Griffin News

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist Naohiro Maeda

Posted on March 31, 2020

Unique images, hand crafted, sculptural objects are the focus of Naohiro Maeda‘s series Origami-grams. These soft cyanotypes hold organic and structured shapes and textures, playing with light and shadow. Maeda’s idea that these are memory keepers posited an interesting theory. How do we transfer our own notion onto an abstract pattern, like a rorschach test.

cyanotype image with origami paper squares

untitled No. 1

Origami-grams

These photographs are portraits of origami as a memory keepers. I bent, tore, arranged and rearranged origamis and noted became aware that they held the memory of my actions in their delicate small thin physical shapes. The resulting images can appear both two- and three- dimensional, playing with the viewer’s perceptions of flatness and space in both the subject and picture plane.

This series was created using cyanotype materials, colored pencils, and origami papers similar to those I played with as a child in Japan. As an artist who works primarily in digital photography and Photoshop, I particularly enjoyed working with my hands to create these one-off images.

cyanotype with origami squares photograph

Untitled N. 2

We asked Naohiro about his Atelier experience –

Which of these images was the impetus for this series? How did it inform how you completed the series?

I had been wanting to create still life images which can be read as fine art photography. I was shooting food photography when I was in Tokyo and it taught me to make rhythms and a harmony in a picture frame and I wanted to apply these skills to a different subject/project.

Origami came to me when I learned that origami keeps humans’ memories in their surfaces and foldings when I saw an interview footage of an origami artist. I found it interesting because in the way it is similar to photography when we see them as tools for keeping our memories. Plus it is something related to my nationality, so I decided to try them.

I was struggling to make images with rectangle origamis than square ones, so I used color pencils to “repair” images.

cyanotype with origami sqaures photograph

Untitled N. 3

What do you hope we as viewers take away from viewing your work?

I hope I can deliver some sense of musicality and tranquility in images.

Untitled N. 4

How the Atelier has helped you hone your vision as an artist?

I have challenges for reviewing/editing my own work and finding a direction to construct a portfolio. Meg and classmates kindly guided me thorough the portfolio making process.

Tell us what is next for you creatively.

I have an ongoing project of landscape photos and new one with abstract.

About Naohiro Maeda –

Naohiro Maeda is an artist from Japan who resides in Salem, MA. He investigates psychological landscapes and collective memories through photographic practices. His works were have been exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom and Russia, including the Griffin Museum of Photography and The Curated Fridge, and featured in The Boston Globe. He is represented by AREA gallery in Boston.

To see more of Naohiro Maeda‘s photography log onto his website.

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Anne Piessens

Posted on March 30, 2020

Artists are compelled to create. Painters, sculptors, mixed media artists and photographers all reach to express their vision with their hands and tools. Photography is unique, functioning as noun and verb in taking (creating) a photograph and producing an object, the photographic print. Anne Piessens uses the photographic print as a base to enhance her creative vision. Her series, Meliorations, has moved from visual to tactile, with Piessens marking the prints with thread, inks and puncture holes. Photographs are precious objects, and with Anne Piessens touch of her hand, now a singular and unique piece to view and experience.

Great Marsh

We are excited to have Anne join fellow Atelier artists Diane Cheren Nygren and William Morse for an online conversation happening April 9th at 7pm. You can find tickets for the event here.

Flightless

About Meliorations

There is a large body of evidence about the healing power of nature – physical, emotional, and spiritual. Whenever cracks creep through me, time spent in nature helps to patch them.

This series represents my wishful thinking about how to heal nature in return. Like many people, I am horrified by the damage we are collectively inflicting on our natural environment. My photos conjure precipitation during the California wildfire season, restore local songbirds, and strengthen a local barrier island. Each image is an apology to a landscape I love.

Plum Island (Detail)

Which of these images was the impetus for this series? How did it inform how you completed the series?

The full photo is a panorama, shot at Plum Island in Newburyport MA — a barrier beach that is rapidly eroding due to human activity and rising sea levels. I visited on a gray damp day on the heels of a Nor’easter. One end of the beach was cordoned off to protect crumbling cliff dunes. On the other end, vacation homes were being buttressed with trucked-in boulders. It felt like a senseless effort to buy time before the houses slide into the sea.

After printing the panorama, I felt compelled to somehow restore stability to this fragile landscape. Using embroidery thread, I sewed a line of pilings just off shore.

Plum Island II

This became the first in a series of multimedia pieces aimed at restoring landscapes that have suffered the consequences of human activity. In addition to thread, the series incorporates screen-printing, calligraphy inks and pinholes.

Wildfire Season

How was the Atelier experience for you?

The Atelier class was hugely valuable. It exposed me to other photographers’ art and put me on a deadline to create a body of images. Meg Birnbaum is very skilled at asking questions, providing direction, and gently pushing students to edit their work. The class was exactly the jump-start I needed. I loved that each student had different talents and ideas, but together we became a supportive community.

Whats next creatively for you?

What’s next? I’ll keep working on the Meliorations series. I’m trying to learn printmaking techniques like drypoint and monotype so I can incorporate more layers onto my photographic prints. I want to get better at lighting my photos. At this point it’s all about expanding the toolkit! And I’m planning to sign up for the Atelier class again in the fall.

About Anne Piessens –

Runoff

Anne Piessens is a Boston-based fine art photographer whose work explores nature’s distinctive forms, as well as our relationship to the landscapes around us.

Her newest series, Meliorations, imagines ways to undo the damage that humans have inflicted on the natural world, and incorporates different media such as drawing inks and embroidery thread. Past projects include Things that Look Like Other Things, a tongue-in-cheek search for meaning in nature’s found objects, and In the Middle of Something, a portrait series about the tween years.

Anne Piessens studied photography with college instructors Emmet Gowin and Steve Fitch. After a hiatus, she began shooting and exhibiting in 2017. Her work has been shown at Concord Art and The Cambridge Art Association, MA; The SE Center for Photography, SC; Praxis Photo Arts Center, MN; and Photo Place Gallery, VT.

Find Anne Piessens

on the web

on Instagram @artane1

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano

Posted on March 29, 2020

Architecture is an amazing combination of science and art. Balancing feats of concrete, steel and glass, brick and mortar, asphalt and cobbles, structures rise up around us. So many take for granted the structures that keep us safe, working, moving and shelter us from coming storms. Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano took to the streets to mix architecture, humanity and abstraction to create images combining organic and rigid texture, people and place in her series Urban Awareness.

Urban Awareness

I’m fascinated with the inherent beauty and geometry of the city. However, what is even more intriguing is how we, as humans, can lose ourselves within our own minds dreaming of either the future or the past and transport through this beauty without noticing the subtlety around us. The texture, strength, arrangement, thought, and soul left within the structures by their creators is so pervasive…yet often unnoticed. With camera in hand, I strove to capture the incredible dichotomy within this human condition first-hand. It is in studying closely individuals in this state, that allows me to strive to transcend this condition and simply appreciate the incredible beauty of our surroundings within the moment. Urban Awareness is a call to awakening to the here and now, the beauty of the moment.

I feel passion for blending scale and geometry, while using available light, shadows, and leading lines to draw the viewer into looking at a city in a more deliberate manner.

We asked Kathleen about her experience with the Atelier –

What do you hope we as viewers take away from viewing your work?

To see the calm and beauty of a cityscape that is often not observed by the individual immersed in that environment.

How the Atelier has helped hone your vision as an artist?

I have always deeply loved photography but was busy with another career and family life. The Atelier is my first step in honing my artist perceptive. It gave me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and showcase my first exhibit. It also gave me the opportunity to learn from a wonderful teacher and group of supportive colleagues. I plan on continuing my artist development though the Atelier in the fall. Presently, I photographing my family and neighborhood daily as social distancing is now our new normal.

About Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano

Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano is a street photographer whose graphic images capture the beauty and spontaneity of the human experience in the city.

DeCarlo-Plano’s photography is informed by her work as a psychologist. She finds inspiration in observing, interpreting, and photographing how people relate to one another and to the environment.

Her work will be exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, in the spring of 2020. DeCarlo-Plano has studied at the New England School of Photography in Boston, MA, and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Find Kathy on Instagram – @kathydecarloplano

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Tony Schwartz

Posted on March 28, 2020

Many major cities have an area where the Chinese communities congregate and live. Chinatowns are legendary in major cities like San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago. Photographer Tony Schwartz chose to focus his lens on Boston’s Chinatown, connecting with locals who gave him access and insight into the local culture and community. Photographed in black and white, these intimate portraits of the people and place, give a documentary style insiders look into a vibrant community rich in culture.

Two Jacks

About Chinatown –

three men walking in chinatown boston - photograph

March of the Chefs

Chinatown is the only true immigrant-derived ethnic enclave left in Boston, my hometown. My interest in this community was sparked by witnessing street scenes identical to those I had experienced while visiting China. Since the late 1870’s, Chinatown historically has served as a home for Chinese immigrants and laborers, and as a textile center. It now is a community fighting, so far successfully, to keep itself intact; it is the hub of the Chinese community of greater Boston. In this exhibit I wish the viewer to see beyond the restaurants: The workers and residents in Mary Soo Hoo Park, playing cards and Chinese “chess,” while speaking only Chinese; stores selling traditional herbal medicines; bakeries making and selling typical Chinese pastries; and the existence there of branches of many international Chinese family associations. The Chinese language and culture still are very much alive in Chinatown, despite the threats it faces from the powerful forces of gentrification, compression of its space, and an affordable housing crisis. As a second generation American, I can identify with the stories of the several immigrants I interviewed and photographed, who discussed their history and their families’ successes since coming to the United States. As in the case of other immigrant groups, they are making our city, region and nation both stronger and more vibrant, while also enriching its soul.

We asked Tony about his experience with the Atelier –

Which of these images was the impetus for this series? How did it inform how you completed the series?

men playing checkers chinatown boston photograph

The Next Move

I was walking through Chinatown and saw men playing cards and Chinese “Chess’” outdoors in the Mary Soo Hoo Park, exactly as I had seen when traveling to China. The photos taken of them doing this led me to wish to know and see and photograph more.

What do you hope we as viewers take away from viewing your work?

Seeing Chinatown as more than a bunch of ethnic restaurants, but as an ethnic enclave rich with culture. It is one of the many immigrant communities that have made our country successful and interesting.

How the Atelier has helped you hone your vision as an artist?

I had done two other series of images and interviews, both of which have been published as photobooks. I was searching for something new in direction, but after trying several different mini projects during the Atelier, it became clear to me that this is what I really love to do: Photograph people and tell their story in images and their own words.

men eating at restaurant chinatown boston photograph

Sunday Morning

Tell us what is next for you creatively.

I plan to do much more with this project, which I consider to be half done. More interviews and more images/portaits, to tell their stories. I believe that the story of a people is best developed by telling individual stories rather than deciding on a summary.

Susan Fung

AKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank profusely two people without whom this exhibition would not have been possible. These are Susan Fung and Eric Schwartz, who are co-authors on the narrative aspects of this project. Susan provided her time and guidance and introduced me to important components of the Chinatown landscape, her Gin Family Association and the people I interviewed and photographed. She also served as translator when necessary. My son Eric Schwartz created a video record of the interviews, without which the narratives for the project would have been incomplete.

About Tony Schwartz –

Tony Schwartz is a fine art and documentary photographer residing in Boston, MA and Peru, VT, USA. He has done drawing, oil painting and clay sculpture, but since retiring from a career in academic veterinary medicine at Tufts University, in 2005, he has devoted himself fully to photography.

working in kitchen chinatown boston photograph

Making Pastry Filling

Tony has traveled extensively and while his subject matter includes landscapes and animals, he most enjoys portraying people, their environment and their culture. He does this through showing the images of individuals, in combination with relating their personal stories. He believes that individual stories, in sufficient numbers, tell the story of a people and their culture. He has produced three photobooks. His latest, 2019, such effort concerns the serious impact of ecotourism and mountain gorilla protection on the Batwa Pygmies of Uganda. He was invited to present this story through a photo essay in the Solstice Literary Magazine in 2019; it is on-line in the Social Documentary Network; and he has lectured about it at Tufts University, at the Griffin Museum of Photography, and will do so again at Brandeis University in April 2020.

Tony’s photographic education and training were at the New England School of Photography in Boston, at Cone Editions in Vermont. He participated in several photo workshops with Karin Rosenthal, where he served as the printing assistant, as well as in travel workshops in Tanzania, Morocco and Mexico. He has received many awards for his work, regionally and nationally, including two from Santa Fe Workshop competitions. Internationally, he has been a Charles Dodson Gala Award finalist.

Tony Schwartz has had solo exhibitions at the Copley Society of Art in Boston, where he is a juried member and “Copley Artist,” at the Griffin Museum of Photography, and at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. He has exhibited in many juried regional and national exhibitions, and internationally in Ottawa, Canada and Barcelona, Spain. His work is represented by the 3 Pears Gallery, in Dorset, VT; his art licensing agent is Suzanne Cruise Creative Services, Inc., Leawood, KS.

For more information and to see more of Tony Schwartz‘s creativity log onto his website.

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Cynthia Johnston

Posted on March 27, 2020

Visually defining a vast country like the United States is complicated. Region to region, state to state, town to town. Every area has its quirks, and no two places are the same. Photographer Cynthia Johnston and her series “Somewhere in the Middle” explores the idea of the road less traveled, following along the backroads of America. After thirty years of living on the East Coast, Johnston started a road trip, marking off 20,000 miles, exploring the ideas of who we are and how we live. A visual diary, these images ask more questions that provide answers. With humor, grace and quiet observation, Johnston shows us her vision.

State Highway Saviour

Carhenge

From her artist statement – Somewhere in the Middle

After graduation from university, I left the Midwest to pursue employment on the East Coast. With time, I adapted to the Northeast but maintained connections to the culture and people “back home”. Until the election of 2016, I thought I knew the Midwest, and thus, myself.

But “post-Trump”, I felt so out of touch with the place enshrined in my heart. Upon retrospection, I realized that it had been decades since I traveled extensively in the US. There were many states to which I had never ventured; several in which I was fearful to travel. I started to see the outlines of my personal bubble and identity dissonance.

During the last two years, I have wound my way through 20,000 miles of small towns dotting state highways and rural routes in the traditionally defined Midwestern states. The scenes presented in this work are viewed through the eyes of a prodigal daughter who is gradually re-discovering her former home; a place that is, by turns, filled with quiet beauty, sorrow and history.

We asked Cynthia about her experience in the Atelier program –

Big Bucks

My work in Atelier 31 is a continuation of the project, “Somewhere in the Middle”, which started in Atelier 28 (Spring 2018). The seed for my project was planted in the Atelier 28 artist conversation assignment where the student selects an artist whose work and style interests them. Walker Evans was the artist that inspired me to explore through landscapes, architecture and vernacular. His large body of work seemed to stem from a tireless sense of curiosity, two qualities to which I related. As the course progressed, an opportunity to take a much-longed-for road trip to the Midwest opened up. This region was of special interest to me since I hail from Wisconsin. Additionally, the Midwest region had played such a surprising role in the election of Donald Trump. I felt I had fallen out of touch with this region and now I had the time and tools to explore the region through photography. Through this work I strive to convey the sense of surprise I often encounter during my travels.

Plus One

This is perhaps the first photo my project that I felt did that. ” Plus One”

I also seek to turn regional stereotypes on their heads. Mostly, I am expressing my own surprise at what I find. I have continued the project, adding another 15,000 miles to my odometer. I hope to have a book by the time I am done exploring but we shall see.

I am really happy to have found the atelier course. The exercises, the critiques, and community of students has been invaluable in breaking down my fears about creating. I learned a lot about the creation process and don’t get nearly as discouraged as I once did. False starts will happen and are part of the process along with refinement and trying various approaches until one works.

I can’t say enough about Meg’s encouragement and acceptance of many styles and approaches to photography. Meg and Amy create a special environment that allows experimentation along with a high caliber of image-making.

About Cynthia Johnston –

Cynthia Johnston is a fine arts photographer with an interest in work which examines personal identity and cultural identification. Her two current projects are “Somewhere in the Middle” and “Altars”.

After working in biotechnology for twenty years, she left her job to live in Montréal where she found a creative home. Since moving back to New England, she has taken numerous courses at the New England School of Photography as well as the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Johnston’s work been exhibited internationally and is included in corporate and private collections in the US, Canada, Germany and Spain. She has recently exhibited work at the Center for Photographic Art, the Alexandria Museum of Art and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Follow Cynthia’s creative travels –

on the web at cynthiajohnstonphotography

on Instagram @cynthiajohnstonphoto,

FB page: Cynthia Johnston Photography

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Darrell Roak

Posted on March 26, 2020

Darrell Roak’s series, Noble Waterfalls, is a reflection and meditation on the forces of nature, power of water and grace and beauty found in the dark stillness of the forest.

Royalston Falls

Finding solace in the depths of the forest, Roak’s connection to the power of water and rock, carving new paths, is captured in these long exposure landscape studies. In his artist statement he talks of “the rumble that resonates through the bedrock, the mist that permeates the atmosphere and the ethereal beauty of its flowing water contrasting with the ledge, which it has, over centuries, taken dominance and ownership cutting its distinctive path”

All beautifully captured, and printed as platinum/palladium prints. The softness of the surface creates the pictorialist mood set by the deep shadows and rich blacks of the prints.

We asked Darrell about his series and the ideas behind it.

Jailer Falls

Which of these images was the impetus for this series?

If there is one photo, it is Jailer Falls, which didn’t make the cut but is included as one of the website photos. This was one of the first photos I captured on film. I had repelled down a 30-foot ledge with my gear to a fishing hole I remembered from my childhood. The resultant photo was well worth the struggle.

How did it inform how you completed the series?

This waterfall is not accessible or well known to anyone but local residents; in fact, my folks weren’t aware of it. I became aware that Mother Nature has placed her works of beauty all about. This led me to print some of the many waterfalls I have photographed.

I had been dabbling with alt-process for a while; ziatype, cyanotype, platinum/palladium… Entering into this Atelier session (my fifth), I was determined that my exhibition photos would be alt-process; my instinct led me toward cyanotype. Although I liked some of the blue images, once I printed one with platinum/palladium my course was plotted. This also helped in the ultimate title of the series, “Noble Waterfalls”. Noble for the majesty of Mother Nature’s works and Noble for the metals used for printing; Platinum and Palladium.

Laural Falls

What do you hope we as viewers take away from viewing your work?

When I photograph, I have a vision of what I want to show my audience, basically an ethereal presentation of the real-world subject. It is always a great pleasure to have my audience members to reflect my vision.

How the Atelier has helped you hone your vision as an artist?

As I mentioned earlier, this has been my fifth Atelier session. I get reinforcement of the basic class materials but this isn’t the greatest benefit. For me, the peer development is the magic. I have been dropped into groups of individually minded photographers and have exited amongst societies of bonded artists. Over 16 weeks, we have molded each other and each other’s art into fine gems worthy of lifelong memories and appreciations.

PIxley Falls

Tell us what is next for you creatively.

Hopefully, my current plans won’t be foiled by Covid-19. But, I am planning to visit and photograph the Stave-Churches of Norway. These are mid-evil churches built as the Roman Catholics moved across Europe and Scandinavia. Of great interest to me are the mingling of Pagan an Christian carvings as well as the unique Stave architecture. Ultimately, this portfolio will lead to an exhibition and/or a book.

About Darrell Roak –

Darrell Roak is a photographer whose nature is to bring an ethereal appearance to his photographs. Darrell began his photographic journey in 2010 when he took his first workshop at Maine Media. He has since expanded his experience through workshops across The United States. Darrell has been an Artist in Residence at Light Grey Art Camp in Western Norway and he has attended a printing residency at Cone Edition Press in Vermont. Among his contemporary advisors are Tillman Crane and Russell Young.

The subjects of Darrell’s photos lean toward abandoned structures and out-of-the-way spots, which remind one of days gone by. He uses an assortment of cameras to capture his photographs including digital, large-format and pinhole. His photos are printed using the Piezography digital process as well as Alternative Processes: Cyanotype, Ziatype and Platinum/Palladium.

Darrell’s photographs have been exhibited at Carnegie Visual Arts Center in Decatur, Alabama, Photo Place Gallery and Vermont Center for Photography in Vermont, and The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts. Darrell’s images are also included in personal collections throughout The United States.

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Fern L. Nesson

Posted on March 25, 2020

All Here, All Now is an immersive experience, marrying still and moving images, using graphic and abstract elements to engage the viewer in a discussion of the greater hypotheses of time and relativity. At the intersection of science and art, Fern Nesson ponders the concepts of the here and now. What does that look like? Sound like?

About All Here, All Now –

Our subjective experience of time is continuous and uniform, emerging from the past and flowing toward the future. But Einstein proved that time varies relative to the speed of light, slowing down or speeding up depending upon our own trajectory through space. And Buddhists say time is cyclical, always repeating. Some physicists even assert that, given the right conditions, time may flow backwards.

As a scientist, I line up with Einstein; spiritually, I feel kinship with Buddhism. Like all of us, I experience the forward flow of time’s arrow, rushing me all too fast into my future. But, as a photographer, I don’t have to choose sides. For me, the debate is both infinitely interesting and totally beside the point. Whatever we believe the nature of time to be, we have only the present moment in which to experience it. Living in that moment and capturing its essence in an image is reward enough.

These images and video are my way of communicating that we have only the present moment. We cannot relive the past and the future will never come. When and if we get there, it will be the present. All here, all now.

Can you tell us about the video that accompanies your photographs?

The soundtrack to “All Here All Now” was composed by Domenico Vicinanza, a particle physicist from Cambridge, England, to commemorate

the 40th birthday of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. It premiered at the SC17 Supercomputing Conference in Denver in November, 2017. Professor Vicinanza created this music using data captured by the Voyager 1’s Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instrument – a special telescope that identifies protons, alpha particles and heavier nuclei in space. Professor Vicinanza turned that data into music using data sonification, mapping from the intervals between numbers to the intervals between the notes of the scale. Every number from the detector became a musical note, creating a melody that followed the entire journey of Voyage 1 from lift-off in 1977 until it exited the solar system in August 2012.

The first half of the piece features stringed instruments echoed by flute, piccolo and glockenspiel. Piano and French horns double these instruments when the spacecraft encountered Jupiter and Saturn, highlighting the rising and falling of the cosmic ray count in the atmosphere of these giant planets. When the spacecraft enters interstellar space, the music changes. The cellos, violas and woodwinds give way to the more ethereal sounds of the harp and celesta. The key also changes from C major to E flat major as does the spacing between the notes, reflecting the dramatic decrease in the charged particles outside our solar system.

Translated into music, the Voyager 1’s journey is mysterious, magical, transcendent. As Professor Vicinanza says: “The entire piece breath[s] and pulsat[es] with the spacecraft. The score is more than just inspired by one of the most successful space missions, it [is a] part of it.”

See the video here on Fern’s video channel on YouTube

We asked Fern to discuss her Atelier experience –

Twenty years ago, I took the Atelier course with Karen Davis and Holly Pedlosky at Radcliffe Seminars. This September, I decide to enroll in the Atelier again, hoping to connect with others who were interested in critiquing work and getting feedback on their own photographs.

I was not disappointed. The excellent teaching and the supportive participation by fellow photographers made the fall and winter fly by. It was so exciting to see the work that each person produced. As to my own work, I was especially impressed with the flexibility that the course offers. I do abstract photography. In the beginning, it was puzzling to my fellow students — and even possibly to the teachers. But they were game. They stayed right with my concept and did their best to understand it. I was so appreciative of their adventurous spirit and incisive critical eyes. Each week, their good advice, made my work better.

What does the future hold?

Currently, I am working on several projects:

The first one is nearly complete. It is called “My Original Self.” I set out in this project to explore ,both visually and writing, my identity as a very young child — to unearth the original spirit that I brought into this world as unencumbered as possible by other, later influences.

For the project, I wrote a story about the fascinating experience that inspired this search and then created a video that expresses what I found.

To finish up, I plan record the story (as audio accompanying the video) and to add a series of still photographs as well.

My second project is to complete the shooting and curate a selection of abstract photographs of cityscapes for a solo exhibit in the Auburn Gallery in LA toward the end of this year. Currently, I have photographs from Paris Rome, Boston New Toronto and LA. With Boston street deserted, I pklan to shoot a bit more downtown at night.

Lastly, I am writing photoessays for two online publications :

Bonjour Paris and The Living New Deal.

For Bonjour Paris, I am doing a series of ten essays entitled “Fifty Things I Miss About Paris.” The first essay appeared this w eek and one will appear each week for the next 9 weeks.

The Living New Deal website, run by two professors at U. Cal. Berkeley, is a history website about New Deal Projects in the Roosevelt Administration. I write a regular column from the website entited “Travels with the State Guides. Roosevelt’s WPA published these Guides for each state from 1939- 42. They included essays on history, geography, cultural traditions, food, economy and they suggested travel routes.

For my photoessays, I return to some of the interesting places and iconic examples of writing in these guides and explore what what is there now. So far, I have published essays on several towns in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Last week , my photoessay on Walden Pond appeared; next month my essay on Nantucket will appear. Currently, I am working on two essays close to home: one on the Mount Auburn Cemetery and one on pre-Revolutionary Cambridge.

Lastly,

a) I am preparing to teach an online course at the Maine Media Workshops on Text and Image.

b) I am proofreading the final draft of my new photobook, “Word”.

About Fern L. Nesson –

Fern L. Nesson is a fine art photographer and installation artist who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received an MFA in Photography from Maine Media College, where she is currently the school’s first post-graduate Fellow. Her spare, abstract photographs are not constructed. Instead, they distill reality to its essence, embodying the moment when mass becomes energy.

Nesson’s videos have been exhibited at the MIT Museum Studio in September-November, 2019 (“La Vérité est la Créatrice d’Illusions”) and at the Meta-Lab Gallery at Harvard in October,2019. (“E=mc^2″). She has had three solo exhibitions of her photographs: “E-mc²” at Les Rencontres de la Photographie and Voies Off Festival in Arles, France in 2019, “Be Living” at the Pascal Gallery in Rockport, ME. in 2018 and “The Light Dances” at Panopticon Imaging in Rockland, MA. in 2016. Currently, her work is showing at the Praxis Gallery In Minneapolis, MN.

Her photobook, Signet of Eternity, was recently chosen for the 10th Annual Self-published Photobooks show at the Davis-Orton Gallery (2019) and is currently showing at the Griffin Museum (2020).

“Abstraction and Perception,” an exhibition of Nesson’s photographs will open at the Beacon Gallery in Boston on March, 2020.

For more information and creativity log onto Fern’s website

Atelier 31 | Meet the Artist – Diana Cheren Nygren

Posted on March 24, 2020

From left to right – Bottled Water, Rooftop Swimming Pool and Posers

When the Trees are Gone, Diana Cheren Nygren’s well crafted immersive series combines human and architectural interaction. These images are intriguing and humorous, asking us as viewers to linger a little longer, question our connections to nature, our communities and beg the question of human intervention in our surroundings. The content sneaks up on you. Of course that bather should be on top of a billboard. But then you stop, think again and realize that the marriage of these two ideas couldn’t be farther apart. Yet instinctively as the viewer it all seems so normal.

About the series –

Surroundings play a dominant role in shaping our experience. I treasure the city and try to make space for quiet contemplation within it. The question of the struggle between nature and the built environment is ever more central in urban life. In this series, relaxed beachgoers find themselves amidst carefully composed urban settings in front of dramatic skies. They are searching without seeming to find what they are looking for. Peaceful moments of strolling along the beach or standing listening to the waves while choosing the perfect spot to sit down, are inevitably infused with tension and frustration. The beach becomes rising tides, threatening the very foundation of the city. The clash of nature and city results in an absurd profusion of visual noise and little relief. The resulting images lay bare the illusory nature of my urban fantasy and the problematic nature of the future that lies ahead for humanity.

We followed up with a few questions for Diana about her process and her experience with the Atelier.

American Flag (early work)

Which of these images was the impetus for this series? How did it inform how you completed the series?

The image which was the impetus for this series is not among those included in the show. It has long since been discarded from the series altogether. While it comes out of earlier projects, this work is substantially different from anything I have done before. It took me a while playing around with this compositing of beach figures and urban setting to figure out what I really wanted to say and which images communicated that successfully. The responses of Meg, Amy, and my classmates to the work were critical in helping me refine my vision and the selection of images.

How the Atelier has helped you hone your vision as an artist?

Having photographed for many years, I believed that I had arrived at a style and point of view. I struggle at times to articulate it, but my focus was on narrowing my work. The Atelier, instead, pushed me to experiment with subject matter and styles that were entirely outside of my comfort zone and that I did not think I was interested in. Ironically, I think being pushed to reach in this way has helped to sharpen my voice rather than diluting it.

Tell us what is next for you creatively.

I would like to take the Atelier again. I have no idea if it will have as substantial an impact a second time around or not, but I think it’s a good addition to my practice regardless. I am also beginning work on a book project (or two).

About Diana Cheren Nygren –

Diana Cheren Nygren is a fine art photographer from Boston, Massachusetts. Her work explores the visual character of place defined through physical environment and weather. Place has implications for our experience of the world, and reveals hints about the culture around it.

Diana was trained as an art historian with a focus on modern and contemporary art, and the relationship of artistic production to its socio-political context. Her emphasis on careful composition in her photographic work, as well as her subject matter, reflects this training.

Diana’s photographs have received numerous honorable mentions from the Lucie Foundation and have been included in a number of juried exhibitions at Subjectively Objective, PhotoPlace Gallery, the Midwest Center for Photography, Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, PH21 Gallery in Budapest, Arlington Center for the Arts, the Griffin Museum of Photography, and the Curated Fridge. A book of her photographs, “Capturing the Light”, was published in 2017.

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