Griffin Gallery

The Photography Atelier 23 will present an exhibit of student and faculty artwork from March 10th to April 3rd, 2016. The Atelier is a course for intermediate and advanced photographers offered by the Griffin Museum of Photography. You are invited to come view the photographs at the Griffin Museum of Photography, 67 Shore Road, Winchester, Massachusetts 01890. On Thursday, March 10th, the public is invited to attend the artists’ reception from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Work by Atelier 23 members includes:
Andy Schirmer: Vanishing Points, explores how the evolution of pattern recognition in humans has produced both survival skills and aesthetics;
Amy Rindskopf: Dreamed Botany, unexpected views from the greenhouse;
Claudia Gustafson: Indelible Memories, is about the internal landscapes of the human experience. The themes for this series come from the artist’s time growing up in Lima, Peru;
Darrell Roak: Solitude, features very simple subjects, including abandoned structures and landscapes;
Dawn Colsia: Celebration of Trees, includes a Kauri tree from a New Zealand rainforest and a Dawn Redwood from the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts;
Donna Tramontozzi: Optical Shards, reflections worth a second look;
Jessica Wolfe: Flora, a series of macro photos that provide a surprising glimpse into exotic flowers and everyday beauty;
Judith Panagotopulos: Aging, represents things that with age have lost their utility but have gained beauty in the processes of aging;
Jurgen Kedesdy: Crossing The Merrimack, is a project documenting each of the 45 bridges that cross the Merrimack River in New Hampshire and Massachusetts;
Kathleen Herr-Zaya: Urban Reflections;
Mary Buonanno: Ripened Beauty, images that explore the affect that aging has on organic matter and how the aging process reveals a different type of beauty;
Randi Freundlich: Children of the World/Boston, portraits (and stories) of children from immigrant families living in Boston;
Rick Branscomb: Boston at Night, concentrates on dark, atmospheric views of Boston.
Ruth Nelson: In Your Face -The Mannequins Look Back, shows the mannequins as active participants, looking at the camera as though they were human, with consciousness and attitude, meeting the world in their individual ways;
Silke Hase: Ocean’s Edge, a project that reflects the artist’s love of water and photography, using the historic wet plate collodion process.
Stephanie Smith: Once Upon a Time, a collaboration between the artist and her 15-year-old daughter, exploring fantasy and reality;
Stephen Shapiro: The Interesting Life of Bubbles, a study of bubbles in motion;
Sally Chapman: Yards of Faith, a project that studies the public proclamations of faith in the artist’s neighborhood; and
Trelawney Goodell: REFLECTIONS: A Moment in Time, shows images reflected on the surface of a building tell us about the surrounding environment, the lighting at that moment, and the surface on which the image is reflected.

Instructor Meg Birnbaum will be available to discuss the Photography Atelier at the reception on March 10th with anyone interested in joining the class.

For more than 30 years Patrick Nagatani has been sharing his narratives through the photographs he makes. Nagatani’s images take you on fascinating journeys that explore history, personal philosophy, culture, spirituality, fantasy and reality. Images from seven major bodies of work that Nagatani has completed are presented at the Griffin Museum as well as a literary and photographic novel, “The Race,” that he is currently creating with other artists.

Nagatani’s exhibition, Themes and Variations, is featured in the Main Gallery, Atelier Gallery and Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum in Winchester October 8 through November 29, 2015. An opening reception with the artist takes place on October 8, 7-8:30 p.m. Patrick Nagatani will give a gallery talk and tour of Themes and Variations at 5:00 PM. The talk is FREE for members, $10 nonmembers.

“….For Nagatani, a photograph could be more than a document of reality. He made photographs, used mixed media — always trying to stretch photographic conventions,” says Barbara Hitchcock, curator and organizer of the exhibition Patrick Nagatani: Themes and Variations, an independent Curator and former Curator of the Polaroid Collection.

Patrick Nagatani says, “There’s a certain edge to photography that’s really restricting.” He goes on to say, “It’s a controlled medium, especially in the process. And I just want to throw that control out as much as possible.”

Once a graduate student of Robert Heinecken’s at UCLA, Nagatani’s resistance to the constraints of traditional photographic practice is in keeping with his training. Time spent in Hollywood learning from models and sets for movies, among them Blade Runner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, also influenced his desire to push boundaries. He envisioned a more expansive, plastic kind of photography.

For his creative photography, Nagatani has received numerous awards, among them, the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, The Kraszna-Krausz Award for his book Nuclear Enchantment, the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Award, the Eliot Porter Fellowship in New Mexico, the California Distinguished Artist Award from the National Art Education Association, and National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships in 1984 and 1992.

A professor of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico where he taught for 20 years, Nagatani retired in 2006. The Society of Photographic Education conferred upon him the Honored Educator Award in 2008, and, in 2003, New Mexico’s then Governor Bill Richardson presented Nagatani with the “Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.” Nagatani has served as a panelist for the Illinois Art Council, Southern Arts Federation, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He remains an active member of the Atomic Photographer’s Guild.

Patrick Nagatani: Themes and Variations was partially drawn from Desire for Magic – Patrick Nagatani 1978-2008, the exhibition and monograph, curated by Michele M. Penhall, Curator of Prints and Photographs at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque. That exhibition traveled to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and was exhibited at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia.

The Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to offer a distinctive and expanded version of the initial exhibition.

The Photography Atelier 22 and Atelier 2.0 will present an exhibit of student artwork from September 10th to September 28th, 2015. The Atelier is a course for intermediate and advanced photographers offered by the Griffin Museum of Photography. The Atelier 2.0 is a peer and facilitator critique class. You are invited to come view the photographs at the Griffin Museum, 67 Shore Road, Winchester, Massachusetts 01890.

On Thursday, September 10th, the public is invited to attend the artists’ opening night reception from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Griffin Museum.

Photography Atelier Instructor and Photographer Meg Birnbaum shared, “The Photography Atelier has such a long and rich history, I’m honored to be leading this workshop for emerging photographers with Amy Rindskopf assisting. The talent among the 18 members of this group show is varied and inspiring — from our relationship with animals, landscapes, and still life arrangements, to exploding light bulbs and motherhood — the show is very satisfying feast for the eyes and soul.”

Work by 2015 Atelier members includes:
Meredith Abenaim: The One Love Project, images exploring mothering an only child; Gregory Albertson: Terra Incognita, alternative landscapes of unexplored worlds; Amy Thompson Avishai: Long Days, Short Years, photographs of her two young daughters that explore time passing and the freedom to be; Vicki Diez-Canseco; Miren Etcheverry: Recollection, revisiting collected objects and recalling the memories they evoke; Roger Galburt: Bulb Spirits, photographs of normal incandescent light bulbs, broken and exposed to air, quickly releasing white smoke; Jess Hauserman: Either, Or, diptychs discussing the public restroom experience through gender ideologies; Tira Khan: What Was/What Is: Remembrance of My Father, photographs layering past memories with present day landscapes; Lee Kilpatrick: Patterns of Prosperity, a panoramic view of consumer choice in the United States; Cheryl Prevost: Abstract Elements, abstracted relationships of natural elements manifested throughout nature; Amy Rindskopf: Left Over, images from a quiet kitchen; Janet Smith: Sticks & Stones, tranquil and whimsical images of these found objects; Joseph Staska: Dream Boats-Abandoned Ships, a photo series of boats representing lost dreams; Donna Tramontozzi: When Animals Meet, images of moments when humans and animals connect; Piet Visser: Eye of the Storm, photographs celebrating solitude and tranquility in a frantic and complicated world; Andrea Waxler: Horses, Top Hats and Old Hollywood, power, elegance, grace, and a touch of Old Hollywood; David Whitney: The Nature of Cities, images capturing interactions between natural and urban environments; Julie Williams-Krishnan: Seven-Eight, laying straight images of childhood objects.

Atelier 2.0 artists include Bob Avakian, Nan Collins, James Hunt, David Feigenbaum , Astrid Reischwitz, Amy Rindskopf and Ellen Slotnick

About the class:
Photography Atelier, in its nineteenth year, is a unique portfolio-making course for emerging to advanced photographers. In addition to guidance and support in the creation of a body of work, the class prepares artists to market, exhibit, and present their work to industry professionals. Each participant in the Atelier presents a final project in the form of a print portfolio, a photographic book or album, a slide show, or a mixed media presentation. In every Atelier, students hang a gallery exhibition and produce work for their own pages on the Atelier website. To see the photography of present and past Atelier students and teachers, please visit www.photographyatelier.org. Instructor Meg Birnbaum will be happy to discuss the Photography Atelier at the reception on September 10th with anyone interested in joining the class.

Photo critique is a critically important element of the Photography Atelier and is the main focus of Atelier 2.0. There are invited guest speakers every other class who discuss their photographic trajectory and creative process.