Teresa Lousias Memorial Photo Exhibition 2026
Padzieski Art Gallery
Dearborn, Mich.
Through Feb. 14
Dearborn’s Padzieski Art Gallery’s, located inside the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, is hosting the annual Teresa Lousias Memorial Photo Exhibition. The photos from the juried exhibit and 48 artists were selected by Melanie Maxwell, director of photography and video for the Detroit Free Press.
The exhibit is theme-less, with a range of images that capture people, landscapes, abstraction, macro photography and more with varying degrees of reality and manipulation. Many are in black and white. I found it hard to believe some were photographs to begin with, which was interesting to see.
Two of my favorite works were by Erin McConnell. The first, “Weight in Gold,” took home a Juror’s Choice Award. It depicts a black-and-white image of a somber-looking man, adorned with a gold crown and medallions that sparkled in contrast. The image evoked a sense of “heavy is the head that wears the crown,” a sad, palpable feeling that money, power and success can’t buy happiness.
Next to it was McConnell’s “Silent Movie in My Head,” a black and white image of a ballerina that played with shadows. The image featured a posed dancer in the spotlight paralleled by her shadow, with both located inside a larger image of the dancer’s head that filled the frame. The image exuded a sense of calm and grace and was an interesting manipulation of light and shadow.
Another award-winning entry included Brittanie Bondie’s “Ford Lake III,” an abstract rectangle of blues and purples, divided by a green line that cut through the image and beyond, which looked more like a painting than a photograph. The other winner was Daniel Eller’s “Veiled Machine,” a large black-and-white image of the inside of a factory that has been sectioned off by plastic.
I found myself more drawn to the images with faces. Steve Pepple’s “Girl on a Train” was a black-and-white image that featured a young girl leaning against a train window as she stared at her reflection. It conveyed the questioning of and the search for one’s identity, made more interesting coming from the face of one seemingly too young to be in such existential crisis.
Nearby was Amara Murphy’s “The Girls Wore White Dresses,” another black and white image which depicted two small girls in fancy white dresses, lighty veiled behind lace. The girls look directly at the camera, almost annoyed at the disruption of their play, and it’s a sweet, cute depiction of the innocence of childhood.
Sylvia Bandyke’s “Old Saw Masquerading as Itself #3” had completely different depictions of faces and much more colorful ones. The image was divided in four equal squares inside a larger square, each with a woman’s face spliced together from multiple photos. Each half had a near mirror image of itself reflected from the bottom, making for an interesting visual of multiple women staring at you from multiple angles. The effect was more playful than creepy, with a pleasing antique aesthetic. The symmetry of the squares, paired with the reflections added a nice contrast to the chaos of the faces, creating an overall soothing effect.
The exhibit is less an exploration of a single idea or style and more a mixed sample of the possibilities available in modern photography. If you find yourself in Dearborn, it’s a small and pleasant exhibit and an easy walk-through for a quick art fix.
