Artist Book Talk: Carole Glauber – “Personal History”

Join us as we welcome Carole Glauber into the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Zoom Room! Carole will talk about her book, Personal History, which is being released in early November. We are so excited to have her join us! Here is a bit of information from Carole:

Our lives are much about time and how we fill it. Personal History examines the lives of my two sons, Ben and Sam—a span covering 30 years. I used a 1950’s Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera for this work, which I tried by chance, and discovered I related to the soft colors , the imperfections, and the transcendent quality of the image.

While making this body of work, I experienced countless failures with rolls of film that lacked adequate light, or not enough content. I fell in love with the square negative that replaced the rectangle I had known.  My sons’ lives, their messages, their joy, their fraction-of-a-second moments are all contained in a small square dependent on the variables and juncture of film and light.

I also realized that my photographs were not about motherhood, with its trials and tribulations, celebrations and pleasures. At centerstage are my sons who we can watch mature from an early age to becoming young men. That in itself is a blessing and linked to the spiritual aspects I feel when I look at and think about this series. Parenting is sacred work, but while we are in the midst of it, that aspect can fly right by. It is also hard to articulate because of the intensity of emotions that suddenly appear at the time of their birth and stay forever.

This is a book of photographs for everyone, of all ages, for young children to see, discuss and point and identify; and for parents and grandparents to reflect and connect to their lives and experiences. It is also a book for collectors, photobook enthusiasts, photographers, for thinkers and writers.  It is a book that can take us from a place we know to one that is new.

In my Zoom talk, I will discuss my earlier work that led to photographing my sons with the Brownie Hawkeye, my influences, some of my difficulties of such a long term project, and an examination of the project itself, including the experience of turning it into a book.

About Carole Glauber:

Carole Glauber is a photographer and photo historian, a combination that influences the images she makes. Her work has been included in over 75 group and solo exhibitions worldwide, and she has received numerous awards for her photography and photographic research. These honors include the PX3 Prix de la Photographie, Paris, the International Photography Award, the Julia Margaret Cameron Award, the Tokyo International Foto Award, the Mobile Photography Award, the PHmuseum Mobile Photography Prize,and the Pollux Award for her photographs, as well as the Peter E. Palmquist Historical Photographic Research Fellowship, the Winterthur Museum Fellowship, an Oregon Humanities Research Fellowship, and a National Coalition of Independent Scholars grant for her photographic research.

She has lectured and written about photography, and her essays have been published in the Photo Review, the Oregon Historical Quarterly, the Oregon Encyclopedia Project, Style 1900 Magazine, Artifact Magazine, and The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture. Glauber is the author of Witch of Kodakery: The Photography of Myra Albert Wiggins 1869–1956 (Washington State University Press, 1997). She appeared on the Oregon Public Broadcasting program, The River They Saw, speaking about early Oregon women photographers. Her latest book, Personal History, published by Daylight Books, is the culmination of photographing her two sons for 30 years with a 1950’s Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera and color film.