50th Anniversary Fine Art Photography Exhibition
On View: April 20–May 16, 2026
Reception: Wed, April 22, 6:30–8:00 PM
An Official Annual Juried Contemporary Fine-Art Photography Exhibition Led by
The Ground Glass and its artists, hosted by The Rye Arts Center Galleries
The 2026
Mosaic Award
In this celebratory year, The Ground Glass will also be presented with The Rye Arts Center’s first-ever Mosaic Award for Artist Collectives at Studio 51—it’s annual Spring Benefit hosted at The Capitol Theatre on May 8th, 2026. The Rye Arts Center is thrilled to honor the group with this distinction, which celebrates the beauty and strength of collective creativity—something The Ground Glass fully embodies.
As The Ground Glass marks its 50th anniversary, we recognize the collective’s remarkable contributions to our community’s creative life. For five decades, its members have nurtured photographic artistry, inspired both emerging and established artists, and enriched generations of Rye Arts Center students and visitors.
About
the Show
Celebrate five decades of photographic excellence with The Ground Glass at its 50th Anniversary Photography Exhibition. Founded in 1975 by Renata Rainer, The Ground Glass has become one of the region’s most respected photographic societies, uniting artists from Westchester and Fairfield Counties in a shared pursuit of craft, creativity, and community.
In residence at The Rye Arts Center, The Ground Glass has, for half a century, provided a dynamic forum for education, collaboration, and inspiration through monthly meetings, guest lectures, image reviews, and exhibitions. Embracing both traditional darkroom practices and innovative digital techniques, the organization champions photography as a powerful and evolving fine art form.
This milestone exhibition features 38 exceptional works, juried by acclaimed photographer Andrew Moore, a Guggenheim Fellow and professor at the School of Visual Arts. His expertise and vision bring exceptional distinction to this anniversary exhibition.
Each selected piece in this exhibition reflects the society’s enduring commitment to technical excellence, creative exploration, and the presentation of photography as fine art. We invite you to join us in celebrating 50 years of vision, dedication, and inspired image-making.
Andrew
Moore
American photographer Andrew Moore (b. 1957) is widely acclaimed for his long term photographic series, which record the effect of time on the natural and built landscape. These series include work made in Cuba, Russia, Bosnia, Times Square, Detroit, The Great Plains, the American South, and most recently the Hudson Valley.
Moore’s photographs are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Library of Congress amongst many other institutions. He has received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2014, and has as well been award grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the J M Kaplan Fund. For more, please visit https://andrewlmoore.com/about.
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“I am very pleased to serve as the juror for the 50th anniversary show of the photo collective, Ground Glass, and I wish to congratulate the association on these fifty years of continuous exhibitions, which is truly a remarkable achievement. These decades also coincide with revolutionary changes to the medium, a period when the synthesis of art and technology dramatically transformed every aspect of the photographic process. Coincidentally, I share a similar anniversary with Ground Glass, as I consider the year 1976 the starting point for my own career as a fledging photographer.
I have long thought that the practice of photography, though encompassing innumerable moments of great exhilaration, was very often a solo if not solitary discipline. That is why I have found that groups and artists collectives like Ground Glass serve a vital function. For as much as any artist needs to time to focus and deeply concentrate, we also need a community around us that understands and shares in our purpose. The fact that Ground Glass has been an active community for 50 years clearly demonstrates both the necessity and value of such creative fellowship.
The pool of submitted photographs presented an astonishing variety of subject matter and technical approaches. I especially noted the strong presence of black and white landscapes, a wide range of locations from the exotic to the nearby as well as works that were collaged or made by hand. It wasn’t easy to choose from this incredible range of imagery although I was glad to include examples from all the members that submitted work.
Looking over this year’s selections makes me wonder what kinds of images were in the very first exhibition of Ground Glass as well as what those original participants would have thought of the contemporary show. What will the submissions look like for the 100th anniversary show? Judging by the past fifty years, we have much to look forwardto! Thank you to all the members of Ground Glass, I commend you for your contributions to the ever growing, ever flourishing world of fine art photography.”
-Andrew Moore
The
Ground
Glass
Founded in 1975 by Renata Rainer, The Ground Glass is an independent photographic association, dedicated to promoting the practice and appreciation of fine art photography. Bringing together photographers from Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, the organization has fostered a vibrant community of artists dedicated to both the craft and the creative exploration of photography.
The Ground Glass is in residence at The Rye Arts Center and provides a forum for education, collaboration, and inspiration through monthly meetings, exhibitions, guest lectures, and image reviews. From traditional darkroom practices to cutting-edge digital techniques, The Ground Glass embraces the evolving nature of the medium. Member critiques encourage participants to experiment with diverse applications of photographic expression, while curated exhibitions emphasize the importance of presenting images as fine art prints.
Members of The Ground Glass explore and discuss all aspects of photography. Monthly meetings often feature guest speakers, including well-known photographers and educators such as Sam Abell, Cole Thompson, Phil Penman, Joanne Dugan, Jill Skupin-Burkholder, Eddie Soloway, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Trisha Rosenkilde, Chuck Kelton, Sandra Carrion and Bill Travis.
In addition to The Rye Arts Center, The Ground Glass is a member of ArtsWestchester, the Hudson Valley Photography Network and the New York Metro Area Camera Council.