DVAC presents local photographer with esteemed award

A Daytonian with an eye for capturing the unusual and interesting is being recognized in a big way.

The Dayton Visual Arts Center has announced Francis Schanberger as the recipient of the 2018 Mike Goheen Memorial Fund for Photographers award. Schanberger’s winning photograph is his 2018 gelatin silver print with Sabatier effect entitled “Thighs and Sunlight.”

Credit: DVAC

Credit: DVAC

The fund and award, established in 2017, was created by Goheen’s partner and DVAC supporter, Craig Schrolucke, and provides an annual prize to an artist in the DVAC Annual Members’ Show.

Goheen, who died in 2017, worked at Cox Media Group for more than 22 years in various roles. The Memorial Fund honors the longtime DVAC member’s legacy and passion for photography.

“This is the biggest prize DVAC has ever awarded from the biggest memorial gift DVAC has ever administered,” said Eva Buttacavoli, executive director of DVAC. “We are proud to offer this award to both celebrate the talent and creativity of local photographers and to honor Mike’s legacy.”

Criteria used to select “Thighs and Sunlight”  as the winning photograph included composition — the overall visual effect and the use of line, form, color and visual balance, the printing process including digital, traditional and non-traditional means of printing and the uniqueness of the subject matter.

“Thighs and Sunlight” was selected by Goheen’s friend since childhood and current director of the Clemens Fine Arts Center in Kentucky, Todd Birdsong.

“Having been his friend for most of our lives, I would dare say that I belong to a very small group that understood his visual sensibilities and the emotion contained within each image he discovered,” Birdsong said in a press release. “My selection resonated with me in a similar way and I appreciate artist’s works that have a powerful sense of vision and concept regardless of their training or technical mastery.”

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