Griffin Museum of Photography

A House with No Walls

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Statement
“I come from here.  Here, meaning the grass and stones beneath a person’s feet, the ground upon which they are raised. Because that will never change, regardless of who happens to be ruling at any particular moment. Here pins each person to something solid against which they can always reference themselves, no matter how weird or confusing things get, the way a drunk puts his toes on the floor beside the bed to try to stop the swirls.”

Inara Verzemnieks: Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe

The historian Eagle Glassheim describes the region where I grew up as an area with “crossroads, a liminal space filled with ends, beginnings, and crossings.” Once called the Sudetenland when inhabited by German-speaking population, later the Borderlands although the borders remained shut, the narrow stretch of land along the Czech-German frontier has changed names, forms, and identities throughout history. Left depopulated after the 1945 expulsion of people with German roots; the traditionally agricultural area was left open to the communist vision of modernization through heavy industry. Newcomers from other parts of the country and the Eastern Bloc were encouraged, or forced, to move in. Among them was my maternal grandfather who settled his family in a house left empty by the fleeing Germans – the house where I grew up. Several decades after the destruction of Czech-German settlements and records, more towns and villages were demolished to make way for lignite coal mining. Today, the land still carries the scars of environmental exploitation, depopulation, displacement, and erasure of memory.

Driven by a need to re-familiarize myself with the landscape of my childhood after years of absence, I explore locations connected to familial past and discover that many of them have transformed beyond recognition. Guided by contemporary and historical maps, personal narratives, and above all, by the landscape and architecture itself, I search for clues that reveal what is no longer there. In an overgrown forest, I seek wrinkled and twisted fruit trees that point to a long-lost human presence. I scan the landscape for vast meadows that cover past fields or trace the bed of a stream that used to meander through the town where my father grew up. In towns and cities, I examine the walls of old buildings that carry layers of forgotten history.

Intended to be a book that combines text and images, A House with No Walls explores the Czech Borderlands as a real and an imaginary place, a repository of memories, a place that speaks of its changing identities and histories otherwise lost.

Bio
Anna Mikušková grew up in the Czech Republic and is currently based in Maine and upstate New York. Before turning to visual arts, she received an MFA in English literature from Masaryk University in Brno. Mikušková studied photography at Maine College of Arts and Maine Media Workshops. For six years, she apprenticed silver gelatin printing with Paul Caponigro – a cooperation that culminated with several group and two-person exhibitions. Currently, she is an MFA candidate in the Photography and Related Media program at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Her work is held in private collections in the United States and the Czech Republic and has been exhibited in galleries across Maine and New York. In 2020, she was awarded the  RIT William A. Reedy Memorial Scholarship and the Pfahl/Richard Stanley Scholarship. Her essays were published in Maine Arts Journal and in the British journal On Landscape.

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Education      

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Photography and Related Media, 2021 MFA candidate

Independent study with master printer Paul Caponigro, Cushing, ME, 2013 – 2019

Maine Media Workshops & College, Rockport, ME
Professional Certificate Class with Elizabeth Greenberg, 2014- 2015
Workshops with Lydia Goetze and Neil Parent, 2010-2013

Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
Traditional Black and White Photography, 2013

Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Rep.
MA, English Language and Literature, 1999 – 2005

Experience

RIT Wallace Library, Rochester, NY
Library assistant, 2020-present
Promoting library resources, services, workshops and events focusing on the School of Photography Arts and Sciences

RIT William Harris Gallery, August 2019-January 2020
Gallery Assistant
Installation and deinstallation, gallery preparation, reception and tear down

Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, Lewiston, ME, 2018 – 2019
Coordinator
Program was an anti-bias program aimed at increasing trust and understanding between long time Americans and immigrants

Steve Wessler, Human Rights, Education and Advocacy, MDI, ME
Assistant
Responsible for research, editing and proofreading, 2012-2019

The Little Dog Coffee Shop, Brunswick, ME
Food Program Director, Baker, Barista 2010 – 2019

Douglas Payne J Attorney at Law, Brunswick, ME
Office assistant 2011

111 Maine, Café & Catering, Brunswick, ME
Breakfast Chef, Server, Caterer, 2006 – 2010

Language School “Slune”, Brno,  Czech Republic
Teaching ESL 2005


Volunteering Positions

Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Portland, ME
Assisting clients with completing immigration forms.  2014-2015

Harbor Works Gallery, Harpswell, ME
Greeting and guiding visitors, exhibition installation and tear down, 2011

UBECI, Quito Ecuador
Helping an NGO run childcare center provide care, 2010
attention and basic education to street children

Languages
Czech, English, Spanish

Selected Exhibitions

The Light We Share: Paul Caponigro, Ni Rong, Eleanor Owen   Kerr, Dirk McDonnel and Anna Mikušková, Cove Street Arts,  Portland, Maine, November 2019 – February 2020

RIT Art Out, Bevier Gallery, juried by Margot Muto Rochester Institute of Technology, Henrietta, NY, November 2019

Collective Work II: Paul Caponigro, Ni Rong, Eleanor Owen Kerr, Dirk McDonnel and Anna Mikušková, Gallery at 162 Russell Avenue, Rockport, Maine, July 2019

Kennebunk River Club 63st. Annual Art show,  Kennebunk, Maine, August 2018

Reflections on Silver:  Paul Caponigro and Anna Mikuskova, Frank Brockman Gallery, Brunswick, Maine, April 2018,

Migration Experience: April 2018, UMVA Gallery, Portland, Maine

Arrival: Work by and about New Mainers: September-November 2017, Waterfall Arts, Belfast, Maine

Kennebunk River Club 62st. Annual Art show,  Kennebunk, Maine, August 2017, Honorary mention

 Kennebunk River Club 61st. Annual Art show, Kennebunk, Maine, August 2016, Honorary mention

 3artists, 3visions at 3fish: Heath Paley, Kim Stone, Anna Mikuskova,  curated by Susan Porter, 3Fish Gallery, Portland Maine, 2016

A House With No Walls: Kerry Michaels, Anna Mikuskova, and Mary Woodman, Elizabeth Moss Galleries, Falmouth, Maine, 2016

Open Regional Photography Show: juried by Bruce Brown, Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, Maine, 2015

Connections: Solo Exhibition, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick, Maine, 2015

Structures: Group Exhibition with Maine Traditional Film Photographers, Ballard Center, Augusta, Maine, 2015

Art 2015:  juried by Britta Konau, April 2015, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, Maine

Black & Whites and Tones of Gray: juried by Tina Ingraham, February, 2015, River Arts Gallery, Damariscotta, Maine

Selected Scholarships, Awards and Publications

RIT William A Reedy Memorial Scholarship,  2020
RIT  Pfahl/Richard Stanley Scholarship, 2020

Kany, Daniel. “Former CMCA space fills need for photo shows,” Maine Sunday Telegram, August 4, 2019.

Kany, Daniel. “In Brunswick, two gifted practitioners of the art of gelatin silver printing,” Maine Sunday Telegram, April 15, 2018. 

Anna Mikuskova; “Origin Stories,” April 2018, Maine Arts Journal: The UMVA Quarterly, 

“New Mainers Speak,” March 2018, WMPG 90.9 and 104.1 FM,

Anna Mikuskova: “The Northern Exposure,” November 2017, On Landscape

“Kennebunk River Club 62st. Annual Art show,” Kennebunk, Maine, August 2017, Honorary Mention

 “Kennebunk River Club 61st. Annual Art show,” Kennebunk, Maine, August 2016, Honorary Mention

“Art 2015” juried by Britta Konau, April 2015, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, Maine, Best Traditional Photograph

 

 

The Day After Yesterday: Portraits of Dementia

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Statement
In 2020, 50 million people are living with dementia globally. In the United States, one in three seniors suffer with Alzheimer’s or dementia at the time of their death. The US government, through Medicare and Medicaid, will spend approximately $305 billion annually to care for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. There is an additional $250 billion shouldered by family members and unpaid caregivers. Six million people in the US have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. It’s estimated that only 1 in 4 people with the disease are diagnosed which means it’s possible that 24 million people in the US are living with dementia.

And yet despite the millions of individuals and families affected, dementia is often a taboo subject with limited public awareness or discourse. A diagnosis can become a mechanism for segregating those affected from society, making it easy to see only the label instead of the individual.

The typical narrative about dementia tends to focus on the clinical diagnosis or medical status of an individual, and is all too often depicted using fear, despair and vulnerability. This narrow and incomplete view of dementia quickly becomes a powerful means to distance oneself from their humanity. By focusing only on the narrowest of views, that narrative does little to change the stigma of those living with the disease. In many ways, showing the stereotypical perspectives only makes it easier to continue ignoring the burgeoning health crisis and the individuals themselves.

The goal of this [body of work] is to de-stigmatize those living with dementia. To use empathy as a means for connection and understanding. To tell a more complex and complete story of those living with the disease and its affect on their families and loved ones.

To give the audience courage to act in ways large and small, you must  show the whole story – the fear, loss and despair, but also the love, connection, dignity, and powerful humanity that always remain – in the subjects, in the care-partners, and in the families and communities. That is the only path to evolve the narrative and have a positive social change.

Bio
Trained as a journalist, Joe Wallace has been a portrait photographer and storyteller for twenty years. Like many, Joe has a deeply personal connection with dementia. His maternal grandfather and hero, Joe Jenkins, had Alzheimer’s. His maternal grandmother Elizabeth Ponder (Bebe) had vascular dementia. And in recent years, his mother Barbara has begun her journey with the disease.

Joe was frustrated by the common, one-dimensional narrative of dementia – futility, despair, and loss. These are real and important elements of the dementia journey, but by focusing only on the narrowest of views, do very little to change the stigma of those living with the disease. In many ways, showing the stereotypical perspectives only makes it easier to continue ignoring the burgeoning health crisis and the individuals themselves.

Joe feels strongly that to give the audience courage to act in ways large and small, you must to show the whole story. The artist must not be afraid to show not only the fear, loss and despair, but also the love, connection, dignity, and powerful humanity that always remain – in the subjects, in the care-partners, and in the families and communities. That is the only path to evolve the narrative and have a positive social change.

Visit Joe Wallace’s website.

Photography Atelier 32

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Photography Atelier is a 12-session portfolio and project building course for emerging to
advanced photographers offered through the Griffin Museum of Photography. Now in its 23rd year, the Atelier class 32 was led by photographer Meg Birnbaum with assistance from photographer Susan Green.

Exhibiting photographers Photography Atelier 32 are Kevin Belanger, Adrien Bisson, Simone Brogini, Lawrence Bruns, Julia Cluett, Edie Clifford, Miren Etcheverry, Michael Fager, Sarah Forbes, Claudia Ruiz-Gustafson, Conrad Gees, Matthew R. Kaufman, Michael King, Shelby Meyerhoff, Maria Verrier and Jeanne Widmer.

The work created during this 5 month class is listed below.

Kevin Belanger – A Long Desire
“I retired from the Postal Service into a world of anxiety and longing. This project is my attempt to cope with the circumstances that define this new reality”.

Adrien Bisson – Alone Together
“In this project I am telling the story of three months in which my wife and I sheltered in-place during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.”

Simone Brogini – Within a Bubble
“Inspired by the events of the current COVID-19 pandemic, I began to photograph the emptiness of our neighborhood and how this condition has impacted our family’s life.”

Lawrence Bruns – Line, Form and Texture
“In this gallery presentation I focus on high contrast black and white images as opposed to my usual style of using realistic color photography.”

Julia Cluett – Inviting Calm
“This project emerged as an emotional response to the unsettling changes introduced by the coronavirus pandemic. These images suggest a refuge of calm found in the natural world while inviting viewers into more intimate spaces and personal rituals of centering.’

Edie Clifford – The Walter Baker Chocolate Mills
“I grew up in Milton in the 1940s-1960s and these imposing brick buildings that were built by my great great uncle in the late 19th century along the Lower Falls of the Neponset River were part of my childhood adventures.”

Miren Etcheverry – Oh My Goddess
“Oh My Goddess is a celebration of the women in my extended family….All my family is in southern France, including my ninety-something mother and her ninety-something bffs, my aunt, my cousins and their loved ones.”

Michael Fager – The Song of the Mystic
“My photography is an exploration of the natural world, both its beauty and the impacts humans have on it. This work is a view of the natural world in an urban landscape.”

Sarah Forbes – Illuminating the Invisible
“This work explores the transitions in nature that are invisible to the naked eye: the long silky hairs that cover an emerging leaf to deter hungry insects or the veins on a wing-like pod that help cut through the air as it spins in the breeze to create a new sapling.”

Claudia Ruiz-Gustafson – Suspended World
“These images were created intuitively and spontaneously in my home during the statewide lockdown as my days were blending with one another while I was feeling a growing sense of sadness and depression.”

Conrad Gees – Los Habaneros
“The images in this body of work grew out of, and helped me to develop, a deeper understanding of Havana and its people. Havana is truly a city of resilience.”

Matthew R. Kaufman – Shimmering
“In the midst of my continuous struggle with grief and reorienting myself for an uncertain future,  bereft of anchors, I found myself on Martha’s Vineyard sequestering from the Covid-19 virus. Marl Pond became my refuge.” 

Michael King – Fish Market
“In these photographs of the Catania Fish Market (La Pescheria) in Sicily I portray the opening beat [of the market].”

Shelby Meyerhoff – Paper Playroom
“I was inspired to create sculptures out of ordinary paper products when the coronavirus arrived in the Boston are.”

Maria Verrier – Liminal
‘Inspired by the mythical quality of Hiromi Kakimoto’s images, this series explores the complicated layers of subconscious emotion.’

Jeanne Widmer – Grace Notes
“Up to three months ago my photography usually focused on creating a story in a Todd Hido-type atmospheric scene or a Suzanne Revy-inspired childhood moment. …..The virus has brought much sadness but also renewed moments of gratitude. Bringing my camera on daily walks, I began noticing new details…”

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In addition to guidance and support in the creation of a body of work, the class helps prepare artists to market, exhibit and present their work to industry professionals. Participants engage in supportive critical discussions of each other’s work and leave with a better understanding of how to edit and sequence their own work as well as help others do the same. Instruction in the Atelier includes visual presentations based around 4-5 assignments which are designed to encourage experimentation in both subject matter and approach. Students learn how to prepare for a national or regional portfolio review. Students learn the critical importance of writing an effective artist statement and bio. Any method or medium of image making is welcome although digital photography is recommended for the first half of the class when work is assigned each week. For information about the exhibiting artists of Atelier 32 and to see more of their images visit www.photographyatelier.org.

For information about upcoming classes: www.griffinmuseum.org, under Programs then Education or email crista at griffinmuseum dot org. The Photography Atelier has its own website. You may see all of the ateliers here including Atelier 32.

The Atelier was conceived by Holly Smith Pedlosky around 1996 and later taught by Karen Davis and then Meg Birnbaum. The workshop was previously offered at Radcliffe Seminars, Harvard University and Lesley Seminars and in the Seminar Series in the Arts, The Art Institute of Boston (AIB), both at Lesley University.

Gallery hours by appointment: Tuesday – Sunday: Noon – 4PM

Zoomorphics

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Artist Statement
I start by painting on my own body, to transform myself into a new creature: a blue-ringed octopus, an owl, or a monarch butterfly. Then, alone in my studio, I set my camera on the tripod and pose. Although it’s make-believe, it doesn’t feel like I’m pretending. The emotions of this new creature well up inside me. I let my body move in unexpected ways. I am expansive, and I do not constrain myself.

In my life outside the art studio, it is harder to be playful with my appearance. As a woman, I am acutely aware of which facial expressions are acceptable. I am aware of the meanings of different hairstyles. I know what a woman’s clothes say about her. (And I can never quite make mine say something true about me. Getting dressed always feels like pretending.)

I live near the woods and treasure my morning walks there. Among the plants and animals, I am not self-conscious. I am at ease just as I am, part of an interconnected web of life that transcends any social construct. Perhaps that is why I turn to the natural world for inspiration in my work. The creatures that I become are hybrids, both human and non-human. They are beyond gender, and when I inhabit them, I am free. -SM

Bio
Shelby Meyerhoff is a multidisciplinary artist based in Winchester, Massachusetts. She works with a variety of media, including photography, painting, sculpture, and body art, often combining multiple techniques to create her images. Meyerhoff lives near the Middlesex Fells, a 3,400-acre nature preserve north of Boston, and draws much of her inspiration from the plants, animals, and fungi found in her local area. Before becoming a fine artist, Meyerhoff worked in nonprofit communications, promoting environmental initiatives.

She has studied visual arts at the Griffin Museum of Photography, the New England School of Photography, and MassArt.

Meyerhoff’s work has been exhibited at venues across the country, including the Griffin Museum of Photography (MA), the Mosesian Center for the Arts (MA), the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (GA), and the LH Horton Jr. Gallery at San Joaquin Delta College (CA). Her Zoomorphics series has also been featured in UU World, the national magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

View Shelby’s Website.

Cani di Roma

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Statement and Bio
My first formal introduction to photography came after college. That first summer I enrolled in a class at the New England School of Photography, aka NESOP. My instructor, Barry Kiperman, who had spent time with Walker Evans while at Yale, insisted that I take a weekend workshop with a guy named Gary Winogrand. By Monday I was looking to sell my car so that I could buy a Leica. By the time I had (almost) completed the two year program at NESOP I was assisting numerous Boston photographers, starting my own commercial studio, and shooting on the street whenever possible with yes, a Leica. Forty-five years later, after the commercial work, after the teaching, I still prefer the street.

Since 1973, I have been returning to Rome, Italy. There was the summer school and fall semester at Trinity College; the travel passes from my wife, a Delta flight attendant; and the 2004 high school semester with my youngest daughter, after the fire that destroyed my studio. Now, that same daughter has been living in Rome for over a decade. Not that I ever needed an excuse, but it is a delight to visit family (often with family) and spend multiple weeks photographing my favorite city. The ever present dogs in Rome have always found their way into my photographs, but in the last few years the dogs have become principle actors. One year ago, Paula reviewed a book I produced of Roman photographs: “Roman Haikus: I-III”. Knowing of her love of dogs, I also brought along a small box of dog photographs from Rome. After viewing the Haikus, she looked through the box of 5×7 dog prints and said, “I want to show these next year, this size, no frames, and in this room.” And here we are. Thank you Paula! – RA

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HONORS & GRANTS

2016 – The Outwin: American Portraiture Today – The National Portrait Gallery, DC

2014 – Critical Mass 200 2014 – Invitation to host portfolios at ArtPhotoIndex.com 2014 – Juried entrant at Review Santa Fe 2014 – Invitation to host portfolios at LensCulture.com

2013 – New England Photography Biennial

2013 – Photography Fellowship Grant – Massachusetts Cultural Council

2011 – New England Museum Association | Second Place Book Awards Jeremiah Lee Mansion: A Photographic Tour by Rick Ashley 2009 – Juried entrant at Review Santa Fe

1995 – Massachusetts Local Cultural Council Arts Grant 1990 – Massachusetts Local Cultural Council Arts Grant

1986 – New York Art Directors, Gold Pencil Award for “AIDS, It takes all kinds”, TV PSA

EXHIBITIONS

2020 – Marblehead Museum & Historic Society, “From the Ashes”, Surviving photographs from the 2003 School Street Fire: The Marblehead Portrait Project and Marblehead Celebrates, Marblehead’s Annual Parades and Public Events. February 1 – April 30

2018 – Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” June 1, 2018 – August 26, 2018

2018 – Artis―Naples, The Baker Museum, Naples,Florida, “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” January 31, 2018 – May 6, 2018

2017 – Marblehead Museum & Historic Society, “Off Season” – The Jeremiah Lee Mansion October 1 – November 15

2017 – Virginia Carten Gallery, “Bartlett’s Garage”, Marblehead MA, November 1 – 30

2017 – Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” October 6, 2017 – January 7, 2018

2017 – The Gallery UPSTAIRS, Orleans, MA, Neal Rantoul & Rick Ashley, June 8 – July 10

2017 – Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” June 8 – September 10

2017 – Griffin Museum of Photography, Lafayette Gallery, “Aviary” group exhibit, March 21 – July 21

2017 – Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” February 4 – May 14

2016 – National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, Washington, DC “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today”. March 12, 2016 – January 8, 2017

2016 – Marblehead Arts Association – Ballroom Gallery “Marblehead’s Horrible Parade and the Kids that Love it”, October 1 – November 13

2016 – Laura’s Center for the Arts, “Perspectives on Inclusion”, Hanover, MA, March 29 – April 30

2015 – Virginia Carten Gallery, “Open Spaces”, Marblehead MA

2015 – The Gallery at The School of Design at Mount Ida College “New Visionaries”

2014 – Griffin Museum of Photography Virtual Gallery, 20th Juried Exhibition, Juror: Aline Smithson

2014 – Flash Forward Festival/Boston, Fall Back, Spring Forward at the Photographic Resource Center curated by Francine Weiss, PHD

2014 – New Art Center, 2013 MCC Fellowship Recipients Exhibition, Newtonville, MA

2013 – Danforth Museum of Art, Photography Biennial, Framingham MA, Juror: Francine Weiss

2013 – Panopticon Gallery, “Michael” in Dress Up, Boston MA

2012 – Virginia Carten Gallery, “94 Pleasant Street”, Marblehead MA

2011 – Panopticon Gallery, Instant Connections curated by Jim Fitts, Boston MA

2011 – Chase Young Gallery, “Studio Diptychs” photographs with Bernd Haussmann, painter, Boston

2010 – Gallery Kayafas, “Prom Couples” Special Edition Books with Original Prints, Boston

2010 – RayKo Gallery, “Prom Couples” (Por)trait Revealed, San Francisco CA

2010 – Griffin Museum of Photography, “94 Pleasant Street” 16th Juried Exhibition Juror: Jorg Colberg ,Winchester MA

2010 – Gallery Kayafas, “Prom Couples”, Boston MA

2009 – Photographic Resource Center, “Prom Couples” Exposure 2009 Juror: Russell Hart, editor of American Photo

ONLINE & PRINT PUBLICATIONS

2020 – Marblehead Magazine, Winter “Rick Ashley captures a town’s history”

2017 – IlPost.it Con chi vai al ballo di fine anno? (Prom Couples)

2016 – What Will You Remember, Elin Spring Photography Blog, O Superman

2014 – FeatureShoot.com Conceptual Portraits of a Man with Down Syndrome Reference Art History and Superman 

2014 – VisualNews.com This Super Man With Down Syndrome Is Not Camera Shy

2014 – TheMighty.com Photo Series Challenges Preconceived Notions About People With Down Syndrome

2014 – ufunk.com

Michael – Magnifiques portraits d’un homme atteint du syndrome de Down

2014 – aplus.com Artist Takes Photos Of His Brother-In-Law In The Superman Outfit We can all be superheroes if we want to be. 

2014 – Wonderzine – Moscow Arts & Culture Magazine: Prom Couples in America 

2014 – Huffington Post: Photographer Rick Ashley: Altering Perceptions Through Portraiture 

2013 – Elin Spring Photography Blog: Rick Ashley update: Elizabeth City, NC 

2013 – photoweenie.com: Rick Ashley Introduces Superman to Inges, Manet, Sargent, and Hopper

2013 – Wonders of Photography, by Dennis Curtin, gallery of photographs

2013 – Elin Spring Photography Blog: Agent Provocateur?

2012 – WickedLocalMarblehead.com (print & online) Arts & More: The Y gone by, exhibition review

2011 – Photo District News, July; “What Collectors Want” by Holly Hughes

2011 – Jeremiah Lee Mansion: A Photographic Tour by Rick Ashley, published and sold through The Marblehead Museum 

2010 – SalemNews.com (print & online) A New View of Lee Mansion, photography book by Rick Ashley

2010 – WickedLocalMarblehead.com (print & online) Arts & More, photography book by Rick Ashley

2009 – The Photo Review, online exhibition, 2009 Everyday People, “Prom Couples”

2009 – Flash Flood: 13 Favorites from 2009 Review Santa Fe , “Prom Couples”

2001 – Digital Desktop Studio Photography, co-author with Dennis Curtin, published by Shortcourses

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2013 – Kelby Worldwide Photowalk leader, Rome, Italy 2012 – Artist in Residence at Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts

2012 – Kelby Worldwide Photowalk leader, Marblehead, MA 2008 – Adobe Lightroom Expert Certification

2007 – Trained teaching assistants for Adobe Lightroom release at Photoshop World/Boston

2006 – 2010: Program Director, Photography Department, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts

2005 – 2011: Instructor of photography at the Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts

2004 – present: Workshops and lectures on digital photography

1983 – 1986 Co-Owner, New Reelism Video Productions Writing, producing, and shooting, specializing in sports marketing and TV spots.

1986 recipient of New York Art Directors One Show Gold Pencil, Hatch and Clio awards, with AIDS PSA commercial airing on the Super Bowl

1979 – present: Commercial photographer

EDUCATION

1977-1979: New England School of Photography 1972-1976: Trinity College, BA Religion 

Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home

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Statement
In good times and bad, our best friends are there for support, therapy, and unconditional love. Especially now–where would we be without our dogs? Although the so-called modernists of Palm Springs embrace the serenity of life in post WWII America, the sometimes-harsh realities of contemporary life are impossible to ignore. These mid twentieth century re-enactors are often transplants, enjoying the Palm Springs lifestyle with their dogs and friends as their chosen family. The beautiful climate, wide-open spaces, and clean décor make the perfect home for their desert pets that are as lovingly groomed and cared-for as their surroundings.

For the many years that Palm Springs has been my second home, I’ve been documenting the endlessly intriguing lifestyle beyond its resorts. As a Chicago native, my fascination and appreciation for this desert oasis is magnified and unwaning. The community has welcomed my camera and me into their homes, perfect odes to mid century modern American design. The dogs of the house often follow me around and wander into my camera frame, adding warmth and life to the image as they do to their homes. In these pages I have put these precious pups in the spotlight where they belong. NB

Bio
Born in Chicago, Nancy Baron is now based in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. In her fine art documentary photography she uses portraits, landscapes, and architectural photographs to record the world nearby with a hopeful bias.

Nancy’s prints have been exhibited in group and solo shows internationally and are held in public and private collections. Her photography has been published in notable magazines and newspapers worldwide, including The New York Times, Madame Figaro, W Magazine, Architectural Digest, The Telegraph Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Fast Times, Mother Jones, and on the Apple, CNN, and BBC websites.

Baron’s two monographs, The Good Life, Palm Springs and Palm Springs and The Good Life Goes On are published by Kehrer Verlag and are held in various museum libraries, including MOMA, LACMA, the Getty, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

Nancy’s third monograph, Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, published by Schiffer Books, is available at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

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Monographs

2020 Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, Schiffer Publishing

2017 Beautiful Trailertown, Self-published

2016 Palm Springs > The Good Life Goes On, Kehrer Verlag

2014 The Good Life > Palm Springs, Kehrer Verlag

Solo Exhibition

2020 Into the Light, Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, Los Angeles, CA

2019 Into the Light, Temple Israel of Hollwyood, Hollywood, California

2016 Beautiful Trailertown, Paul Kaplan Designs, Palm Springs, California

2016 Beautiful Trailertown, Spot Photoworks Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2015 The Good Life > Palm Springs, Gallery 446, Palm Springs, California

2014 The Good Life > Palm Springs, dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, California

2012 The Good Life > Palm Springs, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, California

Group Exhibitions

2019 Photoville L.A., Los Angeles, CA

2017 American Desert Dreams, Kehrer Galerie, Berlin
2017 The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO

2016 The Billboard Creative

2015 Old and New, dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, California

2014 Structure, Wall Space Gallery, Santa Barbara, California

2014 Six shooters, Venice Arts Center, Venice, California

2014 Wet and Dry, Gallery 446, Palm Springs, California

2014 !CLICK! UC Riverside, Palm Desert, California

2014 Photo L.A. for ASMPLA

2013 Picture Society, Denver, Colorado

2013 Photo L.A. for Verge, a Duncan Miller Project, Los Angeles, California

2012 Six Shooters, Seaver Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2012 Dot.Com. GuatePhoto Festival, Guatemala City, Guatemala

2012 Les Rencontres Photographie, Arles France

2012 Photo L.A., for Gallery 825, Santa Monica, California

2011 Multiple Exposures, Wall Space Gallery, Santa Barbara, California

2011 Summertime, Duncan Miller Projects Gallery, Santa Monica

2011 Gem, LAAA/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, California

2011 About Face, Hous Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2010 Summer Mix: Images by LACMA’s Photographic Arts Council, LA, CA

2010 Les Rencontres Photographie, Arles, France

Publications and Press

2019 Telegraph Magazine

2019 Lenscratch

2017 Next Liberation, France

2017 CNN

2016 W Magazine, Holiday gift list

2016 Musee Magazine

2016 Port Magazine, UK

2016 PDN Photo of the Day

2016 LA Weekly

2016 Wall Street International

2015 Inspirato Magazine

2015 Conde Nast Traveler

2015 Palm Springs Life

2015 Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Switzerland

2015 Newfound Journal

2014 New York Times, Sunday Review, Exposures

2014 Denver Post – listed in Favorite Photogaphy Books of 2014

2014 American Photo Magazine – listed as one of the best photo books of 2014

2014 BBC News

2014 Ritz Carlton Fall Magazine

2014 PDN Photo of the Day

2014 Juxtapoz Magazine

2014 Architectural Digest, Italy

2014 Mother Jones

2014 Slate.com 

2014 Lenscratch

2014 Eichler Network

2014 Interview Magazine, Germany

2014 Fast Company

2014 It’s Nice That

2013 dwell.com, August 15

2013 Le Journal de la Photographie May 3

2013 LENSCRATCH, January 24

2013 Times Quotidian, February 11

2012 Lost in E Minor, August 30

2012 LENSCRATCH, May 15

2012 La Lettre de la Photographie, May 7

2011 Times Quotidian, January 4

2011 The Times Quotidian, July 5

2010 Esquire Russia, December 3, 2010

Honors

2016 Director’s Honorable Mention for Portraits, Center for Fine Art Photography

2015 Palm Springs Photo Festival Slide Show Finalist, I Went to the Dogshow

2014 American Photo Magazine lists The Good Life > Palm Springs as one of best books of  year

2014 Denver Post names The Good Life > Palm Springs one of best of year

2014 Palm Springs Photo Festival, Slide Show Finalist, The Good Life > Palm Springs

2013 Palm Springs Photo Festival, Slide Show Finalist, Freeway Phobia

2012 Palm Springs Photo Festival, Slide Show Finalist, Now it’s a Church

2010 TAG California Open Exhibition 2010, Honorable Mention

2010 Palm Springs Photo Festival, Slide Show Finalist, Palm Springs Life

2009 International Photo Awards, First Place, People – Weddings, Vegas, I Do

2007 Palm Springs Photo Festival, Slide Show Finalist, Vegas, I Do

Professional Organizations

American Society of Media Photographers

Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles

Texas Photographic Society

College of the Canyons Photography Department Board Member

View Nancy Baron’s Website

Lost: Dianne Yudelson

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Lost
Artist Statement

“With each loss of my 11 babies, I kept mementos. They are all kept pristinely stored in a white box in my closet, as are the memories of their short lives kept pristinely stored in my heart.”

My series Lost is based on my personal experience. It had been ten years since my last loss and I had never shared these mementoes with anyone as they were private and personal and go to the core of my emotions both heartwarming and heart wrenching simultaneously. I have read the assertion that meaningful art occurs when you share yourself and create from the depths of your soul. So I shared. Creating this series has both served to honor these precious lives, as well as bring a voice to my personal plight. I am hopeful that in sharing these images I will touch the lives of numerous women who have experienced or are in the midst of experiencing the painful loss of a baby. They are not alone in their journey.

I created my Lost images in a humble and pristine fashion in direct correlation to their short and pure lives.

DY

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book cover

 

Bio

Dianne Yudelson is an award winning photographic artist and founder of New Eclecticism Photography. Her images have been published in over 50 countries on 6 continents. Publications include the Washington Post, International New York Times, The New Yorker, CNN, Musée, Slate Magazine, Self, MilionKobiet, Harper’s Bazar, Ladepeche, Linda, and the Daily Mail.  Dianne is the creator and editor of The New Eclecticism Photography online magazine debuting in 2020.

Notable exhibitions which included Dianne’s work were in the Natural History Museum; National Geographic Museum; Griffin Museum of Photography; The FENCE in Photoville NY, Boston, Houston and Atlanta; The Center for Fine Art Photography; MOPLA Smashbox Studios; Espace Dupon, France; Chaing Mai Festival, China; Kolga Tbilisi, Georgia; The Warehouse Gallery, Malaysia; Rooftop Farmani Gallery, Thailand; St. Andrew’s University, Scotland; and the Municipal Heritage Museum, Spain.

Dianne’s top photographic honors include “Photographer of the Year” titles from three acclaimed international competitions; Black and White Spider Awards, International Color Awards, and World Photography Gala Awards. She is a two time Critical Mass Finalist who also received a Julia Margaret Cameron Award; First Place awards in Fine Art at the International Photography Awards; GOLD awards in Fine Art Paris Photography Prize; Grand Prize Winner in the New York Center for Photographic Arts; Gold medalist San Francisco International Exhibition; and honors in the London International Creative Competition for four consecutive years.

Dianne graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of California, Berkeley.

“My fascination with photography began upon the realization that, in addition to being a wonderful means of documentation, photography can also be used as a fine art medium. My style is eclectic. In the fine tradition of eclectic artists, from DaVinci to Uelsmann, I embrace the challenge of exploring varied subjects and forms of expression. By that I mean, neither subject matter nor genre solely defines my images; they are defined by my artistic aesthetic.”

“Throughout my life art has been the one true common thread, the stitches that bind my chapters together. As a photographic artist, I embrace the ability to spotlight my point of view and give a voice to my imagination.”

Images of Lost book photographed by Dianne Yudelson. May be purchased here for $450 plus tax and shipping.

View her website.

@dianneyudelson
@neweclecticismphotography

Book in case tied Book lost straight on Book tilted title page photo pages a page from lost book

From Single Image to Sequence

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This exhibition is a culmination of a class called From Single Image to Sequence taught by Emily Belz, with Dennis Geller as her teaching assistant, at the Griffin Museum of Photography. Emily’s description of the class began with a quote from Robert Adams.

“Thinking up a project and then making pictures that fit does not, in my experience, usually result in the best pictures. Most of the books I’ve published have started with just walking and photographing free of any plan.”                                     – Robert Adams

To define the pedagogy of the class, Emily writes, “For many photographers, the path from creating a single, compelling image to creating a series or body of work can be challenging to navigate. This class will work to demystify the process of beginning a photography project, and sticking with it. Opening with a series of prompts, photographers will work to identify what motivates their work and areas of image making that they feel passionate about. From this foundation or concentration, students will explore helpful techniques for progressing through a project. Topics will include research; writing about your work; guided editing; and sequencing.”

We offer you a look at the  results of this class that we are very proud to host as an exhibition and in a virtual reception on July 24, 2020 from 7-8 PM Eastern Time.

Artist Statement
Secrets of My City

If COVID-19 is teaching me anything as a photographer, it’s this: when there’s less to look at there’s more to see.  This became abundantly clear when the imposed quarantine and the new practice of social distancing left usually busy streets and neighborhoods void of life.

In this strange, silent, empty moment, I have discovered captivating visual secrets in places usually unnoticed or disregarded.  The commonplace seen in unfamiliar ways has revealed uncommon beauty.  Marks, grit, splatter, cracks, reflections are transfigured into magical landscapes, ghostly cityscapes, coded messages.  My creative vision is permanently changed. 

It is as if the abandoned city itself wanted to be noticed, asking me to see what had always been there, but unseen.

Andrew Epstein, July 2020

Artist Statement
Single to Series

In April 2020, my supposedly emptying house was abruptly full again. My sons returned. Time rearranged, winding back to a long-past stage of life when my sons’ worlds were much smaller, circumscribed by home and family.

When I look at my work from this strange, heart-rending interval, I see time suspended. At a stage of life when the impetus is to go and do, circumstances compel my sons – and all of us – to wait, turn inward, reflect. We are all Hansel and Gretel searching for a trail of breadcrumbs in the woods, dreamers wondering about what might be next in an altered world. There is danger, but also opportunity. In these reflections, in the pensive mood of this work, I see my sons growing in patience and a tolerance for ambiguity – along with an oblique sense of humor; qualities necessary for creativity and resilience in a re-ordered world.

Ann Boese, July 2020

Artist Statement
What She Touched that Touches Me

I have lived my entire adult life missing my mother. I had just turned 21; my mother was only 47 when she died. After 50 years without her, I confess I can no longer hear her voice. I cherish memories of being on the cusp of adulthood when I longed to pull away, yet yearned to stay. Most palpably, I see and feel her in those things I have kept and can touch.

What She Touched that Touches Me began with recipes penciled in my mother’s distinctive script on scraps of paper yellowed with age, recipes, ironically, sometimes never made.  The project has grown and expanded since that first seed of an idea.  My photographs are a personal exploration of family memory and its vivid connection to the present. They are my musings on what Susan Orlean describes in The Library Book as “see[ing] your life reflected in previous lives and…imagin[ing] it reflected in subsequent ones….” What She Touched that Touches Me is a sensory legacy that begs to be carried forward, and invites the next chapter, “Who might be touched by me?”

Betty Stone, June 2020

Artist Statement
The Ancestors

When everything came to a standstill during the outbreak of COVID-19, I found I couldn’t. Cooped up at home, I began digging through old boxes, some of which I hadn’t opened in decades. What emerged surprised me: In lifting the stage curtain on family relics, I discovered new stories to tell, stories that would never have taken flight without the constraints of a lockdown. I play a role in these diptych tales, donning garments and fake hair, sipping from China cups and dodging forks. But who is really confronting the lens? And how, in the grip of a pandemic, will these stories end?

Coco McCabe, July 2020

Artist Statement
Somewhere Along the Curve

In Boston, a typical spring brings the city to life. Tourists clog the Freedom Trail. Students emerge from their dorms to sun themselves along the Charles River. The well-heeled residents of the Back Bay fill outdoor cafe tables along Newbury Street.

But when the pandemic struck, Boston changed overnight. The ubiquitous duck boats disappeared. Thousands of students never returned from spring break. And instead, empty streets, shuttered businesses and vacant subway cars became the new landscape. These stark, black and white images document the changed landscape as Boston began a new way of life Somewhere Along the Curve.

Edward Boches, July 2020

Artist Statement
Paper Houses

During the early lockdown months of Covid-19, I was unable to visit my mother who had lived gracefully with Alzheimer’s Disease for nearly a decade but was now nearing the end of her life in assisted-living. Feeling confined and powerless, I turned to my photography for some space. Using only paper, I constructed small sunlit structures: A page torn from a notebook became a roof, a faded pack of construction paper standing on end a courtyard, paper-cutter scraps an entryway. Observing the light in my imagined world comforts me while I wait.

Gail Samuelson, July 2020

Artist Statement
Metanoia

The title of this on-going project is ‘Metanoia’, an ancient Greek word meaning a fundamental change of philosophy or world view.

Before Covid 19, I traveled far or walked urban spaces in search of artistic inspiration.  The Pandemic ended my usual practice and I was challenged to work within the confines of nearby woods or within my home.

Capturing images, from a radically different set of constraints, has changed my perspective and practice.  I am excited to continue along this creative path of more personal exploration and discovery.

Helena Long, July 2020

Artist Statement
Particulars

I have always been drawn to subjects that first appear unremarkable but as I looked deeper I saw that I could reveal remarkable character unseen by others. So it was with buildings or large structures but now I am focusing on the Particulars of my day-to-day.

I take joy from the beautiful visual moments at home where I appreciate the fleeting existence of household still life’s all around me. A sudden shaft of light on a column or a piece of string anchored to a vine are significant domestic visual occasions now writ large in my mind.

Lee Cott, July 2, 2020

Artist Statement

After ten weeks of quarantine in a Boston apartment, surfacing into the openness of Cape Cod, I felt the dark mood of the pandemic lift. Stale air of confinement was exchanged for fresh cape  air. Soft morning light filled the darkness of emptied streets. While warm afternoon light replaced ambulances’ flashing red lights and the echos of blaring sirens drowned out by waves washing onto the beach.

These images attempt to capture the cleansing of my spirit.

Ralph Freidin, July 2020

Artist Statement
American Vernacular

Many of the memorable events in our lives occur at night, a time filled with the thrill of darkness. American Vernacular is a series of photographs of ordinary locations suspended between that darkness and the brilliance of artificial light. Hanging there, the buildings and street corners tell a human story, though few people fill the frames. Instead, their absence helps to illuminate the beauty we often overlook in these familiar places. Luminous in the deep night, these locations become—suddenly—remarkable.  Viewers are left to contemplate and reimagine ordinary places they visit during the day and reflect on their own special nighttime memories.

Anthony Attardo, July 2020

 

 

 

 

Lacus Plasticus in the Founder’s Gallery and Under Glass Gallery

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Statement
For almost 40 years, I’ve been sailing off the beaches of Lake Michigan. As a kid and now a father with children, I’ve always loved the shore. As time has marched on, I’ve noticed the increase in plastics on the beach year after year. A few years ago, I started collecting and disposing of the plastic bits I would find. Now I collect plastic to create photogram photographs. The images depict plastic parts and pieces as underwater creatures. The pieces dramatize, for now, a fictitious state where plastics displace nature. I’ve been calling this series, “Lacus Plasticus”.   RZ

Bio
My memory of a love for photography started early on. Using my father’s Pentax Spotmatic during a family road trip to Cape Canaveral, I clearly remember taking photographs of an early rocket sitting on its launch pad. By 14, I had my own darkroom and was very fortunate to have a very good photography department in my high school. This gave me the tools to move on to Rochester Institute of Technology, where I gained a solid technical background in photographic illustration. Wishing to explore photography as fine art and art in general, I moved on to study at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I received a BFA in photography and sculpture in 1991.

My personal pursuits in photography have not waned through the years. Though my subject matter is varied, the intensity and thought put into each project is the same. While some work has been produced as digital prints from both color negatives and digital files, most of my work is done traditionally in a personal darkroom that I’ve maintained for the last 35 years. In the same time, I’ve used many alternative processes such as kallitypes, ambrotypes, cyanotypes, and orotones in my art. My work in orotones has been included in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Research on the Conservation of Photographs project.

My work has been a part of the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Midwest Photographers Project in Chicago and is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, TX. A recipient of an Illinois Art Council Fellowship and a Buhl Foundation Grant, I have also been featured in publications including Black & White Magazine, Photography Quarterly, Diffusion Magazine, Camera Arts Magazine and Photo District News, as well as many others. I am currently represented by Etherton Gallery in Tucson, AZ and Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. -RZ

CV
Education
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, BFA, 1991,
Concentration: Photography, Sculpture

 Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, May 1986–December 1987,
Concentration: Photographic Illustration

Collections
Capital One Corporate Art Collection, Capital One, Chicago IL, 2017
Joan Morgenstern Private Collection, Houston, TX, 2012
Museum Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, 2008
Getty Conservation Institute, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
Collections, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2008
Richard & Ellen Sandor Family Collection, Chicago, IL, 2007
Deloitte & Touche Corporate Art Collection, Deloitte Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2006
Museum Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, 2005
Midwest Photographers Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2003-05
Harris Bank Corporate Art Collection, Harris Bank, Chicago, IL, 2003
Sprint Corporate Art Collection, Sprint World Headquarters, Overland Park, KS, 2002
Multiple private collections, 1991-2019

Publication
Unconventional Photography, Diffusion Magazine Volume 10, 2019
Fotomagazine, Germany, 2017
Alternative Printing Process, Black & White Magazine, October 2016
The Hand Magazine, Issue 10, 2015
Black + White Photography, United Kingdom, 2015
The Hand Magazine, Issue 9, 2015
Fotomagazine, Germany, 2015
Unconventional Photography, Special Issue Volume #1 – Limited Edition, Diffusion Magazine, 2013
Understanding the Effect That Photographs Have on Us: Case Studies in Photographic Criticism, James R. Huginin, 2012
The Photo Review, 2012
Newspace Center for Photography, Retrospective, 2011
Unconventional Photography, Diffusion Magazine Volume 3, 2011
Photography Annual, Photo District News, May, 2007, 2008
Artist Showcase, CamerArts Magazine, March, 2007, 2008
Photography Now, Photography Quarterly #91, Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, 2005
Spotlight Feature, Black & White Magazine, December, 2003

Grants/Awards
Third Place, Choice Awards, Center, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
Second Place, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2007, 2012
Honorable Mention, Regional Exhibition, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, 2012
First Prize, The Photo Review International Photography Competition, The Photo Review, Boston MA, 2011
Illinois Arts Council Photography Fellowship Award, 2009
Featured Artist, 15th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2009
Winner, New Works Gallery Competition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
Honorable Mention, Singular Image Competition, Center, Santa Fe, NM, 2009
Third Place, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2009
Jurors’ Choice, Alternative Process Show, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, September, 2007
Critical Mass Top 50 Entries, Photolucida, 2006, 2007
Honorable Mention, International Photography Awards, 2004, 2007
Buhl Foundation 4th Biennial Grant, Buhl Foundation, New York, NY, 2004

Teaching/Speaking/Other
Board Member, Artist Representative, Bucktown Arts Fest, Chicago, IL 2007–present
Hosted photography camp for teens, summer 2012, 2015, 2016
Artist Lecture, Chicago Photography Center, 2005, 2011
Artist Lecture and Workshop, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2008
Juror: 3rd Annual Juried Photography Exhibit, Morpho Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Instructor: Basic Darkroom Photography, Alternative and Historical Processes, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, Fall 2007
A Career in Photography Workshop, Burley Elementary School, Chicago, IL, 2003, 2004, 2007
Photography Workshop, Ogden Elementary School, Chicago, IL, 2003

Recent Exhibitions
One-Of-A-Kind, Obscura Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, 2019
International Juried Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, 2019
Alternative Process Photography Exhibition, Image Flow Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, 2019
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2019
Alternative Visions, Lightbox Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2019
Alternative Perspective, The Art Center, Dover, NH, 2019
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2018
13th Annual Alternative Process Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2017
Remnants: On the Edge of Avant-Garde and Antiquarian Photography, Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2016
74th Rockford Midwestern Biennial, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2016
The Photography Show – Presented by AIPAD, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, 2016
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2016
Photography Re-imagined, Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 2016
Alternative Cameras: Pinholes to Plastic, Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2015
Space Oddity, Wallspace Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 2015
11th Annual Alternative Process Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2015
Alternative Process, Texas Photographic Society, Odessa TX, 2015
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2015
Breaking Ground, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, 2014
The Curve Exhibition, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
Photo LA, The 23rd Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Photo Objects and Small Prints, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2013
Unconventional Photography, 15th Lishui International Photography Festival, Lishui, China, 2013
Under Glass, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2013
8th Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2012
Regional Exhibition, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, 2012
Best of Show: The Photo Review 2011 Competition Prize Winners,
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
Solo Exhibition: Mixing it Up, Historically, Chicago Photography Center, Chicago, IL, 2011
Art Chicago, photo-eye Gallery, Chicago IL, 2010
Alternatives: Uncommon & Unconventional Processes, Minneapolis Center for Photography, Minneapolis, MN, 2010
Blue, Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2010
NIMBY, New Works Gallery Competition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
5th Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2009
15th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2009
BareWalls, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2001–2009
Photo Forum Exhibition, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Houston, TX, 2008
Second Annual Mary Beth Creiger Memorial Photo Exhibition,
Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago IL, 2008
Our Environment; the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2008
NIMBY, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2008
NIMBY Solo Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2008
Elemental/Environmental: SPACE, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA, 2008
Annual Photography Re-Imagined, Tilt Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, 2007, 2008
Found at fotofest, John Cleary Gallery, Houston, TX, 2008
Resurrection; A New Look at Old Photographic Processes, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR, 2008
Evanston + Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1994, 2002, 2008
Third Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2007
Member’s Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2007
First Annual Mary Beth Creiger Memorial Photo Exhibition, Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Fotowerk 2007, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Alternative Processes Exhibition, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2007
13th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2007
DIA Art Exhibition, Denver International Airport, Denver, CO, 2007
Members’ Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2006
Members’ Exhibition, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
Black & White, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
NIMBY, Mars Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
Photo Works of the 21st Century, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
Positive Negative, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
National Competition Exhibition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
1st Annual National Juried Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2005
Online Onsite, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2005
Photo LA, photo-eye Gallery, Los Angles, CA, 2004
AAF Contemporary Art Fair, Meter Gallery, New York, NY,2004
Photo San Francisco, Lyonswier Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2004
Serial, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
Curators’ Choice, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
Rockford Midwest Exhibition, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2004
Darkroom Only, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2003
Artist’s Open, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago, IL, 2003
Anti-Spacesuit, The Dirty Future, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 2003
Around the Coyote, Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Chicago, IL, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003,
Curators’ Choice Award, 1999, 2001, 2003
Outside the Box, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
Momento Momenta, ART of the Central Coast Art Gathering, Morro Bay, CA, 2002
Unnatural Landscapes, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
4 Corners, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 2001
Urban Archeology, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
In Transit, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
Modern Ruins, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
Emotional Landscape, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
Urban Views, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 1997
Annual Show, Wilmette Arts Guild, Wilmette, IL, 1990–1997, Purchase Award, 1995, 1996
The Signature Show, John Hancock Building, Signature Lounge, Chicago, IL, 1994
18th Biennial Regional Art Competition, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN, 1993
One Man Show, Izimbra, Chicago, IL, 1993
Amalgamations, Gallery 2, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Ill, 1992

Check out Ryan Zoghlin’s website

Song for my Father: A Daughter’s (W)Reckoning

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Statement
Over the last 21 years I have had the privilege of organizing, inventorying and placing my father’s archive. Todd Walker was a pioneering photographic artist who began self-publishing artist books in 1965, was at the leading edge of historical photographic processes in the 1960’s and began printing his photographs as ink on paper (which is now how most images are printed) in 1970. In 1981 he began to explore digital photography long before photoshop existed, teaching himself machine language. He was my mentor, role model and encouraged me to dance at the edges of photography, just outside of my comfort zone.

These images have been in the making for over 50 years, representing a posthumous collaboration with my father and an investigation of the materiality and impermanence of the photographic object. The film emulsion has been subjected to fluctuations in temperature and moisture now barely clinging to the base it’s transparent substrate.

Before my father left commercial photography in 1970 to become an artist and professor, he was a highly successful free-lance advertising photographer in Los Angeles and worked for many notable clients. Frequently a child model in these constructed photographic ‘realities’, I grew up with a healthy skepticism of the images utilized in advertising. My father was at moral odds with advertising work, knowing that the images he was making were to be used for corporate gain and lies. Many of these early commercial negatives done in a rush, were nothing that he was particularly proud of and were not cared for properly. The images I include in this exhibition are some of what I have discovered in my detective work coming to terms with the loss of my father. These distressed negatives bear witness to the interaction of time, heat, and moisture as they transform into resemblances of reality. They serve as a critique of the marketing construct that was named The American Dream and bear witness to a history reconsidered.  – MW

Bio
Melanie Walker has been a practicing artist for over 50 years. Her expertise is in the area of alternative photographic processes, digital and mixed media as well as large scale immersive photographic installations as well as public art. She attended San Francisco State University for a Bachelor’s degree in Art and Florida State University for an MFA. She has received a number of awards including an NEA Visual Arts Fellowship, Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship, Polaroid Materials Grants and an Aaron Siskind Award. She has  taught at a number of universities including San Francisco State University, SUNY Albany, Alfred University and the University of Kentucky, Lexington. She currently teaches in the Media Arts Area at the University of Colorado Boulder and has work in over 100 collections including LACMA, Center fro Creative Photography, Princeton Art Museum and San Francisco Museum of Art.

CV
GALLERY REPRESENTATION

Walker Fine Art, Denver, CO

Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

 

SELECTED AWARDS

Judith Rothschild Foundation Grant, 2003

Colorado Council for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship, 1996

National Endowment for the Arts – Photography Fellowship, 1995

Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship, 1992

Al Smith Fellowship in New Genres, 1992

Southern Arts Federation Sculpture Fellowship, 1991

NEA Inter-Arts Grant, Administered by New Langton Arts, San Francisco, Calif., 1989

Polaroid Materials Grant, 1987 and 1988

 

SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, Washington, DC

PRINCETON ART MUSEUM, Aaron Siskind Archive, Princeton, NJ

LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, Los Angeles, Calif.

FRIENDS OF PHOTOGRAPHY, San Francisco, Calif.

CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, Tucson, Arizona.

POLAROID CORPORATION, Cambridge, Massachusetts

CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART, Norfolk, Virginia

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART, San Francisco, Calif.

PETERSBURG MUSEUM OF ART, St. Petersburg, Florida

GRAHAM NASH COLLECTION. Los Angeles, Calif.

 

SELECTED COMMISSIONS:

Information can be found at www.airworks-studio.com

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2020: Ghost Forest, Walker Fine Art, Denver, CO

Leaves of Absence, Denver Botanical Gardens, Denver, CO

2019: GRACE: Gender, Race & Identity, Lawrence Miller Gallery, NYC

PROGRESSION, dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Imago Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Diffusion, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC

2018: Tilt Gallery, Walker & Walker, Scottsdale, CA

Depth of Field, Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, CA

Double Vision, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO

Murmuration, VAE, Raleigh, NC

2017:ReMix, Sync Gallery, Denver, CO (Best in show)

Positive Manipulation, Rembrandt’s Yard, Boulder, CO (Best in show)

The Big Picture, Month of Photography Denver, Public Art Project, Denver, CO

Summer, Southeast Center for Photography, Molina, GA

2016: Fine Art Center for Photography, One person show, Ft. Collins, CO

2013: HOUSEWORKS – Western Colorado Center for Visual Arts, Grand Junction, CO

Invitational – 5×7 – dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

PhotoPlace Gallery – International Juried Exhibition, Middlebury, VT.

LAND Exhibition – Invitational exhibition organized through Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder,CO

Republic Plaza curated invitational exhibition in conjunction with the Denver Month of Photography, Denver, CO

Denver Month of Photography juried exhibition – work was exhibited in Paris, France

Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, Los Angeles, CA

2012: Museum of Outdoor Arts, Englewood, CO

dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Snap to Grid, LACDA, Los Angeles, CA

Invitational Group Exhibition – Stag & Deer, Cork, Ireland

Alternatives 2012 – Invitational Group Exhibition – New Zealand

Invitational Group Exhibition – Republic Plaza, Denver, CO

Invitational Group Exhibition – Airborne, Otis School of Art, LA, CA

iWorld! – Colorado Photographic Art Center, Lakewood, CO

iWorld! 2 – Denver Public Library Denver, CO

The Printed Surface – Aims Community College, Greeley, CO

The Veil – Gardner Gallery, Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts, Stillwater, OK

Tbilisi History Museum (Karvasla) Tbilisi, Georgia (Russia)

5×7 – dnj Gallery – Santa Monica, CA

2011: Grand Junction Arts Center-Grand Junction, CO

Haskell Gallery, Jacksonville International Airport-Jacksonville, Florida.

2010:

El Espiritu de las hermanas,Mante, Mexico

Polaroid en Peril, Mus¿e de l’Elys¿e, Lausanne – Switzerland

Selections From the Polaroid Collection, Espace Van Gogh, Arles, FRANCE

FLIGHT, Gallery 115, University of Central Missouri Gallery of Art and Design,Warrensburg, MO

2009:The Human Canvas-Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO

Print Walls Gallery-University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Alexey VonSchlippe Gallery-University of Connecticut, Avery Point, Conn.

Indiana University East Galleries, Richmond, Indiana

Drury Univerisity, Springfield, MO

2008: Soho Photo – Alternative Photography Exhibition (2ND Place Award) New York, NY

Pocatontas Meets Hello Kitty  Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.

OUT OF TUCSON – International Invitational – Galerie Lichtblick, Koln,    Germany

BLINK Gallery – Boulder, CO

Revisioning the Middle East – Evergreen State University, Ellensburg, WA

The Veil: Visible & Invisible Spaces Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO

Visible & Invisible Spaces-University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR

Visible & Invisible Spaces-University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

2007: WEATHER REPORT – Artists on Climate Change – Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art & National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

2006: Khalil Sakikini Center, Ramallah, Palestine

International Center of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Palestine

Central Arizona College Gallery, Coolidge, AZ

Soho Photo – Alternative Photography Exhibition, New York, NY

Transformations – Space 301, Mobile. Alabama

El Mirador Gallery, Tucson, AZ

Wilde Meyer Gallery, Tucson, AZ

University of North Florida Galllery, Jacksonville, FL

Memorial Hall Gallery – Chadron State College , Chadron, NE

2005: The Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington, DC

Orfali Gallery, Amman, Jordan

Sisson Gallery, Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, MI

Broken Telephone, Galerma de Arte Fotografico Melitsn Rodriguez., Instituto de Artes, Medellin, Colombia

View Melanie Walker’s Website.

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