Present Tense Artist Talks

Event date: July 25, 2026, 2:00 - 5:00 pm

PRESENT TENSE ARTIST TALKS are quarterly events hosted by Medium Photo that spotlight emerging voices in photography.

Each program begins with a public portfolio walk, where eight artists share a recent photographic project in an informal, conversational setting. From there, four artists are selected to deliver 15-minute talks, offering deeper insight into their work and creative process.

During each talk, artists present a single body of work projected on screen, bringing their images to life through personal reflections on process, ideas, and stories. Each presentation concludes with an open Q&A, giving the audience a chance to connect directly with the artist.

Designed to be welcoming and engaging, Present Tense fosters meaningful dialogue between artists and community. Submissions are free for Medium members ($15 for non-members), and all events are free and open to the public.

Present Tense Artist Talks, July 25, 2026

Location:

Point Loma/Hervey Library

3701 Voltaire Street
San Diego , CA 92107

Event Timeline

2:00 - 2:50 Open Portfolio Walk
3:00 - 4:30 Present Tense Artist Talks
4:30 - 5:00 Peer networking

Present Tense #9 Juror: C Fodoreanu, Founder, Fodoreanu House, La Jolla, California; Co-Founder + Art Director, level of service not required, La Jolla, California

Each edition of Present Tense Artist Talks will have a different juror of note drawn from across North America, and each juror will select three presenters for the talks, and four additional artists for the portfolio walk. The fourth presenter at each Present Tense talk is a student selected by the faculty of a participating college.

About C

C Fodoreanu was born into a family with a long tradition of icon painting in Transylvania, Romania. He started painting before inherently transitioning to different mediums and modalities to create his art, from creative writing, photography and collages, to videos, drawings, installations and sculptures. His work pursues a poetry of light, and explores the human body as a metaphor for how humans relate to the surrounding nature and each other, faith, mythology, play, love, intimacy, memory, fleetingness of time, and the fragility of life.

C Fodoreanu holds a BA in Philosophy from UC San Diego, an MD from Harvard Medical School, and a MFA from School of Visual Arts in New York. As a physician who studied philosophy and art, he developed an intimate knowledge of the human anatomy and psyche, and a keen psycho-social acumen. This affords him a unique position as an artist to relate, transcend, and personalize his understandings of humans and human nature into layered visual works. He is the author of three poetry books (Romanian), a photography monograph (English), and his visual work belongs to private collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

C Fodoreanu is the founder of Fodoreanu House, a premier Art Atelier in La Jolla, CA devoted to discovering and promoting amazing emerging artists from all around the world through publishing and exhibiting their amazing works of art. Additionally, he is the co-founder and serves as the Art Director for level of service not required a Contemporary Art Gallery in La Jolla, CA. The gallery was founded in San Diego, CA by four physicians who are also visual artists with the goal of showcasing non-conformist artists with bold perspectives about the human body and quintessential human experiences and emotions. They are focused on supporting local artists in addition to introducing artists from US and around the world with visionary and in your face attitudes - this is not a usual art gallery.

You can find C’s work on his website www.cfodoreanu.com and you can find out more about Fodorneau House at the art atelier’s website www.fodoreanu.com and level of service not required at the gallery’s website www.losnotrequired.com. Also you can check our their respective Instagram accounts @cfodoreanu, @fodoreanu.house, and @losnotrequired.

PRESENTING ARTISTS FOR PRESENT TENSE 9

ISRAEL CASTILLO

BIO: Israel Castillo is a San Diego-based photographer specializing in documentary, portrait, and street photography. A graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography with a degree in Visual Journalism, his work explores the people, places, and everyday moments that often go unnoticed. Working with both film and digital photography, Castillo creates thoughtful, human-centered images that invite viewers to slow down and look closer.

ARTIST STATEMENT: Urban Bloom began during the excitement surrounding California’s desert superbloom. As social media filled with images of wildflowers blanketing the desert, I wondered what a bloom might look like closer to home.

During my daily commute from Normal Heights to Little Italy, I carried my Fujifilm X100F and took different routes through the city, searching for moments where nature quietly interrupted the urban landscape. Flowers growing through fences, vibrant plants spilling onto sidewalks, and unexpected bursts of color became my subjects.

Much of my work is rooted in paying attention to ordinary moments. Urban Bloom celebrates the overlooked beauty woven into everyday life and reminds us that we don’t have to travel somewhere extraordinary to find it. Sometimes, all it takes is slowing down, looking closer, and appreciating the beauty along the roads we travel every day.

israelcastillo.com | @iz_not_is

SUZANNE HANSEN OFELDT

BIO: Suzanne Hansen Ofeldt is a San Diego–based artist working in photography and installation. Her practice constructs narrative environments that examine memory, emotional residue, and the instability of place. Across projects such as, Welcome Home Swamp Carpet; Dear Red; Tell Me Everything; and Plastic Orchard, she stages and documents hybrid spaces where domestic fragments, color systems, and symbolic objects accumulate into psychologically charged scenes. These works operate between document and fabrication, tracing how personal histories are stored, distorted, and re-performed within built environments.

Ofeldt’s work has been presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, as part of the 2026 Medium Photo Festival, and at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in 2025. She holds a BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and completed postgraduate study at the European Cultural Academy.

ARTIST STATEMENT: In Suzanne Ofeldt’s compelling exhibition, “Welcome Home Swamp Carpet,” the viewer is invited to traverse an emotional landscape shaped by the compromise of safety within the domestic sphere. Through an evocative fusion of photography and installation, Ofeldt weaves a narrative rich with themes of overwhelm, anxiety, PTSD, financial insecurity, and gaslighting. The concept of home, intricately linked to mental well-being, unfolds as a battleground for a deeply personal struggle against the neglect of landlords and the impact of environmental forces.

shewanders.com/suzanne | @swampcarpet

ELLIOTT LINWOOD

BIO: Elliott Linwood’s work has been exhibited at the Alternative Museum and Artists Space in New York City; Center for Photography in Woodstock, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts; Intersection for the Arts, SF Cameraworks, De Young Museum, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco; John Thomas Gallery, and Highways Exhibition Space in Santa Monica; Museum of Contemporary Art, and La Jolla Athenaeum in San Diego, California. His photography has also been featured in F-Stop, LensCulture and other magazines.

ARTIST STATEMENT: This series functions as a diary of ephemeral social gestures and nuanced shifts in physical conditions that drew me to them over the last few months when lifting a camera to my eye. The imagery reflects fleeting qualities, sparkling through their human sense of scale.

elliottlinwood.com | @elliottlinwood1

KRIS MOORE

BIO: Born in South Bend, Indiana. Attended Stephens College and Indiana University. Studied psychology, fine arts, and theatre arts. I adopted the hippy philosophy of truth, equality, and reverence for the natural world. New York commercial photographer working for the United States State Department and aspiring actors. New Mexico video production owner and free lance video production. California continuing education with UCSD and Palomar College. Open Show co-producer. Snowcreek Collaborative founding member. Open water swimmer and mother to many dogs and cats. Happily married for 36 years.

ARTIST STATEMENT: Photography and the Art of Coping: We are living through a time of insanity and lies. I believe in honesty and truth and fairness. I long for a time when we examine our motivations and consider the broad story of a progressive nation willing to admit our errors and again strive for the idea of liberty and unity for all of us. Horrified by the tidal shift that encourages prejudice and exclusion, I turned to photography to comfort me. A dog walk, picking up beach trash, and joyful still life photography may not have changed the world, but it helped me to cope with the subversion that is MAGA.

krishodsonmoore.com | @genius.cricket_photo