Griffin Main Gallery

We are thrilled to announce the artists of the 31st Annual Members Juried Exhibition.

After selecting 68 images from almost 1500, from over 300 artists submitted, we are pleased to announce the members who will be featured on the walls of the Griffin Museum this summer.

We are thrilled to announce this years award winners –

The Arthur Griffin Legacy Award Winner – Fruma Markowitz, Hilloulah to the East and
to the West

The Griffin Lens Award – Marky Kauffmann, Red Cloud Dress

Honorable Mention – Julia Cluett, Jeff Larason, Brian Kosoff, Gail Samuelson and Stephanie Slate

Director’s Prize – Preston Gannaway (Remember Me)

Exhibition Prize – Lisa McCord (Rotan Switch)

Exhibition Artists include –

Stephen Albair, Julia Arstorp, Robert David Atkinson, Robin Bailey, Diana Bloomfield, Sally Chapman, Diana Cheren Nygren, Julia Cluett, Donna Cooper, Donna Dangott, Sandi Daniel, Adrienne Defendi, Becky Field, Preston Gannaway, Steve Goldband & Ellen Konar, Donna Gordon, Joe Greene, Jackie Heitchue, Judi Iranyi, Susan Isaacson, Marky Kauffmann, Susan Keiser, Lali Khalid, Karen Klinedinst, Brian Kosoff, Alison Lake, Celia Lara, Jeff Larason, Phil Lewenthal, Susan Lirakis, Landry Major, Fruma Markowitz, Cheryl Medow, Carolyn Monastra, Judith Montminy, C.E. Morse, Jim Nickelson, Charlotte Niel, David Oxton, Allison Plass, Robin Radin, Mary Reeve, Astrid Reischwitz, Nancy Roberts, Lee Rogers, Gail Samuelson, Gordon Saperia, Jeff Sass, Mari Saxon, Jeff Schewe, Li Shen, Anastasia Sierra, Frank Siteman, Stephanie Slate, Cynthia Smith, Janet Smith, Vanessa R. Thompson, Vaune Trachtman, Leanne Trivett S, Leslie Twitchell, Terri Unger, Alan Wagner, Anne Walker, Suzanne Theodora White, Thomas Winter, Torrance York, Michael Young and Yelena Zhavoronkova

Join us for the opening reception on July 11th from 6 to 8pm. Our juror will be in attendance.

Thank you to Ann Jastrab from Center for Photographic Art, Carmel for a beautiful exhibition.

Ann M. Jastrab is the Executive Director at the Center for Photographic Art (CPA) in Carmel, California. CPA strives to advance photography through education, exhibition and publication. These regional traditions — including mastery of craft, the concept of mentorship, and dedication to the photographic arts — evolved out of CPA’s predecessor, the renowned Friends of Photography established in 1967. While respecting these West Coast traditions, CPA is also at the vanguard of the future of photographic imagery. Before coming onboard at CPA, Ann worked as the gallery director at RayKo Photo Center and the gallery manager at Scott Nichols Gallery, both in San Francisco.

Photosynthesis XX is a collaboration between Burlington High School and Winchester High School facilitated by the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Join us on April 3, 5:30 – 7:30pm for an Artist Reception to celebrate these talented students’ works and meet their instructors and supporters.

This 5-month program connects students with each other and with professional photographers, artists, and curators. Using photography as a visual language, students increase their vocabulary to communicate about themselves and the world around them. Interacting with fellow students from different programs, backgrounds, and schools, the students create a capsule of who they are in this moment, learning from each other to create a united exhibition showcasing all they have learned during the program.

Winchester High School

Isabella Bogovich | Mason Lieberman
Ainsley Porter | Maddie Shonkoff | Bowdie Simpson

Burlington High School

Sean Cox | Mackenzie Goldsmith | Taylor Papagno | Emanick Carrasquillo | Olivia Floyd | Maddie Spreadbury | Jillian Noke | Nora McDowell | Naya Ulysse | Grayson Reidy | Alessia Pedruzzi | Emersyn Kirchner

We are pleased to present the portfolios of the Photography Atelier 39 creative artists.

Photography Atelier is a portfolio and project-building course for emerging to advanced photographers taught by Emily Belz and Jennifer McClure.

Participants engage in supportive critical discussions of each other’s work and leave with a better understanding of the industry and the ability to edit and sequence their own work.

Instruction in the Atelier includes visual presentations based around an assignment which is designed to encourage experimentation in both subject matter and approach. Students learn the basics of how to approach industry professionals to show their work and how to prepare for a national or regional portfolio review. There is discussion of marketing materials, do-it-yourself websites, DIY book publishing and the importance of social media. Students learn the critical art of writing an artist’s statement and bio.

The students here were part of our year long portfolio development program from Fall of 2025 to Spring 2025 and we are thrilled to see their work in the main gallery at Winchester.

Students of Emily Belz:

Julie Berson | Jaina Cipriano | Janet Smith | Megan Riley | L. Jorj Lark | Donna Gordon | Craig Childs | William Feiring | Jennifer Erbe | Paul Baskett

Students of Jennifer McClure:

Margaret Rizzulto | Judy Katz | Francine Sherman | Georgia McGuire | Linda Bryan | Shawn Ewald | Julia Buteux | Benita Mayo | Irene Matteucci

Students of Emily Belz:

Paul Baskett: Uncertain Designs

Tension–between truth and fiction, clarity and opacity, assurance and uncertainty–drives my image-making. I believe questions fuel creativity, and my work embraces ambiguity as a space for exploration rather than resolution.

Uncertain Designs consists of a series of discrete images conceived as disconnected tableaux, stage sets seen just after the curtain rises and lights go up, but before actors appear or speak. In this hushed, liminal space anticipation builds, questions flourish, and narratives, still undefined, can go anywhere. These images combine multiple photographic and discrete AI-generated elements, digitally collaged and manipulated as guided by intuition, to create layered, open-ended narratives that resist fixed meaning, challenge certainty, and encourage curiosity. There are no answers here; I am, after all, only the stagehand. You are the director, the playwright. Take these sets where you will.

As we all increasingly are bombarded by lies masquerading as truths, as authoritarian authors disparage inquiry and promote absurdities as wisdom, our ability, willingness to question, to create unbounded by dogma, is more important than ever. By blending the “real” with the constructed, I invite viewers, both here and most especially once outside the gallery, to question, to engage with the unknown, to embrace uncertainty, and to find meaning not as delivered but on their own terms.

Julie Berson: Women Speak on the Election

Women’s rights were central to the 2024 election. As a woman I turned to art as a way to connect with other women in particular, across the entire political spectrum. I wanted to understand what they were thinking and feeling in these polarized times.

I worked in two media – photography and the written word – both photographing and interviewing each woman. I wanted their words to convey their thoughts and feelings, and the intimacy of the photographic portraits to reveal what words could not. No woman is identified with any specific quote, in order to dispel stereotypes. My own preconceptions were quickly shattered as I heard the layered and sometimes surprisingly unstereotypical ideas and thoughts that were shared with me.

The intention of this project is to bear witness to the common humanity of women from every political perspective. To offer the hope that we can reach for each with both empathy and accountability, even in the most extreme environment. In doing this work I learned that a deeper connection and understanding is possible for me and that every woman I spoke to was thirsting for the same thing, despite our differences.

Perhaps by having one conversation at a time, one connection at a time, “bird by bird”, we can be healed.

Craig Childs: Hardwick: Preservation of a Way of Life

Moving from rural Texas to Boston in the summer of 2020 I was searching for a link to home, having been away from city life for over 20 years. I found it at alocal outdoor farmer’s market, leading to friendships with several of the farmers from the village of Hardwick, Massachusetts.

Hardwick, a township in central Massachusetts was established in 1739 and consists predominantly of the village of Hardwick, and Gilbertville, which began as a mill town in the 1860s. At first, the visitor sees a New England common of colonial era homes, buildings and churches, begging to be on a Christmas card. The surrounding small family farms, pastures, and greenhouses stand in contrast to the larger scale industrial farms of the Midwest. The village of Gilbertville, with its depression era mills, evoke memories of long departed New England textile manufacturing.

Hardwick has become dear to this Texan’s heart. It’s a place where the residents tell the stories of local villagers who founded the town in the aftermath of King Philip’s War that opened central Massachusetts to European settlement. Stories of those who fought in the “French War”, of those who were the patriots and who were the Tories at the outbreak of the “Rev War”-all of which inform the conversations after a day of planting, or harvesting, or rebuilding a rock wall or repairing a tractor. Shay’s rebellion is discussed with respect. A place where the local farmers sell their produce in farmer’s markets, preserving a way of life inherited from colonial days.

This ongoing photo project begins with what it means to love where you live and what you do. Yet, along side the resilience of the farmers, Gilbertville struggles yet with the poverty, crime, and joblessness left behind by the departure of manufacturing. Understanding this community requires an appreciation of these tensions, without which the narrative of the small farming community would be incomplete.

Jaina Cipriano: The Lucky Ones

At 17 time stops. You have forever briefly in your grasp. You remember, don’t you? Any thing was possible and nothing mattered. The future is a beautiful dream, never approaching.

Trouble has no meaning and boundaries are meant to be pushed. To learn when to stop, you have to go too far. And you are a lucky one if you don’t write your future on an unfortunate incident.

This time in my life has been deeply etched in my memory and I can’t let it go. It haunts me. And I think I somehow always knew it would. The photographs are visual journals, I kept a meticulous record of this time. It was the only way to cope with the change I knew was coming.

These photographs are the last of time before the internet became a place. We wandered aimless as kids. Our flip phones, always dying and being charged on the go, gave us a way to connect- “where u at?” and that was it. Life was outside the phone.

Now phones are an extension of ourselves. When the phone and the camera fused with smartphones photographs stopped being memories and started becoming content. Our photos weren’t personal documents anymore, they were public.

When the camera turns on people now there is a new awareness-where will that photo go? Who will see it? And what will they think of me?

I see a freedom in these images that is of that age, yes, but that is also of the time. We were living on the cusp of change, the very last of a free world.

Jennifer Erbe: Dislocation

I was raised as an only child by adoptive parents who loved me dearly, but never really understood me. I never fit the way my mother wanted me to be. I was a curious kid who spent a lot of time by myself. I loved to explore outside, finding clay and picking wild strawberries. My hair was tangled, and invariably I had dirt on my knees, despite the smocked dresses and patent leather shoes she favored for me.

The photographs in this project document spaces in the middle–between two worlds. Trails that wind along the Charles River and back onto commercial neighborhoods. City parks and urban residences. They contain unseen characters and stories. These places ask questions of me when I’m walking: Are these stories about the family I grew up with, or the one I never knew? Am I making narratives? Self-portraits?

These in-between spaces feel familiar. They inhabit two opposing identities–natural beauty and practicality, industrial spaces and beautiful light, nature and concrete. The odd character of these spaces reminds me that being a little off is okay. Often there is a human presence in an unexpected place, or a portal that calls me to come and explore. Usually, though, the portals only expose more questions. Questions about myself, little hints of who I am–but no answers.

William Feiring: Feel The Music

The power of music is universal.

Most of us have songs we love. Music can remind us of people, places or experiences that hold meaning for us, as well as evoke feelings of joy, excitement, or sadness. When I Listen to “Mother’s Song” by Gregory Porter, I always think of my mom and how important she was to me in my life.

For this project, I asked people to listen to music that holds meaning for them while being photographed. I wanted to capture their emotions to the music. Some of the songs chosen I new, and during the sitting, I often found myself absorbed by the melody or lyrics and forgetting I was supposed to be taking a photo.

Just like the many genres of music, many kinds of feelings were evoked, from sorrow to happiness. Some were meditative as they listened, others more physically expressive. Before a session, many people voiced that they were apprehensive about being photographed, however the power of the music moved everyone beyond self-consciousness. Four days after sitting, Brown, ninety-four, old me “Been a long time since I’ve taken the time to enjoy those musical pleasures.” Eight days later Brown passed away.

Donna Gordon: In the Garden

There’s a certain exchange that takes place between the figure and the landscape.  Ideas of blooming and decay, growth and awakening—all synonymous with human change and birth and aging.

Perhaps the ultimate pairing in idea and image is a human portrait with a backdrop of Nature.  This series of portraits of women works to dispel the widespread stereotype of Eve in the Garden of Eden.  

My portraits make visible contemporary women of many ages and backgrounds—showing their strength, diversity, imagination and vulnerability.

Each woman—in a nod to Eve—is accompanied by a garden element—whether set in a field, farm, grotto, yard, public park or indoor setting.

Photography witnesses that fraction of a second in which we live and breathe, the instant before moving on and morphing into something different.  Portrait photography in particular brings me face to face with a unique being—whose thoughts I think I contain for a fleeting second—before letting go.

I. Jorj Lark: Urban Stutter

Initially there were moments of reflection. I’d pick up in my camera to capture reflections upon glass or shiny surfaces, or water. Puddles, seas, raindrops. Did you know that the whole world lives upside down in a dew drop. Do you know how many dewdrops there are in the grass in the early morning? In these reflections, the cityscape was inverted, curved, managed into a multiplicity of itself. This became my notion of urban stutter. That the street environment has multiple, moving, variable points of view at any given instant. Dynamic. Irrepressible experiences that are multifaceted, fractured, refracted, reflected, repeated over and over until the myriad voices strung together create a new meaningful whole.

The scent of wet cement, for example, and textures, and sounds, a vital gust of wind, evolved my definition and moments to capture as reflected environment. Also the notion of nature inserting herself in countless ways. And lately, as I live in wonder at the cacophony and quietude of macro to micro, it dawns on me how very many decisions have been made by individuals to concoct these environs. Stunning.

As a street photographer, primarily, I’m moving from literal to abstract visual moments as I’m documenting “exactly” what i see. One spot can bring about impressionism, surrealism, any fine art painterly modality, all inspire me. My photography is bold. Bold colors, shapes and I give a moment for things that inhabit the sidelines or act as backgrounds in our lives to inhabit the center, to be considered elegant and sublime and meaningful.

I feel like I’m stalking beauty. That the world itself, all of it, each singular component is ineffable, remarkable, a profound miracle of existence. The edges of texture, scent, the thunder of a working construction site all substantial, amorphous and impermanent. I wonder who made you? For what? And why are you so beautiful? Or ugly beautiful? I share these images with you in the hopes that you will see it too. On my very worst days, I remind myself that I get to see in color. Here for you are some of my best days.

Megan Riley: Self, Preserved

As I march firmly into my sixties, I can’t help but notice (and yes, participate in) the absurd lengths women–in life and on social media–go to in an attempt to stop the unstoppable, aging. We are bombarded with a staggering variety of creams, potions, procedures and exercises designed to keep us young. The results are often hilariously cringe-worthy. More horrifying than if we did nothing at all. Beneath all this lies society‘s demand for youth and perfection, and to erase the physical manifestations of a life lived. Our worth tied to how well we preserve the physical version of ourselves that once was.

Self, Preserved is about the desire to resist time and the folly in trying to control what is meant to change. Using metaphor and humor, I explore this concept by sealing physical representations of women’s body parts (including my own) in plastic. These plastic encased objects become distorted and unnatural, just like we become the harder we try to stop the natural process of aging. The irony being that the more we attempt to preserve the bits of ourselves, the more disconnected we become from our whole, authentic self.

Janet Smith: Unexpected Beauty

Three dead hosta leaves in my driveway marked the beginnings of this project. They were pretty, all curled and graceful so I saved them. In walks around the neighborhood, I found more leaves that had let go of their anchors and so began what has become a multi-year still life project.

My leaf collection grew to include other types of plants and new discoveries were everywhere: on walks in the woods, in fields, by ponds, at the edges of parking lots and wherever wild things grew. As I walked through the seasons, I selected new subjects based on their delicate and graceful shapes, interesting textures, and patterns of their branches.

During this time, I also photographed the changing light on the landscapes around me and used these photos as backdrops for my still life arrangement. This process transformed simple photos of botanical forms into quiet moments where a still life and a landscape dissolved into one another.

The plants preserved in my photographs make me marvel at finding beauty in nature where we least expect it. They are memories from seasons past and invite pause, stillness and reflection on nature and the passing of time. When I complete this project, I will say goodbye to my collections and return them to nature.

Students of Jennifer McClure:

Linda Bryan: Falling Leaves: Mother and Daughters

Dear Mom you said you wouldn’t hit anymore love, _____. (sister)

I recently found these words, scrawled in a child’s hand on pink origami paper, buried in a box of old report cards and other family ephemera. The message sent my mind reeling—its words didn’t align with how I remembered my mother when we were children.

Decades after my sister wrote that note, as I sift through keepsakes saved by my mother and grandmother, I am uncovering more questions than answers. I once believed our family tree was strong and historic; now, I see it as fragile, slightly twisted, and missing limbs—much like my childhood memories.

Within these boxes are old sepia photographs—faces of distant relatives, strangers without names or context—along with contemporary images, some bearing the weight of time, their colors fading, surfaces cracked or water-damaged. They are physical reminders of how Memory fades, distorts, or vanishes entirely.

In one old, damaged, and out-of-focus photograph, I am sitting in a light-green Victorian chair in my grandparents’ living room. It bothers me that I can’t pull the image of the person who took the picture from my memory, nor recall the day the photo was taken. Has the photograph replaced the memory?

When I ask my sisters about past events or old photographs, our recollections often differ widely. Which memories are real? Have the stories I’ve clung to—the ones that once defined my sense of self and family—been misinterpretations all along? Despite these uncertainties, I feel an urgent need to reconnect, to piece together the faces and events, even if it shatters what I once considered true.

Falling Leaves is a project with many branches. By combining personal andvintage family images and objects, I create a visual dialogue on memory—both real and imagined—exploring the intricate ties between family, place,and identity. Each piece derived from my ever-shrinking branch of a largerfamily tree—one that, like memory itself, continues to shift and transform.

Julia Burteux: This Too Shall Pass

Imagine my surprise when I discovered emotions are not thoughts but physical sensations-chemical responses released in the brain. For years, I carried stories of joy, injustice, shame, and frustration, believing them to be my emotions. In reality, those stories were simply thoughts I had attached to fleeting feelings.

Science has shown that, with the exception of grief, emotions pass through the body in just ninety seconds-just a minute and a half. Yet, instead of allowing emotions to move through me by simply naming them and letting them go, I held onto them, replaying narratives that kept them alive far longer than necessary.

This realization has profoundly shaped my artistic practice. Through my work, This Too Shall Pass, I explore the transient nature of emotion and the tension between momentary feeling and prolonged thought. Using images applied to mirrors, I create pieces that serve as meditations on what it means to experience, release, and transform emotional energy. / broke the plate and this feeling is embarrassment. My things were stolen and this feeling is anger. My mother is sick and this feeling is sadness. The mirror reflects the viewer back to themselves, making them an active participant in the work.

An accompanying clock further reinforces this concept, offering an immersive experience of the ninety-second arc in which emotions naturally rise and fall. This added element encourages visitors to confront their own emotional attachments and consider how they engage with their feelings-whether they let them pass or prolong them through thought.

By embracing this perspective, my work becomes a visual and temporal representation of emotion’s impermanence. It encourages self-reflection, awareness, and perhaps even liberation from the stories we tell ourselves.

Stacey Ewald: The Allure of Darkness

From childhood, we are taught to fear the dark, a primal instinct reinforced by ghost stories and the unknown. However, I have always found myself drawn to its enigmatic embrace. I am captivated by the ‘dark side’ in art, literature, and film. Even now, amidst the often difficult realities reflected in news and media, I remain pulled toward its undeniable power. Darkness is not just a landscape of danger and uncertainty, but a place of silence and contemplation, of romance and intimacy, and of unexpected beauty where the familiar fades and the unexpected blooms. It is where our instinctive fear of the unknown clashes with a deeper curiosity. We are wired to seek clarity and predictability, yet darkness offers something else: a fertile space for imagination and emotional depth.

My work explores the lyrical power of darkness not to obscure it but to transform. The images are reimagined through shadow and absence. Within this darkness, perception slows, allowing for a closer look and a new kind of engagement, one that reveals hidden truths, sparks mystery, and offers the possibility of finding unexpected warmth in its resonant atmosphere. This is an invitation to embrace the allure of darkness, to challenge the ingrained fear and to discover what lies within the velvety rich shadows.

Judy Katz: What Lies Ahead…

I ceased making photos for many years.  Familial and professional obligations were front and center.  As we say (and so often as a woman) – “life got in the way”.  Off and on for years, reengaging with photography was on my list of things to do.  I could say that I finally had an epiphany, but it was more a simple recognition that I was at a point in life where planning for the future might come with limitations. I could either focus on regrets or check off items on my list.  I decided to act.  I retraced my steps, poring over an archive of images I had made over the years.  Several recurring themes were evident. Light and shadows, often connected to paths and portals that sometimes led to clear destinations and other times were murky in terms of the endpoint.  Hints of both movement and stillness simultaneously. 

As part of my “re-entry routine”, I developed a routine of local photowalks.  I found that I am still drawn to exploring passageways, noting the light and patterns that seem to beckon me. Personal circumstances have limited my travel, but not the possibility of capturing gateways and openings, both obvious and obscure, that might lead anywhere.  When we are young, possibilities seem endless. As we age, we may either dwell on the past or focus on the future.

This project focuses on paths and portals that leave us free to choose the endpoint.  In my mind, they lead to a past in which I visit with family and friends who are no longer with me, to a future centered on the growth and blossoming of grandchildren, or even to my own continuing evolution. These photos may not pull us “through the looking glass” into a  fantasy world, but we can still be challenged to decide where these paths will take us.

Benita Mayo: Blueprint

Memory is unreliable, and time has a way of bending the truth. I have always been on ajourney to unearth and examine the stories that live within me—some through my own experience, but most through inheritance.

When Daddy suddenly passed in 2020, the tectonic plates of my life forever shifted. In an instant, I knew life would never be the same. As I find myself longing to understand the past, the impermanence of memory is palpable. I feel as if I’m racing toward an invisible finish line.

My parents were born in Virginia, a state with an indelible imprint on America’s most painful and pivotal chapters: the rise of slavery, the Civil War, and the long struggle for civil rights.Over 350,000 men, women, and children were sold from Richmond’s auction block. Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy, and the Fall of Richmond marked the end of the CivilWar. Later, during a time of “massive resistance,” a neighboring county chose to close its public schools rather than integrate them. This was the Virginia into which my father was born.

History and politics shaped my family’s story. They directly influenced how we were raised.The most pervasive feelings I remember from childhood were fear and loneliness. We lived with trauma, sorrow, silence, and deep wounding. But at the heart of it all, there was love—and a steadfast hope that tomorrow could be better than today.

Toni Morrison, in The Bluest Eye, urges us not to “forgive and forget,” but to “remember and do better.” Too often, shame and embarrassment silence truth. But only through declaration and revelation can truth and insight rise. Only then can the cracks begin to mend, and healing begin.

Much of what I have struggled with throughout my life has roots in collective trauma. In mysearch to understand what happened to me, I’ve spent 1,571 hours in therapy. It has takendecades to identify the cycles, to stop the bleeding, to clean the wound, and to begin thework of healing. For any wound to heal, this must come first. Then, in time, new tissueforms—a foundation for new skin that is stronger, more resilient.

Through words and pictures, I recount the fierce determination of a man caught in the web of history. The deck was stacked against him. But he made a way out of no way. The calmness of the landscape conceals the quiet outrage, the mourning, and the sacred commemoration.

Irene Matteucci: Overlooked

I started this project as a way discover my new neighborhood. I looked for things that make the area
unique, an urban landscape discovering its artistic side, making an effort to show that it is growing. As I
progressed, however, it became less about the neighborhood and more about the moment. The images
became less descriptive and more abstract, using angles, light, shadow, depth, color, and reflections to
show the mystery in unexpected places.

There is a sense of not knowing in these images. But maybe I don’t need to know because what I’m
seeing is complete within itself. Photography shows the world in a way that can’t be seen with the naked
eye, frozen in time and space. Light changes from one second to the next. One fleeing moment exists
because I captured it, I noAced. My photographs hint at a larger story.

As I’m moving about my world, wherever I happen to be, I am drawn to the interesting corner, the
intriguing shape, how light illuminates, and how reflection redraws. I look from the inside out and the
outside in. I welcome the discovery of the overlooked, giving it a voice and the chance to be seen by a
new audience

Georgia McGuire: Graceful Moments

Graceful Moments is a collection of photographic images that celebrate the serene elegance of nature, inspired by my transformative trip to Japan. The country’s culture and art, particularly it’s simplicity, deeply influenced my approach to photography. In an isolated portrait-style, I often focus on Japanese objects – baskets, screens, and Japanese paper – capturing their harmony with nature. The use of intentional negative space and an unusual dip in composition, create a sense of stillness, balance, and quiet reflection. An abstract angle changes one’s perspective allowing a glimpse of the intrigue outside the space. This intimately private peek into my personal world creates a wonder of moments in time.

The project images are printed on a luminous vellum that compliments the hand gilded metal substrate creating a unique work of art. Each piece is then cold waxed and hand buffed to bring out the translucent beauty of the gold leaf.

The process of photographing, whether inside or outside, is deeply meditative for me, inviting mindfulness and an appreciation for the delicate importance of nature. It also draws parallels from transient beauty found in nature, much like the fleeting moments captured in Japanese Haiku poetry.

Moments
Graceful petals fall,
With stillness in the day’s air,
Time slips through my hands.

~ Georgia McGuire

Margaret Rizzuto: Dare Me

‘Invisibility Syndrome’ isn’t a metaphor—it’s a lived experience. As women age, we are dismissed, overlooked, and essentially invisible. It doesn’t seem to matter how brilliant, beautiful, or accomplished we’ve been—we vanish. No one is exempt. I know—because I’m living it. And I’ve come to realize I’m far from alone.

While this is a deep and often painful truth, I was determined that this project not feel hopeless. I want to illuminate it, to name it, and to push back—loudly. No—no, we do not have to accept this erasure. We will not accept it. Dare Me is a refusal. It’s also a reclamation.

It has taken us a lifetime to arrive at this place—through pain and joy, growth and hard-won wisdom—and we deserve not just to be seen, but, dare I say, celebrated.

To bring this evolution into visual form, I found an unlikely ally: Flo, a beautifully crafted, mature doll from Poland. She became my muse for this project, embodying the vulnerability, acceptance, and defiance of aging with grace. This work is for every woman who’s been made to feel small in the very years she’s
grown into her full power.

We’ve earned the right to be seen—fully, fiercely. The dare is ours to take.

Fran Sherman: My 70th Year

In my 70th year, I feel unmoored as I navigate life in retirement, without the urgency of family and work that was my reality for so many years. The open space is both unsettling and exciting.

In the chaos of raising a family and building a career, I found structure and purpose. Life was busy but also felt full and limitless. Now I have more time than ever each day, but I have fewer years ahead of me. Life is full of contradictions—I am grateful for all I have yet eager for more; energetic yet tired; creative yet stuck. Time is expansive and compressed, moving slowly and quickly at once.

Conversations with my peers confirm that they too are figuring out who they are and how to make the most of time as they age. We haven’t changed, but less is demanded of us at a time when we have so much to give.

My 70th Year is an ongoing photographic journal. Using a documentary photography approach, I make pictures of my daily life to better understand how I am feeling and where I am going. Still lives reflect parts of me, and long exposures, focus, collage, and images in series, show the way my life feels embedded in and experienced through the lens of time.

The New Horizons: Korean Contemporary Photography exhibition will introduce the creative and diverse works of established Korean photographers to American audiences.

Curated by Joanne Junga Yang, this exhibition in our Main Gallery showcases the captivating works of seven contemporary Korean photographers: Ok Hyun Ahn, Seongyoun Koo, Anna Lim, Soosik Lim, Hyundoo Park, Jiyeon Sung and Sun Hi Zo, Their diverse portfolios delve into the intricate tapestry of human emotions, exploring themes of longing, loss, and the nuanced ways in which individuals navigate their cultural identities.

Read more from Joanne Junga Yang‘s curatorial statement here.

Korean photography has developed through a dynamic balance between documentation and artistic expression, serving as both a means of recording reality and a tool for creative interpretation. While traditional documentary photography has captured social and historical transformations, contemporary photographers explore new possibilities by expanding the boundaries of the medium. Through this evolution, Korean photography has developed a distinct visual language that reflects the ongoing changes in society and culture.

<New Horizons: Korean Contemporary Photography> introduces seven photographers who reinterpret reality through their images, responding to the world around them and creating new narratives. This exhibition highlights how Korean contemporary photography engages with global artistic trends while maintaining its unique perspective. These artists, who have witnessed the transition from analog to digital photography, continue to experiment with the medium’s potential. Their works go beyond simple representation, using photography to question, redefine, and expand how we perceive the world.

Ok Hyun Ahn

Ok Hyun Ahn lives and works in Seoul. She earned her MFA in Photography, Video, and Related Media, at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She was awarded the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Fellowship at the Bronx Museum, New York (2012), and has had residencies in the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York (2010), and the Ssamzie Studio Program, Seoul (2007). Her numerous solo exhibitions include Dictee x Love Poem, Daejeon Museum of Art (2023), Love, Tears, Seduction, Lydmar Hotel, Stockholm (2015), and Homo Sentimentalis, SHOW ROOM, NYC (2013). Her work was presented at 12^th Gwangju Biennale, 2018 and others. Her work has been collected by the Seoul Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, the Daejeon Museum of Art, and the Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle.

Working primarily in photography and video, she not only explores the complex aspects of human emotions but also exposes the banal layers underneath consciousness to be absurd. 

Jiyeon Sung

Jiyeon Sung is a contemporary photographer known for her staged photography, which reinterprets everyday scenes in a minimalist way using mise-en-scène elements inspired by theater sets. By placing simple yet symbolic objects and figures, her work visualizes the inner world of modern individuals and explores existential questions. The moments she captures are not frozen in death but suspended in continuous time.

After studying French literature in Korea, she earned a Master’s degree in Photography and Contemporary Art from the University of Paris VIII. In 2006, she received the Promising Artist Award from the Korean Cultural Center in France, and in 2016, she was awarded the 14th Daum Artist Award by the Parkgeonhi Foundation in Korea. Her works are included in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – Art Bank, Seoul Museum of Art, Busan Museum of Art, Hanmi Museum of Photography, GoEun Museum of Photography, Société Générale Bank in France, and FRAC Haute-Normandie, among others.

Seongyoun Koo

Seongyoun Koo is a South Korean photographer who challenges conventional perceptions of objects through her still-life photography. By placing unexpected materials in unconventional settings or creating compositions that mimic natural forms, she playfully subverts the inherent meanings and values we attach to everyday things. Her major series include Butterflies (2000), Sand (2004), Flower Pots (2005), Popcorn (2007), Candy (2009–), and Sugar (2015–).

Her work explores how simple contextual shifts can radically alter an object’s meaning. In her Flowers and Butterflies series, she demonstrates how a beautiful butterfly, when placed on a bowl of rice instead of a flower, suddenly becomes an inedible insect. This playful yet critical approach continues in Flower Pots, where she stages scenes of ornamental plants invading human spaces, offering a satirical commentary on humanity’s tendency to view nature as something to control and conquer. Koo later transitioned to constructing artificial landscapes by hand, blurring the line between reality and representation. In Popcorn, she uses popped kernels to recreate delicate plum blossoms, emphasizing their fleeting beauty. In Candy, she meticulously crafts peony flowers—symbols of wishes and prosperity—out of colorful sweets, merging themes of desire and impermanence. In Sugar, she molds decorative objects from sugar, allowing them to melt over time, reflecting on the ephemerality of existence and the fragility of value. Her work often plays with material illusion, where ephemeral substances—whether sugar, candy, or popcorn—are transformed into something visually substantial yet fundamentally transient. The melting sugar sculptures, in particular, resonate as a poetic meditation on time, memory, and the impermanence of human constructs.

Seongyoun Koo lives and works in Seoul, South Korea. She holds a B.A. in Indian Philosophy from Dongguk University (1994) and a B.F.A. in Photography from Seoul Institute of the Arts (1997).

Anna Lim

Anna Lim was born and live in Seoul. She graduated MA from California State University, Fullerton in 1996 and received PhD in Art Photography from from Hongik University in Korea in 2019.

She has won the award the 11th ILWOO Photography Award, Seoul (2020), the Arles Photo Portfolio Review Award (2019), Korean Artist Project Artists (2017), SOORIM Photography Cultural Award (2014), Raising Female Artist Award (2013), Sovereign Art Foundation Asia 30 Artists (2012), Public Art 4070 Project Artist of the Year (2012), New York Gallery Korea Young Artist of the Year (1999). Furthermore, she has held 20 individual exhibitions and more than 50 group exhibitions at home and abroad and has been working steadily so far. In the recent series of works, Anxiety; Weight transferred to images (2022), Anxiety ON/OFF (2020), Anxiety rehearsal (2018), Frozen Hero (2017), Reconstruction of Climax (2011), she visualizes a meta-fictional narrative self-reflective perspective on mass media that distributes images of war weapons and other people’s pain as spectacles, and the viewer who consumes them.

She is currently a professor in the Department of Photography and Media at Sangmyung University in Korea.

Soosik Lim

Soosik Lim graduated from Chung-ang University’s Department of Photography and the graduate school of the same university. He expresses various objects that symbolize universal desire using photography through series of works such as Chaekgado (which combined photos of bookshelves with the way in which to create Korean traditional paintings), Picturenary, Mountain, and Room.K. Lim has participated in over 100 group exhibitions and 20 solo exhibitions in many countries, including the U.K., Spain, and Brazil. His works are housed at several museums, such as the Art Bank at Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Germany’s Reiner Kunze Museum.


Hyundoo Park

Hyundoo Park studied photography at Chung-Ang University’s College of Arts in the early 2000s and later earned an M.F.A. in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Since then, he has been working on his ongoing series, Goodbye Stranger.

He has received the 8th Park Geon-hi Foundation Next Artist Award and the 1st Surim Cultural Foundation Surim Photography Award. He was also selected for major artist residencies, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Goyang Residency, the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) Nanji Residency, and the SeMA Exhibition Support Program. Through his work, Park explores the theme of existential alienation in modern society from various perspectives.

In addition to his artistic practice, he has taught photography at Korea National University of Arts, Chung-Ang University, and Hongik University, educating both university students and the general public.

Sun Hi Zo

Sun Hi Zo (b. 1971) explores loss, memory, and transformation through photography.

Her works, including Daisy; Cosmos Mea (2022) and Frozen Gaze (2020~), examine the boundaries of time, impermanence, and presence. Her Planet (2024~) series investigates material and temporal continuity, presenting decay as a continuous cycle of dissolution and renewal. Recently, she has been working on a desert-based project exploring invisibility and traces. Based in Seoul, she works globally and studied at Yonsei and Hongik University.

She is currently a professor at Kyungil University.

This exhibition is made possible by the generous financial support of the Griffin Directors Circle, Griffin Exhibition Committee and Advisory Council. Additional support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Cultural Society of Boston.

What makes a family? How do we define community? These fundamental questions are explored in the exhibition Nuclear Family, which re-imagines the concept of family, expanding our vision beyond traditional norms through the lens of LGBTQIA+ artists.

Traditional family values. The universal phrase for how we perceive and accept families in public. We are reminded of the standard visual narrative of a family as two heterosexual parents and their children. Family dynamics are complicated, not all of us fit into this vision of perceived perfection. In expanding the idea of family, we see these photographers present honest and authentic portrayals of themselves, their families and the broader community, challenging viewers to confront their own biases and assumptions through fresh eyes. 

Featuring a diverse range of photographic and video works, the exhibition presents a compelling exploration of diverse family structures. Jess Dugan‘s A Letter to My Daughter is a poignant video essay that delves into the joys and challenges of parenthood. Mengwen Cao‘s Liminal Space celebrates the everyday beauty, intimacy, and resilience of queer and trans people of color, with a particular focus on Asian queer identities. Yorgos Efthymiadis‘ Lighthouse Keepers offers a series of intimate portraits of friends in their own spaces, providing a glimpse into the artist’s personal connections and his shared community. Laurence Philomene‘s vibrant and colorful images serve as a visual diary reflecting their environment and their own trans and non-binary identity. Anne Vetter‘s Love is not the Last Room explores themes of gender, attachment, and family through intimate portraits of themselves and their partner. Matthew Leifheit‘s Queer Archives delves into LGBTQIA+ history through objects and archives that remind the community of its origins and those who came before.

These artists utilize photography and video not only to document their lives but also to challenge societal norms and celebrate the diversity of love and family structures. By reclaiming the genre of portraiture, often used to uphold traditional ideals, they create powerful and moving works that resonate with viewers on a deeply personal level.

Nuclear Family was conceived and created by curator and artist Katalina Simon, in collaboration with Crista Dix, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum, and exhibition designer Yana Nosenko.

More about the artists of Nuclear Family –

Mengwen Cao | Liminal Space

“Liminal Space” is a visual meditation on the everyday beauty, intimacy, and resilience of queer and trans people of color, with a focus on Asian queer identities. Through a tender gaze, these images capture moments of becoming and summon futures rooted in joy, connection, and care.

The project began as a way to connect with my community and evolved into an exploration of belonging, healing, and self-love. Each portrait embodies a collaborative process, inviting people to imagine themselves in a way that feels safe, authentic, and expansive. These moments of introspection become portals: spaces where individual transformation and collective belonging can thrive.

In a world that often amplifies extremes, “Liminal Space” aims to normalize queer existence beyond spectacle or struggle. By sharing these tender moments, I hope to offer a counter-narrative—one that embraces the multiplicity of our identities while celebrating the beauty of the in-between.

About Mengwen Cao

MENGWEN CAO (they/them) is an artist, educator and somatic coach creating multimedia portals for personal and collective transformation. Born and raised in Hangzhou, China, they are currently nomadic with roots in New York and Chiang Mai. Weaving their embodied experience as a Chinese diasporic queer into their spiritual and creative practices, they use care and tenderness to explore in-between spaces. They see photography as a vehicle for healing and a tool to visualize the future.

Jess T. Dugan | Letter to my Daughter

Letter to My Daughter is an autobiographical video directed to my five-year-old daughter, Elinor, that centers around my experience with parenthood throughout the first five years of her life. The audio soundtrack is my voice reading a letter to Elinor, and the images are from my personal archive and include snapshots, ultrasound images, and photographs from Family Pictures.The letter is highly personal and addresses a variety of topics, including my expectations around parenthood, the long and circuitous journey of trying to have a child with both known and anonymous sperm donors, the experiences of miscarriage and loss, and my adjustment to parenthood as a queer and nonbinary person. Perhaps most importantly, it tries to put into words the intensity of love between a parent and child as well as the significant personal growth parenthood both inspires and requires.Letter to My Daughter is part of my larger exploration of family. It is in dialogue with my 2017 video,Letter to My Father, which explores my estranged relationship with my father, as well as my long-term series of photographs Family Pictures(2012-present),which focuses on the intimacy of familial relationships, aging, and the passage of time through an extended look at three generations of my family.

About Jess T. Dugan

Jess T. Dugan (b. 1986, Biloxi, MS) is an artist and writer whose work explores the complexities of personhood, relationships, desire, love, and family. While their practice is centered around photography, it also includes writing, video, sound, drawing, and installation. Their work is informed by their own life experiences, including their identity as a queer and nonbinary person, and reflects a deep belief in the importance of representation and the transformative power of storytelling.  

Their work is regularly exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of over 60 museums. Their monographs include Look at me like you love me (MACK, 2022), To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults (Kehrer Verlag, 2018) and Every Breath We Drew (Daylight Books, 2015). They are the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, an ICP Infinity Award, and were selected by the Obama White House as an LGBT Artist Champion of Change. 

They currently live and work in St. Louis, MO.

Yorgos Efthymiadis | The Lighthouse Keepers

Whenever I travel back to my country, it feels like I come across a shoebox in the back of my childhood bedroom closet, full of memorabilia I didn’t know were there. As soon as I open the box, an inner whisper says “I will remind you of everything.”

There is an instant rush of fond memories of the house I grew up in by the sea and of the maze-like city I moved to when I got older. But mostly, of family and friends: the people that I care for and who have always been there for me since the beginning. The ones I take for granted.

Growing up, so many of us were queer in our seaside town we joked “it must be in the water.” Some have left, many have stayed. Like everyone else, from the proud “mother” of the village who helped most of us come out, to the sentimental ones that are still hanging onto a past that is no longer there, we are struggling in our own way. Loneliness, isolation, decline. Secrets and regrets. But each one a lighthouse keeper. Strong and resilient, fragile and tender, always there to help, guiding each other through life, and reminding me of where I belong.

About Yorgos Efthymiadis

Yorgos Efthymiadis is an artist/curator from Greece who resides in Somerville, MA. A board member of Somerville Arts Council and founder of The Curated Fridge, an independent gallery that celebrates fine art photography, Efthymiadis is a recipient of the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, an awardee of the Artist’s Resource Trust A.R.T. Grant in 2024, a finalist for the 2017 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, and a recipient of the St. Botolph Club Foundation 2017 Emerging Artist Award. This project has been supported by a grant from the Artist’s Resource Trust.

Matthew Leifheit | Queer Archives

Since 2021 Matthew Leifheit has traveled the country visiting and photographing in queer archives. Leifheit describes: “During the 1970s and 80s, independent archives were established by LGBTQ Americans to collect materials that major institutions would not. These materials—pictures, letters, T shirts, protest signs, ephemera, and the like—document queer culture and identity in the 20th century, in relation to the rise of the US gay rights movement. More importantly, they contain the evidence of many peoples’ lives who would otherwise be lost to history, for reasons ranging from homophobia to racial prejudice, sexism and AIDS.”

Leifheit’s Queer Archive asks us to consider what is worth keeping, how histories are made and told, who gets to hold them, and who is able to seek out and find them.
These photographs dramatize the limits of immortality as we attempt to access it through media.

Text by Rachel Stern, Curator, MassArt Museum exhibition, 2024

About Matthew Leifheit

Matthew Leifheit is an American photographer, magazine editor, and professor based in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and the Yale School of Art, Leifheit is Editor-in-Chief of MATTE Magazine, the journal of emerging photography he has published since 2010. Leifheit’s photographs have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Aperture, TIME, and Artforum, and have been exhibited internationally. His work has been supported by residencies at the Corporation of Yaddo and The Watermill Center, receiving grants from the New York State Cultural Council and the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale, where he was awarded the Richard Benson Prize in 2017. He is currently full-time faculty at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston.

Laurence Philomene |

In recent years, I have challenged myself to take daily pictures to document my evolving sense of self as a non-binary person undertaking hormonal replacement therapy. The resulting photos look at transition beyond the physical, into the intimate and domestic aspects of life viewers are rarely granted access to. Individually, each photo tells the story of a small moment, but when juxtaposed with one another, context is gained and a new, more powerful narrative is created : one of creating a home both within my environment and my body.

Growing up, the only access I had to queer history was through photography books I borrowed at the library. In lieu of institutional recognition, a lot of our history as marginalized folks is passed down through self-documentation as a means of reclaiming our narrative, which is something that’s always been fascinating to me. I think of the freedom to create our own story as an integral part of embodying queerness.

About Laurence Philomene

Laurence Philomene is a non-binary artist from Montreal (b.1993) who creates colourful photographs informed by their lived experiences as a chronically ill transgender person. Their practice celebrates trans existence, and studies identity as a space in constant flux via highly-saturated, cinematic, and vulnerable images.

Laurence’s first monograph Puberty – in which the artist self-documents two years of their life as they undergo hormonal replacement therapy – was published in 2022 by Yoffy Press.

Anne Vetter | love is not the last room

Vetter’s series “Love is Not the Last Room” is made in collaboration with the artist’s family—their parents, their brothers, and their partner. It is an examination of play and leisure, tension and freedom. Through photographs, Vetter processes how they learned to relate in their most intimate connections, and how they relate now. This project explores queer familial relationships, and uses Vetter’s own gender fluidity as a lens to examine the gendered experiences of their family members.

About Anne Vetter

Anne Vetter (b. 1994) lives and works in California and Massachusetts. They are currently a MFA candidate at UCLA (2026). They are a Jewish-American artist. Their work is focused on play, permission, desire and performance. 

We are pleased to partner with Digital Silver Imaging to print the images for the exhibition.

The Griffin Museum is excited to showcase the collection of artist and collector, Frazier King. Known to emerging, mid career and established artists of the medium, Frazier has spent a lifetime supporting, collecting and collaborating with photographers celebrating the craft and artistry of photography.

The collection of Frazier King is a reflection of his interactions with his fellow contemporary photographers over the last 20 years, King has collected black and white as well as color prints focusing on the constructed photograph. This collection provides a unique record of the various ways of constructing an image, and the evolution of this genre over the last decades.  The collection was originally presented by FotoFest in 2012 in an exhibition entitled The Collector’s Eye II.  Subsequently, King produced a book in conjunction with FotoFest entitled The Collector’s Eye—A Photographer’s View of His Contemporaries.

King explains that he uses an intuitive process in developing both his collection and his photographic practice.  The collection springs from his personal exchanges with various photographers in the context of FotoFest Meeting Place, as well as in his role as an active member of the board of the Houston Center for Photography and his own photographic practice.  King, who worked as an energy lawyer in Houston, created several projects using constructed images and his photography has been shown worldwide and is included in a number of important museum collections.  

The collection is grouped according to the methods of construction and, as a collector, gives his interpretation of each one of them. His collection includes prints by Roberto Fernández Ibáñez, Jerry Uelsmann, Diane Ducruet and others, who constructed their photographs in the printing process. The largest portion of the constructed photographs in King’s collection consists of prints resulting from a construction in front of the camera – Elaine Duigenan, Pavel Baňka, John Chervinsky, and Susan Dunkerley Maguire are just a few, who bring inanimate objects to life, play with scale, use scanners rather than a camera and use unusual materials to physically construct a representation of a particular object or series of objects.

About Frazier King

Frazier King is a photographer, collector and curator, living and working in Houston, TX.  His photography work focuses on constructed still life and some bodies are produced using film and gelatin silver prints while others are produced using digital capture and archival pigment prints.  “The Seven Deadly Sins” series is his most recent work, produced in 2022.  Over the last 25 years he has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, and Belgium.  His work is included in the collections of many individuals and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France; and Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He has been a collector since the 1990s.  His collection was shown by FotoFest in 2012 in “The Collector’s Eye II” exhibition.  Subsequently, he produced in conjunction with FotoFest and Schilt Publishing a book entitled “The Collector’s Eye—A Photographer’s View of His Contemporaries,” showing his collection and featuring essays by Wendy Watriss, co-founder of FotoFest, Madeline Yale Preston, former Executive Director of the Houston Center of Photography and now independent curator, and himself, addressing the nature of the collection and its acquisition.  The book is entitled “The Collector’s Eye—A Photographer’s View of His Contemporaries.”  During his 15 years serving as a member of the board of directors of HCP, he curated or co-curated exhibitions and participated as a reviewer in photography portfolio review events around the world.  

In the darkness of winter, we search for the light. Our Winter Solstice Members Exhibition brings together our community, lighting up the museum with images, ideas, and boundless creativity, celebrating the works of our photo community in all of its splendor.

This annual celebration highlights the medium of photography in all of its forms. We love sharing your vision with the world, and look forward to our annual gathering of images, ideas and vision.

This exhibition is also an online showcase, with multiple pages. Take a look at all of the talented artists and images that will fill the walls of the museum in December.

Edition 1 (this page) | Edition 2 | Edition 3 | Edition 4

This year’s Annual Winter Solstice Members Exhibition will be held in the main gallery from December 13, 2024 — January 12, 2025.

Participating Artists (Listed Alphabetically by First Name):
Adele Quartley Brown, Adrien Bisson, Alan Richards, Alexandra Frangiosa, Alison Lake, Allyson Ely, Amanda Heck, Anastasia Sierra, Angela Rowlings, Ania Moussawel, Ann Boese, Anna Litvak-Hinenzon, Audrey Gottlieb, Austin Bryant, Becky Behar, Beth Luchner, Betty Stone, Bill Clark, Bonnie Newman, Bremner Benedict, Brynne Quinlan, Caren Winnall, Cassandra Goldwater, Catherine Panebianco, Cathy Cone, Charles Maniaci, Charlotte Toumanoff, Chen Gao, Cheryl Clegg, Christopher Weikart, Connor Archambault, Corinne Adams, Cyd Peroni, Cynthia Smith, Dafna Steinberg, Dale Niles, David Donnelly, David Rabkin, Dawn Watson, Diana Cheren Nygren, Diana Nicholette Jeon, Diane Hemingway, Diana Noh, Donna Dangott, Donna Gordon, Donna Tramontozzi, Douglas Lutz, Duygu Aytaç, Edie Clifford, Elizabeth Corcoran-Hunt, Elizabeth Hopkins, Elizabeth Wiese, Ellen Feldman, Eric Luden, Erik Gehring, Erin Menatian, Fruma Markowitz, Gail Fischer, Gary Beeber, George Imirzian, Grant Halsey, Heather Pillar, Holly Worthington, Hope Schreiber, Jack Doerner, Jaimie Ladysh, Jaina Cipriano, James Collins, Jamie Hankin, Janice Koskey, Jane Waggoner Deschner, Janet Smith, Janis Hersh, Jeanette Pivor, Jeanne Carey, Jeff Larason, Jessica Cardelucci, Jeffrey Mark Dunn, Jen Bilodeau, Jennifer Erbe, Jessica Burko, Jesus Rios Cozzetto, Joan Kocak, Joe Greene, John Brenton, Jonathan Sachs, Jose Ney Mila Espinosa, Joseph S. Lieber, Joy Bush, Judi Iranyi, ​​Judith Montminy, Julia Arstop, Julia Buteux, Julia Cluett, Julianne Snow Gauron, Julie Broderick, Karen Elizabeth Baker, Karen Hosking, Karen Matthews, Karin Rosenthal, Kay Mathew, Kaya Sanan, Kelly Conlin, Ken Rothman, Kermit Lehman, Kevin Belanger, Khim Mata Hipol, Kiyomi Yatsuhashi, Larry Smukler, Laura Ferraguto, Law Hamilton, Lauren J Piper, Lawrence W. Osgood, Leann Shamash, Leanne Trivett S., Lee Cott, Lee Rogers, Lidia Russell,  Liliana Caruana, Linda Hammett Ory, Linda Haas, Linda Plaisted, Lisa Liberetto, Lisa McCarty, Lisa Paulette Silberman, Lisa R. Reisman, Lisa Redburn, Lisa Spencer, Lisa Tang Liu with J. David Tabor — Alchemy of the Unknowns) Laurie Peek, Lucia Ravens, Lynn Saville, Lynne Breitfeller, Marcy Juran, Meg Birnbaum, Marcie Alkema, Marky Kauffmann, Margaret Rizzuto, Mari Saxon, Marilyn Canning, Marjorie Gillette  Wolfe, Mark Eshbaugh, Mark Levinson, Martha Volcker, Martha Wakefield, Mary Pat Reeve, Mary Presson Roberts, Matthew Herrmann, Maura Conron, Megan Riley, Michael Brown, Michael Burka, Michael Lynch, Michael Stepansky, Nadira Gupta, Natalie McGuire, Naomi Soto, Neelakantan Sunder, Nicholas T. Jones (TEEJ), Nikita Mash, Nina Menconi, Pamela Pecchio, Parrish Dobson, Pat Corlin, Patricia Scialo, Peter J Baumgartner, Tony Loreti, Pip Shepley, Rachel Portesi, Ralph Mercer, Rebecca Skinner, Ricardo Pontes, Robert Morin, Bob Reasenberg, Robin Radin, Robin Z. Boger, Rohina Hoffman, Ronald D. Butler, R. Lee Post, Ryck Lent, Sally Ann Field, Sally Bousquet, Sally Chapman, Sally J. Naish, Sandra Pike, Sandra Chen Weinstein, Sandy Hill, Sara Silks, Sarah Christianson, Sarah Hughes, Sasha Fino, Scott Ludwig, Sean Sullivan, Shaheen Lakhani, Shara Hall, Sharon Schindler, Sheila Bodine, Sheri Lynn Behr, Síle Marrinan, Simone Brogini, Stefanie Klavens, Stephen Schmidt, Steve Dunwell, Steve Genatossio, Steve Jacobson, Steve Levin, Sue Anne Hodges, Suki Hanfling, Susan Collins, Susan Lapides, Susan Lirakis, Sue Michlovitz, Susan Moffat, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Suzanne Reasenberg, Suzanne Theodora White, Suzanne Williamson, Teresa Camozzi, Teri Figliuzzi, Terri Unger, Terry Rochford, Thomas E. Janzen, Thomas McCarty, Vicky Stromee, Wenda Habenicht, William Betcher, William P Feiring, William Steinfeld, William Zinn, Yat Chun Chan (Marco Yat Chun Chan), Yorgos Efthymiadis, Zoe Perry-Wood

With great power comes great responsibility.

The power of visual images and the unregulated dynamic of AI have created a world untethered from reality. Disinformation and misinformation in this election year is at an all time high. The ability to think critically is challenged. The general public being swayed or falling into rabbit holes or the digital abyss is not only possible but probable. Artificial intelligence, taking data sets to perform complex tasks to mimic human behavior including the various virtual assistants like ChatGPT or Gemini, or art generators Mid-Journey, Dall-E all scrape data in a large feast, learning, growing, expanding. The programs complex computations become better at anticipating behaviors and inevitably rewrite our history based on the information exchange. 

This exhibition, focused on Artificial Intelligence, includes five artists all looking at the complexities of the visual image as truth, fiction, muse and outlier. All use technology to inform their work, stretch their truth, follow myths and legends, rewrite history and manufacture new realities.

Josh Azzarella

I create still images, video, and objects from important cultural images by altering or removing the punctual event in the image. The works explore the power of authorship in collective memory. This multidisciplinary studio practice is rooted in the scrutiny of popular historiography and the indexical document. Through various methods I seek to interrupt, displace or interfere with the images that make up our personal and shared histories. This practice of arrogation allows me to confuse, append, or create a new memory for the viewer. In this way I interrupt the stream of information and imagery that is disseminated, filtered, and collected. The works find context in our personal memory and in the larger postmodern conversation about what is real. We often note, in trying to understand our own history, that the photographs which signify the events we experience come to replace or complicate our own memories. In this way, I intend the works I produce to further alter those collective memories. Moreover, the works often seek a meditative or still moment during which the viewer can stand transfixed. This contemplative moment is an opportunity to introduce the larger context in which we collect and chronicle our communal history. — Josh Azzarella

Rashed Haq — Plausible Presidents

“Plausible Presidents” explores the complex interplay between perception, imagery, and history, underscored by the pervasive contemporary issue of disinformation in our digital era. This project presents a series of digitally crafted photographs of the first sixteen US Presidents, covering a time period from before the invention of photography until photography was fairly prevalent. The portraits, while visually plausible, are intellectually known as fabrications, challenging viewers to confront their immediate acceptance of photographic information as factual — sometimes allowing critical thinking to be overlooked in the face of compelling imagery

Each photographic portrait is crafted using generative AI, drawing from historical textual descriptions,
paintings, sculptures, and where available, photographs, to resonate with the persona and epoch of the respective presidents. Generative AI is adept at creating images with perceptual realism using multimodal input of text and images. This process, blending historical accuracy with artistic interpretation, aims to materialize the unseen and question the seen. The text descriptions are also created with generative AI, with its potential for bias and inaccuracy in the captions.

In an age where digital manipulation is seamless and widespread, “Plausible Presidents” serves as a mirror reflecting our vulnerabilities in discerning truth from fabrication, including mine. It reminds us how easily our perception can be swayed by images with perceptual realism, and a call to critically evaluate the authenticity and implications of the visuals we encounter.

Hayley Lohn — Capital Gains

Hayley Lohn was born in Vancouver, Canada. She is an artist, photographer, and videographer currently based in Vancouver. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Western Ontario and graduated from the International Center of Photography’s Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism program in 2021. Her work explores topics related to technology, nature, and psychology.

Orejarena & Stein — American Glitch

American Glitch examines the slip between fact and fiction and its manifestation in the physical landscape of the United States, the duo’s adopted home. Orejarena & Stein lead us to examine that amidst an overwhelming sea of unending information available in an instant, society is left asking what is real and what’s fake. What can the world trust, and what is a ‘glitch’?

To Orejarena & Stein, screen dominance, conspiracy theories, fake news, and the advent of the Metaverse call to question our reality and our potential existence in a ‘simulation,’ a term employed as a satirical collective protest against late-stage capitalism and an increased dependence on technology. To exist in an online community is to bear witness to the ‘simulation’, where images are posted as personal evidence of spotting a ‘glitch in our reality.’ A concept initially explored in films such as ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Truman Show,’ a ‘glitch’ reflects a generation’s collective experience wherein the digital and physical worlds have merged; a world in which five senses seem inadequate against campaigns of conspiracy.

The artists spent years treating the internet as our collective subconscious, collating posts on social media and Reddit threads of ‘evidence of glitches in real life’. These threads and images become a place for a new form of community and connection across time and space. Orejarena & Stein then photograph sites around the US which remind them or people on the internet of real-life glitches. Such locations include California City – the blueprint of a perfect town – replete with ‘paper roads,’ avenues, and cul-desacs, which were never completed; or a staged Iraqi village at Fort Irwin, the U.S. Army base in the Mojave Desert.

About the Artists
Orejarena & Stein (b. Colombia, 1994 & UK, 1994) are a multimedia artist duo based in New York. Their work examines the intersection of technology, memory, and the duo’s desire to explore American mythologies and narratives. Fascinated with the emergent properties inherent to photographing as a pair using only a single camera, their practice explores collaboration in an individualistic medium. Orejarena & Stein conduct extensive research into collective image production within a world saturated by visual images. Their work has been exhibited internationally and can be found within public and private collections.

Phillip Toledano — Another America

Another America is an invented history of New York City from 1940-1950, with accompanying short stories by New Yorker writer John Kenney.

Truth in America has been slowly dying over the last decade. The country is consumed with conspiracy theories. For millions, facts are a choice. For millions, history is a choice. The arrival of AI is the next stage in the demise of truth. We can recreate the world as it never was. For every conspiracy theory, there can be visual proof. Convincing evidence that makes the lie real.

Another America takes this idea and creates a history that never existed. A world complete with people, events, and disasters, couched in the veracity of the past. Did this really happen? Is this real history? The images are simultaneously familiar and strange, much like the world in which we live.

We are pleased to present the portfolios of the Photography Atelier 38 creative artists.

Photography Atelier is a portfolio and project-building course for emerging to advanced photographers taught by Emily Belz and Jennifer McClure

Participants engage in supportive critical discussions of each other’s work and leave with a better understanding of the industry and the ability to edit and sequence their own work.

Instruction in the Atelier includes visual presentations based around an assignment which is designed to encourage experimentation in both subject matter and approach. Students learn the basics of how to approach industry professionals to show their work and how to prepare for a national or regional portfolio review. There is discussion of marketing materials, do-it-yourself websites, DIY book publishing and the importance of social media. Students learn the critical art of writing an artist’s statement and bio.

The students here were part of our year long portfolio development program from Fall of 2023 to Spring 2024 and we are thrilled to see their work in the main gallery at Winchester.

Students of Jennifer McClure 

Donna Delone | Kym Ghee | Kay McCabe | Corinne Cobabe | Victor Rosansky | Becca Screnock | Li Shen | Carrie Usmar | Janice Weichman | Laura Wolf |

Students of Emily Belz

Ann Boese | Michael Burka | Julia Cluett | CoCo McCabe | Linda Hammett Ory | Lisa Redburn | Hope Schreiber | Betty Stone | Pip Shepley | Martha Volcker |