Jill Enfield | New Americans Glass House Artist Talk and Reception

The Griffin Museum is thrilled to have creative artist Jill Enfield‘s New Americans glass house on the grounds of the museum this summer. We are pleased to present an in person conversation, followed by a reception for the artist.

Join us on Friday June 20th at 6.30pm at the Griffin Museum for this special presentation.

Titled “The New Americans,” this physical display explores heritage, genealogy, and homeland. Jill’s personal connection to immigration, her paternal relatives fleeing Frankfurt, Germany, in 1939, inspired a project honoring immigrants’ integral role in society and acknowledging the challenges they continue to face to this day.

Combining 19th-century wet collodion ambrotypes with digital scanning and 21st -century printing, Enfield sought to merge traditional and digital photographic practices. The distressed exterior window frames forming the glasshouse were sourced from abandoned side roads, flea markets, and construction sights, symbolizing the precarious nature of immigration that still exists today.

The wet collodion process references the technique used to document immigrants passing through Ellis Island in the 1800’s. By blending historical and contemporary elements, Enfield creates portraits reflecting both the historic technique and the present-day reality of immigration.

Photography, reliant on the interplay of time and light, becomes a narrative journey during the prolonged exposures required by the wet collodion process. The resulting stillness allows the viewer to step into the photographer’s and the subjects’ shared experience, capturing the far-reaching heritage and stories encoded in each subject’s eyes.