Present Tense Artist Talks

Event date: February 22, 2025, 2:00 - 5:00 pm

Present Tense Artist Talks are in-person, quarterly events hosted by Medium Photo, showcasing work from four selected photographers.

During each Present Tense Artist Talk, participating photographers share up to 20 slides of a singular body of work projected on a large screen in a repeating loop. Each photographer will discuss their work throughout the slide show and responds to a Q&A during a 15-minute period.

Present Tense Artist Talks are an informal, conversational environment moderated by Medium Photo. There is no cost to submit your work.

To expand the opportunity for more photographers to show their work and for all of us to see more photographs, we are having a pre-show in the form of a mini portfolio walkthrough with prints on a table. Each of the selected presenters and 3 additional juror selected photographers will have their prints out for you to see and to talk with the photographer and each other. 

Present Tense Artist Talks, February 22, 2025

Point Loma/Hervey Library - Community Room
3701 Voltaire St, San Diego, CA 92107

Event Timeline

• 2:00 - 2:50 Open Portfolio Walk with artists selected by Guusje Sanders (details below)

• 3:00 - 4:00 Present Tense Artist Talks

• 4:00 - 5:00 Peer networking

MICHELLE TOPETE

Michelle Topete is this quarter’s student presenter representing San Diego State University. Her work was selected by San Diego State University professor, Joaquín Palting.

Follow Michelle on Instagram and learn more on her website.

ANNIE CLAFLIN

Annie Claflin is a multidisciplinary artist living in San Diego, California whose work originates with the photographic medium. Claflin creates and alters imagery, often paired with familiar objects, to convey her relentless search for sanctuary amidst psychological unrest. Her artwork has been published in Analog Forever Magazine and included in exhibitions at The Griffin Museum of Photography, The Los Angeles Center of Photography, and The Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington, among others. In 2023 and 2024, Claflin was included in the Critical Mass Top 200, and was a finalist in the Royal Photographic Society’s International Photographic Exhibition 165 in 2023. Her photograph was juried by Katherine Ware, Julie Grahame and Allison Retina Stewart as third place award winner at the American Photographic Artists San Diego’s Untitled 2022 exhibition. One of her images placed as a finalist for The Kuala Lumpur Photo Awards in 2021. She has been interviewed about her practice for The Boston Metro newspaper and the Too Tired Project online. Claflin graduated from New England School of Photography, holds a BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art + Design, and an MS in Arts Administration from Boston University.

Follow Annie on Instagram and learn more on her website.

ELLIOTT LINWOOD

Elliott Linwood's work examines various types of performance scores, methods of notation and documentation as vehicles for story telling. The index is a recurrent feature of his work. As a typographic programmer for many years, he designed list publications such as phone books, manuals and catalogs embedded with algorithms which generated indices pointing to other parts of the book. These considerations and his LBGTQ+ activism inform the cross referencing functions that appear across a wide range of media, from grids of photographic imagery and sculptural installations, to his ongoing daily Life Art practice.

Follow Elliott on Instagram.

LEAFY (YUN) YE

Leafy Yun Ye (b.1993) is a Los Angeles-based photographer, born and raised in Guangzhou, China. Her work explores the poetic connections between cultures, communities, personal experiences, and landscapes. Driven by a deep curiosity about how environment and cultures shape individuals and communities, her approach focuses on the essence of everyday human experience through introspection and collaboration. Her work has been published in Lenscratch, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, CityHowWhy Magazine, Bloomberg, Dazed Magazine, etc. She has received the finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Prize 2023, AIS Open Women Behind The Lens, People Awards of the Independent Photographer, and the Adobe Creative Residency Community Grant. Her work has also been exhibited internationally at the 2023 Korea International Photo Festival at Hangar Art Museum, Photoville NYC, and others.

Learn more on Leafy’s website.

Present Tense #4 Juror: Guusje Sanders, Curator, Mingei International Museum

Each edition of Present Tense Artist Talks will have a different juror of note drawn from across North America, and each juror will select three presenters for the talks, and four additional artists for the portfolio walk. The fourth presenter at each Present Tense talk is a student selected by the faculty of a participating college.

About Guusje

Guusje Sanders, originally from the Netherlands and residing in the United States since 2006, joined Mingei International Museum's curatorial team as Curator in August 2023. Most recently she co-curated the current show on view, Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo, presented as part of Getty's PST ART: Art and Science Collide. Prior to this position, she served as the Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, formerly Lux Art Institute for 6 years. 

Approaching her curatorial practice as a platform for diverse voices, she places a strong emphasis on accessibility and curatorial and institutional accountability. Sanders holds a Master's in Exhibition and Museum Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Bachelor's in Art History from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Visit mingei.org for more information or follow the Museum on Instagram @mingeimuseum.

Call for Submissions

Submissions for Present Tense Artist Talks are free of charge. All types of photography may be submitted. Everyone may submit, including both established artists, emerging photographers, and students. You don’t have to be from San Diego or Tijuana, but you do have to be in San Diego to present your work at this live, in-person event.

• The submission dates for Present Tense 5 will be announced in Spring 2025.