UAF artists chosen for statewide exhibition
By Amber McCain
Three photographers affiliated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks will have their work featured in “Alaska Positive 2025,” a statewide juried exhibition that opened in Juneau on Dec. 5, 2025, and will travel to museums across Alaska for the next two years. Now in its 55th year, “Alaska Positive” aims to “encourage the practice of photography as an art form in Alaska,” celebrating the central role of Alaskan photographers in shaping the state’s visual culture.
Photo courtesy of “Alaska Positive”
“What we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene),” by Katie Ione Craney is a dedication to Jenny Irene, a once-in-a-generation artist, who passed away in April 2025.
This year’s juror, Patrice Aphrodite Helmar, is a Juneau-born photographer whose work engages themes of labor, class, identity and representation. Her selection emphasizes “Alaska Positive’s” commitment not only to artistic excellence but to work that emotionally resonates and is culturally grounded.
Helmar selected 37 photographs by 33 photographers for the exhibit.
This year, photos by three UAF-affiliated artists Katie Ione Craney, Charles Mason and David McCain, were selected from the pool of 198 photo submissions.
Katie Ione Craney, whose photograph, “what we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene),” received the Juror’s Choice Award. The image, Craney’s first piece ever submitted to Alaska Positive, is accompanied by text honoring the late photographer Jenny Irene, a friend and once-in-a-generation artist whose encouragement played a pivotal role in Craney’s own development as a photographer.
Craney, from Southeast Alaska, recently returned to UAF to complete her degree after more than a decade away from the program. She spent the intervening years developing her art practice and running a bike shop and tour business in Haines before relocating to Fairbanks. She says that returning “felt right.” She was supported by a community of artists who helped her reestablish her creative footing.
Craney shared that the photograph grew from a deeply personal exchange. Jenny Irene had found and kept a handful of bullet casings during a walk; after Irene’s sudden passing, her wife, Nora, gifted them to Craney. “I’ve been carrying the bullet casings in my coat pocket and feel close to both you and Jenny through them,” she wrote to Nora, talking about the photograph.
“I can’t really explain the feeling, though I know it is special and important to pay attention to,” Craney continued in her note.
What began as a simple object, the casings Jenny instinctively picked up, became a way of holding memory, friendship, and creative lineage.
Photo courtesy of David McCain
“Summer’s End” 2024 by David McCain, a combination of cyanotype, turmeric, and photographic paper, McCain crafts images that reveal the intrinsic beauty of the botanicals themselves.
“This should be Jenny’s photo receiving this award,” Craney says. “This dedication, like others I’ve made before, is a way of saying: the work you did and do moves me, thank you.”
Exhibit juror Helmar echoed that sentiment in her juror’s statement:
“The Juror’s Choice Award was granted to Katie Ione Craney for her photograph honoring Jenny Irene, a once-in-a-generation artist who passed away this year. … I’m grateful for the photograph lovingly made by her friend Katie. The picture serves as a reminder of the impact one artist can have on their community.”
Visitors can see Jenny Irene’s photograph, “Mom, Aka, and Grammy,” from the 2023 “Alaska Positive” exhibition, now on view at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks.
David McCain, a Bachelor of Fine Arts student based in North Pole, works in alternative photographic processes such as cyanotypes, lumens, photograms, and hybrid “cyanolumens.” His imagery foregrounds fragile and often overlooked pollinator habitats.
“My work focuses on alternative processes that help me speak to environmental change in a visual way.” His selected piece, “Summer’s End,” offers a romantic yet bittersweet reminder that as the fireweed opens and climbs toward its final bloom, winter is approaching, pollinator season is ending, and the long summer light, with its familiar warmth fades away.
Charles Mason has taught photography and photojournalism at UAF for over 35 years, where he currently heads the Masters of Fine Arts and BFA photography programs. His piece “Denali Diptych,” a diptych of two wet plates, or collodion, glass negatives he made in Denali became a permanent collection at the Museum of the North alongside other works celebrating Alaskan artistry. Mason said he’s “very happy” that his work was selected by this year’s juror for Alaska Positive 2025.
“Alaska Positive is an important juried show for photographers in Alaska. It is one of only two shows, the other being Rarefied Light, that are juried and also travel the state to various venues,” Mason added.
Photo courtesy of Charles Mason
UAF photography professor Charles Mason’s piece titled “Denali Diptych” is part of a permanent collection at the Museum of the North, celebrating Alaskan artistry. It was made in Denali using two wet plate glass negatives.
UAF photographers have previously contributed to “Alaska Positive”; work by UAF’s Assistant Professor of photography, Jason Lazarus, was selected for the 2023 exhibition. “Rivulets of Gold, Castner Glacier” is currently on view at the Museum of the North through February 2026 as well as part of the Alaska Positive archive. Lazarus says that he had the cave to himself for over an hour. He said his time there was “peaceful, calming, and awe-inspiring”
With Alaska’s vast geography, shifting seasons, and rich cultural tapestry, “Alaska Positive” is one of the state’s most significant showcases for photographic work. The inclusion of UAF students and alumni this year affirms that the next generation is bringing forward powerfully thoughtful new voices, rooted in community, memory, and the places they call home.