Griffin Gallery

About Stephen Albair –

Life’s ambiguities—love, loss, and longing—are subjects for my artworks. Found objects combined together in a tight space link, and create a dialogue. The silent conversation becomes a reflection of my experiences as an artist, teacher, traveler, and twin. This process is based on traditional tableau photography in which models on a stage remain motionless for an observer. The camera simply records the scene.
In my works, Found objects combined together in a tight space link, and create a dialogue. Just as there are many ways of looking at the past and the present, tableaus narrate many possibilities. Story threads diverge while the viewer searches for meaning. The resulting photograph has a painterly quality which reveals and conceals layers of information. While specific interpretations are left to the viewer, according to their own experiences, my staged objects create an expectation that something meaningful just happened—or is about to.

Statement
In my garden, I see the morning light in a dewdrop. The single last seed on a dandelion. A bug perched on a blade of grass. The furry little hands of a squirrel exploring me for a peanut. It is these sublime moments that catch my attention. My digital camera is usually handy. I do not want to miss that pollen-covered wild bee in the Agastache blossom.

It starts with a digital photograph. From there, it becomes an inkjet negative, and eventually a Ziatype print.

Why Ziatype? Ziatype is an alternative process by which the photographic emulsion is mixed individually for each image, and brushed onto a piece of – in this case – watercolor paper. The negative is sandwiched on top, placed in a printing frame and exposed to UV light. The Ziatype process leans on similar processes that are over 100 years old. To me, it carries with it the awe and mysteriousness of early photography, the intimacy of the moment, and a dreaminess that gives me a break from the hustle of everyday life. It is hands-on, real and unique in a way that the most perfect digitally printed color image can never be.

Bio
Silke Hase is a German–born photographer who has lived in Boston for 24 years.

She gathered her first darkroom experience in an extracurricular photography workshop in high school in Germany. To build onto her early self-taught technique she began a more formal training at the New England School of Photography in Boston taking workshops for several years. She studied historic and alternative processes in workshops with Jill Enfield (Wet Plate Collodion), Michelle Rogers (Wet Plate Collodion), and Anne Eder (Ziatype).

Hase’s work reflects a diversity of subjects in a variety of formats and photographic processes.

Hase’s work has appeared in a number of solo and group shows in Europe and the United States, and can be found in a few private collections. Her photos have been published in various magazines and other publications such as ANTILISPEIS, Open to Interpretation, Backstage, F-Stop, and Shots.

Her work has been exhibited in many acclaimed international juried toy camera shows, like the Krappy Kamera (SOHO PHOTO Gallery, New York, NY – 2013, 2011, 2010), The Somerville Toy Camera Fest (Somerville, MA – 2015, 2014, 2013), Plastic Fantastic (Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR – 2015, 2014), and the Annual International Plastic Camera Show (RAYKO Photo Center, San Francisco, CA – 2013)

Hase won First Prize in the Black & White Classic at the Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA in 2009 and had a piece in the Traveling Exhibition Perceptions (Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece in 2011).

Statement
Street photography for me is an act of meditation, using breath and heightened senses to experience one instant, then another. Reminiscent of the Surrealist concept of “objective chance,” there are times when geometry, light and gesture converge, when street-level reality collides with some broader myth, and the public space stretches into something more. I try to record those moments. I search the real, looking for the really real.

Bio
With or without a camera, Diane Bennett often asks herself: Where is the emotion in these surroundings? This long-standing focus informs her photography, which merges street-level reality, broader myth and personal resonance.

Now a Boston-based photographer specializing in black & white street images, Bennett attributes her visual education to living and working in New York City, with its rich diversity, many art institutions and storied history of street photography. With an academic background in theology and psychology and professional experience ranging from social services to software engineering, Bennett’s photographic practice has grown by working with Doton Saguy (Street Photography Masterclass), Emily Belz (Advanced Critique) and Sue Anne Hodges (Digital Printing) and absorbing many years of inspired programming at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

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Solo Exhibitions

2022    Elastic Sidewalk Series, Concord Free Public Library Art Gallery, Concord, MA

2021    Elastic Sidewalk Series, Griffin Museum of Photography Griffin Gallery, Winchester, MA

Juried Group Exhibitions

2021    BCA Photo Group, The Library Show, Bedford, MA

Juror Erin Carey, Artist, Educator and Independent Curator, MA

2021    PhotoSC, Surrealism: The Unusual & the Subversive, Columbia, SC

Juror Natalie Dupecher, Curator, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX

2021    Concord Art, 22^th Annual Frances N. Roddy Exhibition, Concord, MA

Juror Sam Adams, Curator, deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA

2021    Bromfield Gallery, Streetwise, Virtual Juried Exhibition, Boston, MA

2021    Photographic Resource Center, 25^th Annual PRC Exposure Juried Exhibition, Boston, MA

Juror Kris Graves, Artist and Publisher of Kris Graves Projects, NY

2021    Griffin Museum, 27^th Juried Exhibition, Winchester, MA

Juror Arnika Dawkins, Owner, Arnika Dawkins Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2020    Griffin Museum, 26^th Juried Exhibition, (Virtual) Winchester, MA

Juror Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director, Griffin Museum of Photography

2020    SE Center for Photography, Black, White & More, Greenville, SC

Juror Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director, Griffin Museum of Photography

2019    Cambridge Art Association, 2019 Open Photo Exhibit, Cambridge, MA

Juror Karen Haas, Lane Curator of Photographs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

2019    New England School of Photography, Untold Stories Juried Exhibition, Waltham, MA

Juror Emily Belz, Artist/Instructor, Griffin Museum and deCordova Museum, MA

2019    Suffolk University Law School, Public Domain Day Exhibition, Boston, MA

Juror Erin Carey, Academic Director, New England School of Photography

 

View Diane Bennett’s Website.

Statement
What if we were able to let go of our egos, to believe we are one small part of the natural world, taking what we need instead of all we can get, giving all we can so all the other species of flora and fauna on this precious Earth can live, too? I walk in the shade of trees, in meadows and alongside streams and on mountaintops, listening to birds and insects and coyotes and the wind and sometimes silence, smelling green, dirt, rocks, the ocean, the deer that bedded down in the leaves the night before, feeling the sun and snow — and I feel happy and so lucky to be here. This is how I survive the news of the day. It’s what I need, and what we all really need in our lonely, disconnected souls:  to open our arms to the Earth’s wonders, to wrap our hearts around the solace it offers, to tread gingerly, paying attention, with gratitude.

Photographs in this exhibit include work from the projects “Liable to Disappear” and “We are everything, we are nothing,” and are printed by the artist with archival pigment on gampi with gold leaf and gold/palladium leaf. 

About Rhonda Lashley Lopez – 
Rhonda Lashley Lopez began printing with platinum/palladium and gold leaf in 2009 and since that time has experimented with a multitude of papers and ways of printing that help convey her messages based on a life narrated by nature.

She began working seriously in photography while earning a master’s degree, specializing in photojournalism, at UT Austin. Back then, she shot with film and printed in the darkroom. She worked in newspapers, as photographer, writer and editor, and completed a documentary photo book, Don’t Make Me Go to Town: Ranchwomen of the Texas Hill Country, published by UT Press in 2011. She taught journalism and photojournalism in college settings and worked as an editor at Austin Monthly.

After the publication of the book, which coincided with personal joys and tragedies and a move to a tiny town in the Rocky Mountains, she decided to pursue a different kind of photography, something more expressive and personal. In that quiet space, surrounded by trees and mountains, she was able to give voice, through photography, to her experiences.

A book of Lashley Lopez’ work is being published this year by Datz Press in an edition of 100 handmade books, with a special edition of 20 to follow.

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Exhibits and Honors
Upcoming: Monograph to be published by Datz Press in September 2021

Upcoming: Griffin Museum of Photography, solo exhibit, September – October 2021

Publication of photos from “Liable to Disappear” by Emergence Magazine, accompanying articles by Terry Tempest Williams and Lucy Jones – 2020

Datz Museum, Seoul, South Korea: “Philosopher’s Stone,” four-person exhibit, through August 2020

Truth and Beauty Gallery, Vancouver, online gallery solo exhibit, March – April 2020

Center for Creative Photography “Qualities of Light” exhibition and inclusion in permanent collection, Dec. 2019 – May 2020

Photography at Oregon, Eugene, two-person exhibit, Dec. 2019 – Jan. 2020

Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, International Juried Exhibition, Nov. 2019 – Jan. 2020

Work selected for Diffusion X photography publication, 2020

IPA International Photo Awards, honorable mention in professional categories: fine art, nature and editorial-environmental, 2019

Shortlisted for Hariban Award, International Collotype Competition, 2019

Artist’s books on exhibit at Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Mass., 2019

13th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers, honorable mentions for fine art, nature and alternative processes, 2019

Critical Mass 200 finalist, 2018

Griffin Museum of Photography, 24th Annual Members’ Juried Exhibition, July- September 2018

Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, group show, March-April 2018

PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, Vermont, group show, June 2018

Center for Photographic Art, online group show, first place award, 2018

Curatorial Work
I curated a number of shows at Photography 414 in Fredericksburg, Texas, including an exhibit of Imogen Cunningham’s photographs, which included copies of correspondence between the artist and fellow photographers Ansel Adams, Minor White and others. —

Documentary Work
Publication of Don’t Make Me Go to Town: Ranchwomen of the Texas Hill Country, University of Texas Press, 2011; a documentary work with interviews and photographs Bullock Museum of Texas History, Austin, Texas, talk and book signing, 2017 Schreiner Museum, Kerrville, Texas, talk, print exhibit, book signing, 2011 Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas, talk, print exhibit, book signing, 2011 Texas Book Festival, featured speaker and book signing, 2011 Texas Humanities Book Fair, 2011 Women’s conference, Hondo, Texas, featured speaker and book signing, 2011 Photography 414, Fredericksburg, Texas, individual show, Don’t Make Me Go to Town, platinum prints, 2009 Numerous other talks and book signings associated with Don’t Make Me Go to Town 

Journalism
I worked in newspapers and magazines in Texas on and off from the late 1980s to 2009, and worked at every editorial job, beginning as a writer of birth announcements and fishing reports to layout to photographer, photo editor, web editor, features editor, copy editor and finally managing editor.

Teaching
I taught journalism and photojournalism at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, and journalism at Austin Community College. (In my earlier career I taught special education in public elementary and high schools, and GED classes in my community.)

EDUCATION

M.A. Journalism: Photojournalism The University of Texas, Austin, 1996

B.S. Education, Elementary and Special Education Texas A&M University, Kingsville, 1984, cum laude 

View Rhonda Lashley’s Website.

Statement
I am interested in edges and intersections of transformation where one thing moves inexorably to become something else. When is the moment when love fades into anger and resentment; when disillusionment erupts into a violent uprising; when order descends into chaos? And when is the moment when war turns towards peace; unbearable grief shifts towards acceptance; or when pain gives way to relief?

In my professional practice I have witnessed the transformation of the human spirit. I am in awe of resilient clients who pick up the pieces of a broken life and find a regenerated purpose.

In this series: Envisioning Solitude, I seek out close-up views of known objects to reveal patterns of color, texture and form, then capture these images and layer them together to create objects of meditation on that transformative process.  Central to this series is the image of the moon – a solitary celestial body reflecting the light of the sun. In mythology the moon is alternately a symbol of love, desire, change, passion, fertility, insanity, and violence. Often associated with the feminine, the nighttime illumination provided by the moon offers us a different perspective and cause for reflection.

Bio
Vicky’s fascination with photography began at an early age. Her father was an amateur photographer and her mother a painter and pianist. From an early age she was immersed in the arts. She got her first Brownie camera at age 8 and began shooting everything she saw. Watching the magic of an image emerge from the developing tray in her dad’s darkroom; spending afternoons lying under the baby grand piano with waves of sound resonating around and through her; texture, pattern, fluidity, and change – these are the earliest influences and they continue to unfold in her work.

Vicky has lived in Tucson since 1976 when she moved here to pursue a Master’s Degree in Counseling at the University of Arizona. When she retired from a long career in counseling, she turned her attention to photography, ultimately finding her niche in photographing natural subjects. Her work with a close-up lens reflects a unique eye for composition and form. Vicky’s work hangs in galleries, as well as in private and corporate collections from Vermont to Oregon. Her work has been featured at Waxlander Gallery in Santa Fe, PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury VT and Afterimage Gallery in Dallas. She has representation through Cynthia Byrnes Contemporary Art in New York. Since 2009, 13 of Vicky’s series have received honorable mentions from the International Photography Awards. In 2015 she was selected for ASMP’s Best of 2015 (American Society of Media Professionals) and a Silver Award from the Tokyo International Foto Awards in 2019.

View Vicky’s Website.

Statement
The project Average Subject / Medium Distance is a meta commentary on the rules and tools of photography inspired by the once-ubiquitous “Kodaguide.” From about 1940 and into the mid-1980s, Kodak produced hundreds of thousands of these portable paper guides meant to help photographers take better pictures. They are peculiar and contradictory objects. On the one hand, they are visually inviting with bright colors and well-intentioned instructions that promise desirable results. But, on the other hand, they are extremely dense with information and require significant attention to comprehend and apply in the moment, thereby acting against their intended function. I wanted to see what lay beneath their recommendations, so I collected as many guides as possible from as many eras as I could find, and photographed each one individually. I then digitally covered up all the example images, technical numbers, and explanatory text by copying and pasting dust and scratches from the objects themselves. Rather than use Photoshop to seamlessly erase this information, I deliberately left obvious traces of my intervention. In each composition, only a single word remains in its original location — correct — light — shadows — appropriate — desire — etc. These words are intended as springboards for interpretation that point not only to the conventions of the medium, but also to the emotional underpinnings embedded in the act of image making. 

Bio
Andy Mattern’s recent work engages photography’s aesthetic conventions and physical materials as subject matter. With wry humor and loving critique, he deconstructs the tools of the medium to seek new visual territory. His work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle, the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Candela Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and the Photographic Centre Peri in Turku, Finland, among many other venues. Mattern has received awards for his work including the triennial Art 365 Grant and Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition as well as the Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Since 2015, he has served as Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Media at Oklahoma State University where he initiated the first photography program in the art department’s history. His work is held in the permanent collections of SFMOMA, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Tweed Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston. His photographs have been reviewed in publications such as ARTFORUM, The New Yorker, Camera Austria, and Photo News. He holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Minnesota and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico. His work is represented by Elizabeth Houston Gallery in New York.

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View Andy’s Website.

Statement
“Things that are hard to bear are sweet to remember”  Seneca, Roman philosopher

Mourning is a very individual activity. Everyone has their own unique way of remembering the deceased. For many, it is through photographs or videos. Others find visiting a cemetery comforting. For Mimi, it is through purses.

Ironically, I met Mimi at funeral. She was carrying a purse of woven gold metal in the shape of a box–almost like a woven lunch box. I commented on its uniqueness and discovered the beginnings of this series “Mimi and Her Purses.”

Mimi and her husband, Phil, come from large families with lots of aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters and cousins. Along with many family celebrations, there are also somber moments when someone passes away. To help retain each person’s memory,  Mimi chooses to use their purses for special occasions. This keeps their spirit alive and creates a living memorial for all who see Mimi wearing these handbags– reminders of the past when every outfit had it’s own matching purse.

I was invited to Mimi’s closet to see the numerous handbags and hear the wonderful stories about an Aunt or Grandmother or even a Great Grandmother who owned these remnants of times past. Inside purse is a holy card with a picture of a Saint, the person’s name, date of birth and death and whatever the previous owner left behind—handkerchief, lipstick and other inconsequential items such as band aids, packets of Splenda, price tags, toothpicks and even a sewing kit.

Each purse is a tribute to the past, creating a celebratory experience from an everyday object. By allowing the handbag and the items found inside to live a new life, Mimi captures the essence of memorable people in her life. -EC

Bio
Ellen Cantor is a Southern California artist who uses the camera to reimagine the family photo album and objects that hold personal histories in order to explore the distillation and persistence of memory.

She received a BS from The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and continued her education in Interior and Architectural Design at UCLA. She has studied photography at Santa Fe Workshops, Maine Media Workshop and The Los Angeles Center of Photography.

Her work has been featured in 21 solo exhibitions including dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, The Griffin Museum of Photography, The Center for Fine Art Photography, and The Spartanburg Museum of Art. She was a Critical Mass finalist in 2015 and 2016 and winner of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers as well as first place in the Fine Art category. She has participated in over 100 national and international group exhibitions including the Italian Cultural Exchange in Naples, Italy.

Ellen is listed under Modern Photographers on the website www.all-about-photo.com. Her photographs have been published in Harper’s Magazine, Muzée Magazine, SHUTR Magazine, Professional Photographer. Southwest Review and online in Lenscratch, f-stopmagazine, fraction magazine, rfotofolio, Voyage LA Magazine, My Daily Photograph, Lightleaked, a photo editor, Float Online Magazine, thisiscolossal and Silvershotz.

View Ellen Cantor’s Website.

Ellen Cantor Title Sheet