© Rainia Matar. Wafaa and Sanaa, Bourj El Barajneh Refuge Camp, Beirut, Lebanon, 2017 — © Rainia Matar. *Wafaa and Sanaa, Bourj El Barajneh Refuge Camp, Beirut, Lebanon, 2017*

Roula Seikaly speaks with Guggenheim's 2018 photography fellows about what drives them and what they plan to do with this prestigious award.

Life as a working artist is the definition of hustle. For those who live its day-to-day reality, it means carving time out of a busy routine that includes - in addition to life’s personal demands - teaching and/or endless side gigs in order to support a creative practice.

By this measure, unrestricted grants like those awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation are peerless opportunities. Of course, the official recognition of hard work is validating, but what may be more important is the gift of time it gives. We posed three questions to each of this year’s Guggenheim Photography Fellows and those who were able to participate replied with generous and detailed answers. In each answer, time and its central role in creativity is clear.

Congratulations to all!

Roula Seikaly in conversation with the 2018 Guggenheim photography fellows.

Referee Module Interior © David Maisel. Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery — Referee Module Interior © David Maisel. Courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

“Not now.”

That was the reply to photographer David Maisel’s 2004 request to document Dugway Proving Ground. Rather than interpret the response as a dodge or definitive “no,” Maisel was was heartened, and began a decade of carefully-phrased communication with contacts in and outside of the Department of Defense, intensive vetting and, finally, permission to photograph a military installation so closely guarded that all but a few both in and outside the state of Utah know what goes on there.

Proving Ground, Maisel’s latest installment in a career-long photographic examination of the landscape, up through Feb 24th, 2018 at Haines Gallery in San Francisco reaffirms that the answers we seek through access are often incomplete.

Exhibition review by Roula Seikaly

Art Game Hustle: Guggenheim’s 2018 Photography Fellows on What it Takes to Earn the Most Prestigious Honor

Photographing Utah's Closely-Guarded Military Installation