MOPLA not representing LA Photographers ?

I read a recent post by local photographer J. Wesley Brown about MOPLA's 160/160 list. This year's MOPLA theme is "Celebrating 160 Years of Los Angeles through 160 photographers".

Stated on their website is : "MOPLA will showcase the work of 160 Photographers who live, work and/or have extensive bodies of work relevant to Los Angeles through our Exhibitions and Projections."

Out of the 160, PDN 30 emerging photographers are included into the mix. Yes some of them live in Los Angeles but others live in different countries. By the way, they only have 91 out of 160 photographers listed so far. Check out their list here.

Okay, PDN is a sponsor so all right, I understand that I supposed.

Besides PDN 30, Wesley research some of the other photographers listed. I checked some of those out to see if they have "extensive work relevant to Los Angeles". I did notice one thing on that list : Eva Kolenko, Jamey Stillings, Morgan Silk are all rep by Sharpe+Associates based here in Los Angeles.

Then I noticed the other names on Sharpe+Associate's roster : Adam Levey, Anthony Redpath, Comrade, Hugh Kretschmer, Steve Lippman and Zachary Scott are also on the MOPLA 160/160 list. I checked their sites - Adam lives in Portland/New York and Anthony Redpath in Vancouver. The rest live here. I grant you both Adam and Anthony probably were here before for work.

Now I didn't go and specifically check out Adam or Anthony's site for "relevant to Los Angeles". I'm just surprised the whole photographer roster for Sharpe+Associates is listed for the 160. This actually bugs me more !

Wait, I just noticed it is stated that the Pro'jekt LA curated projection show is curated by Sharpe & Associates which explains why their whole roster is in the show. I usually think of museums, galleries or specific person curating...never a photo rep agency.

Something doesn't seem right here.....

Granted, I'll still attend and check out the exhibition but this does leave a bit of a sour taste. On the plus side, I'm delighted to see many familiar names here - Aline Smithson, Susan Burnstine, Christine Caldwell, Dan Monick, Mark Edward Harris among others. Aline has done so much to help the photography community here in Los Angeles - she deserves the praise to be in the 160.

EDIT : Interesting ! I wrote this post a day ago and right before I posted this today, I check Wesley's blog to see if there's any updates and in the comments OV responds that MOPLA has change their wording. Apparently the folks at MOPLA read his post and now have changed the wording to "With the support of the Photography Community, MOPLA will showcase the work of 160 Photographers worldwide. " instead of "160 photographers who live, work, and/or have extensive bodies of work relevant to Los Angeles..."