Lafayette City Center Passageway

“Quién? Qué? Dónde?” means  “Who? What? Where?” in Spanish.  Spanish is one of the worlds’ most commonly spoken languages and is often chosen as the second language one learns. The name was chosen for this portrait exhibition in order to underscore the complexities of all of our diverse roots. A portrait photograph can inspire many questions and if we look hard and long enough, the answers as well.

The 70 photographers in the exhibition are:
Mim Adkins, Roger Archibald, Gary Beeber, Sheri Lynn Behr, Karen Bell, Patricia Bender, Anne Berry, Rebecca Biddle Moseman, Meg Birnbaum, Lana Z. Caplan, Bill Chapman, Jo Ann Chaus, Moesia Davis, Adrienne Defendi, Cindy Dominguez Crockett, Ken Dreyfack, Nicholas Fedak II, Diane Fenster, Colleen Fitzgerald, Carole Glauber, Audrey Gottlieb, Tamar Granovsky, Michal Greenboim, Linda Haas, Law Hamilton, Amy Herman, Keiko Hiromi, Rohina Hoffman, Margaret L. Holmes, Evy Huppert, Timothy Hyde, Carol Isaak, Jessica James, Roger Carl Johanson, Cynthia Johnston, Marky Kauffmann, Tira Khan, Lee Kilpatrick, Cassandra Klos, David Kulik, Susan Lapides, J.K. Lavin, Joan Lobis Brown, Yvette Meltzer, Iaritza Menjivar, Judith Montminy, Robert Moran, Ruth Nelson, Zoe Perry-Wood, Suzanne Révy, Katherine Richmond, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Gail Samuelson, Joshua Sariñana, Wendi Schneider, Tony Schwartz, Geralyn Shukwit, Ron St. Jean, Vicky Stromee, Jane Szabo, JP Terlizzi, Kai Toppa, Donna Tramontozzi, David Underwood, Aurélien Vanhollebeke, Nina Weinberg Doran, Susan Wilson, Carol Wontkowski, Dianne Yudelson and Charlyn Zlotnik.

The natural world figures prominently in childhood, more so before the Internet, Gameboy, fear of predators and frequent litigation stunted daily play. Perhaps it is the spontaneously creative imagination of children that sees nature as a stage with magical possibilities. The internal censor that inhibits and arrives with adulthood is years away from landing on their shoulders. The enchanted forest exists for the young at heart.

What child hasn’t dreamed of climbing into treetops perched on a limb for a bird’s eye view? A hand-made swing hung from the strong arm of our backyard maple was my heart’s desire. Instead, Sears Roebuck assembled our swing set on delivery. A tree whose thick circumference can conceal during a game of “Hide and Seek is the best hiding place in the eyes of a child. The weeping willow on our front lawn became a readymade clubhouse. It’s drooping branches doubled as long flowing hair and mane as we galloped on mops down the driveway.

In fiction, television programming and cinema, trees are often portrayed as living prescient beings. There’s something in us that wants to believe that trees can talk, to each other and to visitors. One example, in the children’s story “The Giving Tree,” author Shel Silverstein tells of one tree that provides for a lifetime of “asks” from one small boy. The tree gives and gives by its own will until eventually one little old man asks for the tree to sacrifice its own existence. And the tree gives.

Hollywood has definitely perpetuated the idea that trees talk. Remember the cantankerous old apple tree in the “Wizard of Oz” that slapped Dorothy and the Scarecrow for picking apples. “How would you like someone to come along and pick something off of you?” a tree asks Dorothy. What of Groot, a tree-like being from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie and comic book? He’s not the most loquacious of trees as the only words he can utter are “I am Groot,” but he is an expert in “quasi-dimensional super-positional engineering.” While not an actual tree, Agent 13, played by Bill Murray, in “Get Smart” was always shown in a tree costume with his face poking out from a knothole. “I get it. Who wants to talk to a guy in a tree?” says Agent 13 to Agent 86. Other trees include Tolkien’s Ents, the twisted oak of “Pan Labyrinth,” Harry Potter’s Whomping Willow, Disney’s Grandmother Willow from “Pocahontas”, and the beast from “A Monster Calls” to name a few of visual media’s animated tree-beings.

Suzanne Simard, professor at the University of British Columbia and a forest ecologist, has been studying trees and how they communicate. Through her research she concludes that trees talk not with words but through a symbiotic underground root system called mycorrhizal (soil fungus) networks. The “Mother Trees” (also called Hub Trees) are the largest trees in the forest. These Mother Trees protect “the family” as they direct the root systems to guide nutrients to saplings and other plant life that have need. They can also instruct the latticed fungi to make space for growing seedlings. The root systems connect to many species of trees no matter if deciduous or cone bearing.

The Mother Trees warn of climate change and predators on the network. For instance, if insects attack a tree, all the trees are on alert. When giraffes eat acacia tree leaves, found mostly in Australia and Africa, a warning chemical goes out to other trees that are downwind. These trees then release toxic tannin that protects the leaves from being eaten. Here we have trees communicating. We have trees revealing information. We have trees calling attention to something. I call it “Tree Talk.”

In this exhibition called “Tree Talk” the Griffin Museum of Photography brings 66 photographers who converse with trees. The exhibit has been organized to flow as a narrative from the beginning to end of the passageway. In this way the trees all talk to each other. We hope our audience enjoys the exhibition and that all of the trees give up their secrets to you.

The photographers include: Roger Archibald, Frank Armstrong, Craig Becker, Karen Bell, Patricia A. Bender, Anne Berry, Meg Birnbaum, Todd Bradley, Joy Bush, Jessica Chen, Robert Dash, Adam Davies, Adrienne Defendi, L. Aviva Diamond, Barbara Diener, Benjamin Dimmitt, Estelle Disch, Alex Djordjevic, Ken Dreyfack, Mitch Eckert, Carol Erb, Diane Fenster, Kev Filmore, Doug Fogelson, Connie Gardner Rosenthal, Conrad Gees, Linda Haas, Law Hamilton, Charlotta Hauksdottir, Jeanne Hildenbrand, Mark Indig, Carol Isaak, Diana Nicholette Jeon, Doug Johnson, Amy Kanka Valadarsky, Susan Keiser, Sandra Klein, Karen Klinedinst, Brian Kosoff, David Kulik, Susan Lapides, Mark Levinson, Susan Lirakis, Aline Mare, Kevin Miyazaki, Colleen Mullins, Arthur Nager, Bernie Newman, Marcy Palmer, Jane Paradise,  Paula Riff, Gordon Reynolds, Gail Samuelson, Holly Roberts, Wendi Schneider, Jean Schnell, Tony Schwartz, Sara Silks, Richella Simard, David Whitney, Vicky Stromee, Dawn Watson, Nina Weinberg Doran, Dianne Yudelson and Mike Zeis.

Any questions regarding the artwork can be directed to the Griffin Museum at 781-729-1158 or via email to photos@griffinmuseum.org.

We want to thank the Downtown Boston Improvement District and Lafayette City Center for their continued support of the Griffin Museum of Photography. We have enjoyed every moment you have allowed us to exhibit here.

Paula Tognarelli
Executive Director and Curator
Griffin Museum of Photography
January 22, 2018

There will be an artist talk and reception on May 5, 2018 from 4-6 PM. Talk at 4 PM. Reception at 5 PM.

“Tree Talk” is an exhibition of 66 photographers from all over the world who have featured trees as themes in this exhibition.  As part of ARTWEEK six photographers will talk about their work in the exhibition and how trees impact their lives. Those photographers are Jessica Chen, Conrad Gees, Jane Paradise, Doug Johnson, Tony Schwartz and Mike Zeis. The program will then open up to the audience to discuss the importance of trees in their lives and how trees communicate with each other and with the people. The exhibition is brought to the public by the Griffin Museum of Photography and is curated by the director and curator Paula Tognarelli. The exhibition is located in the Lafayette City Center Passageway in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. An exhibition artist reception is from 5-6 PM.

Anyone from a manufacturing background has a propensity for visual depictions of measurement, process and outcome. Whether it be an excel graph for tracking a trend, a work flow diagram following a widget through production or a fish bone chart to problem solve, it is easier to analyze with a pictorial rendering than a spread sheet of raw numbers or a written description of a procedure. This is the thread of the idea leading to “The Visual Metric” exhibition for the Griffin Museum of Photography.

What is a metric? Loosely put, a metric is a system for measuring the relationship between linked elements. Creating a metric involves unbiased observation over a period of time, mapping observations into numbers, and creating ratios that have a relationship to the outcome. The result of the ratio is the metric.

Metrics can also mean the measure of a meter. While the metric system never quite took hold in the United States as the daily norm for measure, we rely on conversion charts to understand the meaning when presented to us.

Recently a friend took me to the hospital due to an injury I incurred. The hospital set me in a chair to weigh me. When I realized what they were doing I told my friend to leave the room. The nurse told me not to worry as the scale reported in kilograms and nobody understands what that means. I asked my friend if she could convert kilograms to pounds. “Not even if my life depended on it,” she replied.

For the purpose of this exhibition I did not intend to actually hold fast to statistical principles but only suggest scientific measure. In the end I am more concerned with the poetry of the visual metric rather than in its veracity.

In finding candidates to exhibit, I looked for photographs that visually mapped, measured, analyzed, or implied a system of topological relationships albeit sometimes imprecisely. As the curator, I take great enjoyment from exercising curatorial license as in this exhibit. Photographers submitted selections for me based on a “call for entry.” Other photographers I invited from my recollection of their work. There are fifty photographs in this exhibition and forty-two photographers. Two of these photographers work collaboratively. The artists come from all over the United States and Canada. The artists included are:

Roger Archibald, Julie Anand and Damon Sauer, Rachel Barrett, Karen Bell, Meg Birnbaum, Joy Bush, Kim Campbell, Richard Alan Cohen, Charan Devereaux, Norm Diamond, Randi Ganulin, Karen Garrett de Luna, Steve Gentile, Mary Daniel Hobson, Carol Isaak, Andrew Janjigian, Frances Jakubek, Doug Johnson, Marky Kauffmann, Sant Khalsa, Tom Lamb, Susan Lapides, Ralph Mercer, Noritaka Minami, Adam Neese, Troy Paiva, Barry Rosenthal, Daryl-Ann Saunders, Nicolo Sertorio, Sara Silks, Jean Sousa, Jane Szabo, JP Terlizzi, Donna Tramontozzi, David Weinberg, Grace Weston, Julie Williams-Krishnan, Susan Wilson, DM Witman, Dianne Yudelson, and Charlyn Zlotnik.

Collaborators Julie Anand and Damon Sauer photographed “a system of 256 calibration targets that were created as part of a secret surveillance program in the mid-1960s in the Sonoran Desert.” In addition they mapped “specific satellites present in the sky at each site at the moment of photographing using a satellite tracking application.” (Anand and Sauer)

Noritaka Minami photographs the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. Architect Kisho-Kurokawa, built the tower in 1972. “The …… aim was to formulate flexible designs that facilitate continual growth and renewal of architecture. Kurokawa attached the building with 140 removable capsules to promote modifications to the structure over time, theoretically improving its capacity to adjust to the rapidly changing conditions of the post-industrial society.” (Minami)

Dianne Yudelson sets up a scene of measuring tape and a pattern for making clothing. She says, “My image represents the process of how we use measurement to map our bodies.” Jane Szabo created a dress made out of maps, while JP Terlizzi stitched on a photograph of his mother. Karen Bell presents her stiches on her hand while Carol Isaak photographs a tracing of a hand.

“In today’s world, consumer goods are increasing in volume. At the same time their useful lives are shorter and shorter,” says Barry Rosenthal. He lines up and photographs in a manner as if to count all the objects that he’s pulled from the shores of New York Harbor. David Weinberg lays out pomegranate seeds in a similar way.

Several photographers measured time in different ways. Meg Birnbaum and Randi Ganulin used tree rings as a metric. Donna Tramontozzi photographed the marks on the wall of a familial home where a family watched all of the children grow. Susan Lapides makes a comparison of the time in different times zones. Jean Sousa presents a body turning to stone.

Mapping was presented in multiple ways by globes, aerial views and land and terrain maps. Roger Archibald photographed random snails’ trails. Geometry is also woven through the exhibition in architecture and the landscape. Kim Campbell maps a process while Norm Diamond charts the colors for a painting.

“The Visual Metric” has been organized to flow as a narrative from the beginning to end of the passageway. We hope our audience enjoys the exhibit and finds more interpretations of the visual metric within the show. Any questions regarding the artwork can be directed to the Griffin Museum at 781-729-1158 or via email to photos@griffinmuseum.org. We open with the exhibit on August 4, 2017 and end in early November. The exhibit is running during FlashPoint Boston.

We want to thank the Downtown Boston Improvement District and Lafayette City Center for their continued support of the Griffin Museum of Photography. We have enjoyed every moment you have allowed us to exhibit here.

Elin Spring’s review of The Visual Metric

Lafayette Gallery

March 21 – July 21, 2017
Reception June 24, 2017 4:30 – 6 PM

Aviary

Group exhibition

Aviary

March 3, 2017  (Winchester, MA)__ What draws us to the birds? Is it the carefree flight or energetic purpose? Is it the avian song that thrills us, their soft flicks and twitches, or the knowing cocked head and one watchful eye? The Griffin Museum brings 64 photographs by 61 photographers to Downtown Crossing to spark an interest in the birds of “Aviary.”

The “Aviary” exhibition will run at our satellite gallery, Griffin Museum @Lafayette City Center Passageway in Downtown Boston, MA. “Aviary” will be ongoing from March 21, 2017 until July 21, 2017. A reception will take place on June 24, 2017 4:30 – 6 PM.

The Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of photography Paula Tognarelli is the curator of the exhibition “Aviary.” She says, “Birds can represent both the crises and jubilations of the times. For example, the “caged bird” is a metaphor for being trapped or confined.” Tognarelli says more about birds that “Poets invoke them. Filmmakers cast them. Writers describe them. Even the Post Office has a stamp of them. The bird long ago wove its way into man’s daily experience.”

The selected artists are: Roger Archibald, Rick Ashley, Karen Bell, Patricia Bender, Meg Birnbaum, Melissa Borman, Jenna Mulhall-Brereton, Kelly Burgess, Patty Carroll, Rebecca Clark, Heidi Clapp Temple, Robert Dash, Cori DiPietro, Alex Djordjevic, Tsar Fedorsky, Diane Fenster, Fran Forman, Conrad Gees, Steve Gentile, Daniel George, Aubrey Guthrie, Barbara Hayden, Janet Holmes, John Holmgren, Carol Isaak, Ellie Ivanova, Paul Jett, Doug Johnson, Paul Kessel, Molly Lamb, Laurie Lambrecht, Honey Lazar, Daniel Long, Ingrid Lundquist, Kerry Mansfield, Denise Marcotte, Alysia Macaulay, Cheryl Medow, Bibiana Medkova, Yvette Meltzer, Donna Moore, Paul Murray, Rebecca Palmer, Jane Paradise, Lori Pond, Esther Pullman, Becky Ramotowski, Katherine Richmond, Paula Riff, Joshua Sarinana, Wendi Schneider, Sara Silks, Felice Simon, Vicky Stromee, Don Swavely, Donna Tramontozzi, Marie Triller, Emily Vallee, Ellen Wallenstein, Dianne Yudelson, and Andrea Zampitella.

The Griffin Museum is thankful to these 60 photographers for sharing their 63 birds’ eye views. The Griffin Museum is also thankful to Lafayette City Center and the Boston Downtown Business Improvement District for their ongoing support.

The Lafayette City Center Passageway is located
at 2 Ave De Lafayette
Boston, MA 02111. The exhibition is brought to the public courtesy of the Lafayette City Center and Boston Downtown Business Improvement District and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Curator’s Statement

Space is a multilayered word. It can be an action, feeling, a state of mind or an area with potential. It can be occupied or rented. Space can also be a void. It is the gap between words, teeth, parked cars, or the area beyond earth’s air.

Over time and circumstance society has inhabited space in a variety of ways. Early seventeenth century American colonists chose to live closely to each other by a river and in a ring around a common building. In the mid 1800’s the need for more land spurred expansion past the Appalachian Mountains to the western frontiers. City dwellers view space by the dollar per square foot, country dwellers count acres and the property line defines the suburban boundary. The invention of the skyscraper economized space in land-strapped cities, accommodating more people vertically while working and living in the sky.

The artists responded with varied interpretations of the topic. Some chose a geometric response or produced artistic space. Two photographed private moments of reflection. One photographer depicted the air one breathes and others portrayed the outer reaches beyond earth’s atmosphere. All photographs chosen for this exhibit work together in a unified way to form a narrative on the concept of SPACE. The Griffin Museum of Photography is very proud to be able to share the work of these 37 photographers in exhibition.

The artists included are:
Philip V. Augustine, Garrett Baumer, Robert Collier Beam, Karen Bell, Patricia Bender, Matthew Bender, Anne Berry, Justine Bianco, Meg Birnbaum, Darin Boville, Berendina Buist, Laura Burlton, Joy Bush, Bill Chapman, John Chervinsky, Richard Allen Cohen, Rick Colson, Amy Friend, David Gardner, Jennifer Georgescu, Audrey Gottlieb, Andrea Greitzer, Tytia Habing, Elizabeth Ireland, Marky Kauffmann, Kat Kiernan, Susan Lapides, Honey Lazar, Joyce P. Lopez, Sarah Malakoff, Greer Muldowney, Suzanne Revy, Dana Salvo, Jennifer Shaw, Vicky Stromee, Maija Tammi, and Zelda Zinn.

Our thanks to Lafayette City Center and the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District for their support of the Griffin Museum in bringing this exhibit to the public.

Paula Tognarelli
>A Catalog For Space Is Available

[Photo]gogues]: New England is not a definitive study of New England Photography Pedagogues, rather it is a sampling of faculty members from the region. Paula Tognarelli and Frances Jakubek, executive director and associate director of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, invited nine photography instructors to exhibit their work during the Flash Forward Photography Festival 2016 in Boston.

“Nourish” is an exhibition consisting of five photographers’ work that is inspired by food as subject matter. Each artist makes a connection with food in a unique way.

[Photo]gogues: New England is not a definitive study of New England Photography Pedagogues, rather it is a sampling of faculty members from the region. Paula Tognarelli and Frances Jakubek, executive director and associate director of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, invited ten photography instructors to exhibit their work during the Flash Forward Photography Festival 2015 in Boston.

Curators’ Statement

The Griffin Museum presents excerpts from its Photography Atelier 20 Exhibition at the Lafayette City Center Passageway that links Macy’s with the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The exhibit will run from November 19 through Feb 16, 2015. The Photography Atelier is a course for intermediate and advanced photographers offered by the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA and taught by Meg Birnbaum and course assistant, Amy Rindskopf.