Silver Eye

For twenty-five years, Silver Eye has supported emerging voices in contemporary photography through Fellowship, our annual international juried photography competition. We are grateful to jurors Dionne Lee and Nelson Chan for selecting this year's artists.

Building upon the Fellowship 25 competition, this year’s exhibition explores diverse themes including the bonds of family and home, cycles of loss and renewal, and the transformative power of collaboration. Some artists create installations or portraits that empower loved ones and communities, while others use handmade processes to evoke emotional and sensory engagement. Each artist reflects on their unique lived experiences while deeply engaging with photography as a powerful medium of inquiry.

Silver Eye is proud to support the Fellowship 25 artists at a pivotal stage in their practices and to bring their work into conversation together.

Fellowship 25 is supported directly by Arts Equity and Education Fund^TM and The Leonian Foundation.

Fellowship 25 Award Winners

Fellowship Award Ramona Jingru Wang

Keystone Award Sobia Ahmad

Fellowship Award Honorable Mentions Brett Davis, Alana Perino

Keystone Award Honorable Mentions Paolo Morales, Clare Sheedy

Participating Artists

1. Sobia Ahmad explores the transcendental power of everyday experiences, objects, and rituals through film, photography, and social practice. She draws from non-western lexicons, specifically traditions of devotional poetry and oral storytelling associated with Sufism. Ahmad was born and raised in Pakistan and moved to the United States at the age of fourteen. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University (2024), a BS in Community Health (2015), and a BA in Studio Art (2016), both from the University of Maryland College Park, and lives in Pittsburgh.

2. Brett Davis is a father, partner, and artist based in Columbus, Ohio. He holds a BA in American Studies from Georgetown University and an MFA in Visual Art from The Ohio State University. Davis is the recipient of the 2023 Greater Columbus Arts Council and Columbus Museum of Art Visual Artist Fellowship. His books are held extensively in US collections as well as the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum Library (Tokyo, Japan).

3. Paolo Morales's work investigates the documentary tradition. His photographs have featured in eight solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions. Morales received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Photography at Bucknell University. He was born and raised in New York City and lives with his wife and corgi in Philadelphia.

4. Alana Perino's artistic practice engages with the entanglements of home, family, and heritage. Simultaneously an only child and the youngest of seven children, Alana grew up in New York City, the North Fork of Long Island, and the stretch of highway between the two. They studied European Intellectual History and Photography at Wesleyan University before completing the MFA Photography program at RISD. Alana resides on the unceded land of the Pokanoket, Wampanoag, and Narragansett in Providence, Rhode Island, where they currently serve as an Assistant Professor at Johnson & Wales University.

5. Clare Sheedy lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA, where she teaches art to children and works at a Downtown box office. Incorporating photographs and braille in her work, Sheedy thinks through questions of legibility, sensation, perception, and knowing through feeling—crossing the borders between 'knowing' and 'unknowing.' Sheedy aims to create methods of inquiry in which both the artist and viewer must reach with equal effort. Consequently, her processes bridge intimacy to create a felt and present moment where language, touch, and perception meet.

6. Ramona Jingru Wang transcends documentary traditions to craft narratives that shed light on the compassionate bonds that photographs can nurture. Her work delves into themes of identity, community, and the deep connections fostered between humans and their surrounding spaces. She studied at the International Center of Photography-Bard College and graduated with an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute, New York.