The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (TCVA) is excited to announce the finalists for this year’s upcoming 22nd Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) exhibition. With over 500 images submitted by 76 artists, jurors selected 47 photographs to embody the theme “Making Kin: Belonging & Longing in Appalachia”.

This year’s exhibition was juried by Frances Bukovsky and Susan Patrice of Kinship Photography Collective. Through their call for entry, they were looking for “photographs and projects that show [them] how Appalachia has shaped sense[s] of kinship and belonging,” and were “…especially interested in images and projects that honor diverse roots, complex connections, and entangled relationships.” 

The 22nd AMPC exhibition will open Friday, February 7, 2025 with a public reception that evening. People’s Choice voting will take place in-person in the gallery, and the winner will be announced at the private Awards Reception on March 22, 2025, along with the Juror’s awards of:

Best in Show

Best Single-Image

Best Series

The exhibition will be on view through May 3, 2025. Kinship Photography Collective will host a virtual practice group centered around the theme of “Making Kin” led by the jurors while the exhibition is on view (dates TBD).

Additionally, this year’s AMPC is partnering with the Appalachian Journal who will be publishing a special visual arts issue highlighting important work by Appalachian artists and researchers. This year’s AMPC jurors, as well as a selected artist from the exhibition will be featured in the journal alongside a transcription of a panel discussion held in 2021 with Appalachian photographers Clarissa Sligh, lydia see, and Megan King. Jurors Susan Patrice and Frances Bukovsky, joined by a selected 22nd AMPC photographer, will participate in an ARTtalk and panel discussion at the Turchin Center on April 4, 2025 – First Friday, followed by a reception for the release of the Appalachian Journal. 

The Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Mast General Store with additional support from Appalachian Voices, Virtual Blue Ridge, Bistro Roca, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Footsloggers Outfitters, Peabody’s, Stickboy Bread.

Finalists