A long running biennial juried exhibition organized by Ohio University’s MFA Photography and Integrated Media program in The School of Art + Design.
Alternatives 2025 presents:
Image as Record
Juried by Willie Osterman
An International Photo Biennial
Hosted by the Photography + Integrated Media Program
in the School of Art + Design at Ohio University
For two centuries, the image, by means of photographic processes, has provided us with detailed records, visual documents that prolong the life of its subject. They build what Émilie Durkheim called our collective consciousness. Photos give life to individuals generations after they pass, reference to landscapes long after structures have been erased and rebuilt, and immortalize the gestures of a physical event aeons after they happen. As the image is a record, it is a visual document that prolongs its subject.
History of Alternatives
A long running biennial juried exhibition organized by Ohio University’s MFA Photography and Integrated Media program in The School of Art + Design.
Since its beginning in 1980, Alternatives has achieved national recognition for its leadership in forging new definitions in the medium by emphasizing the work of photographers in the conceptual forefront of the practice. The Alternatives Biennial is funded by the legacies of Clarence White—founder of the historically renowned Clarence White School of Photography in New York—and his son, Clarence White Jr., who re-established the school at Ohio University in 1948, creating the first degree-granting program in photography at a major university in the country.
The exhibition has hosted a distinguished roster of artist jurors including Carrie Mae Weems, Kelli Connell, Jason Reed, and Judy Natal.
Recent Exhibitions
2023 Alternatives: Image as Object
Juror Deborah Orloff
2021 Alternatives: Existence, Text + Image
Juror Efrem Zelony-Mindell
2019 Alternatives: 2,3,4: Dimensional Photographies
Juror Brittany Nelson
2017 Alternatives: Where I Come From
Juror Hans Gindlesberger
2015 Alternatives: Artifact
Juror Judy Natal
