Griffin Museum @ Colson Gallery

During the rush of everyday life, one forgets about the visual beauty that light creates. Donna Tramontozzi’s photographs are a representation of those moments that disappear.

Optical Shards by Donna Tramontozzi, is featured in the Griffin Museum @ Colson Gallery in Easthampton, MA from June 9, 2017 through August 27, 2017. The gallery is located at 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton. MA. The exhibit will run with Love Song: Intimate Portraits by Arnold Skolnick that runs through end of June, followed by Eyes of Western Mass. with reception on July 14, 2017 from 6-8 PM.

Tramontozzi says of her work, “When I photograph reflections, I muse on feelings I had forgotten to feel, details I must have missed, dreams I can’t quite recall, conversations I don’t understand, and places I didn’t experience in my rush through life. Just out of reach, but for me, still worth pursuing.”

Currently based in Boston, Tramontozzi has studied at the Santa Fe Photographic workshops and has participated in Atelier 22, 23 and 24 at Griffin Museum of Photography. Her work has also been part of the juried show, Projections! Art on the Brewery Wall, at the Jamaica Plain Open Studios. Her photo has also been featured as the cover of the best selling textbook. Currently, Donna is a corporator on the Griffin Museum Board of Directors.

Kalacharam

The Bindi Collection and Morning Poetry

Photographs by Julie Williams-Krishnan

“Kalacharam” means “culture” in the south Indian language Tamil. Under this primary theme, Julie Williams-Krishnan presents two exhibitions: The Bindi Collection,  and Morning Poetry.

Williams-Krishnan’s series, “The Bindi Collection” and “Morning Poetry,” are featured in the Griffin @ the Colson Gallery in Easthamton, MA. March 21 – May 21, 2016.

Williams-Krishnan has been traveling regularly to Chennai in south India since 2007. These trips are made to visit her husband’s family, who is based in Chennai. As a Caucasian originally from a small town in Pennsylvania, Williams-Krishnan says, “I use photography as a way to observe, process, and celebrate my growing familiarity with my south Indian family and the region. The three bodies of work on display here are all shot in the family home, where Tamil is spoken, Brahmin traditions are strictly observe my understanding of a place that is my home, but even after all these years, remains fascinating.”

In Hindu tradition, the third eye is referred to as the “the eye of knowledge,” the seat of the “teacher inside.” This is denoted with a dot or mark on the forehead between the brows. It is a state of having deeply personal, spiritual or psychological significance. In The Bindi Collection, Williams-Krishnan has photographed her mother-in-law’s bindis after she wears them. She sticks them to the wall to re-use another day – a habit shared by Hindu women throughout India. Williams-Krishnan discovered this custom upon her first visit to her husband’s family home. The Bindi Collection has been photographed over several years in Chennai, India and London, United Kingdom. Currently comprised of twenty images, the collection is trace evidence of a growing relationship and understanding between mother and daughter-in-law, as well as social commentary and anthropological study. Once Amma realized Williams-Krishnan was photographing her bindis, she began to remove them from the walls prior to visits. They are now a rare and precious find.

Morning Poetry was photographed one morning in and around the family home. As prayers were being said, and food was being prepared, Williams-Krishnan breathed in the morning, with all its blessings, and wondered around the house responding to the call of the day.

Julie Williams-Krishnan holds a MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster in London, UK. Based in Boston Massachusetts since 2010, Julie lived in London, UK for more than 16 years and has traveled to more than 60 countries. She is the Director of Programs at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Sandy Alpert’s photographs resemble detached figures, ghostly shadows within shadows that represent her own ghosts from the past. These beautiful figures created by negative space and light are visually similar to the long shadows dancing across the frames captured by our very own founder, Arthur Griffin.
Sandy Alpert’s, Ghosts Who Now Dance, will be featured in the Griffin Museum at Colson Gallery in Easthampton, MA, December 11 through January 15, 2016. Alongside Alpert’s work, three of Arthur Griffin’s pieces will be exhibited. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, December 15th, 2016 from 6:00-8:00 PM at Colson Gallery, Ste. 246 Eastworks, 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, MA 01027.

“When I began this project in 1998, I was haunted by the ghosts of my past, Feelings of isolation and loss infused these images. I was too close to it. It was too close to me. I had to leave it—unexpressed,” says Sandy Alpert. “As I now reflect upon these images, I see a sense of grace. I see fluidity. I see a silent rhythm. I see ghosts who now dance. The realization of this work is, in itself, an act of forgiveness. Forgiveness of others and of myself,” she goes on to say.

Sandy Alpert is an award-winning photographer and composer. Her photographs have been exhibited in many national and international; galleries, and are in many public and private collections including The Museum of the City of New York and the International Center of Photography School/ Education Gallery Collection, NYC. Her scores for musical theater productions have been produced off-Broadway.

By mid 1930s, Arthur Griffin became the exclusive photographer for the newly created Boston Globe, Rotogravure Magazine and the New England photojournalist for Life and Time Magazines. He went on to become a pioneer in the use of color film and provided the first color photographs to appear in the Saturday Evening Post—a two-page layout on New England. One of Arthur’s biggest gifts to photography was the non-profit Arthur Griffin Center for Photographic Art, or as it is now call, The Griffin Museum of Photography. The Griffin Museum houses his archives of over 75,000 images and provides gallery space for rotating exhibitions devoted to the art of photography.

In late 2015, I invited ten photographers to participate in a limited edition portfolio for the museum. A print from the museum’s founder Arthur Griffin was also included. The photographers are: Caleb Cole, Blake Fitch, Matthew Gamber, Arthur Griffin, Stella Johnson, Lou Jones, Brian Kaplan, Asia Kepka, Greer Muldowney, Neal Rantoul and Aline Smithson.

The portfolio is not a definitive study on photography, rather it is a sampling of contemporary photographers who have made their mark on the medium and have contributed greatly to shaping the spirit of the museum. In my thinking about these eleven photographers I chose images that seemed to hold together as a collective parcel and would continue to endure.

Paula Tognarelli
Executive Director and curator
Griffin Museum of Photography

If you are interested in purchasing the portfolio or learning more about The Griffin Contemporary please call Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator at 781-721-2765

Retail price $2200

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