Silver Eye Center for Photography creates list of artists worth watching

A Carnegie Mellon University student’s combined interests in photography and data science led to creation of the Silver List, comprising 47 artists from Pittsburgh and points beyond whose work deserves attention.

Presented by Silver Eye Center for Photography in partnership with Carnegie Mellon and the Black List, the list features artists recommended by nonprofit photography curators, educators, scholars and publishers.

The project started when James Thomas Wang, a CMU data science/artificial intelligence student with a photography minor, heard a podcast about the Black List, an annual survey of the most-liked unproduced screenplays of that year aggregated using votes from film industry executives.

“He brought the idea to me and said he wanted to borrow the idea and adapt it for photography,” said David Oresick, a CMU adjunct professor and Silver Eye executive director. “I told him I wouldn’t do it without (the Black List’s) blessing.”

Thinking the project probably wouldn’t get off the ground, Oresick said he was surprised when, in a very short time, Wang had set up a Zoom meeting with Black List founder Franklin Leonard.

“He mentored us throughout the process,” he said.

In December and January, a survey was sent to 500 nonprofit photography curators, educators, scholars, publishers and critics asking them to list up to 10 artists who fit these criteria:

• The respondents love the artist’s work and feel it should be seen by more people

• The artist works with the medium of photography (however they define it)

• The artist is early in their career (however they define it)

• The artist is living.

The resulting Silver List contains the 47 most-recommended artists, randomly ordered, from about 129 respondents.

Silver Eye notes that it is not a “best of” list, but rather a reflection of “the thoughts of a professional community that cares deeply about contemporary photography.”

“Our hope is that this methodology will spotlight exceptional, diverse and sometimes overlooked artists and introduce them to a broad new audience,” according to a release.

“We were hoping the list would highlight the diversity in the field, and it does,” Oresick said. “There’s a lot of talent outside of the main pipeline and a lot of artists who don’t have a way in through that pipeline.”

Most of the featured artists are from the United States and Canada.

“The response shows that there is a need for this and an interest in it,” Oresick said, adding that organizers would like to continue highlighting upcoming artists in subsequent lists, although details have yet to be decided.

Silver Eye’s assistant curator Kate Kelley also worked on the project, while Joseph B. Kadane, the Leonard J. Savage University Professor of Statistics and Social Sciences Emeritus at CMU, provided additional guidance and assistance.

Details: silvereye.org