On Friday, April 3, the PhotoPlace Gallery opened the ‘Made by Hand’ exhibition, an analog exhibit curated by juror Christina Anderson, a professor at Montana State University. The exhibit’s opening reception drew local residents, Middlebury College students, and several artists featured in this month’s exhibition, and is on display until April 25.
Zach Hoffman, the owner of the PhotoPlace Gallery, hosts openings at the start of each month. He shared that last month’s exhibit, “Cut, Paste, Transform,” focused on collage photography.
This month, the theme is analog photography, also known as film photography, which is a traditional process that uses light-sensitive, chemical-based film to capture images instead of digital sensors.
“Some of them are created with the digital images but printed in chemicals and processes that aren't printed,” Hoffman said, in reference to the pieces hung in the gallery. “Some are made without cameras, so they are just chemicals and light and substance, and then processed with chemicals that make them stay that way. It's almost like painting with light.”
“Made by Hand” features a total of 75 images, 30 of which are displayed in the gallery, with the remainder included in a digital exhibition. Each work is also documented in a small book organized alphabetically, with an index and links to the artists’ personal websites, ensuring all participants are represented regardless of whether their work is physically displayed in the gallery.
Christina Anderson, who was Hoffman’s professor during his undergraduate studies at Montana State University, explores contemporary vanitas through a range of alternative photographic processes, including gum and casein bichromate, cyanotype, salted paper, and platinum-palladium. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in more than 130 shows and featured in over 90 publications. She has also authored six instructional books on these processes, which have sold in more than 40 countries.
Hoffman explained that Anderson’s role as the juror in the curation of the exhibit has been crucial. Generally, a juror’s position in the curation of a gallery is to select and curate the photos submitted.
“She went through all the submissions, we have anywhere from two to three hundred people each month submitting, and she goes through the images, selects what she wants to hang, and then what she wants to do online,” Hoffman said.
Artists featured in the entire exhibit include Ann Wenzel, Michelle Robinson, Brian Powers, Barbara Riley, and Leah Macdonald.
“Work is not chosen in a vacuum but in relation to all other entries. After multiple times of visiting all three folders to where I am satisfied with my choices, I create intermediate folders, something like Yes, If There Is Room, Maybe, Favorite Nos, and Probably OK to eliminate,” writes Anderson in the Juror’s Statement displayed on the PhotoPlace Gallery’s website.
In the gallery, a projector displayed a rotating selection of Anderson’s chosen works, casting the images onto a blank white wall.
Hoffman explained that the submission process is primarily conducted online.
“Everything is run through our website, so basically you make a profile, you can submit to whatever is open for submissions and then once that closes, the juror gets all the images and has two weeks to go through them all and then makes the selections, and then they get the work and then we hang the show and then we have our opening reception,” Hoffman said.
He added that the submission process offers artists a valuable opportunity to have their work reviewed by experts in the field, such as Anderson, and to better understand where it fits within the broader photography world. The exhibit features a mix of established artists, including professors and teachers, as well as more amateur artists exploring what it means to present their work in gallery settings.
The opening reception of “Made by Hand” drew a range of attendees, including local residents, featured artists, and students from the college.
“Tonight there were, I think, four or five artists who came: some people even came from Texas,” said Hoffman. “Some of them were just seeing the sign on Main St. and coming in, we had the a acapella group [the Mischords] here earlier tonight,” Hoffman said.
The types of people who filter through the PhotoPlace Gallery vary: during parents' weekend, lots of Middlebury College families and students will stop by, and during the winter and ski season, skiers will pop in to take a look around.
“Hopefully with all the events happening this summer, we’ll get a lot more foot traffic,” Hoffman said.
Gabby Stuart ’26 spoke in an interview with the campus about walking past the sign on Main St. as well.
“The other day I was walking into town, and I saw the sign for the PhotoPlace gallery opening, and it reminded me that I went to that same art gallery with my mom earlier in the year when she was visiting here,” Stuart said. “It made me excited to go explore this month’s art exhibit.”
Since he purchased the gallery in January of 2025, Hoffman has been aiming to publicize the business and its general mission.
“Since I took ownership, I have really been pushing to reach out locally with the publications and just working on getting a flier that I can hand out to the local inns, letting them know there's a gallery. Basically just telling them what we do,” Hoffman said.
“I have also partnered with Little Seed Coffee, and so after each exhibit comes down, I take five or so images over to them. They are already in frames, so they don't have to worry about it: I’ve got a hanging system, so it’s easy enough for me, and for them, they don’t have to deal with anything,” Hoffman said.
“Made by Hand” highlights both the interesting craft of analog photography and PhotoPlace Gallery’s role in Middlebury’s artistic landscape. Hoffman continues to work on his own photography projects as well as with other jurors on future exhibition ideas, sharing that he is working with a local night-sky photographer to do an upcoming exhibit.
Izzy Ronda '26 (she/her) is a Local Editor.
Izzy is a local editor for the campus. She is majoring in English with a double minor in Italian and Political Science. Outside of The Campus, Izzy is a member of the Middlebury Women's Squash Team and a contributing writer for Clover Magazine. This past summer Izzy worked as a reinsurance broking intern at a company in New York City.
