Griffin Main Gallery

The juror for the Griffin’s Juried show this year was Jim Casper. Jim started LensCulture in 2004 to explore the diverse ways photography is used in the arts, media and daily life in cultures around the world. Since then, Lens Culture has grown to be regarded as a highly valuable, engaging and inspiring resource for photographers, students and art lovers. In 2010, Jim teamed up with international partners to launch the annual LensCulture FotoFest Paris portfolio reviews, which brought together participants from over 45 countries each November. Prior to Lens Culture, Jim served as founder and president of Casper Design Group for 20 years, an international branding and corporate communications design firm based in Berkeley, CA. He currently lives in Paris.

“The 2015 Griffin Awards attracted remarkably diverse, sophisticated and refined submissions from photographers who explore their art across many genres,” says Casper.
The 21tst Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition is on display in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum July 9 through August 30, 2015. An opening reception is July 9, 7-8:30 p.m. with exhibit awardee Dave Jordano in attendance. Dave Jordano will do a lecture at 5:00 PM at the Griffin Museum in Winchester. The event is free to members and $7 to nonmembers. It requires an RSVP. The opening reception is free to all but also requires an RSVP. Photographer Lindsey Beal will do a members’ talk at 6:30 pm on July 9, 2015.

Casper also says that, “The 54 photographs in my selection represent a delightful range of approaches — each of which somehow celebrates the idea and the medium of photography itself — as well as the wild worlds we live in physically and in our imaginations. It’s a joy to discover so many creative people who are so fluent in the visual language of photography.”
For the second year the 21st Juried Show is held in honor of the legacy of Peter Urban a celebrated, Boston-based photographer who passed away in 2009 after a long battle with cancer. Urban was renowned for his success in both the commercial and artistic realm. In the spirit of Peter’s success creating a career with a balance of commercial and artistic work, his family has partnered with the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston and the Griffin Museum of Photography to produce opportunities for other photographers to grow their careers.

Alongside the juried exhibition, the Arts and Business Council is again organizing a series of professional development workshops presented by a diverse range of thought leaders as a legacy to Peter Urban. These workshops will share instrumental ideas, methods and tools to help build the business and legal foundation of a thriving artistic practice.

The Peter Urban Legacy Award went to Dave Jordano. The Arthur Griffin Legacy Award went to Kay Kenny and the Griffin Award went to Susan DeLeo.

The photographers are: Jeremy Ackman, Ron Anderson, Matt Cegelis, Kindra Clineff, Debi Cornwall, Peter Curran, Susan DeLeo, Marcus DeSieno, Francisco Diaz and Deb Young, Corinne DiPietro, Barbara Ford Doyle, Daniel Duarte, Pippi Ellison, Rachel Ellner, Odette England, Ellen Feldman, Hiroshi Imai, Doug Johnson, Dave Jordano, Matthew Kamholtz, Lynn Karlin, Aubrey J. Kauffman, Marky Kauffmann, Steven Keirstead, Kay Kenny, Lee Kilpatrick, Michael Kriegh, Margaret Lampert, Isa Leshko, Cristina Llerena, Richard Coty, Darrell Matsumoto, Charles Mazel, Lisa McCarty, Ralph Mercer, Nick Meyer, Nancy Newberry, Barbara Peacock, Lisa Redburn, Dale M. Reid, Katherine Richmond, Brian Rosa, Russ Rowland, Don Russell, Hope Schreiber, Michael Seif, Wendy Seller, David Shannon-Lier, Marie Triller, Cara Lee Wade, Paul Wainwright, Sandra Chen Weinstein, Dianne Yudelson and Kalman Zabarsky.

The Griffin Museum of Photography has selected four photographers from the juried show submissions for future exhibitions in 2015. These photographers are:
Rebecca Clark, Eliot Dudik, Cassandra Klos and Molly Lamb

By creating photographic portraits of themselves and their surroundings, students from the Boston Arts Academy and Winchester High School have been exploring their sense of self and place in a unique collaborative program at the Griffin Museum.

In its tenth year, the 5-month program connects approximately 40 students – 20 from each school – with each other and with professional photographers. The goal is to increase students’ awareness of the art of photography, as well as how being from different programs and different schools affects their approach to the same project.

The students were given the task of creating a body of work that communicates a sense of self and place. They were encouraged to explore the importance of props, the environment, facial expression, metaphor, and body language in portrait photography.

Students met with Nancy Grace Horton, a photographer, educator and resident of New Hampshire. Horton described her artistic path in creating bodies of work and honed her focus on her work Ms. Behaviour.

Students also met with Sam Sweezy, a professional fine art and commercial photographer and educator who lives in Arlington, MA. He has exhibited at major photography venues including the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.

Alison Nordstrom, former curator of the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., and Sweezy gathered with students for a group discussion of the work and a final edit of the exhibition.

“In collaboration and through creative discourse these students have grown,” said Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum. “We are very pleased to be able to share this year’s students’ work. We thank the mentors for providing a very meaningful experience for the students. We also want to thank the Griffin Foundation and the Murphy Foundation, whose continued commitment to this project made learning possible. To paraphrase Elliot Eisner, the arts enabled these students to have an experience that they could have from no other source.’’

The results are on exhibit in PhotoSynthesis X in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum June 11 – June 29. An opening reception is Thursday, June 11, 7-8:30 p.m. It is open to all.

Photographer and designer Jerry Takigawa has been a social and environmental advocate since 1969. In his series False Food, Takigawa speaks to the issue of plastics pollution specifically of the Albatross of the Midway Atoll who mistake plastic debris for food and literally starve to death.

Takigawa’s series, False Food, is featured in the Main Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 9 through June 5, 2015. An opening reception with the artist takes place on April 9, 7-8:30 p.m. Jerry Takigawa will give a gallery talk and tour of False Food at 6:00 PM. The talk is FREE.

“[False Food] is a way of taking an overwhelming environmental problem and finding a way to make it personal,” says Takigawa. “I have become acutely aware of the abundance of plastic in my life and in my world. The albatross have provided me with a new awareness of the web of life.”

Takigawa continues, “Creating these images helps me to integrate the tragedy of the [Albatross] with a sense of hope—hope that by telling and re-telling the story—observers may be inspired to act, not to turn away.”

“Jerry Takigawa doesn’t hit us over the head with preachy dialogue on the perils of plastics pollution in the artworks of False Food. Rather, he connects us with the issue more subtly,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “Through their quiet cadence, Takigawa’s photographs provoke further enquiry into the context of the source materials used. What a paradox it is to discover that such beauty points to the devastation of our oceans caused by industrial civilization,” says Tognarelli. “The photographs of False Food communicate a sense of preciousness as art objects, as well as articulating the dearness of our natural resources.”

Takigawa received a BFA, with an emphasis in painting, from San Francisco State University in 1967. He studied photography under Don Worth. While living in the San Francisco Bay Area, he utilized his art and design skills to help develop a pilot VISTA program (Volunteers in Service to America) in Oakland, California. In 1982, he became the first photographer to receive the Imogen Cunningham Award for color photography. Takigawa has served as past-president of People in Communications Arts (PiCA), a trustee for the Monterey Museum of Art, and currently serves as president for the Center for Photographic Art.

Takigawa’s work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Crocker Art Museum, the Library of Congress, the Monterey Museum of Art, The San Francisco Foundation, the University of Louisville, Syntex Laboratories Inc., The Monterey Vineyard, the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, the Imogen Cunningham Trust, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

In honor of Earth Day on April 22, 2015 the museum will be open to the public for FREE all day.

Dallas photographer Brandon Thibodeaux has been photographing in the Mississippi Delta since 2009. While his work makes specific reference to the rural black experience, in his work we see themes of faith, identity, and perseverance that are common to us all. Thibodeaux states that these are “the traits of strong men.”

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

“I first traveled to the [Delta] in the summer of 2009 because I needed to breathe after my own troubled times,” said Brandon Thibodeaux. “I was in search of something stronger than myself and attended its churches not to photograph but to cry and be redeemed and to just be a part of the place. I was there to listen as I prayed for a revelation.”

“Over the past five years I have witnessed signs of strength against struggle, humility amidst pride, and a promise for deliverance in the lives that I’ve come to know here,” says Thibodeaux. “This is a land stigmatized by poverty beneath a long shadow of racism. I do not wish to overlook this fact but rather look between it for evidence of the tender and yet unwavering human spirit that resides within its fabric.”

“Brandon Thibodeaux’s photographs describe a sort of “splendor” in the ordinary,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “Thibodeaux’s Delta narrative recalls a spiritual and humane dialogue with the land and its people.”

Brandon Thibodeaux is a freelance photographer for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Shell Oil and Time. He is a member of the photography collective MJR, based in New York City. His work has been recognized by American Photo Magazine, PDN, and the Oxford American lists him as one of their 100 Under 100, New Superstars of Southern Art 2012. He is the 2014 recipient of the Michael P. Smith Fund For Documentary Photography Grant.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by Critical Mass in Portland OR.

For the second year, The Griffin Museum has invited all of its current members to exhibit in the Winter Solstice Exhibition. From across the world, artists entered one piece to be on display for December 2014. Over 140 photographs are represented in the Main Gallery of the Griffin and display a spectrum of genres and processes. The opening reception is Thursday, December 11, 2014 from 6-8pm. Sales are encouraged and many artists have donated the proceeds back to the Griffin.

It was a hot summer day when Horace and Agnes: A Love Story came to life. A casual meeting with friends, an accordion, a red couch, a squirrel and a horse mask spurred on a photo shoot. The resulting narrative has blossomed into over 100 photographs of Horace and Agnes Groomsby and their friends accompanied by text.

Kepka and Dowling’s series, Horace and Agnes, is featured in the Main Gallery at the Griffin Museum October 14 through December 4, 2014. An opening reception with the artists is October 18, 7-8:30 p.m. A preview exhibition of the series is also on view at the Griffin at SoWa Gallery at 530 Harrison Ave in the South End through October 26th.

“Horace and Agnes met through random circumstance and their love for each other is literally blind,” says Asia Kepka. “They exemplify a fairy tale of what it would be like to fall in love with the right person…just because.”

“All of the characters are inspired by people and stories from Lynn’s and my past and present,” says Kepka. “Sometimes they are inspired by family members and sometimes by strangers we have encountered. The photographs are memories brought to life once again; recreated with as much detail possible to make the viewer become immersed in this magical and unique world,” she says.

“Present day life has its complications,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. ”I believe the public is ready for a love story that at the same time is a visual delight for all ages.”

A gallery talk for museum members on Sisters of the Commonwealth by Meg Birnbaum will take place at 6:15 p.m. October 18, 2014, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits at 7 PM.

Juror, Aline Smithson founder of Lenscratch says, “The photographers I selected for the 20th juried exhibition of the Griffin Museum have this in common: the weight of intention behind the work. In a world when every single living thing has been photographed or has a camera, it’s that deep thinking that moves the work into the next level.”

Smithson goes on to say, “I am continually seeking to understand why work becomes successful and moves to the next level. I have observed that success comes from work that is made over time—time that allows for further contemplation, exploration, and a revisiting of subject matter, because as you grow as a photographer, your work grows too. Success also comes from work that has a technical level of excellence—not over sharpened, not over saturated, smartly captured and executed. And finally, success comes to work that has meaningful articulation and brings something new to the photographic dialogue. That articulation isn’t about what is obvious, but deeper thinking that is connected to something in your core that compels you to make the work.”

Smithson served as juror of the 20th Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition, which is on display in the Main Gallery of the museum July 10 through August 31. An opening reception is July 10, 7-8:30 p.m. with Aline Smithson in attendance. Ms. Smithson will do a lecture at 5:30 PM at the Griffin Museum in Winchester. The event is free to members and $7 to nonmembers. It requires an RSVP. The opening reception is free to all but requires an RSVP.

Smithson also says that “I looked at hundreds of images about water—waves and reflections. I looked at hundreds of images of abandoned spaces—peeling paint and empty rooms; there were photographs of parents’ and grandparents’ homes and collections of items left for the next generation; there were many images of architectural abstractions. I saw a number of terrific narrative projects that had more power as a whole than with single images, and I saw lots of work that was right on the cusp of being remarkable but needed more time to percolate and grow,” she explains.

This year the 20th Juried Show was held in honor of the legacy of Peter Urban a celebrated, Boston-based photographer who passed away in 2009 after a long battle with cancer. Urban was renowned for his success in both the commercial and artistic realm. In the spirit of Peter’s success creating a career with a balance of commercial and artistic work, his family has partnered with the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston and the Griffin Museum of Photography to produce opportunities for other photographers to grow their careers.

Alongside the juried exhibition, the Arts and Business Council is organizing a series of professional development workshops presented by a diverse range of thought leaders. These workshops will share instrumental ideas, methods and tools to help build the business and legal foundation of a thriving artistic practice.

The Peter Urban Legacy Award went to Clare Carter. The Arthur Griffin Legacy Award went to Jennifer McClure and the Griffin Award went to Samuel Walker. Keiko Hiromi, Greg Sand and Susan Worsham received Honorable Mentions.

Smithson also awarded a virtual gallery space to 6o photographers. She awarded Brian Christopher Sargent a solo virtual gallery exhibition.

The complete list of photographers selected for the exhibition with links is available.

By creating photographic portraits of themselves and their surroundings, students from the Boston Arts Academy and Winchester High School have been exploring their sense of self and place in a unique collaborative program at the Griffin Museum.

In its ninth year, the 5-month program connects approximately 40 students – 20 from each school – with each other and with professional photographers. The goal is to increase students’ awareness of the art of photography, as well as how being from different programs and different schools affects their approach to the same project.

The students were given the task of creating a body of work that communicates a sense of self and place. They were encouraged to explore the importance of props, the environment, facial expression, metaphor, and body language in portrait photography.

Students met with Edie Bresler, a photographer, educator and resident of Somerville. Bresler described her artistic path in creating bodies of work and honed her focus on the lottery system. Watertown resident, photographer Stella Johnson talked with students about her photography projects in Mexico, Cameroon and Nicaragua.

Students also met with Sam Sweezy, a professional fine art and commercial photographer and educator who lives in Arlington, MA. He has exhibited at major photography venues including the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.

Alison Nordstrom, former curator of the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., and Sweezy gathered with students for a group discussion of the work and a final edit of the exhibition.

“In collaboration and through creative discourse these students have grown,” said Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum. “We are very pleased to be able to share this year’s students’ work. We thank the mentors for providing a very meaningful experience for the students. We also want to thank the Griffin Foundation and the Murphy Foundation, whose continued commitment to this project made learning possible. To paraphrase Elliot Eisner, the arts enabled these students to have an experience that they could have from no other source.’’

The results are on exhibit in PhotoSynthesis IX in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum June 12 – June 29. An opening reception is Wednesday, June 18, 7-8:30 p.m. It is open to all.