2022

About

The Capricious Award provides photographers with the resources and editorial support to bring a body of work to publishing fruition. Each year, the award is juried by photographers, critics, and curators, with the intent to select a photographer whose work is both distinct in point of view and boldly relevant to the unfolding issues of our time. The recipient is awarded editorial, design and production resources, valued at $30,000, and geared towards the development and publishing of a limited edition book. Capricious is an arts foundation based in New York focused primarily on art book publishing and an annual book award. Founded first as a fine art photography magazine in 2004 by Sophie Mörner, Capricious has provided an unparalleled international platform for emerging and underrepresented photographers over the span of 20 years. Past recipients of the Capricious Photo Award include: John Edmonds, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Farah Al Qasimi, Roberto Tondopó, and Genesis Báez.

The Capricious Award provides photographers with the resources and editorial support to bring a body of work to publishing fruition. Each year, the award is juried by photographers, critics, and curators, with the intent to select a photographer whose work is both distinct in point of view and boldly relevant to the unfolding issues of our time. The recipient is awarded editorial, design and production resources, valued at $30,000, and geared towards the development and publishing of a limited edition book.

Capricious is an arts foundation based in New York focused primarily on art book publishing and an annual book award. Founded first as a fine art photography magazine in 2004 by Sophie Mörner, Capricious has provided an unparalleled international platform for emerging and underrepresented photographers over the span of 20 years. Past recipients of the Capricious Photo Award include: John Edmonds, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Farah Al Qasimi, Roberto Tondopó, and Genesis Báez.

Congratulations to 2022 Capricious Award Winners Roberto Tondopó and Genesis Báez

We are proud to announce two recipients for the 2022 Capricious Photo Award: Roberto Tondopó and Genesis Báez. The Capricious team and jury are elated to offer this award to two distinctly impactful photographers this year and begin collaboration on their respective projects.

This award would not be possible without our incredible jury for which we hold infinite gratitude. The 2022 jury was lead by Capricious Founder/Publisher Sophie Mörner and Executive Director Anika Sabin, alongside Vivian Crockett, Lyle Ashton Harris, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Troy Montes-Michie, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Lumi Tan, and A.L. Steiner.

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Nos enorgullece anunciar lxs dos ganadores de Capricious Photo Award 2022: Roberto Tondopó y Genesis Báez. El equipo de Capricious y jurado están encantadxs de ofrecer el premio este año a dos fotógrafxs claramente impactantes, y comenzar la colaboración en sus respectivos proyectos.

Este premio no sería posible sin nuestro increíble jurado, al que tenemos infinita gratitud. El jurad de este año, estuvo encabezado por la fundadora/editora de Capricious, Sophie Mörner, y l director ejecutivx Anika Sabin, Vivian Crockett, Lyle Ashton Harris, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Troy Montes-Michie, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Lumi Tan y A.L. Steiner.

Roberto Tondopó

Roberto Tondopó’s work depicts the construction of subjectivities in transition, in an absurd, ironic and violent universe, using personal narratives to explore the limits of intimacy, community and family. Tondopó is dedicated to developing projects that have a documentary methodological basis, but conceived in a line that mixes fiction and reality using personal narratives to talk about different layers of representation of the photographic.

“I reflect in my artistic practice on the gender binary as a colonial practice in the genealogy of dissident sexuality in Chiapas. I present the *cuir (queer, dissident and/or non-binary) body of pain exposed to its unconscious history/memory, and to a system of hetero-centric sex-gender ideologies and institutions that constrain it. For this, I propose, through the visibility of the colonial wound in symbolic constellations, a decolonized position as a way to unlearn stigmas and presumably natural prejudices anchored in the very corporeality of subjects.”

Roberto Tondopó is an artist based in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Tondopó studied for a master’s degree in Visual Arts at UNAM, and graduated in photography at the CI’s Contemporary Photography Seminar (2010). His work has been in several exhibitions in Mexico and internationally. He has received scholarships and awards including the Tierney Scholarship, Young Creators, and the National System of Art Creators. He is the recipient of the Robert Giard Foundation scholarship (2019). Finalist of the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award Arles 2021. His work is part of public and private collections.

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Roberto Tondopó retrata la construcción de sus subjetividades en transición, en un universo absurdo, irónico y violento, utilizando narrativas personales en las que explora los límites de la intimidad, la comunidad y la familia. Tondopó se dedica a desarrollar proyectos que tienen una base metodológica documental, pero bajo una línea que mezcla ficción y realidad, utilizando narrativas personales para hablar de diferentes capas de representación de lo fotográfico.

“Reflexiono en mi práctica artística sobre el binarismo de género como práctica colonial en la genealogía de la sexualidad disidente en Chiapas. Presento el cuerpo de dolor *cuir (queer, disidente y/o no binario) expuesto a su historia-memoria inconsciente, y a un sistema de ideologías e instituciones heterocéntricas de sexo-género que lo limitan. Por esto propongo, a través de la visibilización de la herida colonial en constelaciones simbólicas, una posición descolonizada como una forma de desaprender estigmas y prejuicios presuntamente naturales anclados en la corporeidad misma de lxs sujetxs.”

Roberto Tondopó es un artista basado en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México. Tondopó estudió la maestría en Artes Visuales en la UNAM y se graduó en fotografía en el Seminario de Fotografía Contemporánea del CI (2010). Sus fotografías han sido parte de varias exposiciones en México e internacionalmente. Ha recibido becas y premios, incluyendo la Beca Tierney, Jóvenes Creadores y el Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Recibió la beca de la Fundación Robert Giard (2019). Finalista del Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award Arles 2021. Sus fotografías forman parte de colecciones públicas y privadas.

Genesis Báez

Genesis Báez gives shape to fragmented and temporal experiences of existing between worlds. Made in both Puerto Rico and the Northeast US, her works consider the fluidity of place, the effects of diaspora, and the threads that connect people and places across time and distance. Images spiral outward from the intersecting economic, political, and environmental conditions inflicted by centuries of colonial legacies in Puerto Rico, and the mass migration it has perpetuated across generations; Báez herself, a descendant of these migrations.

“Water echoes throughout my work, and appears in some of its most mutable forms. Water is an embodiment of transience, and like mirrors, remains whole even when you break it apart; a fragmentation akin to diasporic life and belonging to multiple places. However, water is also a connecting thread; the water in Massachusetts is the water touching Puerto Rico.

When working with people, I am inspired by, and root these images in, matriarchal relationships. Our gestures become a language for the physical and psychic movement of our lives, and for the slippery in-between spaces of our belonging. When we come together to make pictures, we collapse distance and visualize the invisible threads that connect us. When home won’t let us stay, as the poet Warsan Shire muses, I photograph to join the past and present, near and far.“

Genesis Báez is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Massachusetts, Báez was raised in both the Northeast US and Puerto Rico. She holds an MFA in Photography from Yale University, a BFA in Photography with honors from MassArt, and is an alumni of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited her work internationally, and her work has been recently published in Aperture and BOMB Magazine. Báez is a 2022 NYFA/NYSCA Fellow in Photography, and she currently teaches at the Pratt Institute.

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Génesis Báez da forma a experiencias fragmentadas y temporales de existir entre mundos. Realizadas tanto en Puerto Rico como en el noreste de los Estados Unidos, sus fotografías consideran la fluidez del lugar, los efectos de la diáspora y los hilos que conectan a las personas y los lugares a través del tiempo y la distancia. Las imágenes salen en espiral de la intersección de condiciones económicas, políticas y ambientales infligidas por siglos de legados coloniales en Puerto Rico y la migración masiva que ha perpetuado a lo largo de generaciones. La propia Báez es descendiente de estas migraciones.

“El agua hace eco a lo largo de mi trabajo y aparece en algunas de sus formas más mutables. El agua es una encarnación de la transitoriedad y, como los espejos, permanece completa incluso cuando la rompes; una fragmentación similar a la vida diaspórica y pertenecer a múltiples lugares. Sin embargo, el agua también nos conecta, el agua de Massachusetts es el agua que toca a Puerto Rico.

“Cuando trabajo con personas, me inspiro y arraigo estas imágenes en las relaciones matriarcales. Nuestros gestos se convierten en un lenguaje para el movimiento físico y psíquico de nuestras vidas, así como para los espacios intermedios escurridizos de nuestra pertenencia. Cuando nos juntamos para hacer fotos, colapsamos la distancia y visualizamos los hilos invisibles que nos conectan. Cuando el hogar no nos deja quedarnos, como reflexiona la poeta Warsan Shire, fotografío para unir el pasado y el presente, lo cercano y lo lejano.”

Génesis Báez es una artista basada en Brooklyn, NY. Nacida en Massachusetts, Báez se crió tanto en el noreste de los Estados Unidos como en Puerto Rico. Tiene un MFA en Fotografía de la Universidad de Yale, un BFA en Fotografía con honores de MassArt, y es exalumna de la Escuela de Pintura y Escultura Skowhegan. Su trabajo ha sido exhibido internacionalmente y también publicado recientemente en Aperture y BOMB Magazine. Báez es becaria de NYFA/NYSCA 2022 en fotografía y actualmente enseña en el Pratt Institute.

Jury

Lyle Ashton Harris has cultivated a diverse artistic practice ranging from photography and collage to installation and performance art. His work explores intersections between the personal and the political, examining the impact of ethnicity, gender, and desire on the contemporary social and cultural dynamic. Harris is represented in the permanent collections of renowned institutions and has been widely exhibited internationally, including most recently in “Photography’s Last Century” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; in “Basquiat’s ‘Defacement’: The Untold Story’’ and “Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, among many others. Harris lives and works in New York, serving as a Professor of Art at New York University.

2021

Congratulations to 2021 Capricious Award Winner Farah Al Qasimi

Farah Al Qasimi is a bright, rising multidisciplinary artist whose work examines postcolonial structures of power, gender and aesthetic in the Gulf Arab states.

The subsequent book, Hello Future, is a culmination of several bodies of work, including both her photographic and film practice, unified within her keen sense of surface and texture, and the revealing visual influences of the splashy and florid.

Farah Al Qasimi (b.1991, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; lives and works in Brooklyn and Dubai) works in photography, video, and performance.

The jury was lead by Capricious Founder/Publisher Sophie Mörner and Senior Editor/Associate Publisher Anika Sabin, alongside Kim Bourus (of Higher Pictures) Sam Contis (artist), John Edmonds (artist/first recipient of the Capricious Photo Award), Sunil Gupta (artist/educator/curator), Amanda Hajjar, (Director of Exhibitions at Fotografiska New York), Paul Mpagi Sepuya (artist), and Ka-Man Tse (artist/educator).

Image: Adam Powell

Jury

2020

Congratulations to 2020 Capricious Award Winner Sasha Phyars-Burgess

Sasha is a vital, emerging voice in contemporary photography, engaging the charged line between documentary and fine art. Her subsequent book, Untitled spans three bodies of work ranging from affecting studies on diaspora, family and place to revolving social phenomenons in which energy, beauty and power meet.

Of her practice Sasha states:

"I am interested in what is seen, and the cultural connotations and markers that come with looking at bodies, particularly black ones. I use a documentary approach in order to view the domestic, the unsupervised, and the ordinary in an effort to reveal the mundane reality of lives that are often under continued supervision and oppressive state and social violence. I was born in 1988. I am a scorpio. I am black. I am Alive."

Sasha Phyars-Burgess was born in Brooklyn, New York to Trinidadian parents and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She received a BA in photography from Bard College and an MFA from Cornell University. This will be her first book.

The jury was lead by Capricious Founder/Publisher Sophie Mörner and Senior Editor/Associate Publisher Anika Sabin, alongside Lauren Cornell, Ka-Man Tse, Matt Keegan, Guadalupe Rosales, Lyndsy Welgos, Katherine Hubbard and JOFF.

Image: Jerry Lim

Jury

2018

Congratulations to Inaugural Winner of the Capricious Photo Award John Edmonds

John Edmonds is a vital emergent voice in contemporary photography, distilling mediations on black masculinity into affecting portraiture. The subsequent book, Higher, is a culmination of several bodies of work unified around his interests in the Black body as a site for contemplation, spirituality and beauty. This is Edmonds’ first book. John Edmonds is an artist working in photography whose practice includes fabric, video, and text.

He received his MFA in Photography from Yale University School of Art and his BFA in Photography at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design.

The inaugural Capricious Photo Award jury consisted of Sophie Mörner, Anika Sabin, Katherine Hubbard, Charlotte Cotton, Deborah Willis, Shannon Michael Cane, Hanna Liden, JOFF, Emma Reeves, Tim Barber, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Melanie Bonajo.