The Virtual Gallery

Lost and Found
I feel that pain is one of our greatest guides in life. It shows us where we should and should not be and what we are truly made of.
Lost and Found is an ongoing project that began in 2014. It is a document of my journey of self-discovery and enlightenment through loss. Parts of it document the loss of a beloved dog, the experience of living with a grieving grandparent, and the gain and loss of my first romantic relationship.

About

Marijane Ceruti studied Fine Art Photography at the University of Connecticut. Her work has been exhibited in the 2016 Portrait: Photography exhibition at the Black Box Gallery, the 2015 State of Being Human exhibition at the University of Central Oklahoma, the Kerri Gallery in Willimantic, Connecticut as well as the Fairfield Museum 2014 IMAGES exhibition. Her awards include the 2014 Dean’s Award from the University of Connecticut and the 2013 Charles and Pasqua Alaimo Scholarship. She currently resides in her home state of Connecticut.

Website: www.marijaneceruti.com

Bio
Born in 1954 in Haiti, Mr. Jean-Bart relocated at the age of 13 to New York in 1967. Eight years later Leslie received a BA in American History in 1976 as well as a Master degree in Journalism in 1977 from Columbia University. Introduced to photography at Columbia University during a trip to Africa, Leslie was immediately intrigued and a 25 year career in photography as a freelance, commercial photographer followed. In addition to developing a successful business, Leslie received many awards for book and cover art he had contributed to. It was while working at Sotheby’s and then Christie’s that Leslie says his formal education in the arts began. Citing the full access to different media of arts, and surrounded by masterpieces from the greatest artists of our times he took complete advantage of the exposure to learn.

Leslie has had a solo exhibition at Xavier University of Louisiana in 2016 and has been invited to exhibit in group exhibitions, notably, at the Brooklyn Museum in 2000, Atlanta Photography Group (Atlanta) in 2016 & 2015, The Center for Fine Art Photography (Colorado) in 2015, Wilmer Jennings Gallery (NYC) in 2015, Monique Goldstrom Gallery in Soho in 2000 and 2001 and at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in 2001.  Leslie’s work can be found in collections locally, and he lives in New York City

Reality & Imagination

In this series, I photograph the tide as visual metaphor to explore the dynamic interaction takes place between cultures when one lives permanently in a foreign land.

The cultures automatically interact in a motion that is instantly fluid and turbulent, just as the sand and tide. It’s a constant movement in unison where each always retains its distinctive characteristics. This creates a duality that is always present. Each of the sections of ‘Reality & Imagination’ explores this cultural duality. Part of the section ‘Silhouette & Shadow’ presented here gives an actual shape to the two cultures as silhouette & shadow, which are both entities that cannot exist without the presence of another. The series has provided me with the understanding that at every point I have the opportunity to act by choosing from within the structures of one of the two cultures what would serve best at the moment.

The current climate towards immigrants in the US and the present migrant situation in Europe shows that the turbulent interaction between the duality created by the mix of the two cultures does not only manifest itself within the foreign individual but also within that foreign society. The constant intermingling of that duality is ever there

My interest in photography began and quickly turned into life long passion some thirty years ago. I got my first camera while stay-at-home-mom. I loved roaming the streets, camera in hand, while the kids were in school. I was fortunate to be able to build a small dark room in a basement of my house – my sanctuary – where I spent countless hours working in b/w.
I whole-heartily embraced the digital age, which not only added color to my work, but offered limitless creative possibilities.

I’m mostly a self-taught photographer.

In recent years my main focus has been on travels to distant corners of the world in an attempt to experience, learn and – of course – photograph. Every click of my camera’s shutter turns fleeting moments into permanent records, images impervious to fading, images of diverse cultures, their people, their customs, ceremonies, celebrations and daily lives – images I love to share.

My portfolio “The Eyes Are Windows To The Soul” is a selection of casual, intimate portraits taken while roaming through many remote villages, crowded markets of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar. I have found, that for most part a friendly smile, a friendly gesture, the camera and most of all respectful curiosity – a universal human condition – is sufficient to establish a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.

Artist’s Statement

Celtic land, and landscape, holds a strong gravitational pull for me. A kind of genetic coding, if you will, that elicits a strong feeling of belonging, the feeling that I am where I should be.

My parents emigrated from Ireland to America in the 1950s. We started going back to Ireland in the 1960s to visit our family there, as we were and are the only members of our extended family here in the States. I was 8 years old when I first went to Ireland and have been traveling there ever since. Consequently the landscapes of both Ireland and Scotland naturally feel like home to me.

This work is an ongoing study of place and belonging; my hope is that through these images the viewer will sense my deep connection to the land.

Bio:

Tricia O’Neill has been making photographs since the 1970’s. She formalized her love of photography by completing a fine arts degree at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University in 2007. Tricia studied film photography and digital photography at the SMFA, rendering her a versatile photographer with knowledge of both analog and digital photography. Tricia also studied the art of hand lettering at Butera School of Art and founded the company Signs Unique in 1986. Photography and the completion of a fine art degree are fitting extensions of Tricia’s creative endeavors. Tricia’s years behind the brush–painting signs and murals–informs her photography.

Tricia works in a documentary style. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Northeast, in solo shows, juried shows, group shows and is in private collections.

www.triciaoneill.com

Because Myanmar (formally called Burma), abuts southern China, it is
easy to imagine that one is an extension of the other. But, nineteen
thousand foot high mountains divide the two countries, creating by
necessity distinct cultures. In Myanmar, although primarily a Buddhist
country, there is also a vibrant under-culture of animism, identified
by “nat shrines” dedicated to the spirits of local heroes, who have
attained a state in which they can answer prayers. Myanmar is a place
in which the religion(s) and the society in general are completely
intertwined. Weaving together the profoundly religious aspects of the
Burmese people with their love of storytelling manifests in the puppet
theater, which is the value carrier of cultural myth and is also
employed to safely voice political criticism. The images in Myanmar
Tapestry are drawn from aspects of this complex society.

This seascape series began in January of 2014. I live on the north shore of Massachusetts, within sight of the ocean, and I’ve spent many hundreds of hours patrolling the New England coastline, observing and discovering the personalities of its many beaches and rocky shores. The weather, the tide, and the terrain all play a part in how that interaction between land, sea and atmosphere displays itself. Remarkably, even with all those variables, each spot exhibits a unique character.

No other zone on earth so clearly conveys the pulse of our living planet. To stand at the edge of the sea, feeling the tug of a receding wave, is to have a finger on that pulse. This boundary layer, this ecotone, gives life to a third, and wholly mesmerizing, environment. The shore exerts is influence over the ocean openly and often flamboyantly as it trips each successive swell, while the sea molds sand and stone with a (sometimes only marginally) more patient hand.

One goal of these images is to reveal the relationship between wet an dry that goes deeper than an all-encompassing landscape. I search for personality traits, quirks, and tells that are peculiar to each seaside locale without ignoring the vastness to which it is connected.

Another more personal goal is to share my lifelong love for these places. I’ve played in the surf as a kid and later with my own kids. I’ve been soothed by it’s calm and humbled by it’s strength. We all have witnessed the incredible power of the ocean, yet I am often more impressed by it’s subtleties and little surprises. I still get a powerful sense of anticipation and a little adrenaline spike every time I approach the coast. Some of it comes from my expectation of new photographs and the rest from somewhere more primal.

Mark Thayer
Fine Art Photographer

A 1978 graduate of the New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts, Mark Thayer began shooting commercial assignments while still in school. After a successful stint as staff photographer for a Boston-area advertising firm, he opened his own studio in 1983, and acquired such noted clients as Bose Audio, Titleist Golf, Bell Helmets, Raleigh Bicycles, Fischer Skis, Chase Bank, Hewlett Packard and American Express, to name just a few.

Mark developed a love of fine art photography in school and has never lost the desire to express his personal vision. His focus has been primarily on natural and urban landscapes.

After decades of building large portfolios of fine art photography, Mark finally decided to seek public venues for his art. He had his inaugural show at the True North Gallery in Hamilton, Massachusetts in September of 2012. He has since shown at several corporate gallery spaces in the Boston area.

Mark lives in Beverly with his wife Andi, he is an avid mountain biker and cross-country skier, and enjoys a fine IPA.

Washed Up Artist Statement
Alejandro Durán

Washed Up is an environmental installation and photography project that transforms the international garbage washing ashore on Mexico’s Caribbean coast into aesthetic, yet disquieting, works. During the course of this project I have identified plastic waste from fifty nations on six continents, all found along a single stretch of coastline in Sian Ka’an, Mexico’s largest federally-protected reserve. I collect this international debris, arrange it by color and form and use it to create site-specific installations. Conflating the hand of man and nature, at times I distribute the objects the way the waves would; at other times, the plastic takes on the shape of algae, roots, rivers, or fruit, reflecting the infiltration of plastics into the natural environment. Beyond creating a surreal or fantastical landscape, these installations mirror the reality of our current environmental predicament. The resulting photo series depicts a new form of colonization by consumerism, where even undeveloped land is not safe from the far-reaching impact of our disposable culture. Although inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson, Washed Up speaks to the environmental concerns of our time and its vast quantity of discarded materials. The alchemy of Washed Up lies not only in transforming a trashed landscape, but in the project’s potential to raise awareness and change our relationship to consumption and waste. As part of my work, I am also currently creating a Museum of Garbage on location in Sian Ka’an, which will include installations and photographs from the Washed Up series. It will be accompanied by an arts and education program for the children of Punta Allen, the local community in Mexico where I have spent the past 5 years working on this project. We will explore the issue through upcycling lessons, plastic pollution research, a beach clean and other interactive activities. Activism through art and education is an integral part of the Washed Up project and is my way to raise awareness regarding this global Scourge.

Alejandro Durán – Biography

Alejandro Durán was born in Mexico City in 1974 and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He is a multimedia artist working in photography, installation, and video. His work examines the fraught intersections of man and nature, particularly the tension between the natural world and an increasingly overdeveloped one. He received an MA in Teaching from Tufts University in 1999 and an MFA in poetry from the New School for Social Research in 2001. Durán received En Foco’s New Works Award and was included in the Bronx Bienial of Latin American Art in 2012. He has exhibited his work at the Galería Octavio Paz at the Mexican consulate in New York and he is currently Hunter College’s Artist-in-Residence for 2014-15. His solo show, Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape, was exhibited at Hunter’s East Harlem Art Gallery in 2015. Publications include Land Art, published in France in 2013, which also includes Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Smithson, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Olafur Eliasson, and Marina Abramovic, among others. Art & Ecology Now was published by Thames & Hudson in 2014 and will include images
from Washed Up, as will Unexpected Art, a publication by Chronicle Books published in 2015. Notable press includes a photo essay published in Germany’s Die Zeit, as well as a feature article in New York’s El Diario/La Prensa and mentions in New York Daily News and The New York Times. Durán has taught youth and adult classes in photography and video since 2002 and has worked as a museum educator at The Museum of Modern Art and The International Center of Photography. He is also a video producer whose clients include MoMA, The Museum of Arts & Design, and Columbia University.

For me, photography is the greatest form of self expression. It communicates with my soul; a kind of a “catharsis scream”. This offers me a mental release from my professional career. After using my left brain all day, it is nice to use my right brain to create something meaningful. This brings a yin and yang to my life.

When I pick up my camera after work, I prefer to shoot inanimate objects. Using light, shadows and selective focus, I am attempting to give the objects a life force; allowing them to tell a story. Because of this, I sometimes tend to become lost in my perception of light and shadows. It allows me to constantly visualize different angles and perspectives of spaces and even people around me.

When I photograph people, I am drawn to capturing them in communal areas. I usually try and catch people off guard to create a pensive state of being which is a window into their souls. You would be surprised how much people tend to let their guard down and become relaxed when they think no one is watching. (Ever notice how differently children behave when they know they are being watched?)

I’ve come to this place of artistic expression after experimenting with several other approaches to photography. I finally listened to an art director and a close friend of mine and I redirected my work to reflect my own true artistic expression.

Over the past 10 years I been documenting real estate projects in and around Manhattan as part of a larger body of streetwork that I’ve produced since moving to the city in the mid-nineties. I was initially drawn to the novelty of observing how, once shrouded in plywood, readily identifiable locals would be transformed into anonymous corners, as if Christo and Avedon co-conspired to emphasize the cities populace. One thing I found loathsome was the encroachment of the supersize vinyl advertisements which announced the impending arrival of the corporate brand that was to displace what may or may not have been a cherished only-in-NY institution. I was
only just recently made aware of my fellow New Yorker and photographer Natan Dvir, when he gained acclaim for his series “Coming Soon”, pictures of ostensibly the same subject matter. I find it interesting to compare our approaches particularly since we were photographing many of the same corners, each unaware of the other’s project. The images from Anatomy of a Corner are from a single intersection on 5th Avenue that I photographed over the course of 6 or 7 weeks during my lunch break. They are comprised of up to 4 or 5 vertical images whichI’ve stitched together in Photoshop, which allows for the grander sense of scale and slightly wider field of view I feel landscape work requires.

Brian Sargent Bio