Edie Bresler
April 1 – May 23, 2021
Artist talk/reception April 11, 2021 at 4 PM
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opens IMAGE file © Edie Bresler, "Anonymous, 1855, 2021"
Statement
During a year-long illness, I spent more time looking at photographs in books than making them. A series of anonymous nudes from various sources, all made between 1843-1910 entered my consciousness and kept me restless. It was not just the finality of the title, “anonymous”, but wonder about the relationship between photographer and subject. I found myself dreamily inventing backstories and imagining what they might have been like outside the photographers studio. To satisfy my curiosity, I scanned the original reproduction to digitally remove them from the studio. Then I began creating an alternate place and time. I embroider, and sew clothing as a gesture of renewal and second chances. Each sewn photograph is a unique echo of the original, akin to a distant, imagined descendent. I gratefully acknowledge the collectors and institutions who collected and preserved the original moments. – EB
Bio
Edie Bresler is a longtime artist who investigates chance and randomness with photography. Her multi-faceted projects embracing a gamut of processes and possibilities is a rarity in this era of branded creativity.
Bresler is a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship in photography, several Visual Artist Fellowships from the Somerville Arts Council, a Berkshire Taconic Artist Resource Grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant.
Her projects have been featured on Good Morning America and PBS Greater Boston as well as in Photograph Magazine, Lenscratch, Slate, Photo District News, Business Insider, Esquire Russia and many other publications. She is represented by Gallery Kayafas in Boston and her photographs are in the permanent collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Danforth Museum of Art and Polaroid Corporation.
Bresler lives in Somerville, MA and is director of the photography program at Simmons University.
