fredericksburg center for the creative arts all-photography exhibition (february 2026)
Originally, I never even thought about submitting any of my photos to a gallery. However, with the support of my friends and family, I decided “screw it, why not?” and submitted five film photos from my trip to Austria & Hungary with UMW to the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts.
I wasn’t expecting to get in (as this was my first time doing something like this) but much to my surprise, two of my photos were selected to be included in the juried exhibition! Here they are below:
What’s even better is that one of my pictures “Natalia” (on the right) received an honorable mention from the juror!
It was a bit of a doozy figuring out how to get the photos printed and framed, but things worked out in the end. I invited my family, friends, and professors to come to the opening reception and I’m grateful because a lot of folks showed up (especially considering the weather wasn’t the best)!
Having such an expansive support system is something I try not to take for granted. To the right are two of my biggest supporters, my Mom and Dad.
The FCCA also filmed parts of the evening and uploaded it to YouTube (where they put me as the thumbnail!). The video includes footage from the event, other artists’ photos, and commentary from the exhibition juror, Erik Brito. It’s not in the video, but I vividly remember him telling me, “you’ve captured something I can’t even put to words” in reference to my photos. As soon as he said that I wrote it down verbatim as that’s one hell of a compliment and one that stuck with me.
I forgot to mention it, but we were also given the option of whether or not we wanted to have our pictures for sale throughout the exhibition. I chose to opt out and instead gifted each photo to my friends (Natalia and Gwen) who are in them.
Overall, having my work displayed at the FCCA was a fun and insightful experience that really helped build my confidence! I plan to hopefully submit more of my photos to other galleries in the future.
-Blake 🙂