News Room: Announcements

Alaska Positive opens Friday

Katie Ione Craney, what we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene), 2025.

Exhibit opens
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 4:30–7:00 PM

Juneau – Now in its 55th year, Alaska Positive is a statewide juried photographic exhibition organized and toured by the Alaska State Museum. Its purpose is to encourage the practice of photography as an art form in Alaska. Alaska Positive opens Friday at the Alaska State Museum and runs through mid-March 2026. The exhibition will then travel to museums around the state.

Patrice Aphrodite Helmar is the juror for Alaska Positive 2025. Helmar’s photographic career began in Juneau working in their father’s small-town camera shop and darkroom. Their work has been shown at PARTICIPANT INC, the Jewish Museum, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Gaa Gallery, the National Museum of Iceland and is in museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Helmar selected 37 photographs by 33 photographers for the exhibit. Overall, Alaskan photographers submitted 198 entries.

The top award, the Juror’s Choice Award, went to Katie Ione Craney of Fairbanks for a photograph titled what we carry in our pockets (for Jenny Irene). The Awards of Recognition went to Amber Johnson of Anchorage for Ice Studies #8018, a C-type print, and Petra Lisiecki of Anchorage for Real/Ethereal - The Swimmer, also a C-type print. Awards are sponsored by the Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum.

Left image: Amber Johnson, Ice Studies #8018, 2025. Right image: Petra Lisiecki, Real/Ethereal - The Swimmer, 2023.

A slideshow of The Best of Alaska Positive, comprised of award-winning photographs over the last 55 years, will be playing in an adjacent gallery.

Helmar gave a lecture at the Alaska State Museum on Tuesday, November 25. The event was recorded for later broadcast by 360TV in partnership with our local radio station KTOO. It will also be available on the museum’s website.

Final Photographs Selected for Alaska Positive 2025