• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Griffin Museum of Photography

Get in Touch
  • Exhibitions
  • Events
    • Programs
    • Online Programs
    • Receptions
    • Focus Awards
  • Education
    • Programs
    • Photography Atelier
    • Education Policies
    • New England Portfolio Review – Online this Spring
    • Member Portfolio Reviews
    • Arthur Griffin Photo Archive
    • Griffin State of Mind
  • Join & Give
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Leave a Legacy
    • The Griffin Fund | Annual Appeal 2022
    • John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship
  • Shop
    • Online Store
    • Admission
    • Membership
  • About
    • Staff
    • Griffin Museum Board of Directors
    • About the Griffin
    • Members in Focus
    • Get in Touch
  • Visit
    • Hours
    • Admission
    • Directions
    • Handicap Accessability
    • Function Rentals
    • FAQs
  • Member Login
  • Login

Exhibitions

Aline Smithson | Arrangement in Green & Black, Portraits of the Photographer’s Mother

Posted on May 10, 2020

Who is the hardest working photographer, curator, writer, editor, educator, mentor, juggler, community builder, wife, mother, and friend? My vote will always go to Aline Smithson. Needless to say, I am a big fan of her photography and a witness to the results of her teaching and mentoring efforts for photographers all over the world.

As I tell the story, I met Aline through a photograph of her mother that hung in a frame on the Griffin’s walls during our 12th Juried Exhibition in 2006. The photograph was chosen by juror Bonni Benrubi. It was called “Arrangement in Green & Black (Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother) No. 10.” I would visit that photograph every day throughout the exhibition and admired it, plotting how I would save to make it my own. That never happened as I shared my plan with no one and one day it was wrapped up and returned to its rightful owner.

What struck me most about this photograph was its very wry wit.  As I fancy myself as a bit of a comedian, I respect and recognize those who see the world through the lens and sparkle of humor.  Smithson’s references to James McNeill Whistler’s own painted mother are apparent in the title of the image and stance of the subject. “The Photographer’s Mother” sits in a wooden straight-back chair breaking bread and wine from a tiny TV stand underneath a print of da Vinci’s “Last Supper”. The elements within this one frame all reference Whistler but are presented in twists and turns that are all Smithson’s own.

If you know Aline Smithson, you know she would rather not have her photograph taken. In this series her wish for anonymity remains. She stops short of naming her series “Smithson’s Mother.” Aline’s mom, on the other hand, is not at all camera-shy in any of the photographs from this series. The bond between mother and daughter comes through in their “arrangement”. Mother and daughter are both contributors and collaborators. And what fun the experience seems to be for both. And this is why we chose “Arrangement in Green & Black (Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother) to highlight today.

Mother’s Day began as a tribute to mothers who had lost sons and spouses to the Civil War. It continues now as a day of gratitude for moms everywhere. If only we could make every day a day of gratitude. It’s what moms would want.

Below you will find Crista Dix’s interview with Aline Smithson. Crista is the Associate Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Paula Tognarelli
Executive Director and Curator
Griffin Museum of Photography

Aline Smithson has arguably one of the most visible mothers in photography. Creating her own version of James Whistler’s Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, she created an iconic photographic series bringing humor, life and poignancy to her own bond with her mother. See a description of one of Smithson’s exhibits on the Griffin Museum’s website.

What did she think of this series when you approached her with the idea? What did she think about being your model?

a woman dressed as a cowboy

Arrangement in Green & Black, Portraits of the Photographers Mother No. 18 © Aline Smithson

My mother was always incredibly supportive. She was totally game, as it allowed more time for us to be together. It was a profound experience as my mother was in decline and it shifted our conversations from heath and end-of-life, to art. The series took 2 years and we were able to create 21 images before she passed away. She never saw the photographs hand-painted and she never shared in its successes, at least in this life. It’s a wonderful treasure for me to have this project to remember that special time we had together.

I remember her asking me why anyone would be interested in this work—I stated I didn’t really care what anyone thought–that wasn’t the point of the work. That sense of freedom in art making has always been part of my practice.

 

What was her favorite image of the series?

A woman dressed as a geisha with umbrella

Arrangement in Green & Black, Portraits of the Photographers Mother No. 2 ©Aline Smithson

I honestly don’t know, but my favorite image does not show up in the series.

She was dressed in a kimono with a parasol and kept laughing. I kept telling her that she had to be serious until finally I understood what was making her laugh. She was quietly giving me the finger. I managed to get one frame of that gesture before we got back to work.

How was your relationship before the series and how did it change during the shooting process? 

I don’t think it changed our relationship, but it allowed us time together, just the two of us without all the distractions of motherhood and life. I feel so grateful to have that time, filled with fun and laughter, for us to collaborate at the end of her life.

How was she as a collaborator?

a woman having supper

Arrangement in Green & Black, Portraits of the Photographers Mother – No. 10 © Aline Smithson

My mother was elegant and formal to the outside world, but behind the closed doors of our home, she had a wicked sense of humor and fun, as did my father. They both used humor throughout our lives to keep it interesting. One annual event was on April Fool’s Day which was deemed Sloppy Joe Night. My mother would present food in weird colors and combinations and we were allowed to have terrible table manners–eating with our feet or upside down–all which resulted in great hilarity.

So with this legacy of humor in our household, it made her a fabulous collaborator. She wanted to be a bit more dramatic, but unfortunately had to reign her in! She was game for anything.

 

This series was the catalyst to many opportunities and opened many doors for you. It continues to be an iconic, beloved and long-lived series. What do you think is the reason it resonates with so many?a woman is beach garb

This project has truly been shown around the globe—Russia, China, Korea, Europe, and the U.S. Many gallerists and directors have told me how wonderful it was to have an exhibition where they could hear people laughing. Humor is so lacking in the photography world. And what could be a more universal theme that making fun of one’s mother.

Another gift of this series is that when someone purchases a print, I spend time hand-painting it and that allows me to go back in time with my mother.  As I paint her face and hands, I feel re-connected to her.

You also have a series with both of your children. How do they feel about working with their Mother? Did they know their Grandmother? Were they able to see the two of you work together?

someone on a couch holding a picture

Shaq – Taylor Wessing Prize nominee, 2019

A few years back, my daughter was visiting a friend of a friend in New York and saw a copy of PDN on their coffee table–the issue where my photograph was on the cover and she was the model. She said to the friend, “Oh, that’s my mother’s photograph” instead of saying, “that’s a photograph of me.” I think my children have always separated themselves from the work and see it as my version of reality that they have participated in. They were, and are, in front of my camera so much that it was as normal as brushing their teeth. They both still are wonderful collaborators. I am truly so grateful to them.

a grandmother and grand daughter side by side

Two Generations © Aline Smithson

 

 

My children were 11 and 14 when she passed so they did get to know her. She was a devoted grandmother. I was also working on another hand-painted series at the same time where my daughter and mother worked together. Both of my children have been part of my art making since they were tiny and witnessing me create this series with my mom was just part of everyday life. They certainly enjoyed some of the costumes and props that I was acquiring—and my dog even got in on project.

 

 

You say your greatest achievements are your two children, Charlotte and Henry. What are your favorite images of them?

a child laying down a boy drinks coffee at a counter

From Left to Right – Hotel Fiorita, from series Daughter  & Cuppa, from series Regarding Henry

There is no way I can answer that. Each photograph reveals a moment in time, an age, a stage – all have equal importance and they are all my favorites. In fact, I treasure them more than any possession I own.

a boy standing in front of a fence a girl on a bed

From Left to Right, Henry with Tangerines, from series Regarding Henry &  Roman Bed, from Daughter

You now have one of America’s (and the world’s) most famous mothers. She wanted you to be a dental hygienist. Do you think she changed her mind after seeing the series?

a woman in a leopard coat and hat

Fur  © Aline Smithson

 

 

Ha! That’s true. She wanted me to have a secure future and being an artist was certainly not that. But she has always supported me. She was really proud of my achievements as a fashion editor and that continued into my art making. That project was towards the beginning of my career so she didn’t get to see my work out into the world.

 

 

You showed Arrangements in Green and Black (AGB) at the Griffin in 2010 and then had a mid-career retrospective including AGB in 2016. What was that experience like, seeing your work on the Griffin walls?

woman with mirror in front of her face

Self & Others  © Aline Smithson

Anyone walking into the beautiful Griffin Museum space and seeing their work on the wall is a heady experience. But walking in and seeing your own work, your journey as a photographer shown on ALL the walls of the museum, is other-worldly and an out-of-body phenomenon. Honestly it was hard to wrap my head around such an honor.

It’s interesting that we all chase success and when it comes, it’s not what one expects. It’s embarrassing and humbling. It challenges your psyche, brings self-doubt and creates a bit of imposter syndrome—at least for me.

an install at the Griffin

 

That saying, I was blown away with the layout and presentation of the exhibition, the beautiful orange wall that welcomed visitors into the show, the banners with my work outside of the museum—it was all magic. I feel so lucky and grateful to have had the support of the institution and the community that surrounds it. Truly one of the career-defining moments of my life.

 

Thank you Aline, for your creativity, sharing your Mother with us, and for being such a tremendous part of the Griffin legacy.

To see Aline’s personal work visit her website at Aline Smithson. To see more of the community of photographers Aline nurtures and supports, visit Lenscratch for a daily dose of creativity and inclusion in all things photo.

Filed Under: Blog, Exhibitions Tagged With: aline smithson, gelatin silver print, hand painted photograph, mothers day

Corona | Online Exhibition 2020

Posted on April 27, 2020

Blythe King

© Blythe King – With Pleasure

It’s spring, and we are all physically distanced and living via the interwebs to have shared experiences. At a time of renewal, time of reawakening, we are all yearning to break free. We hope to get outside, see the blooms on the trees, breathe deeply of fresh air, unafraid of life in the time of Corona.

.

dawn watson - glacial slide

© Dawn Watson – Glacial Slide, August 12, Lucy Vincent Beach, Chilmark, Massachusetts

Let’s brighten our outlook on Corona. In science terms, a Corona is a usually colored circle often seen around and close to a luminous body (such as the sun or moon) caused by diffraction produced by suspended droplets or occasionally particles of dust.

We want you to share your light with us. Send us your images of sunshine, light and spring. Metaphor, abstraction and suggestion of sunlight in addition to representational concepts are welcome.

We are looking forward to your visual contributions with our creative community.

Ellen Jantzen

© Ellen Jantzen – After Hours

Julia Borissova

© Julia Borissova from Running to the Edge, 2012

It is NOT about the virus. There are other calls you can submit to for this. Because of what we have been receiving, we are going to have to change our rules that we will not be including everything that is submitted. We thought we were clear in our call. We provided 6 examples. We may respond to you and ask you to submit another image, but because there is not much time we may just remove it and move on. We are sorry for the confusion. – PT

Filed Under: Call for Entries, Online Exhibitions Tagged With: call for entries, corona, griffin museum, griffin state of mind, light, online exhibition, open call, Photography, sunshine

10th Annual Photo Book Exhibition | Part 5

Posted on April 24, 2020

Today’s offering is the last in our series on the creative works of our Griffin 10th Annual Photobook Exhibition. Three artists from across the country telling stories crafted or envisioned.  To see the full list of works, or ti purchase any of the books you may have seen in these posts, contact Karen Davis of Davis Orton Gallery.

This is a great time to support artists and the arts community. We are believers that everyone should have access to art and creativity. Start a book collection, hold these objects in your hands. It is in the quiet moments where we can participate in someones creativity, especially through books that we engage our own.

Thomas Whitworth – Constructed Scenarios

cover whitworthThe idea for my book came from several years ago when I was pondering ways to visualize questions about the believability of photographs and their presentation of the “truth”. It occurred to me to create my own sets with tiny actors and light them and photograph them depicting scenes that might have happened or could happen and that were narratively suggestive, but not singular stories- the scenes could be interpreted in multiple ways, though they almost always suggested that something “bad” had happened or was going to happen. I additionally shot my own large background photographs from real world views and blended my fake world and real world parts together visually through lighting. So, the work presents real still life objects in a false scenario against reproduced backgrounds of actual landscapes, lit in a studio, digitally recorded and presented as archivally printed transparencies in led backlit frames- multilayers of real and unreal, or true and false. When I created enough of the pieces for a series, I of course, thought of presenting them together as a book- the book form of course, makes it easier to show the work rather than hauling around light boxes, but there is something certainly missing when looking at the images on a page versus lit up on a wall. So, I included a view of several pieces lit up and installed on a wall as the first image in the book.

What would you like us as viewers to take away from your images and text?

whitworth - mysteryTo answer the question about what I would want viewers to think about, I will take a few bits from my book’s introduction– The Constructed Scenarios series was created to involve viewers in the act of photographic analysis. The work walks a path between staged setup and photographically real representation. They are intentionally created to engage viewers into their invented narratives- the tableaus are specific enough to be familiar, but not so realistic as to be convincing illusions. These images are both story and still life, photographic reality and theatrical performance, small scale illusion and real world mimic. They present semi-factual information requiring analysis of their elements and an engaged interpretive skill- abilities that are sincerely needed to consider the truth in our vast image and information environments.

And, I will have to add that, given our current world situation, questioning what we are told before accepting it is an even more vital skill.

Whats your next project?

I am currently working on more of the Constructed Scenarios images and I intend to make a second book when I get enough of them done.

Artist Statement
The Constructed Scenarios series is created to involve viewers in the act of photographic analysis. These still lifes are built using HO scale model train figures, vehicles, structures, and lights. The backgrounds are 20″x 30″ prints of actual skies and landscapes. The objects and backgrounds are positioned and lighted to blend the 3D and 2D together. Like cinema, this work utilizes built sets, actors, props, lighting, and backdrops to form a narrative. The tableaus are specific enough to be familiar, but not so realistic as to be convincing illusions. These images are both story and still life, photographic reality and theatrical performance, small scale illusion and real world mimic. They require analysis of their elements and an engaged interpretive skill– abilities that are surely needed to question the truth of photographs in our current image and information environments.

About Thomas Whitworth

MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MA from California State University, Fullerton, CA, BFA from Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.  Professor of Fine Arts- University of New Orleans, Assistant Professor- Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN, Visiting Artist- University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.

One person and group exhibitions, local, state, regional, national, and international over 40 years.
In the collections of the State of Louisiana, Bank of America, Chicago, IL, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami Beach, FL.

Louisiana Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship 2005 and 1993, Director’s Choice Award- Best Series, Praxis Photographic Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, Best of Show- Photocentric 2017 Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY, First Place Juror’s Award- Tampa Biennale, Artists Alliance Gallery, Tampa, FL. Now lives and works in central Florida.

Constructed Scenarios
2019
11 x 14”
32 pages  26 photographs
Hard cover
Printer: Snapfish
$50

Judy Robinson-Cox – Finding Lilliput

Where did the idea for the book come from?
The book started as a portfolio style book about a series of photos that I’ve been making since 2004 that I call “Lilliputian Landscapes”. I wanted to incorporate some of my earliest images, primarily of a tiny pig. Then decided to organize the images so that it told a story.
Lilliput coverWhat would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?
I would like viewers to connect with the pig as he strives to fit in with the world, feel uplifted, and, for a time, forget about the concerns of life as we know it today.
What is your next project?
I am making a lot of new work now. Anything could happen.
Anything else you’d like to add about your process or series, feel free to add so I can make a fuller post about your work.
See “Back Story” at the end of my book.

Artist Statement: For the young at heart, Finding Lilliput, is about a tiny pig named Percy, who is no bigger than a fly. He longs for tiny friends just like him. When he learns about the land of Lilliput, he sets out in a tiny boat to find it. The book, written for children and adults, follows Percy’s adventures in his discovery of Lilliput.

The book grew from a series of photographs that I have been taking for the past 15 years called Lilliputian Landscapes … fantasy landscapes that I create with food, found objects and tiny plastic figures, then photograph with a macro lens. The miniature people transform the scene into a world with a life of its own. Cauliflower becomes a snow-covered hill, and a butternut squash turns into a construction site. I create each scene entirely in front of the camera and do not use Photoshop or any other computer tool to construct the picture.

The photographs have evolved over the years with a new theme or subject each year. They began with a tiny pig and evolved into landscapes made entirely of fruit, vegetables and 3/4” high figures. Then came sushi, Fiestaware, flowers, technology, money, games, artists, bubbles, ice, vintage objects and so on. Finding Lilliput incorporates some of my early work.

Bio: Gloucester, MA based photographer, Judy Robinson-Cox, has been creating miniature photographic tableaux for the past several years. Originally a mixed-media abstract artist and macro photographer, she creates and photographs tiny imaginary worlds to escape from the prejudices, hatred and politics that permeate our culture.

She is represented by the Square Circle Gallery in Rockport, MA; Gallery 53 on Rocky Neck in Gloucester, MA; and is in the permanent collection of the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University.

Finding Lilliput
2018
5.5 x 8.5”
48 pages   27 photographs
Soft cover
Printer: Pritivity.com
$18

Steve Anderson – Faces.  Surrealism.  book 3

…FACES is the 3rd book ( out, of 4, ) in the SURRURALISM series.
..this book,..and, the others,…explore,…    ….nature,…hidden worlds,..randomness,..dreams,..birth life death.
faces - anderson…I am very much influenced by various ‘ painting movements.’    ( Surrealism.
..Pittura Metafisica.   …Symbolism.    ..& others.)

Artist Statement: The photographs in this ongoing series, Surruralism explore birth, life, death, … dreamscapes, … family, … animals, … other worlds, in a rural setting. …influenced by painters/ paintings.   …various art movements. ( Surrealism.  …Pittura Metafisica.   ..Symbolism. )

faces - andersonThe images have not been manipulated. Everything is as seen through the viewfinder.

Bio: B. 1949.   …raised on a small farm, in N. Illinois.
…have lived in Oregon for many years.  …photos, in private collections.   …exhibitions, in the US, ..Ireland,..& the Netherlands.

Faces, Surruralism: Book 3

2018
Design: Picturia Press
8 x 10”
88 pages     175 photographs
Soft Cover
blurb.com
$59

Filed Under: Exhibitions Tagged With: Artist Books, artist made books, book art, constructed photography, David Orton Gallery, griffin museum, Karen Davis, Paula Tognarelli, Photography, photography books

10th Annual Photobook Exhibition | Part 4

Posted on April 23, 2020

Today’s selection of phonebooks in part 4 of our series showcases those who are connected to family, science and history. As part of the 10th Annual Photobook Exhibition juried by Karen Davis and Paula Tognarelli, these books highlight the creativity of each artist.

Read on.

Kate Miller Wilson  – Look me in the Lens

 In photographing my son daily, I realized I was also photographing his autism. The photos offered a glimpse into his world. Our story resonated with families and photographers around the world, and I felt the best way to portray it was in a book format that coupled my photos with my son’s insights about autism.

What do you hope we as viewers and readers take away from reading your book?

look me in the lens - wilsonAfter seeing my book, I would like readers to feel compassionate and connected – to others on the autism spectrum and to one another. We all have some of the traits of autism, and it is through these commonalities (and hopefully through my work as well) that we can connect. I want people to have a more nuanced view of autism – not solely as a disability but as a gift as well.

What is next for you?

I am continuing my work photographing my son as he enters the teenage years, although I mainly shoot large format film now. I feel that this time of transition is challenging for most kids, but it presents a unique challenge in people who rely heavily on routine. As we work through this time of change together, I hope to capture it on film.

Is there anything else we should know about you, your work or your process?

lens - miller wilson

You don’t know what you’re capable of. We’re both so worried about the coming school year, about the anxiety that could erase all the progress we’ve made this summer. But you’ve learned so much about yourself and your emotions. We can do this together.

My work, whether it’s about autism or not, is always about connection. I feel that we have never needed connection more than we do right now when we are separated from family and friends. Much of my autism series is about connecting across a barrier, and that is something we all must do now. Our work as photographers and artists is to provide the voice and common ground for our larger society during this time.

Artist Statement: Using film and digital photography, I strive to create images of tonal depth and vivid sensory detail that act as a starting point for a viewer’s unique visual journey. My work explores the themes of connection, loss, and self-discovery, often through the lens of my own perspective as the parent of a child on the autism spectrum. I work hard to produce images that walk the line between light and shadow and are faintly (or not-so-faintly) unsettling because they touch on something familiar – an emotion, a memory from childhood, a nameless longing.  I believe we are all striving to connect, no matter how different our perspectives may seem, and I hope my work fosters that connection.

About Kate Miller-Wilson

Kate Miller-Wilson is a Minnesota-based fine art photographer and writer, who believes strongly in daily creative practice and self-challenge.  She uses everything from large format film cameras and ancient lenses to modern digital tech to create work that touches the viewer and prompts connection.

Together with her son, she authored the successfully crowd-funded photo book, Look Me in the Lens, which explores how autism affects the parent-child bond.  Her award-winning work has been featured in numerous gallery exhibitions around the country and published in Shots Magazine, Lenscratch, My Modern Met, Natural Parent Magazine, and many others.

Look Me in the Lens: Photographs to Reach Across the Spectrum
2018
Other Contributor: Eian Miller-Wilson, provider of insights
9 x 11″
108 pages  60 photographs
Hard cover
Printer: Edition One
$50.00

 

Mark Peterman – These Years Gone By

peterman book coverThese Years Gone By… is a love story told through my grandparents letters from World War II. Shortly after my grandmother’s death in 2008, my mother discovered about 300 letters that my grandparents had written to each other during World War II. They had been kept by my grandmother for over 60 years and inherited by my mother. These letters provided a new insight for my family into the lives of my grandparents during this critical time in world history. From these letters, artifacts and old family photos, I have woven together a narrative that tells the story of this challenging time in their personal history.

Where did the inspiration for the book project come from?

Growing up, there was a certain mystique about my grandfather’s time in the military. There were vague stories among the family that no one could quite confirm. Those stories would come to life when my mother would show us my grandfather’s large metal foot locker that she kept with all his possessions from his time in the military.

What would you like us as viewers to take away from reading and viewing your book?

peterman - printThis project is more of a curatorial effort through family history with artifacts and old family photos. While this project is narrative driven and embraces my interest in family and world history my other work is slightly different.

Whats next for you creatively?

I have been working on more narrative storytelling projects with all the recent downtime that involve scenes I have created of small scale environments that I call Constructed Realities.

Artist Statement:
These Years Gone By… is a love story told through my grandparents letters from World War II. Shortly after my grandmother’s death in 2008, my mother discovered over 300 letters that my grandparents had written to each other during World War II. They had been kept by my grandmother for over 60 years and inherited by my mother. The letters provided a new insight into the lives of my grandparents during this critical time in world history. From these letters, artifacts and family photos, I have woven together a narrative that tells the story of this challenging time in their personal history.

About Mark Peterman – 

I’m an artist who explores narrative storytelling through photographs and multimedia using constructed realities that cross over into implied fiction. My work contains a graphic story-telling quality with a cinematic feel.

Although my work embraces the post-modern world it is highly informed by history, and research plays an important part in my work. A desire to be creative on a daily basis fuels my curiosity about the human experience, I document experiences in sketchbooks as a way of remembering my life.

My work has been featured in the Prix De La Photographie Paris, American Photography 28 and 35 Annual, PDN Photo Annual.

These Years Gone By
2018
8 x 10”
Pages: 118
hard cover
Printer: Blurb
$29.99

To see more about Mark Peterman‘s work, please log onto his website.

 

Mike Callahan – Circling and Finding

How did the book project come about?

In mid 2018, I was diagnosed with and began living with pancreatic cancer. This book (circling and finding) came to life between mid 2018 and early 2019.

callahan coverMy photography has always focused on images of the stuff of daily life ordinarily passed by or kept at the periphery. This approach was named ‘something and nothing’ by Charlotte Cotton in 2009 in her book ‘the photograph as contemporary art.’ These images interrogate the intimate cycles of identity, self-preservation and mortality.

In November 2019, I began working on a photo book considering the potentiality to generate a new prevailing behavioral contagion imagining what’s achievable in this moment of profuse creative incompletion.  (behavioral contagion is the propensity for a person to copy a certain behavior of others – originally discussed by Gustave Le Bon in his 1895 work ‘The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind’ and recently argued by Professor Robert H. Frank in his newest book ‘Under The Influence: How Behavioral Contagion Can Drive Positive Social Change‘).

Artist Statement
open hole callaghanMike Callaghan’s work focuses on fragmentation, rearrangement and reinterpretation while considering the intimate cycles of identity, preservation and mortality. Mike interrogates the subtlety of gesture and the subtlety of difference in a moment when frameworks of relationships are at once prominently visible and exhaustively hidden.

About Mike Callaghan 

Mike Callaghan is an artist and writer whose practice focuses on fragmentation, rearrangement and reinterpretation while considering the intimate cycles of identity, preservation and mortality. Mike interrogates the subtlety of gesture and difference in a moment when frameworks of relationships are at once prominently visible and exhaustively hidden. Mike’s work has been exhibited throughout North America and Europe, including at Griffin Museum of Photography (Massachusetts), Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (California), Center for Photographic Art (California), Reece Museum (Tennessee), Soho Photo Gallery (New York), Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati), Gallery 44 (Toronto), Propeller Gallery (Toronto), Elysium Gallery (Wales) and PhotoIreland (Dublin). Also, his work has appeared in a number of publications, including ZYZZYVA, Der Greif, BlackFlash, Drain, Crooked Teeth, Barzakh, Burningword Literary Journal and The Shanghai Literary Review. He earned an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.

circling and finding
2019
8.5 x 9.75”
80 pages
25 photographs

Fern Nesson – Signet of Eternity

 Where did the idea come from?

signet - fernMy father was a superb fine art photographer. In 1999, he and I published a book together about his life’s work. The book, Reflections, consisted of 100 of his photographs and six interviews that I did with him about his aesthetic and his process. Writing the book together was an intimate and extraordinary experience.  I learned so much about the life of an artist.

Years later,  when my father turned 85, he entrusted all his photographs to me: over 20,000 negatives and countless prints — the substance of his entire life as an artist. I spent a year curating and storing his work. Among the prints, I discovered many  exquisite photographs that I had never seen. I asked to interview him one more time. For the interview, I asked him only one question:

“Dad, are you afraid to die?” Here is what he said: “No. As long as I can create art, I feel alive. I don’t worry at all about what will come after. And I’ll live on in you. ”

Two years later, my Dad and I prepared a book, Envoi, comprising twelve of these “undiscovered”  black and white images and the transcript of that interview. I took the proofs to him for one last review on July 17, 2010. We sat together while he read every word and scanned every detail of the design. “It’s perfect,” he said, “don’t change a thing.” Since he looked tired, I asked, “Are we done?” “Yes. We’re done.” I rose to leave and he hugged me hard and told me he loved me. That night, he went to sleep and did not wake up.

 Signet of Eternity represents my journey  to recovery from this immense annd heart-breaking blow. I described this journey in my introduction to the book:

signet - fernWhen my Dad died and the sun went out. I felt the night sky open to infinity, icily reaching away from me in emptiness. For two years, nothing could console me for his loss. But then I took up my camera again. Without any conscious purpose, I began to photograph at night. At first, my photos were mostly black, sometimes with a tiny dot of the moon in the far distance. But, in time, more points of light crept in. Increasingly, I became more interested in finding light than in recording darkness. The dark of night became a space with the potential for illumination, for complexity, for life and liveliness, even for warmth.
This book traces my journey from loneliness, grief and the fear of death to a place where light and life continue to exist. Photography, my father’s passion, gave me the courage to face both his death and mine. As he plainly knew, my father is now part of the eternal and he makes the night brighter for me. ”

About the genesis of the book – 

I had no idea how to recover from my father’s death but , taking my cue from him, I turned to photography. What had been a life-long hobby for me, I now saw as a lifeline. My father taught me that creating art was life-affirming and I trusted him. I quit my job and enrolled in an MFA program to study photography. Three years later, I emerged with a degree and also with ths book.

In crafting Signet of Eternity, I read many books from all cultures on the themes of life and loss: poetry, Eastern religious texts, biblical texts, novels, even song lyrics. I excerpted those that spoke to me and paired them with three types of images: 1) abstract photographs, 2) Zen paintings and 3) “signets.” Signets were my way of creating smail signs that point to eternal life.  I drew the name, signets, from a line in a poem by the great Indian poet and philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore: ” press the signet of eternity upon many a fleeting moment of your life.”  In the book, I arranged the texts and the photographs to represent my jouney from darkness into light. The book begins with despairing texts and dark photographs and progresses to more transcendent writing and bursts of color in the images.

 Signet of Eternity  mirrors my own journey from despair to acceptance, to joy, and from amateur to fine art photographer. Since publishing this book, I have done several other photobooks and have more in the works. But Signet of Eternity, dedicated to my father, and a lifeline to me, will always be the one that is closest to my heart.

As Rabindranath Tagore so eloquently put it:

“All things rush on, they stop not,

no power can hold them back,

they rush on.

Is it beyond you to be glad with

the gladness of this rhythm?

to be tossed and lost and broken

in the whirl of this fearful joy? ”

What would you like us as viewers and readers to take away from your publication?

Art can heal.

In my introductory essay to Signet of Eternity, I make that case:

Roland Barthes asserts that ” a photograph is a witness, but a witness of what is no more — a record of what has been.”  Every image is an image of death. But Barthes’ is wrong. His view is too narrow, too limited, even too literal. Although the camera records only a present moment it need not be “dead.”

The image itself may constitute a new, living moment.

Representational images — “decisive moments” — may very well be memento mori.  But what of abstract, non-representational photographs — images that create their own energy?  These, too, record a specific past moment but, if they hit their mark, they escape and float free of it.  An image that embodies energy and engages the viewer in a mutual experience of it is not merely a record of a past moment. It creates new energy. Like Cezanne’s paintings, it is alive; it breathes.

When I use my camera, my theme is not death.  The past and the limitations of photographic technology are trumped by physics.  Einstein’s equation runs two ways: just as energy can become mass, mass can become energy. Light and a camera produce the photograph. But a photograph can produce its own energy and light as well.

This book defies death. Creating it saved me; it brought me back to life. My father’s death was not the end for him nor was it for me. The texts I chose express a way to understand death as an event in a chain of events that precede and follow it. We were here before we were born and we will remain after we die.
The search is for the signet of eternity: what lasts? what persists? what dissipates mourning and despair? Can we escape the black hole of death through finding the light? And, in escaping, can we find the person we have lost in that very light, where, as we know from the physicists, he must, in fact be?

Working on Signet of Eternity gave me the strength to face my father’s death: to wrestle with grief, to rise from depression, to find the light and the energy to move forward without forgetting, minimizing, denying or repressing the pain.  It worked for me and I invite you to put it to work for you.

What projects do you have coming up?

I have two other photo books that are crrently in their final drafts:

Word, a memoir that consists of a rather long essay and 50 accompanying abstract photographs each including words in some form.
All Here, All Now, a book of three essays on the nature of time in physics and 75 abstract images that riff on the theme.

Signet of Eternity
2017
166 pages   80 images
hard cover  $200

 

Pamela Connolly – Cabriole

Cabriole - connollyWhat was the inspiration for the book project?
As a child I spent endless hours roaming the maze of rooms in my father’s furniture store. The shapes that filled these spaces,1960’s reproductions of ‘Early American’ furniture became imprinted in my consciousness. Fifty years on I find that looking at the outlines of this particular style of furniture open a portal to my childhood and what it felt like to be me then. I move back and forth in time as these familiar shapes surface in my day-to-day life.
What do you hope we as viewers and readers take away from your phonebook?
Hopefully viewers will be transported to an ethereal world of light and shadow that contemplates childhood memory, aging, and the passage of time.
What is next for you?
I am currently working on a series of ’Tin Houses’ (working title), which I see as a continuation of ‘Cabriole’.

cabriole hairArtist Statement  As a child I spent many hours roaming the maze of rooms in my father’s furniture store. The shapes that filled these make-believe spaces, 1960’s reproductions of ‘Early American’ furniture became imprinted in my consciousness. Without realizing it I committed these shapes to memory.

Fifty years on I find that looking at the outlines and forms of this particular style of furniture open a direct portal to my childhood, and what it felt like to be me then. I move back and forth in time as I see these familiar shapes surface unexpectedly in my everyday life.

About Pamela Connolly

Pamela Connolly has exhibited throughout the US and Europe, including at the National Portrait Gallery in London where she was a finalist in the 2015 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition. Her photographs are in the collections of Houston Museum of Fine Arts and numerous private collections. Her self-published book, ‘Cabriole’ will join the collection of the Indie Photobook Library at Yale University, and the International Center for Photography Library.

Connolly taught photography at The Horace Mann and Masters Schools in New York for 10+ years. She has also organized photo-workshops to kids at risk, most notably in collaboration with the ‘Kids With Cameras’ organization in post- Katrina Louisiana. This workshop culminated in an exhibition entitled ‘Where We Live’ at the Union Gallery at Louisiana State University and the State Library in Baton Rouge and Muhlenberg College where Connolly was invited as a visiting artist.

Cabriole
2019
7 x 9.75″
24 pages 23 photos Soft cover
Hand stitched, 3 hole Japanese stab binding
Self-printed

$75

Filed Under: Exhibitions Tagged With: artist made books, Davis Orton gallery, griffin museum, Karen Davis, Paula Tognarelli, photo books, Photography

10th Annual Photobook Exhibition | Part 2

Posted on April 20, 2020

As part of our series bringing the Griffin exhibitions off the walls and into your devices via the inter webs, we bring you the second in the series from our Photobook Exhibition, curated by Karen Davis and Paula Tognarelli.

Today’s books focus on the views of our humanity.

Oliver Klink – Cultures in Transition

Where did the idea for the book come from?

Klink - spirit heart soul
The book was 15 years in the making and the concept simmered over time. Going thru 1/2 million images, I and my publisher (True North Editions) found that the people I photographed had deep stories to share. As the title evokes, their life were in transition, they didn’t foresee the changes, slow or rapid in some cases. I experienced and observed people’s concerns about how ‘progress’ can create disconnection and alienation between themselves and their communities. Their guiding lights kept them grounded.

 

 

What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?

In a way, a photograph is a kind of time travel: it transcends geography and culture to share a moment, however brief, of true connection. I hope this collection can transport you as well. While the lives I captured are diverse, each brimming with its own unique vibrancy, I believe the photographs are all attempting to tell the same story: the Spirit, Heart, and Soul of us all.

What is your next project?

I am producing a film “Aimuldir – The Soul of the Burkitshi” that will be released at the Asian Art Museum San Francisco in October 2020. Mongolia is this vast country, knowns for its long cold winters and short cool-to-hot summers, its breath-taking sceneries ranging from deserts to the high mountain ranges. It is not uncommon to travel for days and not meet a human being, especially in Western Mongolia, the land of the Kazakh people, the largest ethnic minority in Mongolia. The Kazakhs are nomadic people, with deep traditions of “making things only with the land” and hunting with golden eagles. They are known as “Burkitshi” (eagle hunters). Their tradition, passed on from father to son was on the brink of disappearing, until the young women started to reshape the tradition and brought their Soul to the art of hunting with eagles. Meet Aimuldir, a 9 year old girl: she is fearless; she loves her eagle and her horse; and she is ready to face adversity to be a Burkitshi. As her father says: “She has a long road ahead of her, she has to learn, and she needs luck.” This is her story!

Klink Buddha

The statue was built to celebrate the 60th anniversary of fourth king Jigme Singye Wangchuck. At 177ft (54m), the statue is one of the largest Buddha rupas in the world. The first time I visited the statue, it was still under construction. The workers felt privileged to be part of this project. They showed me the inside and told me stories about hidden passages. But the most memorable moment was climbing the steep hill behind the Buddha and to be blessed by his view of the world.

Artist Statement: Cultures in Transition explores the changes that people go through, the subtleties that make their life evolve, their spiritual guiding light. Oliver Klink photographed environmental portraits of the continuity between family, work, and spirituality over 15 years, in 5 Asian Countries (Bhutan, Myanmar, Mongolia, China, India). There was no separation, but peoples’ concerns about how ‘progress’ can create disconnection and alienation between themselves and their communities became more evident. This fluidity of life is at the core of Cultures in Transition.
“Klink’s pictures are dreams manifest – they become representations of our past, present, and future. His photographs are of exotic places and people, yet they connect deeply to what it means to be human. They are about survival and hope. They are about the Spirit, Heart, and Soul in us all.” Geir Jordahl, True North Editions.

Bio: Oliver Klink studies in physics and photography were the catalyst for his love of light and the complexity of our existence. He captures our cultural changes, the environments we inhabit, and the insights into the modern world constantly unfolding in new and unexpected ways.

Klink was awarded Black and White Photographer of the year 2018 by Dodho Magazine, selected as Top 50 Fine Artist by Critical Mass (Photolucida) in 2016 & 2018, received the Spotlight Award by Black and White Magazine (2018). His book, Cultures in Transition, won eight awards for best photography book of 2019.

Klink solo shows include:  the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California; PhotoCentral Gallery, Hayward, California; Pictura Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana; Camerawork Gallery, Portland, Oregon; BWGallerist, RedFilter Online Gallery; Galerie Shadows, Arles, France; Conti Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

To see more of Oliver Klink‘s work log onto his website.

Cultures in Transition:
Spirit – Heart – Soul
12 x 13.25”   168 pages   108 images
Editor: Geir Jordahl (True North Editions
Designer: Kate Jordahl (True North Editions)
Foreword: Anne Wilkes Tucker (Curator Emeritus: Museum of Fine Arts Houston)
Afterword: Peter Finke (Professor for Social Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland), Printed in Bolzano, Italy by Longo SPA AG
$95

 

Julie Mihaly – The Attic & Radius: One Year, Five Miles

Not long after my siblings & I moved my mom, who had Alzheimer’s, from Virginia to assisted living in the Hudson River Valley, I moved from New York City, where I’d lived for 33 years, to Poughkeepsie, NY to be closer to her & to help with her care.

Thanks to my time at Vassar College, located in Poughkeepsie, I had a basic knowledge of the area, but the city had changed considerably in the ensuing decades. I began, with no particularly focused intention to walk around my new home, finally creating a body of work made over the course of a year that I called Notes in Passing.

Radius - MihalyInterestingly enough, I found that in all the images I shot for Notes in Passing, there was only one that contained a person, & even then, the person was far away & very blurry.

So I decided that my next project should feature people, in fact, as many of the people I encountered within a 5-mile radius of my home as would let me photograph them. Thus began Radius: One Year Five Miles.

Radius - MihalySome of the folks I approached declined my request, but over 750 acquiesced with kindness, support & good humor. Some also shared bits of information about themselves. All revealed the strength, diversity & uniqueness of the community I call home. They taught me that assuming anything about someone merely from how they look can be a sad mistake & that there is a universality in the challenges that life throws our way.

To everyone who helped me create Radius: One Year Five Miles, I thank you & will never forget you.

NOTE: The project that followed Radius: One Year Five Miles became the 2nd book included in this exhibition:The Attic, described below:

Mihaly - atticArtist Statement: When my mom, who had Alzheimer’s, died, I stored the possessions of hers that were hardest to part with in my attic, which also holds the remnants of my own past lives. “The Attic” is my effort to record and honor the people, places and influences represented by all that I’ve stashed on that echoey top floor.

Bio: Julie Mihaly earned her BFA & MFA in photography from The San Francisco Art Institute before teaching undergraduate & graduate photography at NYC’s School of Visual Arts, The Mason Gross School of Art at Rutger’s University & The Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. Mihaly spent over two decades working as a photo director, editor & researcher at magazines such as Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Garden Design, et al.

mihaly - atticShe has shown her photography throughout the U.S. in solo & juried exhibitions, including winning one of four WorkingArtist.org photography awards in 2018 as well as first prize in Soho Photo Gallery’s 2019 Annual Juried Exhibition. Four books of her work have been published: She Began to Realize (funded in part by the NEA), The View From Here, Radius: One Year Five Miles, & The Attic.

Mihaly lives in the Hudson River Valley where she continues her work.

To see more of Julie Mihaly‘s work log onto her website.

The Attic
2019
70 pages  30 images
12 x 12”  Hard Cover
Blurb   $85

Radius: One Year, Five Miles
2019
74 pages   576 images
Soft cover
Blurb  $91

Tetsuro Miyazaki –
Hāfu2Hāfu – a Worldwide Photography Project about Mixed Japanese Identity
hafu2hafuWhere did the idea for the book come from?
“Where are you from?” or “Where do you belong more?” are questions that I have heard for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a mixed Belgian Japanese home in Brussels (Belgium) I have always identified as ‘hafu’ or ‘half-Japanese’. In 2016 I decided to compare my personal experiences with those of fellow mixed Japanese people from around the world. At the end of a one hour talk, we try to boil down the conversation into one main question that they want to ask you, the viewer.
What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?
The project is aimed to create a sense of belonging for people with mixed (Japanese) roots and I want to represent them in all their diversity. By sharing questions instead of anecdotes, the project encourages viewer to think about their own identity and engage in a convesation about identity, without prejudice.
What is your next project?
I wanted to work on a new Mixed Roots Identity project, but being stuck at home, I decided to pick up my camera to photograph people in my town. The project is called #SafeBehindGlass (#VeiligAchterGlas in Dutch) as this is where everybody is these days: home, behind the window.

tetsuroArtist Statement: Hāfu2Hāfu is an ongoing worldwide photography project exploring what it means to be hāfu – a person with one Japanese parent. Japanese-Belgian photographer Tetsuro Miyazaki has interviewed and portrayed fellow Japanese hāfu, with a parent from nearly 100 different countries. The 120 people in this book do not answer questions but ask them: each hāfu poses a question to you, the viewer. With these questions, Hāfu2Hāfu is creating dialogue and stimulates self-reflection about identity, so that we can find answers of our own.

Bio: Tetsuro Miyazaki is a half Belgian and half Japanese photographer, based in the Netherlands. He grew up in Brussels and spent most of his summer holidays with his family in Japan. For most of his life, he has identified as ‘hāfu’ or ‘half Japanese’.

After his first year as a full time professional portrait photographer (2016) he decided to compare his experiences with 192 Japanese hāfu: one from every country in the world. This resulted in Hāfu2Hāfu; a photographic project in which he investigates what it means to be hāfu. By portraying and interviewing other hāfu and by sharing their unique identity related question to you – the viewer – we create a dialogue about identity and stimulate self-reflection. He has currently photographed 150 hāfu from 98 different countries.

For more information about Tetsuro Miyazaki  work, log onto his website.

Hāfu2Hāfu – A Worldwide Photography Project about Mixed Japanese Identity

2019
Foreword by Duncan R. Williams
Introduction by Nina M. Cataldo
18″ x 24″ (unfolded)/ 9″ x 4″(folded)
Number of pages: 152
Number of photos: 120
Soft Cover
Price:  $34(US)

 

Robert Pacheco –

Downtown LA: Who Needs It? Street Story of a Fading Era – Early 1970’s

I’m a freelance photographer living in the Los Angeles area.

pacheco = coverIn the late 1960’s in now defunct Swiss magazine Camera I became aware of the work of W. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, Eugene Atgét and others. I was blown away by their artful, straightforward, humane way of making a story telling photograph.

I eventually purchased a 35mm SLR camera. The streets of downtown Los Angeles became my outdoor photography classroom. Through trial and error my photography career began.

This book is a photo and written memory of street life scenes. After World War II the population of Los Angeles exploded. Resulting in the growth of suburbs and shopping malls. The center of the city slowly became a remnant of the city of Los Angeles. 1970’s downtown had been neglected for many years, but it was a twinkle in developers’ eyes. Though in its last hurrah it was not a dead zone, but a community for families, neighbors, long-time residents living in the inner-city.

pacheco - downtownI’ve photographed for publications, book, corporate, industrial, health care, education and non-profit foundations. From oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico to corporate executives to river rafting blind teenagers to artists in China. Many other people and situations, including for myself.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, now living about 20 minutes from downtown.

DOWNTOWN L.A. WHO NEEDS IT?

My fascination with Downtown Los Angeles began when as a child I would go with my mother department store shopping. Clutching my mothers hand we’d fast walk from store to store among the many shoppers on the sidewalk. For a little kid it was a whirl wind adventure shopping tour of downtown. Eventually my mother stopped going downtown. Not certain why, but now realize it may have been because the city shopping center was in unkept decline.

pacheco - downotwnAfter World War II the city exploded outward leaving behind unwanted remnants of a past city. People moved from the city proper to growing suburbs. With the arrival of shopping malls began the creeping neglect of downtown. By the 1970’s, in its last hurrah, old time downtown was a twinkle in the eye of developers. Although still a lively shopping neighborhood for many that lived in and around the inner-city.

In the beginning when photographing downtown street life I was not aware that these were days nearing a final chapter of the old time center of Los Angeles. To me it was a vibrant mixture of people, sounds, smells. A sense of city more so than any other community in sprawling Los Angeles. A unique city character, not a dying zone.

Walking around downtown, off and on, for about three years, I became aware of plans for downtown’s forsaken infrastructure. A long time residents future hope for downtown perhaps best described by a friendly newspaper vendor on Broadway. He mentioned an article about plans for bringing people back downtown and reconstruction of the whole central city by 1990 that appeared in the morning Los Angeles Times. He said, “There’s enough people down here already. I’m glad I won’t live to see it, but I would like to see them rebuild for those of us who have been here all these years.”

As happens, gentrification brings with it a soaring cost of living eventually displacing current residents. Urban renewal set in motion, shopping dwindled as department stores closed their doors. In 2020 ‘reconstruction’ of the central city is still a work in progress.

The photographs in this book were made by a novices trial and error, but now a memory of a fading era.

What is your next project?

Irony : During this time of world wide pandemic fear and suffering

I’ve an ongoing series. Masked Unmasked. Scenes of people in straightforward, unstyled, unrefined masked moments, without the facade often presented to the world. Whether shy or outgoing there’s no risk or vulnerability. These somewhat everyday situations become odd when hiding behind an artificial face.

They are not masked fantasies, ritual, celebration or ceremony. Just a peek at our other selves. A face behind a face. Perhaps a touch of drama or humor. Along with a straightforward unmasked portrait.

Masked Unmasked seems so trivial now when masked is a life saver, is distress, is isolation and unmasked is distress and isolation too.

Time to rethink or put the series to rest.

To see more of Robert Pacheco‘s work log onto his website. 

Downtown LA: Who Needs It? Street Story of a Fading Era – Early 1970’s
2019
7 X 8”  60 pages  51 photographs
soft cover  A&I Fine Art & Photography
$45

 

Tony Schwartz – Stories of the Batwa Pygmies of Buhoma, Uganda

Where did the idea for the book come from?

schwartz - batwaI am a veterinarian, and probably because of this, I always have had an interest in wildlife photography. In 2006 I was fortunate to be able to photograph the “Critically Endangered” mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a dense forest in southwest Uganda. I entered the forest from Buhoma, a village near one of the entrance gates. During that same trip I met some Batwa Pygmies, ancient hunter-gatherers who had lived traditional lifestyles for millennia in the same forest. They then resided in Buhoma, and were said by the tour guide to be happy not to be living in the forest any longer. This was belied by their demeanor and living circumstances.

There have been efforts to protect the gorillas, and ecotourism has provided money to hire rangers to ward off poachers, and “Gorilla Doctors” to try to deal with diseases and injuries. As a part of this effort at gorilla protection and conservation, The Batwa Pygmies were forcibly evicted from the forest in 1992, when it was designated a World Heritage Site and was named a National Park. The Ugandan government has given the Batwa no reparation, jobs, or housing assistance, nor income from the ecotourism industry. They also could no longer hunt or gather in the forest.

The eviction has had a devastating and lethal effect on the Batwa and their culture. In the year 2000, co-author Dr. Scott Kellermann, a Christian Medical Missionary, found that 8 years after the eviction, 38% of the Batwa children died before their 5th birthday, translating to a life expectancy of only 28 years. Their annual mean income was $25. Despite improvements in their condition since then, they remain classified as “ultra-poor,” i.e., they live on less than $0.80 per day.

schwartz - gorillaI had read about the conflict between animal protection and the Maasai in Tanzania, which had a similar impact on that tribe of people. And after meeting the Batwa in 2006, I wanted to learn more about them, show and tell the story of these diminutive people, and the impact on them of the eviction. I had the opportunity to do so when I returned to Uganda in 2017. I once again photographed the mountain gorillas but I also had had meetings set up with the Batwa; I interviewed nine of them, who gave accounts of their previous way of life, told a story derived from their ancient and rich oral history, and reported the impact the eviction has had on their lives and culture. The concept behind my approach is that the story of a people is best told by compiling stories of individuals, rather than reporting a summary. Photographs of the Batwa were acquired during the interviews, and as they demonstrated how they previously had existed in the forest. These images and narratives document both sides of the thorny question of how best to protect endangered wild animals. On the one hand, the population of mountain gorillas has increased associated with their protection. They remain “Endangered,” but are no longer considered “Critically Endangered.” On the other hand, this has come at great expense to the Batwa Pygmies.

What would you like us as viewers to take away from you after seeing your work and words?

schwartz - UgandaI wish the reader to meet, see and learn about the Batwa Pygmies. I also wish them to meet the gorillas, and appreciate the need to protect endangered animal species. But they should coe to understand that in the process of protecting the animals, the people to be affected by animal protection, who often are of an indigenous culture, must be considered at least as carefully and well as non-human animals – both are precious. The reader should please know that 100% of the money from sales of the book, through either the publisher (BookBaby) or (Amazon), go to the support of the Batwa, through the Kellermann Foundation. Please note that nearly twice the money will go to the foundation via a BookBaby purchase than if purchased through Amazon.

What is your next project?

My work shown in the Atelier 31 exhibition, on the walls of the Griffin Museum at the same time as this photobook show, is the first stage of my next project. That is, a photo essay, and perhaps a book, on Boston’s Chinatown, the last truly ethnic enclave in Boston.

Game playing

The Next Move

Chinatown is in danger from incursion, lack of adequate affordable housing and gentrification. Again, I am attempting to tell the story of individuals, in this case Chinese immigrants, who, like other immigrants to our nation, have enriched it and made it stronger. The stories of their successes and those of their children and grandchildren, along with portraits of the interviewees and photographs of the environs, will be the substance of the project, when finalized.

The coronavirus outbreak has temporarily stopped the project, as I have been unable to continue my interviews with the people living in Chinatown and/or closely associated with it.

Anything else you’d like to add about your process or series, feel free to add so I can make a fuller post about your work.

In 2006, my wife Claudia and I visited Buhoma, which is a village in Bwindi, in far southwestern Uganda. The village was undergoing growth, and gorilla ecotourism clearly was a part of the business enterprise of the village at that time. While there, we entered the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to trek to see and photograph the gorillas. We serendipitously also met two young men who lived in Buhoma, Musinguzi Denis, who was 11 years old at the time, and Musinguzi Amos, then 16 years old (not related, but with a similar tribal background). These two young men made themselves known to us. We developed immediate relationships with them and decided to help them go to school. The local school systems are marginal and this meant sending them to boarding school as a start. We have since had an enduring relationship, and we continued to support the two young men through school.

schwartzIn December 2017, we again visited Uganda. The primary reason was to attend Amos’s graduation from the International Health Sciences University in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Amos told us that he was the first person in his village to attain a BS degree. He now is doing an internship in Kampala and is pursuing an MS degree in public health – in his internship he now is on the front line of fighting the Covid19 epidemic there. Denis finished his nursing certificate recently, and now has opened a clinic for the poor in Buhoma. He is waiting for the epidemic to hit there. It is noteworthy that gorillas are susceptible to coronaviruses, so this pandemic could be devastating both the people and the gorillas.

After the graduation we returned to Buhoma, to again trek to see the gorillas, which indeed had prospered since the World Heritage site had been established.

We also were honored to meet and share a meal with members of both Amos’s and Denis’s families in their homes. They are among the warmest and friendliest people we have ever met. It was one of the great honors and experiences of our lives.

As noted, another major reason for my return to Buhoma in 2017 also was to meet more closely, photograph and converse with the Batwa Pygmies, to better understand their current lives and their background in the forest. At my request, Amos had arranged for Denis, me and him to spend portions of two days with the Batwa, both in a forested mountainous region outside the national park, and in the Buhoma Batwa settlement.  In each case, Busingye Levi, was our guide and on-the-spot translator. Levi is the Manager of the Batwa Development Program, which is funded by the Kellermann Foundation. He had prepared the Batwa for our visit, informing them that i wished to photograph and interview them.

During our 2017 stay in Buhoma we were also very fortunate to meet Dr. Scott Kellermann. In 2001, Scott and his wife Carol settled in Bwindi, Uganda as missionaries of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. There, while serving as a consultant to the Bwindi Community Hospital, which he established, Scott surveyed the health status of the Batwa, and then worked among them to deal with their medical needs. In 2004, Scott and Carol established the Kellermann Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting displaced Batwa Pygmies in all areas of development (through the Batwa Development Program) and to providing high-quality healthcare to the Batwa and their neighbors in southwest Uganda.  In 2013 he founded the Uganda Nursing School in Bwindi.  Scott considers that perhaps his “best accomplishment is getting people from all walks of life to collaborate on a project on the other side of the globe.”

Dr. Kellermann purchased 100 acres of old growth forest, adjacent to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in order to establish a “living history” site where the Batwa’s rich heritage could be preserved. Working with the Batwa elders, traditional huts and religious sites were created. The name chosen by the elders was the “Batwa Experience.” They agreed that this would become a venue where Batwa children would be taught the ancient ways of life in the forest. The site also has become a source of tourist income for the Batwa. It was the location for the first day of our interviews. The Batwa welcomed us by singing and dancing, and they were very willing to be photographed and to have their stories video-recorded. This was an experience of a lifetime.

Over two days I interviewed and photographed nine of the Batwa, in eight instances asking questions through Levi.  The youngest Batwa interviewed, Tumubweine Elizabeth, speaks English, so her story required no translation. Through Levi, I informed the Batwa that their images would be shown and their stories told in the United States.  Some videos also were made of the interviews, by Denis, and my son Eric, who was present for half of them. Amos also took notes during the interviews, and later translated the videos into English.  The written notes and translated video transcriptions served as the sources of the narratives from the interviews, which are replicated in the book.

Bio: Tony Schwartz was born in New York City.  Before devoting himself fully to photography, he was an academic veterinary surgeon and immunologist, on the faculties of the Ohio State University, Yale University School of Medicine, and most recently, at the Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts, until retirement in 2005. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts and Peru, Vermont.

Tony has been involved in art all his life, including drawing, oil painting and clay sculpture. Since retirement, his artistic passion has been photography, associated with photo-education at the New England School of Photography, workshops and photographic tours. Tony has had several solo exhibitions of his work, and has been in many juried, curated and invited national and international exhibitions. He has received awards for his photography, is a juried member of the Copley Society of Art, Boston, and is represented by the 3 Pears Gallery, Dorset, Vermont.

To see more of Tony Schwartz‘s work, log onto his website.

Tony Schwartz –Stories of the Batwa Pygmies of Buhoma, Uganda
Musinguzi Amos, Coauthor
Scott Kellermann, Coauthor
2019  8.5 x 11”
76 pages  56 images   Soft Cover
Bookbaby
$35

 

Filed Under: Exhibitions Tagged With: culture, humanity, phonebooks, photography books

10th Annual Photobook Exhibition | Part 1

Posted on April 13, 2020

What is better than staying at home with a good book? This week we look at the 10th Annual Photobook Exhibition currently at the Griffin. A photobook relies on the image to form visual sentences,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “A photobook that is produced well can transport us in time and place just as any book produced with the written word.”

We will break this overview of 30 artist books, all self published into a few parts so you can spend time getting to know the artists intent. Today’s offerings look at the natural spaces we inhabit.

Nancy Oliveri – Flora & Fauna , People of the Scorched Earth

Flora & Fauna Nancy OliveriFlora and Fauna evolved from my 2016 solo exhibition of found photographic compositions of dead birds, fish, insects, industrial debris and hospital waste found in the Gowanus Canal. I moved the project into my studio to have more control over staged lighting and composition of Post-Mortem Portraits.I wanted the viewer to embrace a heightened celebration of death as the force that makes life most mysterious and compelling by staging dead creatures and natural beauty through a fairly indirect and palatable metaphor. The series is inspired by Surrealism, 17th Century Dutch and Flemish painting and Victorian Post-Mortem Photography.

People of the Scorched Earth Nancy OliveriPeople of the Scorched Earth is a collection of fictional photographic landscapes created in response to the recent manifestations of and climate change  including extreme fires, floods and monster storms around the world.  It’s a series about grief and horror presented in a seductive, fantastical storybook landscapes scenes from the future and the past. My intention was to induce a state of psychological conflict somewhere between destructive impulses and denial, rationalizations and magical thinking and power of healing and resilience in the natural world.

 

Nancy Oliveri Birds Eye ViewWhat is your next project? – 

This is an image from my current work during the COVID quarantine. Since I have been working on still life photography for several years in my home studio in Brooklyn where I know the light and seasons, it hasn’t been much of an inconvenience for me.. I have an ancient and gigantic Magnolia tree outside of my window so I have been using it in my still lifes. It’s primeval and one of the oldest flowering trees on Earth so I consider it the greatest gift this spring.

 

 

About Nancy Oliveri –

Nancy Oliveri is an American who lives in NY. She was raised in a small Connecticut town named Uncasville after the Chief of the Mohegan tribe. She grew up during the 60’s and 70’s, inspired and influenced by the drive-in movie theater where her father worked. She later studied film and photography at Hartford Art School in the 80’s with an emphasis on conceptual art which continues to be a central influence in photographic and artistic practice.

She has shown her work extensively in the US and internationally including a solo show Ph21 Gallery Budapest in 2016 and also was acknowledged as a finalist for the Julia Margaret Cameron and Pollux awards and was invited to exhibit in the Berlin Foto Bienniale.

She is also a licensed psychotherapist in private in Manhattan where she works with artists, writers & creative entrepreneurs.

Flora and Fauna
2019   8 x 10”   62 pages
60 images   Hardcover   edition of 100
Self-published by Olive&Root
$200

People of the Scorched Earth
2019   8 X10”   64 pages
62 images   hard cover   edition of 100
Self-published: Olive & Root
$200

James Collins – Patio Life

Statement about Patio Life
There is a mean-looking wasp sitting on the arm of an empty teak chair on the patio in my backyard. Every day the wasp visits. Why does it keep landing on the chair?

I want answers.

patio life james collinsI live in a small town, at least spatially, in Greater Boston. The town is five and a half square miles with 42,000 residents and an abundance of tiny, often unseen critters lurking in its yards—yards measured in square feet, not acres. With a couple of chairs and a few flowers, a small suburban oasis was created on the patio. But those wasps…and these tiny spiders that seem to jump into thin air? What else is living around me?

I need answers.

The camera provides an up-close peek at my fellow patio dwellers whose respective behaviors pique my curiosity and intrigue me. All subjects seen were photographed outdoors in my backyard or front porch; none were harmed. Whether planting a single flower or large garden—you won’t have to travel far to find interesting neighbors if you look close enough.

If you plant it, they will come.

About James Collins

James Collins has over 25 years of industry experience working as an award-winning graphic designer and commercial photographer working with clients ranging from international corporations to local small businesses in the design and production of their corporate communications. His work has appeared on billboards, brochures, catalogs, magazines, tradeshows, websites and packaging. He specializes in product photography and environmental portraits.

His exhibit “Patio Life” takes a closer look at the often unseen life that surrounds us at home. The exhibit features over 20 large format reproductions of macro life, an overhead map featuring the locations of where the insects where photographed, identification guide and his book. Patio Life has been exhibited across MA, NY, NH and PA including at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center, Hopkinton Center for the Arts, the Banana Factory and upcoming at 3SArtSpace.

For more information about James Collins work, log onto his website.

Patio Life
2018  8″ x 8″ book   124 Pages
Pigment prints by artist   Soft cover, perfect bound
In custom designed box 8.5 x 8.5”
Includes package of seeds

Nick Pedersen- Ultima 

Where did the idea for the book come from?

ultima nick pedersenMy main inspiration for this book project came from seeing the incredible jungle-covered ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Being surrounded by these ancient structures of a lost kingdom that have been completely reclaimed by the natural environment was a very powerful experience. After researching literature such as The World Without Us by Alan Weisman and Collapse by Jared Diamond, I grew specifically interested in what our own cities might look like after being abandoned for hundreds of years. Through my images I was inspired to create striking juxtapositions between the ruins of modern civilization and a futuristic ecological utopia. The narrative progression of the work shows a rediscovery of these remnants belonging to the conceivably forgotten past.

What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?

ultima1 nick pedersenI wanted to take this concept and visualize it in a contemporary sense because we are facing many of the same problems as these ancient civilizations, but on a much larger scale. This body of work examines modern humanity’s role during our time on this planet and questions the legacy that we will be handing down to the next generations. Humans now have the unprecedented potential to affect the Earth to a global degree, and my images depict an extreme example of what we might be capable. With this project, my main goal is to show a glimpse into this hypothetical world and give viewers a space in which to contemplate the future of our planet.

What is your next project?

My newest series, “Floating World” is an ongoing project exploring the impending issues of climate change and sea level rise in coastal cities around the world, and depicting some of those most threatened by flooding in the future. So far I’ve worked on a few of these colorful and satirical images of urban cities on the east coast like New York, New Orleans, and Miami. The idea with this project is to create a juxtaposition showing a beautiful, postcard view of the city that is halfway underwater with sharks and other sea creatures. 

About Nick Pedersen

Nick Pedersen is a photographer and digital artist whose work primarily focuses on nature and environmental issues. A main theme in his work is “beautiful decay,” creating elaborate, photorealistic pieces that reveal a satirically, post-apocalyptic vision of the not-too-distant future. He holds a BFA degree in Photography, as well as an MFA degree in Digital Arts from Pratt Institute in New York.

His artwork has been shown in galleries across the country and internationally, recently including the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Paradigm Gallery, and Arch Enemy Arts. He has published two artist books featuring his long-term personal projects Sumeru and Ultima, and his work has been featured in numerous publications such as Vogue, Create Magazine, Juxtapoz, and Hi-Fructose. In the past few years he has also completed Artist Residencies at the Banff Center in Canada, the Gullkistan Residency in Iceland, and the Starry Night Retreat in New Mexico.

See more of Nick Pedersen‘s work on his website.

Find him on instagram at @nick_pedersen and Facebook as Nick Pedersen Artist.

ULTIMA
2015   8″x10″   88 pages
36 photographs  Hard cover
Price: $80

Roslyn Julia – Imperfect 

Where did the idea for the book come from?

Imperfect - Roslyn JuliaThe idea for Imperfect came from a series of images I had stored away and labeled “failed photographs”. They were images I thought had something wrong with each, yet I still was very drawn to the feeling of them so I decided to make the series into a book.

What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?

I hope that viewers who are artists themselves will follow their intuition about the work they like most themselves and pay a little less attention to what they are taught to consider “good” photographs, or what they feel will be accepted by others.

 

What is your next project?

roslyn julia imperfect 2I am mainly focused on an extensive book project of my series Exist that I started in 2011, which I hope to be published as a larger run hard cover book eventually. I am also in the midst of releasing a group photography zine with my publishing partner, Grace Tyson at Goldenrod Editions (a small publishing company we started last year), where we have included almost 70 artists. We also plan to release more of our own work as small run artist books down the line!

About Imperfect

Imperfect is a collection of images that show moments within a journey during a chapter in my life of intense realization and transformation. The experiences during this time led me to more wholly accept myself, my path and my photography as inherently flawed. The images, some of which I at first rejected, yet later came to appreciate, can represent the subjectivity of what one considers fit to include in the narrative of their life story. This project explores the value of what we may choose to disown at first, and how accepting both sides of the spectrum may lead to a more total picture of our world. This collection is a self-published photo book released in June 2019.

About Roslyn Julia

Roslyn Julia is a photographic artist. Drawn to the medium of photography through her sense of awe, the theme can be found all of her images. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in 2013 and is currently based in Ithaca NY.

Roslyn has multiple photobooks of her work published, including 3 self-published books. In 2019 she founded a small publishing company called Goldenrod Editions with artist Grace Tyson where they continue to publish books of their own works and others. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group shows in the US and internationally, including an online exhibition with Aviary Gallery. She has also been featured in many online publications including: F-Stop Magazine, Lenscratch, Muybridge’s Horse, Float Magazine and Fraction Magazine.

To see more of Roslyn Julia‘s work, log onto her website.

Imperfect
2019    6.25 x 8.25”     68 pages
64 images   Soft cover
Printer:  ex why zed
To Purchase  

Ellen Toby Slotnick – Apparition

 Where did the idea for the book come from?

ellen slotnick 1Living here in coastal Maine we get some pretty amazing fog. And being outdoors in the fog is so much fun, because your mind starts playing tricks on you. We can always “see” something hidden in the fog, whether it is there or not. Not all the images in the book are from Maine, photographing in fog has long been a personal favorite.

What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?

That there is a calmness, a stillness in the fog. And not to be fearful of what you can not see.

What is your next project?

Ellen Slotnick FogWell I was going to be taking several bookmaking classes this spring and summer, I hope that at least some of them are able to happen. I wanted to put together a small book on the Olson House (the house made famous by Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World). While access to the house had been fairly open and easy for a long time, it is now no longer possible to photograph inside and you now need to be on a museum tour to get into the house. I am hoping to be able to create Photo Gravures of my images and make them into a book.

Artist Statement: There is a certain fleeting elegance that can be found in the work that I do. The majestic trees that haunt the forest, the transient dignity of a once proud house that is no longer needed. A fallen tree that now lays rotting in a pond, or a building that is no longer occupied, each has a story, a history of their existence. Some long ago, others not too far passed.

These are the stories I wish to tell.

About Ellen Toby Slotnick

Ellen Toby Slotnick, is a visual artist born in Boston, MA. She received her BS degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and MBA from Simmons University. Her practice  focuses on examining the ethereal nature of structure and landscape, investigating personal histories, and uncovering the unseen.

She has had solo exhibitions at the Gallery of Photographic Art in Tel Aviv, Israel and the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA, She has exhibited in group and juried shows at the Concord Art Association, The Danforth Museum of Art, Galatea Fine Art Gallery, The Floyd Center for the Arts and The Texas Photographic Society. Ellen’s book, Traces was selected for the Davis Orton Gallery and Griffin Museum 2016 Photobook Show. In 2017 she was selected for Critical Mass 200. Her work is also held in private corporate collections.

Ellen actively serves on the board of the Griffin Museum of Photography. She has had two books published by Lobster Roll Press and now lives and works in Maine.

To see more of Ellen Slotnick‘s work log onto her website.

Ellen Slotnick - Apparition

 

Apparition
2019    12″H X 14.5″W   41 pages
30 photos
Hand made, hand bound, hard cover,  Japanese stab binding
Ellen Slotnick Printer, Other Contributor: Richard Reitz Smith, letterpress
Price: $1200 Limited Editions

 

 

Thomas Pickarski – Snow, Sand, Ice


Thomas PickarskiThe day I moved to a desert as a teenager, someone welcoming me to the area said, “Look how big the sky is!” I became intrigued with how landscapes that are void of most vegetation can strikingly portray the illusion of vast spaciousness, as well as allow for a direct experience with the raw forms, colors and surfaces that might otherwise be obscured by grass, moss, or trees.

For this body of work, I traveled extensively through the treeless arctic deserts of Iceland, the world’s driest desert, Atacama of Northern Chile, the deserts of the American West, and the mouth of the ice fjord in Greenland where the most productive glacier in the Northern Hemisphere surrenders to the sea.

I’ve created a series of landscape photographs that offer a glimpse of the most remote corners of the world. These natural settings invoke the beauty and drama of fairy tales, when long-ago giants and elfs walked the earth.

About Thomas Pickarski 

I am a multi-media visual and performance artist. The themes I work with include minor obsessions, the bizarre landscape, self realization, and social justice. I often integrate storytelling into my work through text and spoken word. I hold a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Performance Art, both from Arizona State University. I have had solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. including at The Cultural Center of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa, Florida. My previous photographic exhibition, Floating Blue, debuted at the 10th Annual Songzhuang Art Festival at the Czech China Contemporary Museum in Beijing, China, in the fall of 2017, and is currently touring 6 US cities. My self published photography books include, Floating Blue, The Middle of Nowhere, The End of Nowhere (Stories and Photographs), and, Adventures of Otto, a Tiny Toy Dinosaur. I live in Greenwich Village, New York City, USA.

For more information about Thomas Pickarski log onto his website.

Snow, Sand, Ice

2018   10 x 8”   32 pages   29 images   hard cover
Price $79
To purchase

Filed Under: Exhibitions Tagged With: book art, books, changing world, imperfection, natural world, Photography

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5

Primary Sidebar

Footer

781-729-1158   email us   Map   Purchase Museum Admission   Hours: Tues-Sun Noon-4pm
     
Please read our TERMS and CONDITIONS and PRIVACY POLICY
All Content Copyright © 2023 The Griffin Museum of Photography · Powered by WordPress · Site: Meg Birnbaum & smallfish-design
MENU
  • Exhibitions
  • Events
    • Programs
    • Online Programs
    • Receptions
    • Focus Awards
  • Education
    • Programs
    • Photography Atelier
    • Education Policies
    • New England Portfolio Review – Online this Spring
    • Member Portfolio Reviews
    • Arthur Griffin Photo Archive
    • Griffin State of Mind
  • Join & Give
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Leave a Legacy
    • The Griffin Fund | Annual Appeal 2022
    • John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship
  • Shop
    • Online Store
    • Admission
    • Membership
  • About
    • Staff
    • Griffin Museum Board of Directors
    • About the Griffin
    • Members in Focus
    • Get in Touch
  • Visit
    • Hours
    • Admission
    • Directions
    • Handicap Accessability
    • Function Rentals
    • FAQs
  • Member Login
  • Login

Floor Plan

Amy Rindskopf's Terra Novus

At the market, I pick each one up, pulled in by the shapes as they sit together, waiting. I feel its heft in my hand, enjoy the textures of the skin or peel, and begin to look closer and closer. The patterns on each individual surface marks them as distinct. I push further still, discovering territory unseen by the casual observer, a new land. I am like a satellite orbiting a distant planet, taking the first-ever images of this newly envisioned place.

This project started as an homage to Edward Weston’s Pepper No. 30 (I am, ironically, allergic to peppers). As I looked for my subject matter at the market, I found that I wasn’t drawn to just one single fruit or vegetable. There were so many choices, appealing to both hand and eye. I decided to print in black and white to help make the images visually more about the shapes, and not about guessing which fruit is smoothest, which vegetable is greenest.

Artistic Purpose/Intent

Artistic Purpose/Intent

Tricia Gahagan

 

Photography has been paramount in my personal path of healing from disease and

connecting with consciousness. The intention of my work is to overcome the limits of the

mind and engage the spirit. Like a Zen koan, my images are paradoxes hidden in plain

sight. They are intended to be sat with meditatively, eventually revealing greater truths

about the world and about one’s self.

 

John Chervinsky’s photography is a testament to pensive work without simple answers;

it connects by encouraging discovery and altering perspectives. I see this scholarship

as a potential to continue his legacy and evolve the boundaries of how photography can

explore the human condition.

 

Growing my artistic skill and voice as an emerging photographer is critical, I see this as

a rare opportunity to strengthen my foundation and transition towards an established

and influential future. I am thirsty to engage viewers and provide a transformative

experience through my work. I have been honing my current project and building a plan

for its complete execution. The incredible Griffin community of mentors and the

generous funds would be instrumental for its development. I deeply recognize the

hallmark moment this could be for the introduction of the work. Thank you for providing

this incredible opportunity for budding visions and artists that know they have something

greater to share with the world.

Fran Forman RSVP
  • Guest NameGuest AddressGuest City State Zip 
    Please Provide names and addresses of guests