Griffin Atelier Gallery

Noritaka Minami has been photographing the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo for the past four years.

Minami’s series is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography July 9th through August 30th, 2015. An opening reception will take place on July 9th, 2015 from 7-8:30pm.

The architect Kisho Kurokawa completed the tower in 1972. “As a building attached with 140 removable apartment units, the Nakagin Capsule Tower embodies the future of urban living as envisioned by Kurokawa in postwar Japan,” states Minami. He also says that, “the building is a reminder of a future that was never realized in society at large and exists as an architectural anachronism within the city.“

Kurokawa’s plan was to mass-produce the capsules. Despite this, the tower is still one of a kind and will more than likely be demolished to make way for a more modern apartment complex. Each 10 foot square unit within the Nakagin Capsule Tower was built identically. Today the units are in various states depicting the personality and needs of the occupants. Minami photographs the apartments from a consistent frontal perspective that speaks to a passage of time and shows a diverted route from the foreseen path envisioned by the architect.

Noritaka Minami is an artist and educator based in Boston. He currently is a teaching fellow at Harvard University in Photography as well as a visiting faculty member at the Museum School. He received a BA in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and a MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine in 2011. He has exhibited widely in the United States, was a recipient of an artist residency from the Center of Photography at Woodstock and his book “1972” will be published by Kehrer Verlag this year.

Joan Fitzsimmons says that she tries to grow plants. “I attempted to grow wheat grass, later basil, but could only document my failures.”

Fitzsimmons’ series, Plant Life, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography June 11th through June 29th, 2015. An opening reception will take place on June 11th, 2015 from 7-8:30pm. Joan Fitzsimmons will lead a gallery talk for members at 6:15. The talk and reception are free and open to the public.

“Ultimately the seeds did germinate,” states Fitzsimmons. “They did grow, and the plants were beautiful; but ultimately I was unable to sustain them. However, I view them as not just a failure, but also perseverance. Whether they thrive or not, the photographs hold their own enigma.”

Joan Fitzsimmons is a fine art photographer and educator based in Connecticut. She has had solo exhibitions across the United States. Her work is held in many museum collections as well as in private collections.

David Welch constructs totems of waste and the accumulations of materials in our contemporary consumer world. The photographs of these monuments “aim to encourage debate about consumption and the ways in which we feel compelled to consume.”

Welch’s series, Material World, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography April 9th through June 5th, 2015. An opening reception will take place on April 9th, 2015 from 7-8:30pm. Jerry Takigawa will lead an artist talk and gallery tour of the Main Gallery exhibition False Food at 6:00pm before the reception. The talk and reception are free and open to the public. The Griffin Museum will be free to all visitors on April 22nd, 2015 in celebration of Earth Day.

“Material World is my response to our contemporary consumer milieu. By treating artifacts of consumer culture as Duchampian-inspired Assisted Readymades, I photograph assemblages, constructed by my own hand to form monuments and totems that serve as precarious externalizations of culture and social biography,” states Welch.

“These photographs of the totems act as symbolic mirrors and points of reflection for my own, as well as society’s, contemplative and critical gaze.”

David Welch is a fine art and editorial photographer based on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. His fine art photography explores social issues, using large-format photography steeped in conceptual influences from art history and economic theory. His project “Material World” has been widely published and exhibited both nationally and abroad.

David was named one of the Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward winners for 2012 and in 2011 he was selected as one of Photolucida’s Critical Mass top 50 photographers. David is a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he earned his MFA in photography. He lives on the island with his wife and children.

Bryan David Griffith explores America’s remaining independent bookstores. In this age when on-line retailers dominate the book ordering terrain, Griffith examines the remaining independents to see what marks their resilience and questions our future should they go away.

Griffith’s series, The Last Bookstores, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum January 8 through March 1, 2015. An opening reception with the artists takes place on January 10, 7-8:30 p.m. Magdalena Solé has a gallery talk and tour of Mississippi Delta at 4:00 PM. Brandon Thibodeaux has a gallery talk and tour of When Morning Comes at 5 PM. Bryan David Griffith has a members’ talk on his exhibition The Last Bookstores at 6:15 PM. The talks are FREE.

“The booksellers I met are passionately committed to sustaining their local communities and keeping the flame of literary culture alive’” says Griffith. “Far from giving up, they’re fighting back,” he says.

“The American Bookseller’s Association, which represents most independents, grew from 1,410 member stores in 2010 to 1,632 in 2013—a fraction of the 5,200 stores in 1991,” says Griffith. “This is the first steady increase in 20 years. Is this the dawn of a remarkable comeback, or a heroic last stand for independent bookstores?” asks Griffith.

Bryan David Griffith lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. He studied engineering at the University of Michigan and followed a career in consulting. Feeling unfulfilled in his job he has pursued a nomadic life and the life of a photographer. He has exhibited world wide including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Phoenix Art Museum. His work is held in public and private collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.

Like the book industry, the last decade has been a time of turmoil for photographers. In keeping with the theme of books—an elegant, functional, and affordable technology threatened by an ever-changing parade of electronic gadgetry—Griffith photographed this project using cameras without electronics on large and medium-format film, a slow but superlative craft in jeopardy. Two of the films he used to create these images have since been discontinued.

Asia Kepka is a creative in all senses of the word. Whether on assignment for Time Magazine or photographing a personal project, Kepka approaches all efforts with exuberance and out of the box thinking. She brings humor and light-heartedness to most everything she touches.

Kepka’s series, Bridget and I, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum October 14 through December 4, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is October 18, 7-8:30 p.m.

“This series of large format self portraits is my visual journal,” says Asia Kepka. “Little did I know, when I first set up my 4×5 camera, that this project would become a place where I would note and record the stories of my life. These stories are of life, death, love, loss, my family, my past, present and future,” she said.

“I grew up in Poland and while there as a child I wanted to be a nun,” says Kepka. “Thirty -something years later I am now an immigrant, an artist, and a gay woman. Through Bridget and I I am trying to tell my story and the story of my mother and grandmother, whose lives had a strong influence on me. Also by putting myself into the images, the roles of Narrator, Observer and Subjects are blurred. This allows me to explore many issues in a slow and cathartic process, quite often unexpectedly.”

“Asia has been shooting herself with Bridget for ten years since she found her on craigslist and bought her for $100. Recently Kepka decided that the project would come to an end,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “During our exhibit, Asia Kepka reveals the last image shot for this series. The image is called The Last Supper. It is a bittersweet moment for the audience as we have enjoyed the Bridget series tremendously. Nothing lasts forever as we all know so well. Kepka has changed and with that comes the desire to tell some different stories”

A gallery talk for museum members by Meg Birnbaum will take place at 6:15 p.m. October 18, 2014, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

Rafael Soldi is a Peruvian-born, Seattle-based photographer. His work is often quietly intimate and delivered from personal experience. In Sentiment Soldi re-counts the loss of the man he loved and his journey to redefine his life without him.

Soldi’s series, Sentiment, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum July 10 through August 31, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is July 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

Soldi says that the images in exhibition are “an emotional exorcism of sorts.” He says, “They represent my struggle to reconstruct a life without the very thing that I thought defined it. [A] breakup brought dramatic change to my work and I tapped into feelings that I never knew existed within me: panic, regret, fear and loss.”

A gallery talk by Aline Smithson will take place at 5:30 p.m. on July 10, 2014, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits. Members are free. Nonmembers $7. The reception is free to all.

Soldi graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His work has been exhibited internationally, and published in PDNedu, Identities Now: Contemporary Portrait Photography, Gutter Magazine, Flak Photo and Humble Arts Foundation. He is a 2012 Magenta Foundation Flash For ward Award US winner. His work is in the permanent collection of the Tacoma Art Museum and numerous private collections. Soldi works as the Marketing Director at Photo Center NW and as an independent curator and art project manager in Seattle, WA.

Rafael Soldi Sentiment is courtesy of ClampArt Gallery, New York.