In recognition of their excellent work, the 2013 Yousuf Karsh Prize was awarded to Carol Gander (first prize); Chelsea Coon (second prize) and Allison Cekala (third prize). Their work will be exhibited in this year's Graduating Students and Award Recipients Exhibition; additionally, a reception for the artists will be held the evening of April 18.

Carol D. Gander's current work focuses on New England second growth forests–land that was cleared for farms by early settlers and has since become forest again. Gander became interested in the subject during her father's final illness when she took walks in the woods adjacent to his house. She was struck by the ferocious growth of vines which clambered everywhere, often suffocating their host in the process of seeking light. She saw these vines as a metaphor for the cycle of life as well as a form of drawing by nature. These "drawings," and hence her photographs, express feelings about the forest ranging from lyrical tenderness and reverence to fear of violence. The vine curtains, like scrims in the theater, leave one uncertain about what lies beyond.

Within the composition of stardust particles are the elemental sources essential for the formation of life. Chelsea Coon is interested in cosmology as a science of observation and where the line between artist and scientist can be dissolved. She has been working in performance and researching with astronomers at MIT to continue the conversation of the differences and similarities between art and science. In a search for an attempted understanding of the origins of life and trying to unravel evidence to explain our existence, Coon found that one question leads to another vein of questions. Her research based art practice revolves around attempting to understand the origins of life as an investigation to search for what becomes of us when we die. When a star disperses in the universe, its particles expel outward and re-accumulate with other particles to form a new existence. It is in this way that nothing in this universe is ever truly lost.

Allison Cekala investigates the blurred line that exists between the built and natural environments. Her photographs are an inquiry, a study of the relationship between humans and their environment. Through the lens of the camera, her work explores new ways of seeing an ever-evolving landscape, seeking the sublime in the ordinary and a reconsideration of her own relationship to the place in which she lives. In her images, "These mountains are construction sites. These construction sites are mountains."

The recipients were selected on March 11 by Anne Havinga, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Curator of Photographs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Andrew Witkin, Director, Barbara Krakow Gallery; and Ben Tiven, NY based photographer, faculty member, Tyler School of Art at Temple University and 2006 recipient of the Karsh Prize.

Image: Carol Gander, Scrim 1, 2013. Archival Inkjet print.