The Virtual Gallery

Statement
This series is inspired by my poem ”Hidden Realms”. The setting for many of the images is a fairytale landscape whose inhabitants are clouded in ambiguity. The ghostlike figures are reflections of the later years when beauty and youth begin to fade. They embody the feeling that one is becoming invisible and yet still present and powerful. The work speaks to family, memory, and the ethereal passage of time. The images are created using wet plate collodion. I scan and enlarge them to enhance the organic qualities of the medium.

Hidden Realms

Escaping into the solitude of nature

where time stands still,

One breathe to the next,

a respite for the body and the mind.

The creatures, each on their own journeys

wander nearby.

The melodies of the crickets and the frogs

resonate in their natural cadence

Oblivious to our chaos.

Can one linger here in invisibility…

disappearing into the hidden realms?

Perhaps not forever, but for a moment. – MAM

Bio
Mary Anne Mitchell is a fine art photographer working primarily with analog processes. Her most recent series Hidden Realms is shot using wet plate collodion. The images depict situations, often mysterious, which evoke her southern roots. She recently was a finalist in the 8th Edition of the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards and has been invited to exhibit some of this series in the 4th Biennial of Photography to be held in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the country and can be found in private and corporate collections across the US, Dubai, Taiwan, and Canada. She lives in Atlanta, GA.

Video

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AWARDS

Finalist in the 8th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards invited to exhibit in the Berlin Biennial. 2016

EXHIBITIONS
2019

Exhibition of photographs, “Gathered:, MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA  April-June 2019

Exhibition of photographs, “The Big Picture”, Denver, CO, Mar-May 2019

Upcoming
Installation exhibit, Solo exhibition, Thomas Deans Fine Art, Atlanta, GA  Oct. 2019

2018

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, 2 person Exhibit with Jeff Rich, Switzer Center for Visual Arts, Pensacola State College, FL Aug.-Oct. 2018

Exhibition of photographs, Colorado Center for Photography, Juried by Paula Tognarelli, May-July, 2018

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, Solo Exhibition, Mary G. Hardin Center for the Arts, Gadsden, AL   June-Aug. 2018

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, Solo Exhibition, Haas Gallery, Bloomsberg University, Bloomsberg, PA  Mar-May 2018

2017

Exhibition of photographs, “Gathered”, MOCA GA, Atlanta, GA, May-July 2017

Exhibition of photographs, “The Big Picture”, Denver, CO, Mar.-May 2017

2016

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, Solo exhibit of photographs, Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville, SC Nov.1-Dec.31, 2016

Exhibition of photographs, 4th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography, Palazzo Italia, Berlin, Germany,  Oct 6-30, 2016

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, Solo exhibit of photographs, Chastain Art Center, Atlanta, GA  August-Oct. 2016

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, Solo exhibit of photographs, Holzhauer Gallery, Mattie Kelly Arts Center, Niceville, FL.   May 23-July 23, 2016

2015

“Your Daily Photograph”, Featured photographer “Paris” section, Duncan Miller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Oct 12, 2015

“2nd Open Call Photography Exhibition”, Juried by Paula Tognarelli, Peter Miller Fine Art, Providence, RI, Oct-Nov. 2015

“Meet Me in My Dreams”, Solo exhibit of photographs, Allenton Gallery at the Durham Art Council, Durham, NC  Sept-Oct. 2015

“Director’s Cut”, Juried by Beth Lily, Atlanta Photography Group Gallery, Atlanta, GA  Sept. 2015

2014

“Altered Views”, Juried by S.Gayle Stevens, Lightbox Photographic, Astoria Oregon.   Oct. 2014

“Alice Curiouser and Curiouser”, Curated by Michelle Pizer, Cherrylion Gallery, Atlanta, GA  Sept, 2014

2013

“Magdalena”, curated by Joshua Mann Pailet, International House, New Orleans, LA  Dec. 2013-Jan 2014

“The Light Exhibition”, curated by Elizabeth Avedon and Jerry Atnip, Gallery One, Nashville, TN  June 2013

“Poetic Translation”, Solo Exhibition, Serenbe Photography Center, Palmetto GA, June -July 2013

“Postcard Collective”, Winter 2013 Exchange, Tucson, AZ.

New Directions 2013, curated by Ann Jastrab. Wall Space Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA and Seattle, WA.  Jan.-May 2013

6th Annual International Juried Plastic Camera Show, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA.

Mar. 6-April 22, 2013

PAST EXHIBITIONS

Slow Exposure,  Juried by Julian Cox and Brett Ellis, Zebulon ,GA  Oct.2012

Summer’s Past, Exhibition of photographs, Red Filter Gallery, Lambertville, NJ  June-Nov. 2012

Poetic Translation, Solo Exhibition, Emory University Law Library Gallery, Atlanta, GA   June-Aug. 2012

Exhibition of photographs, Call and Response,  Juried by Josephine Sacabo and Dalt Wonk, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA   April-May 2012

“Poetic Translation”, Solo Exhibition of Photographs, Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, GA   Feb.- April 2012

“Metaphoric”, Exhibition of photographs, Wells Gallery, Charleston, SC   Oct. 2011

“Return to Kiawah”, Solo Exhibition of photographs, Wells Gallery, Kiawah Island, SC  Nov. 2010

“Fantastic Plastic”, Exhibition of photographs,  Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, Atlanta, GA.  Oct. 2010

“Women’s Image”, Exhibition of photographs, Hagedorn Gallery, Atlanta, GA  Mar. 2010

Exhibition of Photographs, Hotel Indigo, Nashville, Tenn. Jan. 2010

Exhibition of photographs.  Hagedorn Gallery, Atlanta, Ga.  Dec. 2009

Exhibition of photographs, Juried by Julian Cox, photography curator High Museum of Art, Kai Lin Gallery, Atlanta, Ga. Oct. 2009

Exhibition of Photographs, Juried by Amy Miller, Atlanta Celebrates Photography: Snapdragon Gallery, Atlanta, Ga. Oct 2009

Exhibition of photographs ,Juried by Annette Cone-Skelton, MOCA GA. Zen Center, Atlanta, Ga. Sept. 2009

“Altered States”, Solo Exhibition of photographs,  Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, GA.   Feb.-Mar. 2009

Online exhibition of photographs, Plates to Pixels juried exhibit, Pacific NW Center for Photography,  Portland, Oregon, Dec.2008-Jan.2009

Exhibition of photographs, curated by Paula Katz, Biggins Gallery, University of Auburn, Auburn, AL Oct 2008

Exhibition of photographs, Ordover Gallery, Solana Beach, CA  Sept.-  2008

Exhibition of photographs, Juried by Fay Gold,  Art Station, Atlanta, Ga.  Sept-Oct. 2008

Exhibition of photographs, Juried show, Eyedrum Gallery, Atlanta, Ga.  June 2008

Exhibition of photographs, Composition Gallery, Atlanta, Ga. Mar. 2008

“On Film”,  Varga Gallery, Woodstock, NY.  Oct. 2007

“Women in Focus XIV”, Juried by Susan Todd-Raque, Ferst Center for the Arts, Atlanta, Ga. Oct. 2007

“Reflecting Back”, Solo Exhibition of photographs.  Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, Ga.  April 2007

Exhibition of photographs,  Juried Show, Composition Gallery, Atlanta, Ga. March-April 2007

Exhibition of photographs, Juried by Julian Cox, High Museum of Art, GA:, Southeastern Flower Show.  Atlanta, Ga.  Feb. 2007

“Hand to Hand,” Group installation, Nashville, Tenn.  Nov. 2006

Exhibition of photographs, Wells Gallery, South  Carolina.  May, 2005-present

Exhibition of photographs, Mason Murer, Atlanta, Ga.  May 2004

Permanent Exhibition of photographs, The Sanctuary, Kiawah Island, SC.  Installed Nov. 2003

“Interstice”, Photo installation:  Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.  June 2002

Exhibition of photographs;  Art Farm.  Atlanta, Ga.  Dec. 2000

“Hysteria”, Photo Installation; Eyedrum Gallery, Atlanta, Ga.  Nov. 1999

“Jane Doe Herself”, Photo Installation; GA. Perimeter College Gallery, Atlanta, Ga.  1998

“Paper Dolls”, Exhibition of photographs; Atlanta Public Library, Atlanta, Ga.  1998

Photo Installation, collaborative exhibit with Jane Doe: City Gallery East, Atlanta, Ga.  Oct. 1997

Exhibition of photographs; Atlanta Public Library, Atlanta, Ga.  Mar. 1997

“The Automobile in Art”, collaborative exhibition with sculptor Clark Farmer; Art Gallery At Edison, Ohio.  Feb. 1997

Exhibition of photographs; Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta, GA.  1993

“Travels” Exhibition of photographs, Little Five Points Gallery, Atlanta, Ga.  1992

“Artists in Georgia” Exhibition of photographs; Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA.  1991

Exhibition of photographs; LaGrange National, LaGrange, Ga. 1988

Exhibition of photographs; Mattress Factory Show.  Atlanta, Ga.  1987

Exhibition of photographs; Alias Gallery, Atlanta, Ga.  1986

WEB

Lenscratch  December 2019

phMagazine  Pages 30-41  Ontario, Canada, May 2014

Tone Lit   UK,  June 2014

Burn Magazine  May 2011

hf gallery   March 2010

Art Relish April 2009

Plates to Pixels 2008

View Mary Anne Mitchell’s Website

Statement
I have spent the last three years photographing Tangier Island off the coast of Virginia in the Chesapeake Bay which is progressively being claimed by the waters surrounding it an average of nine acres every year. Tangier is projected to be uninhabitable in 50 years if nothing is done about it. When the residents are forced to evacuate, they will spread out over Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. We will lose an entire culture of people as unique as their dialect, and although they will still exist–the land they have called home for hundreds of years will not. This once untouched and proud crabbing community is predicted to be one of America’s first “climate change refugees.”

The very water that the residents of Tangier depend upon to survive, is swallowing them up an average of nine acres every year. Today, the island sits only 3 feet above sea level, and 1 ¼ miles wide by 3 miles long. Upon arrival by boat, it is hard to see the island off in the distance because of how low it sits to the water. Having few trees left, the only marker from the bay is the water tower of Tangier that has a crab on one side and a cross on the other. This deeply religious island has already been split by the Bay’s waters, which now seeps up through the ground below. Simple tasks like docking your boat are becoming more and more impossible. Fishermen have to tie up their boats to poles in order to prevent their boats from floating away at high tide. With erosion, the plants, trees, and protective grasses for wildlife are washing away as well. Cemeteries are overcrowded due to a lack of space to bury their dead. Tombstones and bodies are now being placed on the front lawns of loved ones’ homes more inland.

The people of Tangier and their situation have received attention from Al Gore, Donald Trump, and several media outlets including National Geographic, The New Yorker, and NPR affiliates, but the conversation of future implications still needs to be had.

I believe these photographs are an excellent route to shed light upon this concern of ongoing land loss and impending climate refugees as there is more at stake than just land when losing a place. It also means the destruction of a community, and all the things that make a community unique.

Tangier is not alone and sadly tells the tale many different low-lying cities in the US and around the world are facing in the next 80 years. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Miami, Florida; Atlantic City, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; Galveston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; and Virginia Beach, Virginia will all be under water by 2100. By photographing Tangier Island, I hope to inform viewers of the need to take notice now, and to think about the difficult decisions that stand before us—how will we decide who and what is worth saving? How will we choose who receives the funds necessary to survive, and who are we willing to let wash away into the water?  – HJS

Bio
H. Jennings Sheffield was born in Richmond, Virginia. She is a contemporary artist working in lens-based media, video, and sound. Sheffield received her BFA in photography and digital media from the Atlanta College of Art and her MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in photography and new media. Her core research is highly concept-driven inspired by memory, moment and time and often utilizes familial imagery to convey both the intimacy and the diverse roles and relationships individuals play within a family unit. The methodologies utilized to create her work can take up to two years to complete. As a result, Sheffield periodically takes on landscape-driven projects that begin with just her responding to the landscape. She is interested in landscapes that tend to be fleeting. Similar to her core research, Sheffield approaches the landscapes looking for and observing changes over time.

Sheffield is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Baylor University. Her photographs and work are in several collections throughout the United States and have been exhibited internationally with her latest work exhibiting at The Print Center in Philadelphia; Houston Fine Art Fair; Colorado Photographic Arts Center; Lens Culture; Living Arts of Tulsa; Cambridge University (UK), and Medien Kultur Haus Wels, Austria.

In addition to her research, Sheffield provides workshops and lectures all around the United States on topics including her artistic practices and methodologies, digital techniques in photography and considering the image in a new context, outside of the traditional roles.

View H. Jennings Sheffield’s website.  

The website for Going Away from Here.  

Link to Going Away from Here part two in our Cloud Gallery.

 

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EDUCATION

2011 MFA, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas (Photography and New Media)

1996 BFA, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, Georgia (Photography and Digital Media)

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

2018 – Present Associate Professor of Art, Photography, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

2012 – 2018 Assistant Professor of Art, Photography, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

2011 – 2012 Temporary Full-Time Lecturer, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

2009 – 2010 Adjunct Faculty, Northeast Lakeview College, San Antonio, Texas

2006 – 2009 Instructor, The Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia

2006 – 2009 Adjunct Faculty, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Richmond, Virginia

1999 – 2006 Adjunct Faculty, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia

AWARDS, GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS and HONORS

2019 Awarded two (2) Allbritton Art Institute Grants for Faculty Scholarship

2019 Awarded College of Art & Sciences Research Leave (Fall 2019), Baylor University

2019 Awarded University Teaching Development Grant, Baylor University

2018 Awarded College of Art & Sciences Summer Sabbatical, Baylor University

2017 Awarded the Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement (URSA) Mentor of the Year Award, Baylor University

2016 Awarded two (2) Allbritton Art Institute Grants for Faculty Scholarship

2016 Awarded College of Art & Sciences Summer Sabbatical, Baylor University

2015 Selected as 1 of 55 international emerging photographers, alongside masters like Rineke Dijkstra, Lorna Simpson, Candida Hofer, and Tina Barney by New York’s Mus.e Magazine. Mus.e Magazine is a quarterly digital periodical that publishes the works of both up-and-coming and established photographers. Andrea Blanch, Editor-In-Chief, is a New York-based award-winning fashion, fine art and conceptual photographer.

2014 Awarded Allbritton Art Institute Grant for Faculty Scholarship (Round II), Baylor University

2014 Awarded Allbritton Art Institute Grant for Faculty Scholarship (Round I), Baylor University

2014 Awarded College of Art & Sciences Summer Sabbatical, Baylor University

2013 Awarded Mortar Board Circle of Achievement Award (teaching award), Baylor University

2013 Awarded Allbritton Art Institute Grant for Faculty Scholarship Baylor University

2012 Awarded Allbritton Art Institute Grant for Faculty Scholarship

2011 IEF Scholarship

2010 Wigodsky Endowed Scholarship

2009 Peggy and Richard Calvert Endowed Scholarship

2009 Art and Art History Graduate Scholarship

2009 College of Liberal & Fine Arts GIT Scholarship/Fellowship

2009 Sue Jockusch Endowed Scholarship

2007 Honorable Mention, Simply Photography, ArtWorks, Juried by Gordon Stettinius, Richmond, Virginia

2007 Viewerʼs Choice, Visual Arts Center of Richmondʼs Faculty Show, Richmond, Virginia

2005 The Community Foundation (Granted $10,000), Richmond, VA for the 2006 Richmond Outdoor Sculpture exhibition

2005 The Virginia Commission for the Arts Technical Grant (Granted $750) for the 2006 Richmond Outdoor Sculpture exhibition

2004 2nd Place, Simply Photography, ArtWorks, Juried by Mary Holland, Richmond, Virginia

1997 Jurorʼs Choice Award, June All Media Show, Shockoe Bottom Arts Center, juried by Danny Drotos, Richmond, Virginia

1996 One of three national winners in the Nissan Pathfinder Digital Imaging Contest, TBWA Ä Chiat Ä Day and Nissan Corporation, Los Angeles. Awarded a Casio digital camera, Sony printer, and a trip out to Los Angeles to meet with Jay Chiat and work with TBWA Ä Chiat Ä Day and Nissan North America photographing the new Nissan Pathfinder

1996 Jurorʼs Choice Award, ACA Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 Going Away From Here, November 2020, Shircliff Gallery of Art, Vincennes University, Vincennes, IN

2020 Going Away From Here, September 14–October 9th, 2020, Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center, The Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas

2019 Inherited Time (collaboration with Chris Ireland), September–October 2019, College of the Mainland Art Gallery, College of the Mainland, Texas City, Texas

2019 Inherited Time (collaboration with Chris Ireland), August 30–September 21, 2019, Terminal 136 at the University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas

2019 Inherited Time (collaboration with Chris Ireland), January–February, 2019, Carillon Gallery, Tarrant County College, Fort Worth, Texas

2018 The Collective Glitch, August 20–December 31, 2018, University of Maine at Farmington, Farmington, Maine.

2018 Constructing the Psychographic, invitational exhibition, April 14–May 2, 2018, 500X Gallery, Dallas, Texas.

2016 Tethered, May 6, 2016–June 26, 2016, The Dairy Arts Center, Boulder, Colorado.

2013 A Momentary Glitch and Transitory Spaces (collaboration with Gissette Padilla), August 10–31, 2013, Red Arrow Contemporary, Dallas, Texas.

2013 A Momentary Glitch and Transitory Spaces, February 1–22, 2013, Living Arts of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

2013 Tethered and Transitory Spaces (collaboration with Gissette Padilla), January 10–March 28, 2013, Visual Arts Center, San Antonio College, San Antonio, Texas (as part of Contemporary Art Month).

2012 Transitory Spaces (collaboration with Gissette Padilla), November 13–December 15, 2012, BOX 13 ArtSpace, Houston, Texas.

2011 Tethered, Satellite Space Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2005 Rainy Night on the Seine 07.04.04:3D, Helena Davis Gallery, artspace gallery, Richmond, Virginia

1996 riˈflek•sh•ən: (n), Gallery 100, Atlanta, Georgia

TWO AND THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2019 The Collective Glitch, February 12–March 15, 2019, Shircliff Gallery of Art, Vincennes University, Vincennes, IN

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | INTERNATIONAL

2020 6th Annual Group Show, August 1–August 30, 2020, Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY. Juror: Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director & Curator: Griffin Museum of Photography

2017 Contemporary Collage, November 10–January 9, 2018, Lincoln Center Art Gallery, Fort Collins, Colorado

2017 Art Through the Lens, October 14–November 25, 2017, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, Kentucky, Juror: Eliot Dudik, College of William & Mary and director of the Andrews.

2016 Re-Context, July 1, 2016–July 30, 2016, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver, Colorado. Juror: Ariel Shanberg, curator, educator, and writer, who was the executive director of Center for Photography at Woodstock (New York) from 2003-2015.

2016 tXtMe, May 7, 2016–June 11, 2016, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, California. Juror: Leisa Austin, owner of Imago Galleries.

2015 >iral: Photography in the Age of Social Media, February 7-March 14, 2015, Alison Richard Building, Cambridge University (United Kingdom), Jurors: Jon Feinstein, Co-Founder, Humble Arts Foundation; Gabriel H. Sanchez, Photo Essay Editor of Buzzfeed; Dr. Ann Kelly, Medical Anthropologist/Ebola Response Anthropology Platform, University of Exeter; Dr. Lukas Engelmann, Medical Historian, University of Cambridge; and Sam Barzilay, Co-founder and Creative Director of Photoville; and convened by Dr. Christos Lynteris, Mellon/Newton Research Fellow, CRASSH (The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge University).

2014 The Print Center’s 88th Annual International Competition, Jurors: Julia Dolan, Minor White Curator of Photography, and Bruce Guenther, Chief Curator, Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, both of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon.

2013 Newspace Center for Photography 2013 Juried Exhibition, July 5, 2013–July 28, 2013, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon. Juror: Sarah Stolfa, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.

2013 Tethered featured in an issue of Lens Culture, international refereed exhibition, Paris, France. www.lensculture.com.

2012 Houston Fine Art Fair, September 14–16, 2012, Reliant Center, Houston, Texas.

2012 Luminaria (in collaboration with Gissette Padilla), May 10, 2012, Women’s Pavilion at Hemisphere Park, San Antonio, Texas. Adjudicator for Visual Arts was Dean Daderko, curator for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in Houston, Texas.

2010 Luminaria, Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas

2009 Breaking Boundaries II, 2009 Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China

2009 What Do You Really Need?, Medien Kultur Haus Wels, Austria

2009 Luminaria, Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas

2006 FotoFest 2006, Museum of Cultural Arts website, Houston, Texas

2006 2006 Exclusive Furniture Collection (2 images selected), Crate & Barrel

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | NATIONAL

2020 3rd Coast Biennial, September 4 – October 2, 2020, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX. Juror: Rigoberto Luna, Cofounder and Exhibitions Curator of the Presa House Gallery in San Antonio, TX

2017 23rd Texas National Competition & Exhibition, April 8, 2017–June 10, 2017, The Cole Art Center Stephen F. Austin University’s Ledbetter Gallery, Nacogdoches, Texas. Juror: Benito Huerta, co-founder, Executive Director and Emeritus Board Director of Art Lies, a Texas Art Journal.

2017 PHOTO ALTERNATIVES: Where I Come From, January 17, 2017–February 17, 2017, Ohio University’s Seigfred Gallery, Athens, Ohio. Juror: Hans Gindlesberger, photographer, video, and installation artist.

2016 PAPERWORKS 2016, August 2, 2016–August 28, 2016, B J Spoke Gallery, Huntington, New York Juror: Heidi Hirschl, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Modern Art.

2016 22nd Texas National Competition & Exhibition, April 9, 2016–June 11, 2016, The Cole Art Center Stephen F. Austin University’s Ledbetter Gallery, Nacogdoches, Texas. Juror: Photographer and artist Abelardo Morell.

2015 The Altered Landscape (as part of FotoSeptiembre USA 2015), September 7-September 30, 2015, Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery, San Antonio, Texas. Juror: Photographer Tom Turner.

2012 Billboard Art Project, September 29–October 26, 2012, Digital Billboard located at 2064 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia.

2012 Intimacy & Voyeurism: 2012 SPE Women’s Caucus, March 18–31, 2012, ARTS at CIIS, San Francisco, California. Jurors, photographers and educators Joyce Neimanas and Patrick Nagatani from the University of New Mexico.

2011 In-Time Online Gallery, December 6, 2011-January 7, 2012, The Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, Virginia. Juror: Blake Fitch, photographer, curator and past Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA (2002-2007).

2009 Rust Fest (Digital Arts and New Media Festival), June 13-July 24, 2009, McDonough Museum of Art,Youngstown, Ohio, Jurors: Panel of jurors comprised by the McDonough Museum

2005 Over the Edge, APG Gallery @ TULA Art Center, Atlanta, Georgia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | REGIONAL

2017 Society for Photographic Education’s 2017 South Central Chapter Juried Exhibition: THIS, THAT, or the OTHER,

October 12-October 28, 2017, Arts Center of Waco, Waco, Texas. Juror: Honored Educator and head of the photography program in the department of art at Nicholls State University, Deborah (Deb) Lillie.

2016 Artspace111: 3rd Annual Regional Juried Exhibition, June 24, 2016–August 6, 2016, Artspace 111, Fort Worth, Texas. Juror: Eric M. Lee is the director of the Kimbell Art Museum.

2015 Ticka Arts, September-October 2015, O2 Gallery at Flatbed Press, Austin, Texas. Juror: Sonseree Gibson, Austin photographer and Founder of Ticka Arts.

2013 Society of Photographic Education South Central Members’ Exhibition, September 20–October 24, 2013, College of the Mainland Gallery, Texas City, Texas.

2011 Society for Photographic Education: Selected Works from the Region, Society for Photographic Education Regional Conference, UTSA Art Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2011 Public Art of San Antonio Temporary Exhibitions (PASA), Mayor’s Office, City Hall, San Antonio, Texas.

2011 Red Dot 2011, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, Texas

2011 Collegiate Exhibition, San Antonio Art League Museum, San Antonio, Texas

2010 .ber Progressive (as part of Political Art Month), 1906 Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2010 Red Dot 2010, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, Texas

2010 The One, Two, Three Show, UTSA Satellite Space, San Antonio, Texas

2010 UTSA Fine Arts Association Art Exhibition, LoneStar Studios, San Antonio, Texas

2009 Best Pound for Pound, Gallery 118, San Antonio, Texas

2007 Art After Hours Silent Auction, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia

2007 Simply Photography, November 23, 2007-January 20, 2008, Art Works, Richmond, Virginia. Juror: Gordon Stettinius, photographer and owner of Candela Books, Richmond, Virginia.

2006 Art After Hours Silent Auction, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia

2004 VSPA Viewerʼs Choice Group Show, 49A Gallery, Newport News, Virginia

2004 Art Works All Media Show, Art Works, Richmond, Virginia

2004 The VSPA (Virginia Society for the Photographic Arts) Exhibition, Plant Zero, Richmond, Virginia

2004 Simply Photography Juried Show, Art Works, Richmond, Virginia

1997 May All Media Show, Shockoe Bottom Arts Center, Richmond, Virginia

1996 Atlanta College of Art Juried Exhibition, Gallery 100, Atlanta, Georgia

1995 June All Media Show, Shockoe Bottom Arts Center, Richmond, Virginia

INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

2018 Telling Our Stories: Creating Maternal Identity Through Photography, national invitational group exhibition, June 5–August 4, 2018, Cedar Valley College, Lancaster, Texas.

2018 In This Day and Age, national invitational group exhibition, June–July 2018, Cedar Valley College Lancaster, Texas.

2017 In This Day and Age, national invitational exhibition, March 11-April 22, 2017, Bath House Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas.

2016 Ticka Arts, regional invitational exhibition, February 6-March 19, 2016, Gray Matters Gallery, Dallas, Texas.

2015 Family as the Vernacular, regional invitational exhibition, May 31-July 24, 2015, Lillian Bradshaw Gallery at the Dallas Public Library, Dallas, Texas (in collaboration with Libby Rowe and Margaret Hiden).

2014 Family Matters (revisited), national invitational exhibition, September 9–October 18, 2014, Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. FAMILY MATTERS, revisited featured the works of other photographers—Daniel Coburn, Karen Miranda, Sean Black, Jess Fugan, Annie Lopez, Marivi Ortiz, and Hillerbrand + Magsamen. Elizabeth Allen, Director and Curator of ASU School of Art Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, curated the exhibition.

2014 Family as the Vernacular, national invitational exhibition, September 26-November 8, 2014, Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia (and part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography) in collaboration with Libby Rowe and Margaret Hiden.

2014 Women in Art & Academia, regional invitational exhibition, May 4–July 13, 2014, Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.

2014 Family as the Vernacular, national invitational exhibition, Bloch Hall Gallery, University of Montevallo, Montevallo, Alabama (in collaboration with Libby Rowe and Margaret Hiden).

2013 Family as the Vernacular, regional invitational exhibition, August 23–September 30, 2013, Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center Gallery, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas.

2012 Pride, Protest and the Plains, regional invitational exhibition, October 13, 2012–November 10, 2012, Red Arrow Contemporary, Dallas, Texas.

2011 2:00pm-4:00pm and 4:00pm-6:00pm from the series Tethered, Mayorʼs Office, City Hall, San Antonio, Texas

2007 Think Small Invitational, Art6, Richmond, Virginia

2007 Visual Arts Center of Richmondʼs Faculty Show, Suitable for Framing Gallery, Richmond, Virginia

2006 Think Small Invitational, Art6, Richmond, Virginia

2006 Attack of the 50 Ft. Reel, Flicker, Richmond, Virginia

2005 Think Small Invitational, Art6, Richmond, Virginia

2005 New Membersʼ Show, Artspace Gallery @ Plant Zero, Richmond, Virginia

2004 Attack of the 50 Ft. Reel, Flicker, Richmond, Virginia

2003 Attack of the 50 Ft. Reel, Flicker, Richmond, Virginia

2004 Artspace Memberʼs Exhibit, Artspace Gallery @ Plant Zero, Richmond, Virginia

2003 From LA to VA, Crossroads, Richmond, Virginia

PRIVATE AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Mark Watson III, Argo Group, San Antonio, Texas

R. J. Loderick, Richmond, Virginia

Blaine McCormick, Woodway, Texas

Carolyn Hulett, Richmond, Virginia

Capital One, Plano, Texas

Capital One, Houston, Texas

The Belew Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

SELECT REFEREED, INVITED LECTURES, and PANEL TALKS

2020 Presented an artist talk on Going Away From Here, Shircliff Gallery, Vincennes University, Vincennes, Indiana (upcoming).

2020 Presented an artist talk on Going Away From Here, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA (upcoming).

2020 Presented an artist talk on Going Away From Here, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, LA (invited).

2019 Selected to Co-Chair a session with artist, Chris Ireland, titled United We Fall at the FATE’s (Foundations in Art: Theory & Education) 17th Biennial Conference, Foundations in Flux at Columbus College of Art & Design Columbus, Ohio (refereed).

2019 Presented an artist talk on The Collective Glitch, Process and Methodology, at Shircliff Gallery, Vincennes University, Vincennes, Indiana (invited).

2018 Selected to present panel talk with artist, Chris Ireland, titled Collaboration is Easy…and other fake news at the 2018 Society for Photographic Education (SPESC) South Central Chapter Conference at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (refereed).

2018 Presented an artist talk on The Collective Glitch, Process and Methodology, at Black Box Theatre, The University of Maine–Farmington, Farmington, Maine (invited).

2016 Presented an artist talk on Tethered, at The Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, Colorado (invited).

2015 Presented lecture The Collective Glitch, Process and Methodology to Apparel Aesthetics, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Baylor University, Waco, Texas (invited).

2015 Selected to present and participate on a panel talk Searched, Collected, and Tagged at the 2015 Society for Photographic Education (SPESC) South Central Regional Conference at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma (refereed).

2015 Selected to present and participate on a panel discussion titled Untangling the Tenure Track & Promotion Process at the 2015 Society for Photographic Education (SPESC) South Central Regional Conference at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma (invited).

2014 Presented gallery talk on Tethered, at Northlight Gallery invited by Elizabeth Allen, director of Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute School of Art Northlight Gallery (invited).

2014 Presented lecture on my collection of latest works (Tethered, A Momentary Glitch, and The Collective Glitch) to undergraduate photography students at Arizona State University, invited by Elizabeth Allen, faculty associate at Arizona State University School of Art, Tempe, Arizona (invited).

2014 Presented gallery talk on Family as the Vernacular, at Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, invited by Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta Georgia (invited).

2014 Presented lecture on my collection of latest works (Tethered, A Momentary Glitch, and The Collective Glitch) to graduate photography students at SCAD-Atlanta, invited by Margaret Hiden, Adjunct Faculty at Savannah College of Art and Design (invited).

2013 Presented lecture on Family as the Vernacular, at Tarleton State University, invited by Chris Ireland, Assistant Professor, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas (invited).

2013 Selected to present and participate in the panel talk Don’t Drink the Fixer at the 2013 Society for Photographic Education National Conference, Chicago Hilton, Chicago, Illinois (refereed).

2013 Invited to present a lecture on Tethered at San Antonio College for Women’s History Week and Contemporary Art Month. Invited by the Women’s History Committee, San Antonio College, San Antonio, Texas (invited).

2013 Presented a lecture on Tethered at San Antonio College to the University of Texas San Antonio’s Advanced Photography students, San Antonio, Texas (invited).

2012 Selected to present and participate in the panel talk Family as the Vernacular at the 2012 South Central Regional Society for Photographic Education (SPESC) Conference at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi (refereed).

2012 Presented a lecture and workshop titled The Magic of Pinhole, for Up Close Monday at MMoA, The Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco,Texas (invited).

2011 Selected lecturer and presenter at the 2011 Society for Photographic Education South Central Regional Conference (invited).

2002 Presented a lecture at the 2002 Society for Photographic Education Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference (invited).

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

SERVICE AS PORTFOLIO REVIEWER

2020 Selected Portfolio Reviewer for Professionals and Students at the Society for Photographic Education’s national conference, 2020 Vision, Houston Texas

2019 Selected Portfolio Reviewer at the Portfolio Throwdown, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas

2012 Selected Portfolio Reviewer of Undergraduate and Graduate Work, 2012 South Central Regional Society for Photographic Education Conference, University of Mississippi, Starkeville, Mississippi

PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEES

2014-Present Texas Photographic Society, Board Member, Exhibitions Committee

2011-Present Society for Photographic Education, National Member, Women’s Caucus and Multicultural Caucus

2020 Summer Sabbatical Selection Committee, Baylor University

2020 Selection Committee for proposals for the Society for Photographic Education’s national conference

2020 Vision, Houston Texas

2019-2022 Faculty Senate, Baylor University

2018-2021 Cultural Events Experience, University Committee, Baylor University

2018-2021 Core Curriculum Advisory Committee, Baylor University

2019 Summer Sabbatical Selection Committee, Baylor University

2015-2017 Texas Photographic Society, Executive Board Member, Secretary

2012-2014 Society for Photographic Education South Central Region, Board Member, Vendor Liaison

2004-2007 Artspace Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, Exhibition Committee

OTHER SELECT PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

2017 Co-Chair, with Chris Ireland (Assistant Professor at Tarleton State University), This, That, or the

Other: Emerging Trends and Vernacular in Photography, Society of Photographic Education–South Central Regional Conference, Waco, TX. Featured Speakers Charlotte Cotton and Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison.

EXHIBITIONS CURATED and JURIED

2015 Society for Photographic Education’s Student Juried Exhibition, Lightwell Gallery in the Fred Jones Art Center, The University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK (in collaboration with Arthur Fields).

2006 Richmond Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Richmond, Virginia (in collaboration with Vaughn Garland)

2005 Richmond Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Richmond, Virginia (in collaboration with Vaughn Garland)

2004-05 Exhibition Committee and Co-Curator of artspace, Richmond, Virginia

 

 

 

Statement
Memento Vivere- Remember to Live

My recent work expands an ongoing investigation of the interaction of memory, the passage of time, and of identity. I am keenly interested in how memory forms our sense of being and how that can be affected by the contradictions that the past and the present pose. In the act of remembering there is a point where reality and the interpretation of reality cross, and it’s that intersection that I wish to explore.

As a visual artist, I have found the qualities of photography, darkroom manipulation, and the malleability of paint to be uniquely sympathetic to this search. They allow me to intercede in the moment that a fixed image presents, juxtaposing within it a deeply subjective view of reality, formed in the shadow of remembrance.

This series is personal and explores my memories of my brother- searching for that intersection between the memory of him visually and the memory of him viscerally. My process involves a push and a pull rhythm- fluctuating between the photographic act, which creates an emotional distance with the camera as a barrier, and an intimate physical process (printing and painting the image), which connects me even closer to his memory in a tangible way.

In the series Memento Vivere, I am presenting a solitary protagonist in a narrative that plays out across the series. Various objects and symbols are combined with the figure portraying conceptual themes of memory, a sense of being, loss, identity, empathy, and the passage of time evoking an intimate visual language echoing personal dreams and childhood memories.  – MM

Bio
Born in Monterey California, Molly McCall was surrounded by infamous photographers and the West Coast Landscape tradition. With a family influence in clothing, she began her creative career designing her own label and selling to numerous specialty boutiques including Henri Bendel in New York, Fred Segal in Los Angeles, and Nordstrom, where she was awarded their most favored designer in California.

Molly’s earliest influence on art making came from her great grandfather, an illustrator for the New York Times, and grandfather, a professional watercolorist in Southern California. She started painting and photography at an early age, and later attended Laguna Beach School of Art. After nearly two decades as a designer in the fashion industry, Molly returned to painting and darkroom photography.
Molly McCall’s work has been recognized with several awards including the Abstract Art Award by the Julia M. Cameron Awards for Women Photographers, as well as Honorable Mention awards for her work represented at the 5^th Barcelona Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary, Best in Show Award from the Colorado Photographic Art Center, the EMERGE Award from the Midwest Center for Photography, and the Griffin Museum of Photography Solo Show Award. Several print publications have also featured her work including Architectural Digest Magazine, Diffusion Magazine, and The Hand Magazine. Recent exhibitions across the US include the Los Angeles Center for Photography, Griffin Museum of Photography, Midwest Center for Photography, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Center of Fine Art Photography, the Martin Museum of Art, The Center for Contemporary Arts, Houston Center for Photography, SohoPhoto, the Center for Photographic Art, and the Museum of the Big Bend. Her work has recently been exhibited Internationally in shows in Spain and United Kingdom.  Molly resides in Carmel Valley California with her husband Gordon and their German Shorthaired Pointers.

View Molly McCall’s website.

Statement
I first became fascinated by the complexity of the home as I observed rows and rows of old Dutch colonial structures, while working on my first book, Pabean Passage. These old colonial structures showed a distinct East-Indies architecture, an adaptation of European architecture to the tropical climate of Indonesia, which gained its popularity in the mid 18th century.

Growing up in two major cities contributed a lot to this project. Born in Makassar, I also live in Surabaya for the most part of my life. What makes this project special is that I tried to capture those places from my experiences of growing up in the two cities.

Built in the early 1900s by Chinese immigrants and based on a European design, these buildings show distinct East-Indies characteristics on the outside, while being infused with an assimilation of Chinese and Indonesian culture.

As I entered those houses, I felt the air of familiarity, a connection with the harmonious combination of two distinctive cultures that I was brought up under. Born as a third-generation Chinese-Indonesian, I was raised under the influence of the Chinese culture that my grandparents brought from the old world, while at the same time being schooled in a mainly Indonesian setting by my Indonesian-born parents.

Walking into those historic houses sparked my interest to discover more about the roots of my own cultural heritage. I felt my amazement turned into an aspiration to comprehend the lives of these Chinese- Indonesians, along with the challenges they faced to preserve their own culture while living in a whole new world. In Indonesia, there is this notion of family home, a place where history, culture, and tradition still live for generations. Just as the proverb says, “A house is built with boards and beams, a home is built with love and dreams,” these family homes have become a testimony of the evolution of Chinese-Indonesian cultures and traditions.

For many Chinese-Indonesians, their family home was (or still is) a place for business. Packed with merchandise, and various items collected over the years by the owners, these family homes silently tell their stories. They tell the stories about love and dreams, opportunities and challenges, laughter and tears of those who have called them home.

Home Sweet Home is a one-year journey into the evolution of the Chinese-Indonesian culture. It is the story of a harmonious marriage of two beautiful cultures, three centuries in-the-making. It was not a journey without obstacles, but it certainly was one with countless rewards. What began as a challenge to obtain the owners’ consent to photograph their homes has later proved to be a beginning of new friendships. The challenge to find the appropriate houses to shoot had presented me with the privilege of listening to countless stories that offer valuable lessons in life.

As I embarked on this journey, I have discovered that there is more to a home than what meets the eyes. Beyond the evidence of economical, functional, or sentimental hoarding. Beyond the cluttered halls or the neatly- organized storage rooms. Beyond the simplicity of aging and the glitters of luxury.

There is a story in each frame, hope and dreams embedded and encrypted beneath the layers of objects that fill the space. Walls displaying pictures of joyous achievements and traumatic miseries, the good-old days and the modern reality that stole their thunder.

A home is more than merely a dwelling place, it is a monument where stories are carved and histories are made. Whether it is an aging third-generation family home or a modern private home, there is this air of familiarity, a connection, a deep sense of longing. A pride in calling it a Home Sweet Home. -AG

Bio
Anton Gautama began taking pictures with a mobile phone. Since 2015 he has been working professionally as photographer with a passionate focus on documentary photography. He believes that the essence of the medium is the ability to help us understand life. Gautama seeks unique moments that generate powerful emotional responses. With patience and determination, the photographer often immerses himself for months at a single location pursuing his photographic observations.

The photographs from Anton Gautama have been featured in several online and printed magazine platforms since 2016, such as “LensCulture” and “National Geographic Travel.” His works have been exhibited solo at the Goethe Institute – Jakarta, Indonesian Institute of Art – Jogjakarta. Gautama’s photographs have received numerous international awards, including in international photo festivals. His first monograph Pabean Passage, published in 2016, reveals the milieu of traditional Indonesian spice markets through intimate colour street photography.

In October 2015 Anton Gautama opened a private photo gallery in Malang in order to share his passion of photography. In keeping with his interest in exploring and preserving Indonesian culture, he also restored a full set of Javanese gamelan and placed it inside the gallery.

Born as a fourth son in 1969 in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Anton Gautama is based in Surabaya, Master in Business Administration from Hawaii Pacific University, USA, and is also the founder of ALFALINK, a prominent overseas education consultancy with branches throughout Indonesia.

CV

Essay by Celina Lunsford Artistic
Director of Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

View Anton Gautama’s website.

Statement
October All Over is the culmination of several years spent living in, working in, and documenting the Southern Oregon cannabis industry prior to legalization and during the time shortly after. I began this series in 2014 and stopped in the fall of 2017. I started with no motive or intention that was specific to photography. In the way I prefer to work, I was just there and had a camera that could fit in my pocket. I certainly wasn’t given an assignment. 

Sometime late in 2015 or early 2016, the realization that things wouldn’t remain as they were started to sink in. The industry was rapidly changing and continuing to operate in a dubious legal manner was becoming more difficult than it was even prior to legalization. Around this same time, the idea that capturing this may serve as some kind of “first person” historical account began to develop. I realized that this was the end of an era and the beginning of something much different. 

Up until that point, any concept or idea of a project, if there could be one, was always rather open ended: “people living and working in this crazy underground industry from the perspective of someone also embedded in it”. Since I was doing the work and living a similar life as everyone else, it just made sense. Some part of me still wanted to portray a narrative that remained personal, while also making clear that this was in one sense a dying industry; or at least one that had for better or worse shed its chrysalis and emerged as something very different. -KS

Bio
Kyle Souder is a Portland, Oregon based photographer. From 2009-2014 Kyle played bass in math-rock band Duck. Little Brother, Duck! During this time, he toured the US and Japan. It was through these frequent travels, often finding himself on the other side of the camera, that his infatuation with the alchemy of candid photography was rekindled. Kyle prefers to work in the vein of documentary and candid based photography. He is deeply infatuated by the pursuit of serendipitous moments, often finding the camera more capable than his philosophy education in helping to make sense of our shared reality. Kyle recently was awarded a scholarship to attend the CENTER’s 2019 Santa Fe Review.

Kyle is currently working on a book that is an extension of his series October All Over.

CV

Publication 

“Photographers: Color” Eyeshot, September 2019 

Freeman, Jesse “Jesse’s Visual Interviews: Kyle Souder” Japan Camera Hunter, April, 2019 

ACCCG Press, “ANTIBody Vol. 1” ACCCG Collective Publication, May 2019 

Awards and Recognition 

Attended – CENTER Santa Fe Review 2019 

Short List – Athens Photo Festival 2019 

Statement
I AM: For the Love of Nature are nude self-portraits composed in the Western U.S. at age 64-65, exploring the solitude and contemplative environment of the unoccupied landscape. Being in the natural environment provided solace for me during and after childhood difficulties. The landscape became a logical setting to explore personal and universal themes often associated with women — consumerism, sexualizing the female form, and judgments regarding the appearance of women in society. The images are performance pieces where my unclothed body, my gestures, and the surrounding natural elements, prompt questions about the meaning of vulnerability, nakedness, self-acceptance, and aging.

The images invite the viewer to accompany the artist in the less obvious adventures being presented, to experience the freedom, privacy, restfulness, and self-assertion conveyed in the photographs. The images declare: I will not become invisible with age and I am content being alone. Poetry created for each image explores these ideas further.

The subject is present and often standing, bearing witness to the places and memories of the journey that led her there. In others, the subject is reclining, finally finding a state of rest and comfort from a life of struggles, while hiding behind norms and protocols. The character is vulnerable, yet the scenes and accompanying words contrast the idea of fragility and exposure with empowerment – much like nature itself. The images aim to present the beauty of living natural things, in contrast to the desecration of both women and the environment.

The ideas of waste, trash, trash talk, merchandizing, old and useless often apply to women’s bodies and the environment. Rather than overt finger pointing in acid tones, the artist uses her own nakedness in nature to find beauty. She prefers honey rather than vinegar. Her image titles give clues; her accompanying poems invite the viewer to go deeper with her, into self-acceptance and respect for nature. – RD

Bio
I am an emerging artist living in Santa Fe, NM. I work in various media, including photography, ink drawing, painting, and conceptual installations. Words are important to me, so they often play a role in my art.

I like being naked in nature — it feels like a default state to me. I am also a private and at times formal person, which, I know, sounds like a contradiction. And so continues my transformation from being the dutiful daughter to an older woman more interested in free expression and self-acceptance. I’m more honey than vinegar, more focused on creating beauty than proselytizing.

I’ve been fortunate to work in many diverse professions — all of which feed into my creativity as an artist, now in my 60s.
-RD

Website

Statement
This series has been made over three years, while I was visiting home, South Korea, for summer and winter break. My grandmother was attending to the care of my grandfather who suffered from dementia. They were married for sixty years, each other’s lifetime companions, and then my grandmother became the caregiver whose work was unrelenting. These photographs reflect their bond, but also my grandmother’s struggle and fatigue. Their world was centered at home because my grandfather often gets out of control when he is outside of the house. My work continued after my grandfather’s death observing my grandmother’s new experience being alone. Photographing in such a limited environment has made me pay close attention to subtleties of gesture and the meaning for spatial relationships between them. – Sora Woo

Bio
Sora Woo (b.1991) is a visual artist andphotographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her works concentrate on observing the spatial relationship between humans and place. Woo is interested in discovering the threads of human interaction and what occurs after the absence of a person. Woo’s photographs capture a moment in the slow process of the passage of time. She not only depicts the passing of time, but also points out the physical and spiritual aspects of the “Irreversible”. Sora received her MFA from Pratt Institute, New York in 2018 and BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York in 2015.

Website

Statement
My Father, The Cowboy Actor

On December 19th, my Father made a surprise visit to my apartment in New York City. He got in late the night before from Flagstaff, Arizona and stayed the night at an old friend’s apartment in the Upper West Side. When he called me, I wasn’t sure what to expect or what to say since I hadn’t seen him in several years. When he came to my apartment, I made a portrait of him, and subsequently followed him around while he showed me what stood in place of his favorite bars, restaurants, and stores he used to peruse when he lived in New York City. After a week of being with my Father again, I realized I had to follow him back to his cabin in rural Arizona to photograph him and live with my Father for the first time.

For the first twenty-three years of my life, I never had a stable nor strong relationship with my Father. He was a distant member of our family that paid for our expenses, demanded time to see us on the weekend but was pushed away due to family dynamics and my preferred affiliation for my Mother. His career as an actor in New York City lasted twenty-five years, and upon the release of his children to higher education in places far from our hometown, he promptly left to become a cowboy just outside Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s only now that I’m beginning to comprehend the broken connection I have with my Father that I never cared to fix or understand. The man, my Father, Charles Glaser, is an enigmatic character and I attempt to comprehend his being and our relationship through Photography and Dialogue. By revisiting Charles’s old letters, documents and living with my Father in the desert, I attempt to trace my Father’s psychological journey while photographing his current self and the high desert that surrounds him.

Bio
William Glaser received his BFA in Photography from The Savannah College of Art & Design and travels extensively across the United States. William’s photographs celebrate regional- specific individuals and objects while exploring possible narratives.

Website

Statement
Gaspé Peninsula, an isolated and remote piece of land in Quebec, Canada, is a striking, poetic landscape, with luminous skies and an undisturbed silence, particularly in the winter.  Gaspé is a Micmac word for « land’s end ». This peninsula is the outermost advance into the sea of Quebec’s mainland territory; it is what Brittany’s Finistère —« finis terrae »— is to France, what Cornwall —with its own Land’s End—is to Britain, or Spain’s Cape Finisterre is to the European continent. The Gaspé is thus the New World’s End, mirroring the Old World’s End.

At this end of the world, a precarious way of life was fashioned, dependent on the sea. These photographs dwell on the traces of that life to be found in the dead of winter, when the land seems to hibernate. I made seven trips over three winters, and photographed the objects that are a representation of the essential links created between the people of the Gaspé and their land. The Edge of Time is a metaphor, a remote truth in a larger landscape that draws me to the transformative quality of snow on this rugged coastline and to the preciousness of a place that is isolated, therefore relatively untouched my the footprints of tourism. Here, where the cornerstones of Gaspé culture reveal themselves through the lens of my camera, my work becomes a reflection of the elemental, autonomous and unpredictable nature of history. – LR

Bio
Linda Rutenberg has worked as a fine art photographer for over 30 years. She has a BFA in film and music and an MFA in Photography from Concordia University in Montreal Quebec. She teaches, lectures and creates photographic series which evolve into books and exhibitions. She has published over fifteen publications.

In addition to her artistic work, she has owned and run a darkroom rental facility and a photography gallery. Currently Linda teaches and  lectures young artists mentoring them to bridge the gap between art and business.

Her fine art work has been exhibited internationally. Her series Urban Visions, One Island – Many Cities, Mont Royal, The Spiritual Landscape and The Garden at Night, After Midnight and The English Garden at Night  and her latest work The Gaspé Peninsula are all explorations of the relationship between the environment and its people. She is currently immersed in her new work The Negev Chronicles.

The Artist: Linda Rutenberg
For the last thirty years, my life and my career have been intimately connected because of photography. I began as an amateur, but realized very quickly that using a camera to explore the world was a wonderful way to express myself. I had my first camera at thirteen and over the next decades, completed a BA and Master’s degree in photography. I opened a photographic darkroom rental facility and then a fine art photography gallery. In addition, I lectured and taught workshops. Each of these experiences gave me new tools and perspectives on photography as both a career and as an art.

I have always been project-oriented. I generally spent three to four years photographing and refining a topic before moving on to the next. This rhythm began in 1998 with a yearlong study of Mount-Royal Park. Every week, I would leave my studio, which was close to the mountain, and photographed Montreal’s oasis in the center of the city. Subsequently I was introduced to Les Amis de la montagne in order to propose the idea of my first book and exhibition, which was published in 2000.

Then I changed direction with the purchase of my first digital camera in 2005, which I used specifically to explore the city at night, a topic that had always interested me. Until then, I had always worked in black and white, instead I decided to try color and investigate the night which was quickly disappearing from most cities, due to over-lighting.

A call from the magazine Landscape Architect sent me up to The Reford Gardens, which are located at the entrance to the Gaspé Peninsula north west of Montreal and Quebec City. Each summer they have an important garden festival.  The director, Alexander Reford, suggested that I photograph early in the morning and offered me the key to the front gate.  Instead, I proposed to him that my husband and I park our Westfalia camper inside the parking lot of the locked garden. He agreed and I suddenly realized that I was going to be spending the night in the garden and that it was a different quality of night from the city. My husband and I had a great time photographing with flashlights and we were unaware that this special evening would lead to a five-year project working after midnight in major public botanical gardens all over the US, Canada and England.

After my first visit to Metis, we returned many times to the region and visited in spring, summer and fall. I fell in love with the Gaspé Peninsula and became curious about what the winter was like. Everyone discouraged me from coming. They said it was cold and windy and that there was nothing to do. Yet, each protest made me more interested. It was after only one visit to Kamouraska in the winter where I witnessed the complete melting of the river overnight that I became completely transfixed by the possibilities of what winter held.

It took me one more year to find the time to come up to the Gaspé peninsula for an extended period of time to photograph. But after that first visit I was hooked. Each time I have returned, I have found it more compelling, filled with luminous light, wonderful welcoming people whose fascinating history has created a uniquely preserved culture.

This is the basis of my excitement and passion for this project, to reveal the special qualities of a place at a time when few have visited. – LR

Website