Griffin Main Gallery

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.

Dominic Chavez is a freelance photographer based in Boston, Massachusetts, but he has spent much of his career on the road working in some of the world’s most challenging places. Chavez has recorded the effects of war in Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Angola; the AIDS crisis in more than a dozen countries in Africa; and the battle to eradicate polio in countries in Africa and Asia. In addition, he has covered stories locally and nationally, focusing on the aftermath of 9/11; homeless populations; and those addicted to drugs.

Chavez’s series, U-TURN, is his newest body of work focused on the landscape and is featured in the Main Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 10 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I’ve ventured into places too horrible for words, and horrible enough for pictures, such as a lonely forsaken spot along the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, where tribal cousins fought as is they were in World War I, charging each other on foot, dying by the thousands, bulldozed into piles, and half-buried by dirt," says Dominic Chavez.

"When I was 19, I tried to photograph trees as if they were people. When I examined the frames, I was disappointed,” said Chavez. “As years have passed, it has become trying for me to distance myself from the difficult stories I shoot when I return home to the United States. Almost unconsciously I made a U-turn. I found myself again drawn to places without people," he says. "But this time, when I raised my camera, the scenes came alive. I saw the embrace of trees on Cape Cod, the weeping rocks of an icy cliff in Utah, and the uncertainty on a mountaintop in Maine, where fog obscured the ocean beneath."

"As a photojournalist Chavez unearths a narrative in nature in his series of photographs called U-Turn" says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography."The story he tells is laden with emotion and portrays the strengths and frailties of the landscape."

In an artist statement Concord resident, David Prifti once wrote that is was his desire to explore his life through the things that shaped his life. These formative elements were his relationships, his memories, his sense of family, rites of passage, aging and death. The creative process that led to all of his photographs was indirectly a very personal journey for him.

Two years ago, David Prifti died at age fifty of pancreatic cancer. He was a dedicated and inspirational photography teacher at Concord-Carlisle High School for twenty-five years. Monika Andersson, Prifti’s widow, recalls that one of David’s famous sayings was “Do something for your art every day!” Andersson recalled Prifti as “vivacious and compassionate”, as “an irrepressible jokester”, “a crazy boisterous guru” and “always busy, and always on the move.” He also had “a quiet depth, and a deep love for life and the people in it.”

An exhibition, culled from a collection of Prifti’s photographic assemblages and wet plate collodion images, Prifti: Drawn by Light, is featured in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum January 9 through March 2, 2014. An opening reception is January 23, 7-8:30 p.m.

Of his photographic assemblages Prifti said, “Through the juxtaposition of images, found objects and ephemera, I create autobiographical associations that become symbolic, conveying a sense of personal history and the passage of time.” He also said, “The reusing of old materials allows me to resurrect them into a new form.”

For his wet plate collodion images, some of his first projects were of nature. “He had long been fascinated by trees, and especially those with exposed roots, showing how tenuous life’s hold on survival is,” said Monika Andersson. “He built a darkroom that he could load onto a skiff, and, wearing a set of waders I had bought him at a garage sale, would walk and canoe the river, tugging along the skiff with the darkroom, getting water’s edge access to the many trees along the Assabet river. Some of the trees were fallen; others were with their roots exposed, and gripping onto the edge of the world."

Prifti used wet plate collodion as a vehicle for portraits of his friends, students and acquaintances. He also photographed a community of people who alter their bodies.

Born in Worcester, MA. Prifti received an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art, New
Haven, CT, and a B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA. He resided and worked in Concord with his wife and two children.

A gallery talk for museum members by Denyse Murphy – whose exhibit Confluence is featured in the Atelier Gallery – is at 6:15 p.m. January 23, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

All photographs courtesy of the Prifti Family Estate, Gallery Naga, Boston, MA and Rice Polak Gallery, Provincetown, MA.