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Ruben Natal San Miguel | Collection Acquisition
We are thrilled to announce a new donation to the Griffin Contemporary Collection from photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel.
From the exhibition and series Women R Beautiful we have four prints to add to the collection. This generous donation will represent a broad selection of San Miguel’s magnum opus and years long series featuring the women of New York.
Frank and honest, the women are confident, self aware and direct with their gaze into the lens. His exhibition was featured during Women’s History Month at Griffin @ Lafayette, and we are excited to showcase the diversity and breadth of the female gaze and shared experience of portraiture at its most pure.
From Left to right –
Brotherly Love (Never Dies), Jennifer (Unlock the Vixen), 3 Muslim Girls and Nykki & Ari (Valentine Twins & Morning Glories)
In a partnership with Boston Downtown Association we had a special Mother’s Day Street Portrait studio. Ruben spent 2 hours on the streets of Downtown Crossing, creating a series of the same name. This digital collection is also part of the Contemporary Collection here at the museum.
We are so grateful to Ruben for sharing his creativity and unique vision with the museum and our patrons.
About Ruben Natal San Miguel –
RUBEN NATAL-SAN MIGUEL is an architect, fine art photographer, curator, creative director and critic. His stature in the photo world has earned him awards, features in major media, countless exhibitions and collaborations with photo icons such as Magnum Photographer Susan Meiselas. Gallery shows include: Asya Geisberg, SoHo Photo, Rush Arts, Finch & Ada, Kris Graves Projects, Fuchs Projects, WhiteBox Gallery, Station Independent Projects Gallery, LMAK Gallery, Postmasters Gallery Rome & NYC and others. His work has been featured in numerous institutions: The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Griffin Museum of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, African American Museum of Philadelphia, The Makeshift Museum in Los Angeles, University of Washington, El Museo del Barrio and Phillips Auction House and Aperture Foundation.
International art fair representation includes: Outsider Art Fair, SCOPE, PULSE, Art Chicago, Zona Maco, Mexico, Lima Photo, Peru and Photo LA. and Filter Photo Festival in Chicago Ill. His photography has been published in a long list of publications, highlights: New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Time OUT, Aperture, Daily News, OUT, American Photo, ARTFORUM, VICE, Musee, ARTnet and The New Yorker, PBS and NPR. In 2016, Ruben’s Marcy’s Playground was selected for both the Billboard Collective and website for Apple. His photographs are in the permanent collections of El Museo Del Barrio in NYC, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, The Contemporary Collection of the Mint Museum Charlotte, North Carolina, The Bronx Museum for the Arts, School of Visual Arts, NYC, The Fitchburg Museum of Art, Massachusetts, The North Carolina Museum of Art at Raleigh, NC., The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, The Studio Museum of Harlem and The Museum of The City of NY, The Provincetown Art Museum, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Museum Center at Vassar College and The Museum of Fine Arts , Boston, MA.
Brianna Dowd | Griffin State of Mind
We were thrilled to have Brianna Dowd’s series, Mother Pearl, at the Griffin Museum! Read more to hear about the process and background to the beautiful work.
Tell us a little about your background.
I have an artistic background in photography and graphic design. My journey with photography started in the digital sphere, and in my undergraduate years of college I began to work with combining 19th century processes with digital technology (ie. cyanotype, van dyke). More recently, I have moved into, especially with my thesis work, exploring creating works of collage.
What made you want to focus on this topic for your thesis?
I’ve been working in themes of identity, memory, and loss since my undergraduate years at UNC Greensboro, and developed a series about my paternal grandfather while I was there. From then I knew I wanted to have a body of work that revolved around my father’s mother as well, but was very strategic about how to approach it carefully because there was so much I didn’t know about her but still felt a close connection. I spent much time gathering photos, hearing and documenting stories, even visiting where my father grew up to aid me as I worked on what is now “Mother Pearl”. My love and appreciation for family, history, and paying homage to those who came before us was a huge inspiration in me choosing to move forward with this being my thesis work, as well as my personal experience with connecting to those who are no longer with us.
Is there anything in particular that drew you to photography originally?
I would say nothing as far as a subject drew me to photography specifically, but more so the way photography has been and can be used. I grew up with parents who were wedding photographers, and to see them interact with couples and share in so many love stories helped me learn how important photography was with capturing important moments in life. My college journey specifically gave me a deeper love for photography, as I came to see the medium more than a means to record information and events, but one that can be used as a means to tell stories, express feelings, and encourage conversation.
Has there been a piece of contemporary art that has particularly engaged or moved you?
There are so many pieces I could choose from, but I would like to salute a body of work entitled Sugar Coat, by Christina Leslie who is based in Toronto, CA. Her entire series was emotionally and visually moving, and it serves as a means of education and dialogue about the truths around the history of sugar, slavery, and the Caribbean Diaspora. Her finished photographs were produced from sugar and presented to the viewer appropriated pieces of pro-slave literature, sugar ads, etc.
ABOUT BRIANNA DOWD
Brianna Dowd is an NC based artist whose background is in fine art photography and graphic design. She is a 2017 graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro obtaining a Bachelors of Fine Art degree, and is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Art at the Savannah College of Art & Design.
Brianna is also the founder and CEO of Butterfly Visuals, LLC, a media company providing quality service to creative and goal oriented individuals in the areas of photography, graphic design, website design, promotional design, branding materials, social media content, and more.
We Got the Grant!!
THE GRIFFIN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY is thrilled to announce the award of a $60,000 Cummings Foundation Grant!
The Cummings Foundation Artist Residency
Winchester, MA – The Griffin Museum of Photography is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a generous grant from the Cummings Foundation to support artist residencies over the next three years. This funding will enable the museum to provide exceptional opportunities for emerging and established photographers of diverse backgrounds to pursue their creative endeavors and engage with the local community in Winchester.
The Griffin Museum is one of 150 local nonprofits that will share in $30 million through Cummings Foundation’s major annual grants program. The Winchester based organization was selected from a total of 630 applicants during a competitive review process. It will receive $60,000 over the next three years.
The Cummings Foundation, renowned for its commitment to supporting local organizations, has once again demonstrated its unwavering dedication to the arts. Their belief in the transformative power of photography and their commitment to fostering artistic growth align perfectly with the Griffin Museum’s mission to cultivate an appreciation and understanding of the art of photography.
The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program primarily supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties.
The majority of the grant decisions were made by about 90 volunteers. They worked across a variety of committees to review and discuss the proposals and then, together, determine which requests would be funded. Among these community volunteers were business and nonprofit leaders, mayors, college presidents, and experts in areas such as finance and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion).
“It would not be possible for the Foundation to hire the diversity and depth of expertise and insights that our volunteers bring to the process,” said Vyriotes. “We so appreciate the substantial time and thought they dedicated toward ensuring that our democratized version of philanthropy results in equitable outcomes that will really move the needle on important issues in local communities.”
The Foundation and volunteers first identified 150 organizations to receive three-year grants of up to $225,000 each. The winners included first-time recipients as well as nonprofits that had previously received Cummings grants. Twenty-five of this latter group of repeat recipients were then selected by a volunteer panel to have their grants elevated to 10-year awards ranging from $300,000 to $1 million each.
This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including housing and food insecurity, workforce development, immigrant services, social justice, education, and mental health services. The nonprofits are spread across 46 different cities and towns.
Cummings Foundation has now awarded $480 million to greater Boston nonprofits. The complete list of this year’s 150 grant winners, plus nearly 1,500 previous recipients, is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
Through this grant, the Griffin Museum of Photography will be able to invite artists of typically underrepresented identities to reside within our organization for a designated period. These artist residencies will provide photographers with a unique platform to experiment with innovative ideas, and explore pertinent issues in the contemporary world.
The financial support from the Cummings Foundation will ensure that the Griffin Museum can provide these artists with essential resources and tools during their residencies. From access to equipment, competitive honoraria, and per diems, the artists will have everything they need to realize their artistic visions.
“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Cummings Foundation for their extraordinary generosity and commitment to the arts,” said Crista Dix, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “This grant will empower us to nurture the talents of photographers, connecting them with the Winchester community, through education and visual literacy programs. We are currently in the midst of making artist selections, and are thrilled to hear from new voices and amplify them by way of our amazing museum’s platform.”
The Griffin Museum of Photography is eager to embark on this exciting journey made possible by the Cummings Foundation’s support. The residencies will not only enrich the artistic practices of the participating photographers but will also contribute to the cultural landscape of our local community and beyond.
About the Cummings Foundation
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester, MA and has grown to be one of the largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities, in Marlborough and Woburn, and Cummings Health Sciences, LLC. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
Rohina Hoffman | Griffin State of Mind
Our shared and common humanity is assumed but not always evident. Making work inspired from my own personal experiences, I look for ways to further and deepen our thoughts on this connection.
In Embrace, Los Angeles based photographer Rohina Hoffman reflects on the theme of uncertainty while combining two of her photographic projects. In Gratitude, made during the pandemic, is a typology of portraits celebrating food and family and how we find comfort in times of unease. Generation 1.75 is a visual memoir of identity, belonging, and the complexities of acculturation.
Embrace will be on display at the Griffin until May 28, 2023.
Tell us a little about your background.
I grew up in a family of doctors spanning three generations. I also became a doctor, specifically a neurologist. Despite our emphasis on science, everyone in my family also had artistic pursuits. Since high school,I have always been involved with photography and decided about ten years ago to focus on it.
Can you explain the thought behind your show, and why it is presented in the way it is?
I wanted the show to be a sensory engaging experience. There are the photographs of course, but there is also text (both prose and poetry), scent, in the form of a reed diffuser, and my book, Embrace, to hold and touch and skim through.
What feeling do you hope to leave your viewers with when surrounded by your work?
Walking into the Griffin Gallery, I want viewers to be wholly embraced by the art and to feel alive. I hope they that they feel and connect with the photographs and text elements, and walk out of the gallery with a softer more hopeful heart.
What is a literary, musical or visual obsession you have at the moment?
I am currently obsessed with Maira Kalman and her books (most recent being “Women Holding Things”.) Her combination of witty text and bold colorful images, her simple playful approach about the human condition is at once personal and universal. I can read them over and over again.
ABOUT ROHINA HOFFMAN:
Rohina is a fine art photographer whose practice uses portraiture and the natural world to investigate themes of identity, home, adolescence and the female experience.
Born in India and raised in New Jersey, Rohina grew up in a family of doctors spanning three generations. While an undergraduate at Brown University, Rohina also studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and she was a staff photographer for the Brown Daily Herald. A graduate of Brown University Medical School and resident at UCLA Medical Center, her training led to a career as a neurologist.
A skilled observer of her patients, Rohina was instilled with a deep and unique appreciation of the human experience. Her ability to forge the sacred trust between doctor and patient has been instrumental in fostering a parallel connection between photographer and subject.
Rohina published her first monograph Hair Stories with Damiani Editore (February 2019) accompanied by a solo exhibition at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School. Her monograph, Hair Stories, is held in many notable public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty, Cleveland Institute of Art, and over twenty-five university libraries.
Her second monograph, Embrace, with Schilt Publishing was just released October 2022 (Europe) and January 2023 (U.S.).
In 2021, she was the winner of the Altanta Photography Group’s Purchase Award and several of her prints were acquired by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.
Her photographs have been exhibited in juried group shows both nationally and internationally in venues such as The Center for Fine Art Photography, Griffin Museum, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Los Angeles Center for Photography, Photo LA, and A. Smith Gallery. She has received numerous awards and has been published in Marie Claire Italia, F-Stop Magazine, The Daily Beast, Lenscratch, Shots Magazine, and Edge of Humanity among others. She lives with her husband, three children and two golden retrievers in Los Angeles.
June is Photobook Month!
It’s that time again! We are so excited to bring you another round of conversations about the photobook! This year we are focused on the process of how to move from concept to completion.
We are thrilled to launch the month of conversations and opportunities with Mary Virginia Swanson and Susan kae Grant with their seminar on demystifying the process of publishing.
This year we have a series of Publishers in Residence. Have a book project and need some feedback? Want to start figuring out what to do with your project? We have a group of publishers, editors, designers and consultants ready to help you find your next step.
Our publisher conversations this year include one with Minor Matters publisher Michelle Dunn Marsh and Annu Palakunnathu Matthew to discuss the process of publishing Matthew’s mid career survey The Answers Take Time.
Here is a look at month of events. More are being added daily. Check back or check our events page for more information.
Seminar – Online in the Griffin Zoom Room
Sunday June 4th – 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM Eastern / 8:00 AM Pacific
Mary Virginia Swanson & Susan kae Grant | Making the Match, Bringing Your Artwork to Book Form
Panel Discussion & Book Signing –
Saturday June 10th – 3 to 6pm (at the Griffin Museum)
Tuesday June 13th – 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific Preston Gannaway & Stuart Smith | Remember Me – GOST publishing
Friday June 23rd – 6 to 8pm
Sarah Malakoff | Personal History
Publisher Conversations – Online in the Griffin Zoom Room
Thursday June 15th – 7.00pm – 8.30pm Eastern Michelle Dunn Marsh & Annu Palakunnathu Matthew
Publisher in Residence –
Saturday June 10th 11.30am to 2.30pm (Griffin Museum) – Caleb Cain Marcus
Sunday June 11th 11.00am to 1.00pm (Online) – Alexa Dilworth
Sunday June 14th 1.00am to 3.30pm (Online) – Karen Davis
Saturday June 17th 10.00am to 12.30pm (Online) – Melanie McWhorter
Saturday June 24th 11.00am to 2.00pm (Online) – Michelle Dunn Marsh
Photobook Sale!
Sunday June 25th Photobook & Ephemora Sale! 1 – 5pm – Charles Meyer Collection
The Griffin Museum is honored to celebrate the life of photographer Charles Meyer with the sale of select tomes from his personal collection of photobooks as well as collected ephemera on Sunday June 25th at 1pm. Over 150 books in the collection, plus photo equipment, including a Beseler 4×5 enlarger will be available for purchase.
JP Terlizzi | Griffin State of Mind
JP Terlizzi is a part of our show, Ties That Bind, on show now at the Griffin until April 16th.
Ties that Bind stitches together three unique visions looking at the idea of family and the rewriting of history, myth and personal narratives. These artists work with images and objects, including various materials, with the addition of stitching on found images, personal family photos. Each artist finds ways to change the script, rewrite what has been lost and gain clarity of vision.
Tell us a little about yourself and your background.
I come from a graphic design and advertising background. I work full-time as the Executive Creative Director for a retail design agency in NYC and have been creating designs in the retail sector for close to 40 years. I’m responsible for helping brands and retailers articulate their products and services, and how that visually gets communicated to consumers at retail. I came to photography much later in life, it was another outlet to express myself creatively without having to answer to clients. It allows me the freedom to explore subjects that interest me and create things on my own terms and timelines.
Tell a little about your work in the new exhibition, “Ties That Bind.”
I come from a very large and loving extended Italian family. I’ve been thinking a lot about family history and the legacies that are left behind as I age, and how much of my own family history has been lost due to family members that I have passed. Their memories and stories of family are now also gone. I wanted to create a series around objects. Objects that focus on the relationship between the family archive and personal memory that I someday could pass down to the younger generations as my legacy.
What led to your decision to use mixed media photography as a means to explore connections between past and present?
I’ve been curious and wanted to explore assemblages for a while. It seemed like a natural progression in my practice. I took a workshop in Oct. of 2021 with Dawn Surratt and really embraced the assemblage world. It was a way for me to use the photograph as a starting point and dive much deeper with the use of objects to tell more of a personal story with layers and create these one-of-a-kind pieces around each family member.
Finally, What is a literary, musical or visual obsession you have at the moment?
I’ve been visually obsessing with patterns for the past several months, specifically wallpapers. I am currently in the process of making some new work to add to the series The Good Dishes. The new work is much more colorful and elaborate with over-the-top patterns. I have been obsessing how I can make it all look visually chaotic but balance the beauty and elegance that The Good Dishes are known for.
ABOUT JP TERLIZZI
JP Terlizzi is a New York City photographer whose contemporary practice explores themes of memory, relationship, and identity. His images are rooted in the personal and heavily influenced around the notion of home, legacy, and family. He is curious how the past relates and intersects with the present and how the present enlivens the past, shaping one’s identity.
Born and raised in the farmlands of Central New Jersey, JP earned a BFA in Communication Design at Kutztown University of PA with a background in graphic design and advertising. He has studied photography at both the International Center of Photography in New York and Maine Media College in Rockport, ME.
JP’s work has been exhibited widely in galleries including shows at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Vicki Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver, The Gri n Museum, Tilt Gallery, Panopticon Gallery, Candela Gallery, The Los Angeles Center of Photography, University Gallery at Cal Poly, and The Berlin Foto Biennale, Berlin, Germany, among others.
His solo exhibits include shows at Foto Relevance Gallery (August, 2020) The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Cameraworks Gallery in Portland, OR and Soho Photo Gallery in Manhattan.
Matt Siber | Griffin State of Mind
Matt Siber‘s Collective Consciousness looks at the way we imbue preconceived notions of what the object holds, and how we re-envision that object in a new context. His work was on view as part of My Favorite Things at Lafayette City Center, downtown Boston.
What in your background do you believe had the biggest impact on your personal style and choices
I grew up in a scientific family that had a strong appreciation for art. My father and grandfather were both serious amateur photographers and they encouraged me as a kid to learn how to use a camera. Photography was my entry point into the art world and I have them to thank for that.
My first several years as a professional photographer were spent in the commercial field. My experiences with commercial photography gave me an inside look into the persuasive and manipulative methods used by PR firms to sell a brand image. When I entered my MFA program I was inclined to use that freedom of expression to examine and criticize the world I had come from in order to better understand it. My time as a commercial photographer is directly related to my main artistic practice as an examination and criticism of advanced capitalism.
My expansion into 3D media and other forms of visual expression were significantly influenced by my teaching position at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Our Photography Department takes a very broad approach to photographic practice where we tend to de-emphasize the singular photograph as art object in place of a more holistic approach that includes a range of media and presentation methods. This is when my use of sculptural and installation approaches became integral to my work.
If you were to describe your exhibit to someone what might you say?
The Collective Consciousness project was my way of adapting the approaches from my main practice to a subject I hadn’t addressed before. I was given this residency in the Chicago Public School system and was given free rein to make work that was distinctly mine. I am interested in complex systems, how they work, and the physical infrastructure that keeps them functioning. This led me to examine the objects within the elementary school without which the school couldn’t function. I arrange them in unexpected and often precarious ways in order to emphasize their presence and ask the viewer for their consideration. Much of the project was done in an empty school during the pandemic, adding another layer of context for the otherwise “idle” objects.
Could you explain your relationship to space in your photography? Additionally how does form inform your work?
When I create 3D work for exhibition I think of the pieces as having dimension and being viewed from all angles and perspectives. Much of my work ends up as a photograph, even if the subject is essentially sculptural. In these cases the camera’s flattening of space is used to my advantage as a way of fixing a gaze and locking in formal relationships within the space. In Collective Consciousness the objects needed to be returned right away, so a photograph was the only way to present the work to an audience. The assemblages were created for the camera with a single point perspective in mind. The form’s relation to the space is determined by the compression of space and the rectangular framing of a photograph. Figure and ground become fixed.
What originally brought you to the Griffin?
I ended up meeting with Crista at the Filter Photo Festival in Chicago. I was looking for venues outside of Chicago to exhibit the Collective Consciousness project so I looked to the portfolio reviews at Filter to get the prints in front of some curators. I’ve known of The Griffin for a long time as a professional in the field and a former Massachusetts kid.
ABOUT MATT SIBER
Matt Siber is a visual artist who uses photography, digital imaging, sculpture, and installation to examine large societal systems. He is Associate Professor, Adjunct in the Photography Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Collaborations | Caleb Cole & Jesseca Ferguson
Collaborations, our special print program features creative photographic artists partnering to imagine and produce a one of a kind print to support the Griffin Museum of Photography. We started the program last year, bringing artists together, combining their talents and creativity, to create unique prints, with the funds raised from your purchase benefitting the museum, its education, programs and exhibitions.
We are honored to see the next available print in the program from Boston based artists Caleb Cole and Jesseca Ferguson.
Caleb Cole and Jesseca Ferguson
Contemplating the Moon, 2023
Caleb Cole and Jesseca Ferguson
Digital collage from found photograph and handmade cyanotype artist book
Archival Pigment Print
7.2×9 inch image on 8.5×11 inch paper
edition of 20 with 2 AP’s $250
Purchase the print here, or contact the museum to reserve your edition.
Caleb Cole is a Midwest-born, Boston-based artist whose work addresses the opportunities and difficulties of queer belonging, as well as aims to be a link in the creation of that tradition, no matter how fragile or ephemeral or impossible its connections. They were an inaugural resident at Surf Point Residency and have received an Artadia Finalist Award, Hearst 8×10 Biennial Award, 3 Magenta Flash Forward Foundation Fellowships, and 2 Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 awards, among other distinctions. Caleb exhibits regularly at a variety of national venues and has held solo shows in Boston, New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, among others. Their work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Newport Art Museum, Davis Art Museum, Brown University Art Museum, and Leslie Lohman Museum of Art. Caleb is represented by Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Jesseca Ferguson works at the intersection of 19th century handmade photographic processes, collage, and artist books. Her work is held in over twenty public collections in the US and abroad. US collections include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; Columbia University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts, New York, NY; and New Mexico History Museum, Pinhole Resource Collection, Santa Fe, NM. International collections include Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, France; Museum of the History of Photography, Kraków, Poland; and The Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, England. Her artistic and curatorial projects have been supported by Art Matters, Inc., the Trust for Mutual Understanding (twice), and MacDowell, among others. Her images and photo-objects have been published in numerous books, catalogues, and articles on handmade photography in the US and abroad.
Jesseca lives and works in a co-operative live-work artist building located in the Fort Point area of Boston, MA. She holds undergraduate degrees from Harvard University and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She received her MFA from Tufts University (in conjunction with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). An artist who has had a career as an educator, she has taught courses/workshops and been a visiting artist at Boston-area art schools including Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University, Clark University, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA@Tufts).
Judith Black | Griffin State of Mind
With Family Album coming to a close at the end of February, we wanted to interview Judith Black for Griffin State of Mind.
Tell us a little about your background.
I have always loved making pictures… drawing cartoon characters, painting, taking some photos with my Brownie camera from an early age. Fast forward, in 1979 I started a masters degree program at the Creative Photography Lab at MIT founded by Minor White. I was 34 years old, recently divorced with four small children. Finding role models became an important part of my research. I was looking to see how women who were both photographers and mothers managed to balance nurturing their family and their need to have a career.
What compelled you to document your family originally?
Realizing I would not be able to spend much time away from work and home, I used the camera to record the physical and emotional changes we have all made over the years. Families are complicated…. something I hope my photos demonstrate. The photographs are a way for me to remember both the pleasures and pains of being part of and raising a family.
How has your approach to photography evolved since beginning the project?
It has been pretty consistent, actually, for the work I choose to exhibit which has always been black and white. At first, I used several kinds of film cameras. I was given the Polaroid Type 55 film, I fell in love with it. It that gave me a 4×5 negative and little print in 60 seconds. Once Polaroid and the Type 55 were gone, it was time to do something a bit different. I found that as digital cameras got better and better, I started to make more use of color. Who knows what I will do with that archive.
Tell a little about your recent exhibition, “Family Album”, and how it was conceived.
Barbara Hitchcock, formerly Director of the Polaroid International Collection, is the curator of the exhibit which pairs my work with Bjorn Sterri’s photographs of his family and his self. Barbara brought a non-chronological order to the photographs, choosing to look for visual ideas that brought small groups of photos together to spark a dialogue. It was wonderful to work with her choices!
Has there been a Griffin Museum exhibition that has particularly engaged or moved you?
I really enjoyed seeing the Lou Jones exhibit a couple of years ago. He is wonderful supporter of photography, a prolific photographer with so many bodies of work and a generous mentor.
ABOUT JUDITH BLACK
Judith Black received her Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 and was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986. She taught in the Art Department at Wellesley College for 25 years. Black’s work has been collected and exhibited in museums, from the Museum of Modern Art, New York to museums, institutions and galleries across the globe.
