“Star Abercromby had been a dancer on the 60’s television show Laugh-In. She spent her later years as a motivational speaker and flashlight artist. She ‘painted with light’ on stages across the West, avoiding Las Vegas for personal reasons. She married two astronomers and an electrical engineer, finally settling on a battery manufacturing CEO.

However, her true gift, the one that was to be etched on her tombstone, was her ability to light up the lives of random strangers she met in line at the grocery store or pharmacy, sitting next to on the subway, or dining at an adjacent table. She honestly and without self-awareness engaged strangers in conversation about something positive about themselves that was not necessarily evident in the moment. “My God, where did you get that lipstick?” “I have never seen anyone with bluer eyes.” “Your smile is like a beacon, no really.” The young woman was slightly cross-eyed, her lipstick bright orange. His eyes were blue, but he avoided eye contact and looked at the floor. The older woman smiled, barely, once through a constant frown.

Her son had carved on her tombstone: “She danced with a flashlight, She Shown…” He could not make the final payment on the stone, which interrupted its typographic completion…” From Light by Franklin Cincinnatus

JUROR | Elizabeth Avedon will be the juror for “Light.” Elizabeth is an independent curator, photography book designer, and writer. As former Director of Photo-Eye Gallery, Art Director for Ralph Lauren Media, and Creative Director for The Gere Foundation, Elizabeth has received numerous awards and recognition for her exhibition design and publishing projects, including Richard Avedon: In the American West for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as curating several exhibitions at New York’s Leica Gallery New York.

She has also been a contributor to L’Oeil de la Photographie / The Eye of Photography since 2014, profiling events and notable professionals in the world of photography.

Along with leading advanced photo-editing and book design workshops, Elizabeth continues to participate in many portfolio reviews. She is also an instructor in the Masters in Digital Photography program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2017, Elizabeth received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Griffin Museum of Photography.