Inspiration and community have always been at the heart of artmaking. Experiencing art together is, itself, a communal act. Inspired by the collaborative spirit of A Yellow Rose Project—an exhibition curated by Frances Jakubek and Meg Griffiths that collects over 100 responses and reactions to the 19th Amendment—the Griffin Museum invited participating artists to share who have inspires them as artists and human beings. Women by Women: Community & Inspiration gathers their responses and extends the conversation. The 65 women photographers featured in this online gallery were chosen for the influence they’ve had on the woman artist who selected them. We’re grateful to share their insights and the inspirations that connect them.

The Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to present a series of images exploring family and domestic space as places of ritual and tradition. Hand-picked from our Gathering Place exhibition open call at the Jenks Center, this online showcase presents the images of 85 extraordinary artists.

Congratulation to the selected artists:

Alexandra Coats, Angela Cappetta, Anjali Singh, Amy Herman, Artemisia Luk, B.A. Van Sise, Barkat Mehra, Bienyl Huelgas, Catie Keane, Cassidy Thurber, Chris Ireland, Christina Fontsare, Christopher Perez, Claire Daly, David Kaminsky, Dana Matthews, Diane Bush, Doug Lowell, Elizabeth Calderone, Emily Wiethorn, Fenn Bruns, Gabriela Flores, Giuseppe Lanotte, Hannah Samoy, Hannah Latham, Harmony Chamberlain Harrington, Helen Jones, Ilana Grollman, Insley Smullen, Iris Grimm, Iris Huerta, Jacob Faulkner, Jay Wilson, Jessica Gianna, John Benton, John Savoia, Jaelyn Hill, Justin Carney, Kai Velazquez, Kate Mahoney, Ken Rothman, Laura June Kirsch, Linda Moses, Loona Moon, Lotanna Ogbuefi, Lucy Reback, Mara Trilla, Mari Saxon, Marina Bezrukova, Mark Fitton, Marlon Webster Paine, Matthew Cohn, Martin Izuah, Maureen Beitler, Max Cavitch, Micah McCoy, Mishel Alba, Mona Sartoveh, Nathan Ward, Natia Ser, Olena Morozova, Pamela Landau Connolly, Parvathi Kumar, Peter Nicholson, Rachel Jump, Ronald Butler, Sarah Pfohl, Scott Offen, Shina Peng, Stephanie Hanlon, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Thomas Dryden Kelsey, Thomas Nondh Jansen, Thouly Dosios, Xavier Rony.

The Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 New England Portfolio Review Scholarship Program. Read below to learn about their projects.

Lauren Bertelson

Lauren Bertelson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist whose image-based work examines vision, familial dynamics, and the limitations of photographic representation through a combined photographic and sculptural practice. She is a recipient of the 2022 SOURCE Grant to develop Like Mother, Like Daughter, which centers on the generational obligations and rewards stemming from traditions and norms of domesticity.

Bertelson holds a BFA in Art Photography from Syracuse University and is actively pursuing an MFA in Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at Light Work, Studio 1608, Target Gallery, and other locations across the US.

Project Statement
Closed Loop | Double Vision (in progress) is a series of photographic self-portraits and image-objects that focus directly on photography and its entanglement with the construction of self and body. The camera is understood as both a tool that creates accurate, concrete evidence and a weapon that produces decontextualized fragments of time mutable to a desired narrative.

The pervasiveness of both the camera and its output are active elements that structure our lives and deeply influence our psychic space. Through an experimental cycle of photographing, collaging, shaping, and then re-photographing, the resulting image-objects toy with our understanding of photography as static and question what it means to be a photographed subject in our contemporary moment.

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Jordin Tovin

Jordan Tovin (b. 2004) is an Atlanta-born documentary photojournalist currently based in Washington, D.C., where he is a senior pursuing a BFA in photojournalism at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University. His work focuses on uncovering human stories, creating meaningful photographs that highlight everyday moments within traditionally overlooked communities. With an intimate and respectful approach, Jordan seeks to give these moments the attention and dignity they deserve.

 Project Statement
A Shaw Diary is a project meant to highlight the experience of one family, living in subsidized housing, navigating the indeterminate future of their neighborhood consumed by the effects of gentrification. Only ten blocks away from the White House, the historic Shaw neighborhood once stood as the cultural hub of Washington, D.C. Yet today, much of that same community that gave D.C. its identity is being pushed to the city’s periphery, as their homes, histories, and futures are threatened by the forces of redevelopment and displacement.
While the impact of gentrification reverberates across Shaw, this project seeks to explore how one multigenerational family stands as a mirror to the city’s shifting landscape. Rooted in the neighborhood for decades, their lives trace a story of endurance: of holding memory against demolition, of sustaining community against erasure. Their experience is not singular, but symbolic—echoing countless others who remain, fighting to preserve what is still theirs even as the ground shifts beneath them.

As Reece, the mother, put it, “We’re an average family trying to live through this whole situation, and we still try to be fly. We do. We still try to make sure we have our Uggs, our Jordans, and our North Faces on, but that shit hard… That shit hard.”

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Kylee Sheehan

Kylee Sheehan is a Boston based portrait photographer working towards her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Her work documents the essence of human presence and connection. Each composed frame is an exploration of the intricate tapestry of emotions, stories, and vulnerabilities that define us as individuals. She is an award recipient from Copley Society of Art, the Gertrude Kasebier Prize from the photography department, and received a Gold Key from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Kylee is currently working at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Project Statement
If a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?
Kylee Sheehan

I have always found myself drawn to documenting people, specifically those existing on the fringes of society. In my work, I focus on stories told through experiences, struggles, and resilience, because I believe the power of photographs is to shed light on unique individuals.

The biggest example in my life, who has become central in my work, is my sister, Grace. She is transgender, navigating the complex journey of a major change. Grace’s story is deeply personal, and photographing her has allowed me to witness not just her transformation, but the subtle moments that make up her life. I have chosen to capture her in long exposures—moments emerging from the darkness, offering a glimpse into her identity, growth, and vulnerability. This work celebrates the complexities of self-discovery and the quiet power that comes from standing in one’s truth.

Within this journey of photographing Grace, she has prompted me to confront my own identity. I am challenged with questioning how I reflect my individuality; being adopted from China, unknowing of my birthplace, birth day, and birth parents, I struggle to dive inward with who I am or who I could have been. Grace has empowered me to take hold of my identity and push my own narrative.

In this project, I offer a space where Grace’s journey can be understood and celebrated, illuminated both literally and figuratively as she takes each step toward becoming her truest self.

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Madelyn McKenzie

From Brockton, Massachusetts, Madelyn McKenzie comes from a short line of artists consisting of her father and grandfather, an analogue photographer. Thanks to her younger twin sisters and first camera, Madelyn’s love of portraiture grew quickly into a ceaseless obsession. Her work is often close-up still life when not portraiture, and Madelyn has enjoyed turning the camera around for self-portraits in which she becomes the alluring subject and observant viewer. Her work is inspired by Greek mythology, Bauhaus photography, and her experiences as a big sister. When not in the darkroom, Madelyn can be found tap dancing, crafting, or video chatting with her sisters and guinea pigs.

Project Statement
My photographic practice is rooted in an ever-lasting desire to know and steeped in an affinity for the human experience. Though portraiture is a practical tool and self-portraiture yields fruitful results, and while my camera is drawn to humans, my eyes yearn for the intricacies of still-life. For me, it is the objects we surround ourselves with that closely reflect our selves, rather than the humans amongst whom we concoct a self.

This series of photographs dives into the proliferation of the internal, personal self and the external, personable self, as well as the collapse of the self entirely into mere shared experiences. Mirrors and other reflective methods, referencing early 20th-century lesbian photography, speak to the discovery and construction of one’s inner self. This never-ending journey is, rather than self-absorbed, a radical act of dynamic creativity in a period fraught with short-lived trends fueled by mass production. Ultimately, these photographs respond to the question, “Which is the true self: the internal or the external?” by suggesting “both, and neither.”

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Virginia Hanusik

Virginia Hanusik (b. 1992) is an artist and writer whose projects explore the relationship between landscape, culture, and the built environment. Her work has been exhibited internationally, featured in The New Yorker, Aperture, National Geographic, British Journal of Photography, Places Journal, The Atlantic, MAS Context, and Oxford American among others, and supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Pulitzer Center, Graham Foundation, Landmark Columbus Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. She regularly writes and speaks on landscape representation and the visual narrative of climate change, and is on the board of directors of The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans where she coordinates multi-disciplinary projects on the climate crisis.

Hanusik has been a recipient of the Decade of Change Award (2020), a Photography Fellow with Exhibit Columbus (2020-2021) where her multi-year project on the Mississippi River watershed explored the history of flooding and politics of disasters in the region, a Rising: Climate in Crisis Resident at Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods (2022), and a Creative Capital Award finalist (2022).

Her book, Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana (Columbia University Press, 2024), was shortlisted for the 2024 Paris Photo-Aperture First Photobook Award.

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Rory McNamara

Rory McNamara is a photographer and printmaker from Amsterdam, New York. She earned her BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and is now living in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is pursuing her MFA in Print Media and Photography at Boston University. McNamara has exhibited her work at the William Harris Gallery and at RIT City Art Space, both in Rochester, New York, and the Leica Gallery in Boston. Her work was also featured in editions 17, 18, and 19 of DRAFT Magazine. McNamara has received various awards and scholarships including the RIT Presidential Scholarship, the RIT Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award, and the Constatin Alajalov Scholarship. Her current body of work explores the external world and how it becomes representative of her own internal landscape.

My current body of work is an exploration of my internal landscape as a means to better understand myself. As I move through the physical space that I occupy, I notice the environment transforming in tandem with my mind and body. I see myself reflected in my surroundings. A swarm of bugs quickly flying through the air speaks to the ways in which I feel restless, as if I am constantly trying to keep up with those around me.

My camera acts as a window not only into the world, but into myself. I use it to visualize these moments of isolation and transition where I am often unsure of what comes next. An image of a lonely house sitting on a hill among hundreds of dark trees and a thick layer of fog becomes a self-portrait—one that represents my own feelings of seclusion. In some of my images, I create a vast distance between myself and my subjects, giving weight to the emptiness. In others, I examine the microscopic, looking at my subjects through a magnified lens, similar to how I look at myself. This contrast in looking emphasizes how we perceive the world around us as well as ourselves.

The external world begins to represent my own internal landscape, challenging the viewer’s perceptions of place and the natural world. This exploration aims to reveal the dichotomy between comfort and fear as I search for contentment in the unknown around me.

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Michael Totten

Michael Totten is a Los Angeles-based photographer whose work delves into the complexities of memory and space through constructed environments and portraiture. A graduate of Art Center College of Design with a BFA in Fine Art Photography, Michael’s practice interrogates how we reconstruct and reinterpret past experiences. His images explore the nuanced boundaries between reality and imagination, questioning the veracity of memory and focusing on the narratives we craft for emotional resonance. His Craigslist project, which began with spontaneous photo sessions of strangers, developed into an exploration of shared narratives, shifting from impromptu encounters to curated scenes that reflect the intricate dance between reality and constructed moments.

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Carlos Paronis

Carlos Paronis is a recent graduate from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography in 2024. Born in Guatemala and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts at a young age. He merges conceptual and documentary work together to share real stories, feelings and experiences. Carlos enjoys experimentation in his photographic practice and likes to merge his work with other art mediums such as collage and sculpture. 

Carlos Paronis (Cambridge, MA) creates work aiming to boost representation of individuals and communities that are often overlooked. His main focus has been a project about where he grew up, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The city is home to a diverse community that is slowly being pushed out by the increase in bio-tech companies moving into the city. He finds interest in the social dynamics of Cambridge. Although the city acts progressive, it often undermines the real problems many people face. These problems are due to the changes it allows and other issues it overlooks. By photographing the people who have lived in the city for generations he hopes to create representation and records of the beautiful community that makes Cambridge the unique city it is.

Along with the portraits he has also been creating layered images using a “Trichromatic” process. He does this by stacking photos taken from the exact same spot, but months apart. The photos are of new construction which produces vivid colors that stand out amongst parts of the landscape that haven’t changed. This is in order to show how the new buildings in the city often feel alienated and out of place.

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Owen Dominguez

Artist Bio:  Owen Dominguez is a student and photographer working with both digital and analog camera processes. Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, he began taking photos at age nine using a small digital point-and-shoot camera. Playing various sports throughout his childhood, he became drawn to sports photography in high school, continuing in the space to the present day. Upon arriving at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, he began working with analog cameras and developing his own black-and-white film. His most recent work is a collection of images from University Park, a public park across the street from the Clark campus. His photography has been featured in multiple galleries in Worcester, as well as Worcester Magazine and the Worcester Telegram. He is currently a junior at Clark University.

Project Statement
From early September of 2024 to August of 2025, I began almost daily walking across the street from the campus of Clark University to the aptly named University Park. Some days the people of the park would draw me in, others it would be the animals, and sometimes it would be as simple as the foliage. I grew very close with the park, learning the names of many frequent basketball players, or knowing when the geese would be most active on the water. I found University Park to be an encapsulation of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, all of its good with all of its bad. For almost a year, all of it was for me to see.

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Liangsi Wang

Liangsi Wang is a photographer based in Medford, Massachusetts. Born and raised in Xi’an China, and a recent graduate of Sheridan College, Ontario, he is pursuing an MFA at Tufts University. 

Project Statement 
This project is based on a dream the artist had. An exploration of the uneasy space between fiction and reality. A tribute to the moon, home and memories of honey cakes.

Since 2009, the Griffin Museum has created a gathering space bringing reviewers and photographers together from New England and beyond for two days of discussion, networking, and gaining fresh perspective on one’s work.

The New England Portfolio Reviews (NEPR) serves photographers who are just embarking on their careers and more established photographers, all hoping to reach new audiences and gain fresh perspective on their work.

The online format allows for an expansion of participants in volume and in location including reviewers such as gallerists, book publishers, museum professionals, critics, educators, and advisors from all over the world who provide guidance and potential opportunities to grow artist practices. We are grateful to our reviewers who give their time and expertise to the attendees to further their creative goals.

This online exhibition highlights the diversity of creativity found in each of our participants.

Artists featured in this online exhibition are: Adam Chapin, Adele Q. Brown, Amy Giese, Andrew McClees, Barbara Lewin, Carlotta Guerra, Caroline Stevens, Jeremy Chandler, Dafna Steinberg, Dan Nelken, Daniel Szabo, David Comora, Donna Oglesby, Michael Weinstein, Ellen Feldman, Eric Kunsman, Georgia McGuire, Irene Matteucci, Jaina Cipriano, Jean Francois Gosselin, Joshua Holz, Jung S. Kim, Kathleen Tunnel Handel, Kaya Sanan, Kylie Harrigan, Laila Nahar, Lee Varis, Lisa McCarty, Lisa Tang Liu, Madelyn McKenzie, Mahala Mazerov, Marcie Scudder, Marky Kauffmann, Marsha Wilcox, Matt Kaelin, Megan Riley, Melinda Hurst Frye, Michael Page Miller, Mio Akashi, MK Rynne, Paul Baskett, Peggy Becker, Philip Sager, Rory McNamara, Sandra Buschow, Scott Lerman, Scott Marmer, Sophie Adams, Suzanne McIntire, Suzanne Williamson, Victoria Gewirz, Xuan Hui Ng.

To see a full listing of our participants and scholarship students please download our 2025 Artist Index

This year we celebrate the Griffin Museum of Photography’s dedication to education with a special showcase of the incredible work realized during our Photography Atelier courses. Now in its 40th edition, this portfolio and project development program has aided in the creative endeavors of countless students. We are grateful to them for their participation on this celebratory occasion.

We are grateful to the instructors who gave so much of themselves, the artists who worked shared their creativity, and to everyone who came to openings and artist talks to celebrate these talented students. Sharing your work and ideas with us

For over twenty years, the Photography Atelier at the Griffin Museum has fostered a community of artists and educators dedicated to elevating the art of photography. Through collaborative critique, creative exploration, and personal vision, this program continues to shape compelling photographic work and advance the medium with purpose and passion.

We are so pleased to have many of the over 250 educators and artists highlighted here –

Leah Abrahams, Lisa Neville Ambler, Stephanie Arnett, Peter Balentine, Becky Behar, Emily Belz, Diane Bennett, Robin Boger, Ann Boese, Judy Brown, Michael Burka, Lisa Cassell-Arms, Craig Childs, Annie Claflin, Jamie Collins, David Comora, Lee Cott, Karen Davis, Ileana Doble Hernandez, Dena Eber, Edward, William Feiring, Ellen Feldman, Laura Ferraguto, Roger Galburt, Conrad Gees, Sarah Gosselin, Trelawney Goodell, Marc Goldring, Cassandra Goldwater, Sanford Gotlib, James Hunt, Gregory Jundanian, Alan Kidawski, Michael King, Julie Williams-Krishnan, Lawrence Manning, Bonnie McCormick, Lyn Swett Miller, Judith Montminy, Bonnie Newman, Linda Hammett Ory, Ann Peters, Astrid Reischwitz, Lisa Redburn, Margaret Rizzuto, Darrell Roak, Vanessa R, Megan Riley, Glenn Ruga, Joyce Saler, Gordon Saperia, Becca Screnock, Hope Schreiber, Andy Schirmer, Fran Sherman, Pip Shepley, Tony Schwartz, Sally, Christy Stadelmaier, Joe Staska, Betty Stone, Susan Swirsley, Mark Thayer, Donna Tramontozzi, Carol Van Loon, Amir Viskin, Piet Visser, Heather Walsh, David Whitney, Jeanne Widmer, Julie Williams-Krishnan, Nancy Nichols, Albert Lew.

Mothercraft is an ongoing body of work that uses press photographs culled from flea markets and eBay to reconsider 20th-century depictions of mothers in the US media. Typed and handwritten text, along with date stamps, creased edges, and stains, layer the backs of the photographs. These images are time capsules, showing us the event pictured and the frame through which they were received. The photographs I have collected illustrate movement, both socially and politically, as records of the shifting identity of motherhood and women’s liberation, but also durationally as physical images that were held, touched, and eventually abandoned.

Each photograph in Mothercraft is backlit as I rephotograph it, and the resulting image simultaneously reveals both the front and back of the print. With a sharp focus on the text, the image can fall further into obscurity, blurred and layered with captions and marks. The fragmented captions often slip past their descriptive roles into the more dogmatic territory and reflect the dynamic push and pull between the personal and the political. They offer information ranging from the objective, such as age and location, to the more partial and idiosyncratic details tied to tradition and duty. These images provide a glimpse into the unstable nature of truth and the complex relationship between image and word.

BIO

Toni Pepe creates prints and three-dimensional assemblages from discarded newspaper images, family snapshots, and obsolete photographic equipment, investigating how photography shapes our understanding of time, space, and self. Her practice explores the layers of information a print conveys beyond its image—whether through the presence of text, subtle stains, or crop marks—each detail offering insight into the photograph’s journey and its significance as a physical object. More than static images, photographic prints capture and suspend our likenesses and histories, bearing the marks of time and physical interaction.

Pepe is the Chair of Photography and Associate Professor of Art at Boston University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, Blue Sky Gallery, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the MFA Boston, the Boston Athenaeum, Fidelity, the Boston Public Library, the Danforth Art Museum, the University of Oregon, Candela Books + Gallery, The Magenta Foundation, and numerous private collections. She was a resident at Frans Masereel Centrum in 2023, a MacDowell Fellow in 2024, and was recently named a Howard Foundation and Evelyn Stefansson Nef Fellow.

In 1916 women were over 60 years into the battle of the American Suffrage Movement. Frustrated by President’s Wilson’s inaction on the matter, The National Woman’s Party decided to put their fate directly into women’s hands by launching a radical campaign that sent hundreds of Eastern suffragists out to the 12 western states where women had the right to vote. Their request was a simple one; put aside all political agendas and cast a protest vote against President Wilson and his fellow Democrats.

Inez Milholland was appointed special “flying envoy” to make a 12,000-mile swing through the west in October leading up to the 1916 Presidential and Congressional election.

Inez, traveling with her sister Vida, delivered some 50 speeches in eight states in 28 days. Battling chronic illness and lack of sleep, her four-week itinerary, brutal even by today’s travel standards, consisted of street meetings, luncheons, railroad station rallies, press interviews, teas, auto parades, dinner receptions, speeches in the West’s grandest theaters, and even impromptu talks on trains while on her way to the next destination.

On October 24th, 1916 in Los Angeles, she collapsed on stage while giving her final public words, “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” Her health forced her to stop the tour and she died 30 days later at the age of 30, making her the sole martyr of the American Suffrage Movement. Inspired by her devotion, the movement continued to grow, and ultimately led to the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Standing Together retraces the sisters’ journey as a determined Inez persuaded standing-room-only crowds throughout the west to vote for the enfranchisement of women.

Jeanine Michna-Bales is a fine artist working in the medium of photography. Her work explores our fundamentally important relationships – to the land, to other people and to oneself – and how they impact contemporary society. Her work lives at the intersection of curiosity and knowledge, documentary and fine art, past and present, anthropology and sociology, and environmentalism and activism. Her practice is based on in-depth research – taking into account different viewpoints, causes and effects, political climates – and she often incorporates primary source material into her projects.

Michna-Bales’s latest photographic essay on the American Suffrage Movement, Standing Together, is featured in the July/August 2020 double-issue of Smithsonian Magazine and will be released as a comprehensive publication and traveling exhibition in the Spring of 2021. Her work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions around the United States, including The Phillips Collection, Moving Walls 23: Journeys at Open Society Foundations, the traveling exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, featured in numerous publications and online, and is held in many institutional and private collections. Among other honors, her work was selected for the 2016 Documentarian of The American South Collection Award from the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.

Jeanine Michna-Bales Portfolio

instagram: @JMBalesPhotography

In celebration of her participation as a Guest Critic for our inaugural Handmade Book exhibition (curated by Sangyon Joo from Datz Press), the Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to present an online exhibition by Laila Nahar. The show centers on three of her projects: Rituals — a set of two books, Face to Faith and Puja — and Lost Space Living In Our Mind. With their complex book structures, vibrant imagery and print manipulation, these visual and tactile feasts take us on a meditative journey through memory, time, and place.

We are thankful to Nahar for deliberately spending time with each book of our Handmade Photobook exhibit, and selecting six of them for a spotlight feature on the Fine Art Photography Journal, LENSCRATCH.

Lost Space Living In Our Minds
Jaya Mishra, Tanveer Khonker & Laila Nahar

Lost Space Living in Our Mind is a handmade artist monograph about living in a place and the experience while revealing the place as both a subject and a collaborator. The book emerged when the novelty, particularity and excitement faded away. It was born from the feelings that seeped in the depths of our soul, into our existence. When acceptance and contradictions of the moment lost its grip on us. It is the sudden deep breath that pauses everything and the moment spreads through our existence. Just the hopping of a little bird, the sudden darkening of the sky in anticipation of monsoon rain, or the woman on the roof taking a moment of pause to look at the sky after hanging the washed clothes. Suddenly we are freed from the moment; something rises like the swelling tide. It is a book when feelings and remembrance become the reflection of each other.

The book starts with the collage from cut-out photos with pastels and text. Delving into scattered memories and realizations, we forged a nonlinear storyline of places embarking on a slow journey. The exploration pushed our inner and outer boundaries, confronting vulnerabilities. It spans across multiple spaces having been interconnected through memories or absence of it. One memory has led to the recollection of another from an entirely different time and place. The places have all bled into a single collage made of vivid yet intangible moments. Perhaps, it is not about a specific place at all, but more about the idea of the place itself. The new context of the experience is created with writings by three protagonists.

Rituals: Face to Faith and Puja
Tanveer Khondker & Laila Nahar

Face to Faith

When religion is reduced to an individual, when the religious rituals and categorizations are taken away; what remains in the heart of a pilgrim? What remains between a man* and the god? Is it still of significance what the man* is called or the God is named? The book attempts to understand and capture the sublime calmness and depth in the connection of a soul to the oneness.

I was trying to grasp and capture what is there in the shades of faith in the pilgrims of the old city of Jerusalem. To me, I see familiar expression on every pilgrim’s face – on the western wall, inside the Dome of Rock and the Church of Holy Sepulchre. It was of deep faith, vulnerability of human existence and, lamenting the loss of ancient cause. The old city has three of the world’s most important religious sites. Just behind the Wailing Wall which is considered the holiest for Jews, I could see the glittering Dome of the Rock, which houses the rock from where Muslims believe the prophet Mohammed ascended  to heaven. And only minutes away is the pilgrim-thronged Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows), which follows the Stations of the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified.

By end of day, to me, all faces in the sacred sites of Christianity, Jewish and Islam became one – every pilgrim in the congregations or prayers was same to me. It is painful to conceive, for centuries, religions fight over the narratives of Jerusalem and the custody of its stones.

The outside of the book stands as a wall depicting the walled city of Jerusalem while the inside of the accordion shows the pilgrims devoted into rituals from three religion.

*The origin of the word man is gender neutral

Rituals: Face to Faith and Puja

The ritual of puja is founded in religion, but it is far more expansive in the lives of Hindu culture. It runs deep through personal, family and social life. It is the rituals of love, blessings, togetherness and health; the search for enlightenment and depth; seeking meaning to life and death. It is joyous, it is humbling and it is liberating from personal constraints. It is submission to connections to within and to without.

The rituals of puja are means to comprehend and appreciate our spiritual self and the connection to oneness. It is to understand that the pride and individuality is an illusion. It is not that homage is paid to multiple gods but it is to view and experience the oneness through multiple windows.

It is like the soothing translucent aachal of her saree that wraps as all in her warmth.

About the artist –

Laila Nahar is a lens-based artist and bookmaker in California, USA. She lived her life in stark cultural contrast, born and brought up in Bangladesh and eventually migrating to the USA. She is primarily a self-taught photographer and book-artist exploring belonging, memory, cultural and collective identity. Her background from Bangladesh continues to shape her artistic identity and her work goes back to her roots in the Indian subcontinent, namely Bangladesh and India.

Laila’s handmade photo artist booksappeared in several exhibitions, including Griffin Museum of Photography, Photobookjournal.com, UnBound13! Candela Books + Gallery Exhibit and has won several awards, including Lucie Photo Book Prize Independent Category, DUMMY AWARD24 Shortlist, Athens Photo Festival APhF:24 Finalist, 19^th Singapore International Photo Festival Finalist etc. Her books are in permanent collections of several libraries and museums, including University of Colorado Libraries (Boulder), The Fleet Library (RISD), Boatwright Memorial Library (University of Richmond, Virginia), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Harvey Milk Photo Book Center amongst others.

Laila attended CODEX 2024 with seven of her handmade artist photo books.

Each year we celebrate our members creativity with our annual members juried exhibition. This year we had an overwhelming amount of exceptional entries, making our decisions difficult to narrow to a select few.

This year, in addition to the 68 member artists on the walls of the museum in Winchester, we are pleased to present an online exhibition highlighting 64 more member artists. Of the over 300 members who submitted photographs, between the in person and online exhibitions we highlight 136 members creativity.

The artists included in our online exhibition are –

Golnaz Abdoli, Barry Berman, Jean M. Bernstein, John Blom, Robin Boger, Christine Breslin, Teresa Camozzi, Jeanne Carey, Jesse Carter, Tom Cawthon, Jaina Cipriano, Bill Clark, Claudia Rippee, Kelly Conlin, Lee Cott, Ashley Craig, Lee Day, Carol Eisenberg, Lawrence Elbroch, Andrew Epstein, Jose Mila Espinoza, Anne Evans, Teri Figliuzzi, Joan Fitzsimmons, Trish Gannon, Lisa Gizara, Adam Gooder, Katherine Gulla, Wenda Habenicht, Al Hiltz, Jeannie Hutchins, Steve Jacobson, Gail Jenner, Cami Johnson, Amisha Kashyap, Kay Kenny, Sasha Knittel, Molly Lamb, Emily Laux, Al Levin, Mark Levinson, Steve Lewent, Anna Litvak-Hinenzon, Lyn Swett-Miller, Benita Mayo, Kay McCabe, Lisa McCord, Lisa Miller, Donna Marie Mironchuk, Laila Nahar, Jose Mila-Espinoza, Linda Hammett Ory, Linda Plaisted, Abby Raeder, Lisa Redburn, Sepand Rezazadeh, Kaya Sanan, Jessica Sarrazin, Lynn Saville, Anastasia Shik, Walter Silver, Ron St. Jean, JP Terlizzi, Robert Tomlinson, Elizabeth Wiese, Marsha Wilcox and Marjorie Wolfe