, and arts administration.
● Comfortable engaging with the public and assisting with gallery operations and events.

How to Apply

Please send your cover letter and resume to programs@prcboston.org with the subject “PRC Fall 2026 Internship Application.“

We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds who are passionate about photography and the arts.

Now celebrating its 30th year, the EXPOSURE Members’ Juried Exhibition honors three decades of showcasing exceptional work by PRC members. This year’s exhibition features 12 photographers selected by juror Audrey Lee Sands, Assistant Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums. During the exhibition, three artists will be recognized with awards: the Juror’s Choice Award, the Executive Director’s Award, and the Board of Directors’ Award.

Opening Reception and Awards: August 26, 6-8PM

Location:
The VanDernoot Gallery at
Lesley University Hall
1815 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA

Featured Artists

Daniel Jackson

Mav Fernandez

Chantal Zakari

Grady Thomas

Anastasia Sierra

Hannah Altman

Margo Cooper

Paul Cary Goldberg

Stella Johnson

Mari Saxon

Zachary P. Stephens

Steve Genatossio

ARTIST STATEMENT

In early 2022, just as our family (like so many) began to feel that Covid might be over, my seven-year-old niece Evy was diagnosed with cancer. Twelve months of grueling treatments began, week after week defined by the rhythm of chemotherapy and later radiation therapy sessions, and school permanently on hold.

As spring turned into summer, our family came together—as we do every year—at my mother in law’s house in the Berkshires, where we spend much of the summer until the fall arrives and we return to our regular lives. Because our family is scattered between Boston, New York and London, these Berkshire summers are my prime time for family photos. Over the years, my five nieces have been my most enthusiastic and generous subjects, and we’ve made photos together around the pond behind the house.

I wasn’t sure if Evy would want to be photographed that year. At the beginning she was self- conscious about her hair loss, and only wanted pictures with her head covered. But very soon she became comfortable and we returned to our old patterns. Evy became the focus of a new project. Despite the exhaustion of her ongoing treatments and the toll they were taking on her little body, her spirit was as feisty and radiant as ever. We made pictures of some of the small things that gave her pleasure: her new socks embroidered with the day of the week; the pink slippers she was given at a camp for kids with cancer; her comical impression of an adult reading a magazine over coffee. By the end of the following winter, Evy’s treatments were over and her scans were clear. Seeing her again in the Berkshires that summer, she had recovered her energy and her hair (albeit dark and curlier than before). In many respects the old Evy was back, but in others she was a new person: wiser, stronger and more joyful than ever. Looking over the photos of that first summer, I am reminded of how emaciated and tired she was. But I also see in her eyes a patience and determination that would be extraordinary at any age. One picture with her mother in the middle makes me wonder if I fully appreciated just how tiring and emotionally draining the year had been for Evy’s family. How strange it is that we can cross so easily from the world of the healthy into the world of the sick, and if we are fortunate, back again.

Recently, Evy has been helping out at the pediatric cancer center where she received her treatment and participating in camps and events for children with cancer. Her mother is starting a new career as a social worker. My life in photography moves on, but has been immeasurably deepened by this experience. We are looking forward to many more family summers together in the Berkshires, but we’ll always remember this one summer and the lessons we learned from a spunky seven-year-old.

ARTIST BIO

Daniel Jackson is a Boston-based photographer. His book Portraits of Resilience was published in December 2017 by MIT Press, and received coverage from the national press, including the Boston Globe, PBS Newshour and National Public Radio. Recent projects include The Pond, a series capturing life around a Berkshire pond in the summer; American Spaces, an exploration of landscape; and Passing Through, which depicts the starkness of campus architecture. He also makes handmade books with the help of Rachel Jackson, an art bookbinder. Jackson’s work has appeared in various group shows, most recently at Panopticon Gallery in Boston and at the Photographic Resource Center. Jackson is also committed to using photography for social benefit. Projects include: a book of portraits of administrative assistants; a series on immigrant professors; a collection of front- step portraits and stories of neighbors under lockdown published in the Boston Globe Magazine; and most recently a project with the Me2 Orchestra to create videos (sample here) about orchestra players from his triptych portraits. Jackson has studied with Arno Minkkinen (2010), Keith Carter (2013), Cig Harvey (2014), Joyce Tenneson (2015), Connie Imboden (2016), Brenton Hamilton (2017), David Hilliard (2022), Greg Miller (2024) and Elinor Carucci (2024). Jackson was commissioned in 2011 to create a series of images of contemporary laboratories to accompany an exhibition of work by Berenice Abbott, which were shown in the MIT Museum from May to December 2012, and were subsequently acquired by the museum. Earlier portfolios include a study of Frank Gehry’s Stata Center published by Lenswork in 2007; images of Boston’s Metropolitan Waterworks, published by the Waterworks in 2011; and an essay on a garden designed by Warren Manning, a leading landscape architect in the early 19th century who had worked in Frederick Law Olmsted’s studio. His self-published book of images of this garden was selected by by Darius Himes for inclusion in the Indie Photobook Library at Yale University.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have always been fascinated by siblings. As an only child, I have no personal understanding of what it means  to have a brother or sister. The photographs and text presented here in Between Them explore and, in many ways, indulge that curiosity. Sibling relationships are marked by lifelong bonds, shared spaces, and complex social rituals that span the full  spectrum of human emotion. Even the most fractured interactions seem to affirm the enduring presence of  the other. In a way, this project is my attempt to pull back the curtain on a foundational human experience I’ve  never had. 

Acknowledging the limitations of photography alone, I invite my sitters to participate even more directly by writing about each other and themselves, offering reflections, confessions, and context. These genuine responses accompany their portraits, serving as captions that deepen the emotional resonance and reveal unseen layers of their relationships. 

Ultimately, Between Them is both an intimate documentation and a quiet longing. An exploration of what it means to be seen by someone who has always been there.

ARTIST BIO

Mav Fernandez (1996, Lawrence MA) is a Dominican photographer whose artistic practice centers on photography as a means of reflection, connection, and understanding. Mav is interested in how images can hold emotional truth, and how they help us see ourselves and others more clearly. Across all of my work, my practice is guided by understanding, care, and preservation. Whether I’m photographing family, community, or myself, my work is always an act of love. A way of preserving the people and moments that shape our shared humanity.