Griffin Museum of Photography

Olga Merrill | Enigma

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My life changed when I came to Maine, USA in 2013. At the end of 2015, my life changed even more – I  got a photo camera and my view of the world became different through lenses. Photography was a hobby for my father, and I remember the smell of chemicals from being with him in his darkroom. Who knew that after more than 35 years from my first brief touch of photography, I would become an artist, and visual art started playing a significant role in my life?

I believe that all art media reacts with the processes going on in the world, encourages people to see deeply ourselves and the world: why we are in this world, what will remain after us for future generations. Processes like education, climate change, technology, international connections between countries and cultures connected with humanity are ongoing, and they are part of our integration that we have to be aware of.

This series, Enigma is my interpretation of the relationship between our human existence and the Earth.  This bond is a full mix of fantasy and mystery that stimulates our minds to invent and invigorate possibilities.

My process is to use in camera double-exposures as metaphors for my vision. In these dual images, my subject becomes a mythical being as he blends with an untamed natural setting, forming an altered reality. The result is a dive into a human soul.

We all witness the endless flux of life. I invite and provoke the viewer to see deeply into what mysteries are hidden in the intimate corners of the soul. I hope that in the end, one finds answers as to what legacies will be left behind.

 

About Olga Merrill

Olga Merrill is an award-winning Maine based visual artist primarily using the medium of photography. She uses photography as a tool – like an instrument to make music or a brush for painting – to create an image of her vision, with a dreamy and indirect relationship to external reality. Some images are essentially representative photography of the world around her that nevertheless dissolve into the wonder of abstract patterns, while others are complex manipulations of the ordinary visual world that use intentional camera movement, multiple exposures, and well planned color palettes to reflect her vision, dreams and feelings.

Merrill’s work has been part of group shows and festivals nationally and internationally, including NYC Center of Photography (USA), Davis Orton Gallery (USA), Foto-Foto Gallery (USA), Griffin Museum of Photography (USA), Praxis Gallery (USA), PH21 Gallery (Hungary), Malta Postal Museum (Malta), Fondazione de Matalon (Italy), Rockport Art Association & Museum (USA), Blank Wall Gallery (Greece), online shows at Center for Photographic Arts (USA), Center for Fine Art Photography (USA), among others.

Merrill was the 1st Place Winner, International Juried exhibit ” Black and White 2020″, NYC4PA; 1st place winner, 15th Annual National Photography Competition at Foto-Foto Gallery, 2019; Silver Award at San Francisco Bay International Photography Competition, 2019; Juror’s Choice Award at International Exhibitions, Praxis Gallery, 2018.

Donna Dangott | Hidden in Plain View

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While I generally prefer that viewers seek their own meaning in my work, I also acknowledge an individual’s need to understand my personal concept for a series. The images in the Hidden In Plain View series are based on highly personal subject matter. Therefore, it is more difficult for me to discuss than most others. However, once I made the commitment to create and share this body of work I knew that discussions would surely follow. The work is not intended to be a self-portrait, but it is somewhat self-revelatory. Although the images have a haunting beauty, there certainly is an underlying story among them that was the impetus for developing this work. Sadly, it is a dark story that many others may know from their own life experiences. To say it as concisely as I am able, this series is my attempt to put into a visual context some intimate personal history marred by childhood physical and sexual abuse—years of it—that affected my entire nuclear family. And—the residual and recurrent psychological trauma of feeling isolated, vulnerable and damaged that lingers throughout a victim’s lifetime. The life-long emotional scars are not always easily observed by others, but are ever present. At the same time, it references the power of our human connection with nature, which can help to protect us and heal us, if we allow it to do so. It certainly has been quite pivotal in my own life story—and in much of my art. I have used human sculptural forms in this work rather than self-portraiture to represent the many different victims of abuse and trauma that walk among us. Although I initially had a considerable amount of anxiety about putting this work and this very personal story out into the world, it has been so warmly embraced and respected that I know without a doubt it was time for it to be shared at last.

About Donna Dangott

D.Dangott is recognized as an emerging American photographic and mixed media artist. She has exhibited her work extensively across the US and in Canada. The imaginative and sometimes haunting images she creates explore many different themes. The works range from realistic to the surreal, often blurring the line between fact and fiction. Her award-winning imagery weaves together elements of our tangible external physical environment with our less tangible but equally relevant internal psychological realm. She has developed a unique style which combines her experience as a biological illustrator, graphic designer, and of course, as a photographer. She received her BFA in Photography from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN in 1988. Her works reside in many private, public and corporate collections.

David Levinthal | America! America! Exploring History, Myth and Memory

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Once upon a time photographs were revered as truth-tellers.  Today’s world questions that notion. The media saturates the printed page, airwaves, the internet with little if any distinction between fact and fiction. Historical events take place before our eyes, yet there are often dramatically different perspectives in the re-telling. Is history being chronicled…or is it being shaped?

David Levinthal scrutinizes our world – past and present – absorbing, depicting, interpreting, and envisioning events, from the ordinary to the momentous, blurring the line between veracity and fantasy.  Art is about ideas. Art gives us something to think about. This is why David Levinthal plays with toys!

Barbara Hitchcock, Independent Curator and former Curator, The Polaroid Collection

About David Levinthal –

Since the early 1970’s, David Levinthal has been exploring the relationship between photographic imagery and the fantasies, myths, events, and characters that shape contemporary American’s mental landscape. His work has been a touchstone for conversations about theories of representation in photography and contemporary art as he has investigated the overlapping of popular imagery with personal fantasy through all of his major series including Hitler Moves East, Modern Romance, Wild West, Desire, Blackface, Barbie, Baseball, and History. In 2018, the George Eastman Museum presented David Levinthal: War, Myth, Desire, the largest retrospective of his work to date accompanied by the most comprehensive publication ever produced on his work. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is exhibited widely and part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, The Menil Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Color Theory

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Everyday, we engage with color. We immerse ourselves in moments and memories that are shaped by color. Everyday, we react to color in ways great and small– and we don’t just react to images with color, but to color itself. Color shapes our emotions. It floods our recollections. It can be both the stimulus and the response.

Color Theory is our reaction to this moment in which we are coming out of darkness, winter to spring, in which we collectively navigate from pandemic to endemic. This moment where we try to bring life and balance back to our souls.

The artists included in Color Theory are featured artists Deborah Bay and Jay Tyrrell, with images from Vicente Cayuela, Cheryl Clegg, Donna Dangott, Yorgos Efthmiadis, Carol Eisenberg, Ellen Konar & Steve Goldband, Maureen Haldeman, Linda Haas, Leslie Jean Bart, Marcy Juran, Deborah Kaplan, Marky Kauffmann, Ann Leamon, Sheri Lynn Behr, Bruce Magnuson, Ralph Mercer, Olga Merrill, Sue Michlovitz, Julie Mihaly, Judith Montminy, Lisa Mossel Vietze, Maureen Mulhern White, Randy Otto, Lori Pond, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Lisa Ryan, Geralyn Shukwit, Vicky Stromee, Sean Sullivan, Neelakantan Sunder, Stefanie Timmermann, Donna Tramontozzi, Suzanne Williamson, Jenn Wood and Dianne Yudelson.

For more information about the photographs of Color Theory, or to see pricing download our Price and Edition Information.

The Griffin @ Lafayette City Center Passageway is located at 2 Ave de Lafayette in Downtown Crossing, Boston. The passageway connects Macy’s, the Lafayette Tower offices and the Hyatt Regency, Boston.

 

Photography Atelier 35

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Photography Atelier is a portfolio and project building course for emerging to advanced photographers taught by Elizabeth Buckley. Participants engage in supportive critical discussions of each other’s work and leave with a better understanding of the industry and an ability to edit and sequence their own work.

Instruction in the Atelier includes visual presentations based around an assignment which is designed to encourage experimentation in both subject matter and approach. Students learn the basics of how to approach industry professionals to show their work and how to prepare for a national or regional portfolio review. There is discussion of marketing materials, do-it-yourself websites, DIY book publishing and the importance of social media. Students learn the critical art of writing an artist’s statement and bio.

The students here were part of our Fall 2021 program and we are thrilled to see their work on the walls of the Griffin.

Peter Balentine – City of God

Robin Boger – Traveler

Vicente Cayuela – JUVENILIA

Annie Claflin – Minor Imperfections

Miriam Engelhardt – Musical Moments

Marc Goldring – Trees: Skin Deep

Julie Hamel – Known Unknown

Jack Heller – Sacred Places & Objects 

Bob Holt – Working Rivers of Peterborough, New Hampshire 

Alan Kidawski – A Photographic Quest for Poetic Imagery

Catherine King – Terrible Love

Albert Lew – Faces Behind the Food

Connie Lowell – A Call for Urgency

Lawrence Manning – Murder in Nampa

Leann Shamash – Ta’anit- Fasts

Francine Sherman – Ordinary Moments

Heather Walsh – Fly Over Landscapes

 

 

Philip Sager | Veiled Actualities

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Veiled Actualities

My photographic explorations mirror the disjointed, fragmented and conflicted nature of my personal experiences and use visual metaphors that layer textures, reflecting internal chaos and emotional turbulence.

I am inspired to explore the emotional complexity that influences visual imagery, which our brains simplify as we perceive, absorb and comprehend information. Normally our eyes see all of the visual information but our brains simplify to one or two major objects. In taking these pictures based in the real world, the camera lets us see the rich visual complexity and multiple layers that we do not conventionally perceive.

This multilayered approach is influenced by growing up in New York City where I was enthralled by shop windows, reflecting the constant activity and often chaotic moments of the city, mirroring a fleeting and mesmerizing world. To illustrate this perspective the photographs featured in this exhibition are created “in camera” as single images without multiple exposures or adding content during post-processing.

About Philip Sager –

Philip Sager is a fine art photographer who grew up in the heart of New York City, filled with experiences that only an international city can offer. He now lives across the county in another geographically small but equally urban center: San Francisco.

While his artistic work focuses on confronting the complexity of perception and how our brains simplify, absorb, and comprehend information, Sager is directly influenced by his subliminal mind, memory, and metaphors mirroring the fragmented and conflictual nature of emotive experience. It comes naturally for Sager to combine art and science, given his long academic and professional history of scientific pursuits researching the heart and the mind. Sager studied photography at MIT, Yale University, the Apeiron Workshops.

His photographs are firmly placed in the real world, as they are created “in camera” as single images without multiple exposures or added content during post-processing.
His work is in private collections and has been shown in multiple galleries.

29th Annual Members Juried Exhibition

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29th Annual Juried Members Exhibition

Juror – Lisa Volpe, Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

20 April – 28 May, 2023

Artist Reception 21 April, 6.30 – 8pm

We are thrilled to announce the 29th Annual Members Juried Exhibition. 

Our thanks to Curator of Photography Lisa Volpe, from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston for selecting sixty artists from over 250 artists and 1250 images submitted. 

This exhibition, called Under the Mask, focused on exploring the psychological, social, and emotional results of the last three years. We’ve all seen the photographs of masked citizens, but what transpired behind the mask? What were the aftereffects when we put our masks away?

This years award winners – 

Arthur Griffin Legacy Award – Nancy Scherl

Griffin Prize – Suzanne Revy 

Honorable Mentions – Alexa Cushing, Barrett Emke, Ellen Konar & Steve Goldband, Barbara Peacock, Sylvie Redmond

Directors Choice – Suzanne Theodora White

Exhibition Award – Lynne Breitfeller

Juror’s statement from Lisa Volpe – 

It’s not easy to describe the last three years.
Oddly, the best description I’ve found for our pandemic era was written in 1895. Yet, somehow that a temporality seems right for the topic. It was Charles Dickens who said it best, naming his own moment both the best and the worst. He continued, “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
This members’ show, featuring work from the last three years, reflects the conflict and contradictions of those many months. The frantic energy of sourdough baking and mass challenges, felt in bright colors and crowded compositions, giving way to quiet and to ennui as the pandemic wore on. The passage of time referenced in diptychs, triptychs, multiple exposures and blur. The feeling of standing still in quick captures and fleeting moments. A feeling of change. A desire for the familiar.
Only a range of photographs, points of view, and styles representing wisdom and foolishness, light and dark, hope and despair could capture a sense of our last three years.

Lisa Volpe
Curator, Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Artists in the exhibition (in alphabetical order)

Stephen Albair, Hannah Altman, Mark Atkinson, Diane Bennett, Jennifer Bilodeau, Jennifer Booher, Sally Bousquet, Adele Quartley Brown, Lisa Cassell-Arms, Jo Ann Chaus, Diana Cheren Nygren, Richard Cohen, Anne Connor, Nicholas Costopoulos, Alexa Cushing, Steve Delaney, Lisa Donneson, Sharon Draghi, Adam Eaton, Yorgos Efthymiadis, Barrett Emke, Alex Ferrone, Joan Fitzsimmons, Patricia Fortlage, Carole Glauber, Steve Goldband & Ellen Konar, Cassandra Goldwater, Joe Greene, Law Hamilton, Anne Hermes, John Hesketh, Sandy Hill, Allan Hiltz, Nanci Kahn, Gabrielle Keller, Ray Koh, Susan Lapides, Jeff Larason, Rob Lorino, Bruce Magnuson, Joetta Maue, CoCo McCabe, Dawn McDonald, Mike Ritter, Kiersten Miller, Robert Morin, Connor Noll, Terrell Otey, David Oxton, Barbara Peacock, Suzanne Revy, Travis Rainey, Sylvie Redmond, Vicki Reed, Mary Reeve, Lynn Saville, Nancy Scherl, Dan Weingrod and Suzanne Theodora White. 

The companion online exhibition for the Members Exhibition can be found here.

Stephen Albair | Silent Scenes

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About Stephen Albair –

Life’s ambiguities—love, loss, and longing—are subjects for my artworks. Found objects combined together in a tight space link, and create a dialogue. The silent conversation becomes a reflection of my experiences as an artist, teacher, traveler, and twin. This process is based on traditional tableau photography in which models on a stage remain motionless for an observer. The camera simply records the scene.
In my works, Found objects combined together in a tight space link, and create a dialogue. Just as there are many ways of looking at the past and the present, tableaus narrate many possibilities. Story threads diverge while the viewer searches for meaning. The resulting photograph has a painterly quality which reveals and conceals layers of information. While specific interpretations are left to the viewer, according to their own experiences, my staged objects create an expectation that something meaningful just happened—or is about to.

Jon Chase | Coal Country

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Jon Chase’s intimate view of Appalachia, made in 1978 and 1979 highlights the grit, determination and personal stories of the coal miners that live and work in the mountains of Coal Country.

About Jon Chase –

I have been a staff photographer at Harvard University for the past 27 years. I got my start in photography by taking a six-week introductory course at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1973. Following that, I came to the Boston area and moved to Newton Corner, where I began to photograph my neighbors in an old apartment building. This led to my obtaining a grant from the Mass. Foundation for the Humanities to produce a book of photos and interviews with people on all sides of what became a city-wide controversy when a developer bought the property. In 1987, The Fight for Newton Corner was published and distributed free of charge to every town and city planner in Massachusetts.

I subsequently moved to Cambridge and worked for several newspapers as well as Associated Press in Boston. In Cambridge I again photographed my neighbors, this time in a residential hospice on my block over a period of two years. Other projects include prison inmates at the Billerica House of Correction, coal miners and local people in Appalachia, and orphanages and flood victims in China. I have always felt an affinity for people living outside the mainstream, and that has been the focus of almost all my personal work.

I am a strong believer in combining words with photos, both to provide historical context and to add anecdotal information that personalizes the images. I have done that with my photographs of coal miners, which are mostly portraits, but which also document a specific time in the history, often violent, of coal mining in those areas of Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia known as Coal Country.
I live in Acton with my wife Louisa, with my adult daughter Maya living nearby.

 

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