Griffin Gallery

Clyde Heppner is a fine art photographer who has focused largely on depicting the landscape. His training in Psychology and Eastern art has greatly influenced how he configures the environment for the viewer.

Heppner’s series, Ancients’ Views, is featured in the Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 10 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I am captivated by ancient Chinese paintings," says Clyde Heppner. “The Ancients’ Views is a series of photographs from the Chinese gardens of Suzhou and the Huangshan Mountains in China,” he says. “These locations are magical places and over the centuries Chinese master painters traveled to capture them or were inspired by them. Being in the gardens of Suzhou and the Huangshan Mountains in 2013 was a particularly powerful experience for me as it allowed me to see what the ancient masters’ saw and apply their principles to my photographic compositions."

"Clyde Heppner offers us serene studies of the landscape," says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. "In looking at each photograph the viewer is invited into the natural world to engage in sublime dialogue."

Yuma resident, David Emitt Adams has been collecting discarded cans from the Arizona desert floor. Some cans are over forty years old. They are rusty and worn and speak to the passage of time.

Adams uses the reddish-brown tin can surface as a vehicle for his wet-plate collodion photographs. The deserts of the American West were once documented by Civil War photographer, Timothy O’Sullivan and the photographic process itself has its roots in the 19th century. Adams says that the objects he creates are like relics. They have a history and the images themselves are tied to the location.

“I use the [rusty cans] to speak of human involvement with the landscape,” says Adams. “The notion of land untouched by the hand of man is so foreign it might as well be make-believe. As long as people have been in the American West, we have found its barren desert landscape to be an environment perfect for dumping and forgetting.”

A series of Adams’ work, Conversations with History, is featured in the Griffin Gallery of the Griffin Museum January 9 through March 2, 2014. An opening reception is January 23, 7-8:30 p.m.

This exhibition is a direct result of a workshop for the Griffin Museum led by photographer and educator Harvey Stein. The 3-day workshop took place in June 2013 on the streets of Boston. It focused on providing each student knowledge of and experience in photographing people in a variety of ways, including on the street, indoor locations, and in the subject’s environment. The workshop also focused on creating inventive portraits that are personally based and meaningful. Stein juried the images for this exhibition from photographs submitted by workshop participants.

The Griffin Museum will be offering Harvey Stein’s 3-day Photographing People workshop again in June 2014. Watch for details on our website.

Exhibitors include: Anne Brooks, Charlotte Donaldson, Danielle Goldstein, Nancy Hurley, Margarita Mavromichalis, Trish Neumeyer, Judy Panagotopulos, Elizabeth Scully, Karen Shulman, Cynthia Tokos, Joseph Turner, and Minglun Wang.

Diane Meyer is interested in “the failures of photography in preserving experience and personal history.”

Meyer uses embroidery on original photographs to form a pixilated representation of the underlying image. She states, “The embroidery acts as a barrier to the image, allowing the viewer to see only a pixilated version of what’s behind it.”

Meyer photographed in Berlin, in the city center as well as the outskirts on the former path of the Berlin wall. She focused mainly on the locations with no visible traces of the actual wall, interested in the psychological weight of these sites. The embroidery is an important part of her process, “his aspect of the sewing emphasizes the unnatural boundaries created by the wall itself. The sewing, which is soft, provides a literal contrast to the concrete of the wall and a metaphorical contrast to its symbolism.”

Other images are based on family photographs. Meyer says, “I am interested in the disjunction between lived experience and photographic representation. As large areas of the photographs are concealed by the embroidery, small, seemingly trivial details emerge, while the larger picture and context become erased.”

“By having the embroidery take the visual structure of digital pixilation, a further connection is made between the human brain trying to retrieve information and digital storage.”

Also incorporating embroidery, “The tactile, hand-embroidered overlay not only relates to the digital aesthetic, but also hints at the growing trend of photos remaining primarily digital—stored on cell phones and hard drives, but rarely printed out into a tangible object. The images are based on photographs taken at various points in my life and arranged by location.”

Meyer has a Masters of Fine Arts from The University of California and a Bachelor’s Degree focusing in photography from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has received numerous awards including the CFA Faculty College Fellowship and International Fellowship Award from Silver Eye Center for Photography.

Meyer has exhibited at the Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, University of Notre Dame, IN, Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA and A.I.R Gallery in New York City. Public art installations have been featured in Los Angeles, CA, The Jamaica Center for Art and Learning in Queens, New York and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Residency in the Woolworth Building.

Prior to the public reception, at 6:15 p.m., Jane Fulton Alt will give a non-formal gallery talk about her series, The Burn, featured in the Atelier Gallery of the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Meyer’s work is included in the collections of the Newark Public Library and Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, Center for Photography at Woodstock. Photographs are also included in numerous private collections across the United States.

A catalog of  her  work is  available in the  Griffin Bookstore.

Matt Granetz of Reading Memorial High School has been chosen to receive the $1,000 Maureen Richards Scholarship from the Griffin Museum of Photography

He will be presented the award at the opening reception of the 19th Juried Exhibition at the museum July 18, 7 p.m.

Grantetz was one of many students who submitted work to the portion of the juried exhibit for area high school seniors, Collected Visions. A selection of the work is on exhibit in the Griffin Gallery July 18 through September 1.

While there was no theme or format for submissions, students were asked to select an image that best represented them, personally and photographically. They also were asked to submit a companion essay answering the question, “what is the significance of using photography and how does it affect our lives?’’

The museum was looking for a well-written essay that provided personal perspectives and opposing points of view, as well as a well-produced photograph that can communicate the message strongly on its own.

The jurors were Greer Muldowney and Andrea Rosenthal.

"We were looking for different kinds of creativity and for students who used not only the process effectively but also were able to combine storytelling, strong visuals," Muldowney and Rosenthal said, adding that also they were looking for when permitting, a strong sense of humor.

They add, “We chose the winner based on how well it expressed the story behind the image, its technical merit, and originality.”

Granetz, winner of the Maureen Richards Scholarship, says of his image, "My photograph shows my connection to nature both physically and metaphorically. As a child I was always enthusiastic about going camping with my dad, canoeing, and fishing. At times like these I feel in touch with my surroundings. The photograph seems to show me floating over the ground. This is because I feel more free and at ease when I am in a natural setting, away from stresses of school, work, and other things."

"I enjoy taking self portrait photos, because there are so many different paths one can take. They can range from abstract ideas to very clear portraits showing texture and emotion. Black and white photos like this can emphasize light and shadow, and their effect on skin. It creates a very smooth shadow. Self portraits demonstrate who you are or who you want to be. This photo shows both sides of me."

Kathleen Volp gives a gallery talk about her exhibit The Melon Series – which is in the Atelier Gallery — for museum members at 6:15 p.m. July 18, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

Amy Neill says that at the heart of her work “lies a fascination with state of mind and emotion. These images are a product of memory, imagination, and spiritual essence.”

A series of her photographs, Afterglow, is featured in the Griffin Gallery of the Griffin Museum June 13 through July 10. An opening reception with the artist is June 13, 7-8:30 p.m.

“Just once a year, the coastline of Cape Cod is transformed into an urban oasis of light,” Neill says. “The beaches shift from serene, peaceful landscapes to a labyrinth of social interactions.

“A gypsy-like spirit migrates to this beautiful space, claiming the land as its own and vanishing just as quickly,” she adds. “This urban aspect draws me in; it challenges me to weigh the union of this vast landscape with the taste of a significant human presence. It brings an intimacy into the darkness that reflects an alluring rare energy.”

Neill studied photography at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and later graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. She lives and works on Cape Cod and has exhibited her work in galleries around the country.

John Tunney gives a gallery talk about his exhibit Jellyfish – which is in the Atelier Gallery — for museum members at 6:15 p.m. June 13, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

In a project that questions the definition of nature, Stephan Sagmiller juxtaposes photographs of painted skies from dioramas at the Natural History Museum with actual skies photographed throughout the United States.

A series of his images, Clouds: Experiments in Perception, is featured in the Griffin Gallery of the Griffin Museum April 9 through June 2. An opening reception with the artist is April 11, 7-8:30 p.m.

“It is often the case that individuals define nature vis-à-vis photographs, paintings, and simulations over their own independent observation,” Sagmiller says.

He says his juxtaposition of painted and actual skies “unsettles the landscape, opening up space for the viewer to reflect.”

“When I put together the skies in the museum and the skies out in the world, they collapsed into one another,” Sagmiller explains. “I saw no reason to continue to delineate between reality and artifice as I had in my previous bodies of work.

“All the clouds I experienced – whether natural phenomena or painted artifice – became equally important. My images were simply fragments of other fragments. No fragment was more authoritative than any other fragment: together they formed a compelling personal collection.”

Sagmiller adds, “It is not possible to entirely untangle the concept of nature from landscape photography, the history of painting, or the romantic ideals often embedded in these forms of representation. However, even a small rupture opens up the possibility for reflection and questioning: What is nature? What do we know about nature? How do we know what we know?”

Sagmiller is a photographer and educator based in New York City. He has a master of fine arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.

He gives a gallery talk for museum members at 6:15 p.m. April 11, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

For this show, the Griffin created an exhibition catalog. It is available in the museum’s online gift shop. It is one of many upcoming Griffin Museum of Photography publications. All books are being designed by Meg Birnbaum.

Patricia Lay-Dorsey was a marathon runner, long-distance cyclist, and dancer when she experienced her first unexplained fall in 1988.

Eight months later, she was diagnosed with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis. She was 45 years old.

Lay-Dorsey used art and poetry to express feelings about the changes she was undergoing, progressing from a cane, to a walker, to a motorized scooter.

“It was not until I got serious about photography that I dared look intimately at my body,” she says. “I started taking self portraits with the intention of showing from the inside the day-to-day life of a person with a disability: that person being myself.”

A series of her self-portraits, Falling Into Place, is featured in the Griffin Gallery of the Griffin Museum January 17 through March 3. An opening reception with the artist is January 17, 7-8:30 p.m.

Lay-Dorsey uses a wireless remote-control shutter release and self-timer on her camera to capture herself involved in every day activities.

“It is one thing to photograph someone else’s struggles and quite another to turn the camera on your own,” she says. “There is no place to hide.

“I tell myself that any pain I feel is worth it because these photographs will give people an inside view of what it is like to live with a disability,” she continues. “I realize now I was doing it for myself. I needed to become intimate with this stranger, my body.”

Lay-Dorsey says taking self portraits has “helped me see my body for what it is: a warrior, an ally, my best friend. It is an amazing partner who works unceasingly to help me live the life I choose.”

“Sure, I have to respect its needs and limitations, but in return it gives me the freedom to be myself, my true self. What more can I ask?”

Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum, says Lay-Dorsey “boldly leads the viewer to bear witness to her aging and disabled body. These photographs are also a means for her discovery as if reacquainting with an old friend.”

“She can no longer walk or run marathons, but Lay-Dorsey moves whatever she can to make a dance,” Tognarelli continues. “In her 70s, she’s active, determined, and certainly no bystander in life. Her photographs are hopeful and vibrant and inspirational to those of us who need a dose of resilience every now and again.”

A gallery talk for museum members by Lay-Dorsey is at 6:15 p.m. January 17, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.