Griffin Museum of Photography

My Husband Won’t Tell Me His First Name

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“My husband won’t tell me his first name.” Judy, Parkinson’s dementia

Artists Statement
I am a neurologist and this is a long-term project about dementia, which includes portraits, natural illusions and images of perceptions paired with quotes from my patients. I would never have predicted that at this stage in my career I would be seeing so many people with dementia. When I was in medical school in the 1980s there were about 700, 000 people with dementia in this country, now there are nearly 6 million. That number will triple by mid-century and if we live long enough one in three of us will develop dementia and one in two of us will care for someone with dementia. By mid-century it will cost the U.S $1.2 trillion. One disease will wipe out the Medicare budget. We must deal with this reality from a sociocultural and economic standpoint because there is no cure in sight. It is the single greatest epidemic that industrialized countries will face. It is our destiny.

Because there is no cure or effective treatment, and I see people with dementia on a daily and long-term basis, I wanted to use photography to get to know my patients a little better, and for them to know me a little better. I will go to their home, spend a few hours with them and when they come back to see me in my clinic some of them know me not as their neurologist but as a friend that came to their home and made pictures. It’s a more social visit, less stressful, we know each other better and Ican do my job a little better. What else is there?

I would like you to look at these images as if it was you, or someone close to you. How would you like to be cared for when your time comes? -VD

Bio

Virgil DiBiase (b.1963) lives in rural Indiana with his wife and two donkeys. He is a photographer, part time farm hand and full-time neurologist. His parents were Italian immigrants who moved to rural Salem Ohio in the 1950s, 15 miles from Youngstown Ohio. He grew up in the woods, surrounded by nature. His father was a photographer and taught him how to develop B&W film and make gelatin silver prints in the basement darkroom. Back then everything was in B&W: TV, magazines, newspapers and photography. Black and white photography was his first language and so he continues to work in B&W. And he continues to walk in the woods with his camera.

He has exhibited his work in many juried group shows including Griffin Museum of Photography, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Edition One Gallery, Soho Photo Gallery and Providence Center for Photographic Arts. He’s been published in B&W magazine, LFI Magazine, Burn Magazine, The Cresset, and recently PBS News hour, Brief but Spectacular. He’s had solo shows at the Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago, Strimbu Gallery at Valparaiso University and the Workspace Gallery in Lincoln Nebraska. He’s been short listed twice for the Royal Photographic Society International Print Exhibition and has been a Critical Mass Finalist for the last 3 years.

 

The 2019 Arnold Newman Prize For New Directions in Photographic Portraiture Exhibition

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The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture is a $20,000 prize awarded annually to a photographer whose work demonstrates a compelling new vision in photographic portraiture. In addition to the winner, the jury selects three finalists each year who are invited to participate in an exhibit at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

The Prize is generously funded by the Arnold & Augusta Newman Foundation and proudly administered by Maine Media Workshops + College. The Griffin Museum of Photography hosts the annual exhibition of work by the winner and three finalists each October.

2019 Winner:

Louie Palu – Arctic Passage

A head shot of Louie Palu

(CREDIT IMAGE: © LOUIE PALU/ZUMA PRESS)

Louie Palu is a photographer whose work has covered human rights, poverty and war for 28-years. He is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and Harry Ransom Fellow in the Humanities. He has been awarded numerous awards for his work including multiple NPPA Best of Photojournalism awards, POYi, Pulitzer Center Grants and an Alexia Grant. He has worked throughout the U.S., Canada, Central and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia including covering conflict in Afghanistan (2006-2010), Mexico (2011-2013) and Ukraine (2016). His work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, CBC, Der Spiegel, El Pais, La Republica, National Geographic and The New York Times.
His photographs and documentary films have been featured in numerous museums and festivals internationally including at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and Munich Documentary Film Festival. His work is held in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and National Gallery of Art. He is the author of numerous publications including his recent critically acclaimed books Front Towards Enemy (2017 Yoffy Press), A Field Manual to Asbestos (2019 Yoffy Press). He is currently working on a long-term project on the changing geopolitics of the Arctic, which was featured in the 2019 SXSW Festival Art Installation Program, exhibition at the Visa Pour L’Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France and in National Geographic Magazine. More on his work can be seen here www.louiepalu.com

The project Arctic Passage is a series of photographs from the Arctic and an installation composed of large format portraits frozen in ice blocks. Since 2015 I have been working on a long-term photography project related to climate change, which documents the changing lives around Inuit communities in the high Arctic. The project also explores the evolving situation related to the geopolitics of the Polar region and the growing militarization of the Arctic as countries look to capitalize on the melting ice revealing natural resources.

Two years ago I began experimenting with freezing these photographs in ice blocks, then putting them outdoors to melt. The concept came out of a book on the Franklin voyage, which was a British Naval expedition in the 1800’s. Franklin’s two Arctic exploration ships were crushed by the ice and the crews perished succumbing to the Arctic’s severe weather. Their camera was never found and I imagined the photographs frozen and lost somewhere in the ice.

The Arctic is about imagination, because most of us can’t go there we can only imagine it. In some ways we must use imagination combined with science to understand how climate change will affect us. The Arctic is the region in the world where the planet is warming the most rapidly. I felt the need to push the boundaries of traditional portraiture to not only looking and at encountering another person through photography, but experiencing what they are seeing, which is ice disappearing as a part of their identity. I wanted to take the work beyond the image, pixels and paper prints.

In 2019 I submitted a proposal to the SXSW Festival’s Art Installation Program with this concept and it was selected. I installed the work outside in front of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin and made several discoveries. First, the ice block portraits took several unique forms and changed while they melted including forming frost, spider web cracks and water running down (from melting) the faces of some of the portraits. They all eventually fell over due to melting, and the only way I can put this in words is destroyed themselves by shattering on the ground. Attendance to the installation was high and what I found interesting was everyone took photos of the slowly transforming, what some called “ice portraits” and shared it on their social media tagging it related to climate change. The result was viewers documented the changing portraits as the ice melted which made their photographs inclusive to the installation and conversation around people affected by climate change.

Ice defines the Arctic and is as much a part of the identity of the people from there as it is a part of the environment they live in. Fusing ice and images of the people there and how their very identity is slowly vanishing is what I want people to experience. The portfolio submitted is a combination of my photographs and examples of some frozen in ice. Work in this project has been supported by the Harry Ransom Center, Joan Morgenstern, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Geographic & Pulitzer Center.

2019 Finalists:

Jess T. Dugan – Every Breath We Drew

A portrait of Jess T. DuganJess T. Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of identity, gender, sexuality, and community through photographic portraiture. She holds an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago, a Master of Liberal Arts in museum studies from Harvard University, and a BFA in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Dugan’s work has been widely exhibited and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the International Center of Photography, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the RISD Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Harvard Art Museums, the St. Louis Art Museum, and many others throughout the United States.
Dugan’s monographs include To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults (Kehrer Verlag, 2018) and Every Breath We Drew (Daylight Books, 2015). She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, an ICP Infinity Award, and was selected by the Obama White House as an LGBT Artist Champion of Change. She is represented by the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, IL. www.jessdugan.com

Every Breath We Drew (2011-present) explores the power of identity, desire, and connection through portraits of myself and others. Working within the framework of queer experience and from my actively constructed sense of masculinity, my portraits examine the intersection between private, individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others. Rather than attempting to describe a specific identity or group – the gender identity and sexual orientation of the individuals varies – Every Breath We Drew asks larger questions about how identity is formed, desire is expressed, and intimate connection is sought.

Cheryle St. Onge – Calling the Birds Home

A head shot of Cheryle St.OngeCheryle St. Onge, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, is the only child of a painter and a physicist. Her work explores the curiosities of how art and science intersect. She received a BFA from Clark University and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art, where she began working with an 8 x 10 inch view camera. In 1998 after the birth of her third child, she began, Natural Findings, a body of work that examines the familial nature of our innate ties to the natural world. St. Onge’s work has been widely exhibited and is in numerous collections Portland Museum of Art, Portland OR, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX and The University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM. She is the recipient of multiple fellowships and grants. In 2016 her photographs were included in Fraction of a Second, co-published by Radius, Fraction Magazine, 516 ARTS, and UNM Art Museum.She lives in New Hampshire and summers aboard a boat off the coast of Maine with her family.
cherylestonge.com

Calling the Birds Home is a photographic exchange of the energy of life—the give and take of the familial between mother and daughter who have lived side by side on the same New Hampshire farm for decades. Our love was mutual and constant. In 2015 my mother developed vascular dementia, and with that began the loss of her emotions and her memory and the relationship of mother and daughter as we have known it for nearly 60 years. In my mother’s earlier life, she was a painter and then in the final decades she began to carve birds. A carving would begin with her vast knowledge of birds, her research and then after whittling away at chunks of wood. My mother would eventually offer up an exquisite painted out chickadee or barred owl, life size and life like.

I began to photograph her with any camera in reach—an iPhone or an 8×10 view camera as a distraction from watching her fade away, as a counterbalance to conversation with her about death, as a means to capture the ephemeral nature of the moment and of life. I needed happiness and light, and to share the images with others I love.

I started to share the images, first with friends, then on social media. Now, people want to tell me their stories and they want to hear mine. It’s a beautiful back and forth, much like a true portrait.

Because of the dementia, my mother and I no longer can have conversations. But we do still have a profound exchange through photography. She must recall our history and the process of picture making because she brightens up and is always ready to be photographed. My mother does her best and I do mine. And then in turn, I give the pictures away to anyone who will look. It is an excruciating form of emotional currency.

Bryan Thomas – Sunrise/Sunset

A portrait of Bryan ThomasBryan Thomas is a Brooklyn-based photographer and a recent recipient of The Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward Award. Bryan graduated from Dartmouth College and worked at GQ Magazine before returning to graduate school and earning his Master of Arts at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. His self-published zine “The Sea in the Darkness Calls,” is held in the libraries of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and, in 2017, the work was recognized by Corey Keller, Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in CENTER’s Curator’s Choice awards. His work has also been recognized by PDN’s Photo Annual, American Photography, and the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism as well as exhibited at the Aperture Gallery (NYC), The Museum of The City of New York (NYC), and The Getty Images Gallery (London). Bryan is a regular contributor to The New York Times and has been published by The New Yorker, TIME, Harper’s Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Topic.com, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Frontline (PBS), and Harper Collins, among others. www.bryanthomasphoto.com

In the wake of the tragedy in Parkland, Florida, the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School courageously reinvigorated the debate about gun control in the United States. Often lost in the aftermath of mass shooting events however is the stubborn fact that everyday gun violence still accounts for the majority of gun-related deaths in the United States and no segment of the US population feels this more than African American communities across the country. According to the CDC, although African Americans only make up 14 percent of the US population, they account for 57 percent of gun homicide victims. For African American men, ages 15 to 34, there is no cause of death more likely than one that involves a gun. In her 2015 New York Times article, “The Condition of Black Life is Mourning,” the poet Claudia Rankine starkly commented, “Though the white liberal imagination likes to feel temporarily bad about black suffering, there really is no mode of empathy that can replicate the daily strain of knowing that as a black person you can be killed for simply being black.” Nowhere is Rankine’s “condition of black life” more represented than in the custom t-shirt shops of cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Miami. In shops across the country, the “Rest in Peace” shirt—custom-made, memorial t-shirts celebrating the life of those lost to gun violence—is a staple of daily life. “Sunrise/Sunset” is a portrait-based project that captures the phenomenon of “Rest in Peace” t-shirts through portraits of loved ones who’ve purchased them in an attempt to visualize the effects of gun violence beyond a singular event, briefly displayed in a late-night news chyron, but instead an accumulation of events that shapes communities in profound and unexpected ways. This body of work seeks to explore the ways in which a simple t-shirt has been transformed into a symbol of the ubiquity of the gun violence that disproportionally plagues African American communities as well as an act of protest against the ways in which African American lives are often misrepresented and, sometimes, entirely forgotten after acts of gun violence. Beneath beautified pictures of brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons, the words “Sunrise” and “Sunset,” alongside the date of a birth and a death, not only memorialize a life cut short, they also give life to a form of protest, worn daily for years to come, of the circumstances that lead to that life’s end; an everlasting symbol fighting against America’s structural impulse to look away.

Thank you to our 2019 Jurors!

  • Elizabeth Avedon – Photo Book and Exhibition Designer, Writer and Curator
  • Jessica Dimson – Deputy Photo Editor at the New York Times
  • Paula Tognarelli – Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography

Stop by the exhibition of work by the 2019 Winner and Finalists at the Griffin Museum of Photography from October 1-20, 2019. There will be an awards reception on the evening of October 10, 2019 7 PM – 8:30 PM at the museum that is free and open to the public. Join us!

The Mission

Arnold Newman had an insatiable fascination with people and the physical world around him. In his work, he constantly explored the boundaries of portraiture and embodied the spirit of artistic innovation. He was also a passionate teacher–he taught at Maine Media Workshops + College every summer for over 30 years.  In honor of Arnold’s legacy as both a photographer and mentor, The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture recognizes excellence in a new generation of photographers by awarding $20,000 to a winning photographer and elevating the work of the winner and three finalists in press and through an exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography. The prize, the second largest in the United States, is designed to assist the winner in continuing the pursuit of their work and to serve as a launching pad for the next phase of their careers.

The 2020 Call for Entries will open in the Summer of 2020.

History of the Prize

The prize was established in 2009 by the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation. Maine Media Workshops + College has proudly administered the prize since 2016. Beginning with the 2017 prize, three finalists are selected each year in addition to the winner. Maine Media partnered with the Griffin Museum of Photography to host an annual exhibition of work by the winner and finalists in 2018.

Since 2009, nine artists have been awarded the prize:

You can view the 2018 ANP Press Kit here.

ARNOLD NEWMAN AND MAINE MEDIA WORKSHOPS

Arnold Newman eating a lobster dinner.Arnold Newman began his relationship with Maine in the late 1970’s, traveling from his home in New York City each summer to join a host of other renowned photographers in Rockport, who were teaching at the Maine Photographic Workshops, now known as Maine Media Workshops. For Arnold, Maine was a place of inspiration and rejuvenation and the Workshops a place to see old friends, be immersed in photography and share his work and experiences through teaching. He never came to Maine for just his workshop; it was always a longer stay. For more than thirty years, Arnold and his wife Augusta were vital influences among the Workshops community.

I first met Arnold at the Workshops in the summer of 1990. On a hot summer night, I sat in the crowded Union Hall Theater to listen to his lecture, and see the images illustrating his long and extraordinary life as a photographer. It was a lecture he would give every year, and each year, he would begin by asking the young photographers in the audience if they knew of the notable subjects in his photographs – always imploring that we must know our history, telling his audience, “we learn from the past.”

It would be a very long lecture. Arnold loved to tell stories. His stories are pretty hard to beat – how many people can share with you their personal account of photographing the man responsible for curing polio or, every President since Truman? Photographing Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, on the day the Anne Frank House opened to the public or­ nearly every artist of note in the 20th century? About spending a day with Picasso? Being with Arnold was like being with a walking, talking history book.

I, like so many others in that crowded Union Hall Theater for Arnold’s slide show, was captivated by the way each image appeared to emerge from the innermost essence of the sitter. These were not ordinary pictures of people. Rather, they evinced the spirits of individuals engaged in their various pursuits, their innermost psyches, and their most honest moments. He has provided the world some of the most memorably significant and truest depictions of important figures in the areas of politics, sciences, and of course, the arts. For many admirers of these subjects, Arnold’s are the quintessential images.

During his extended visits to the Workshops, Arnold would act as an unofficial artist­ in­ residence. Many would enjoy the company of Arnold and Augusta for meals under the dining tent, where Arnold would regale his listeners with yet more stories. After all, he had a lifetime of extraordinary experiences to share! Frequently, Arnold would ask young photographers to come sit with him and would ask to see their work. On more than one occasion, one of those informal portfolio reviews launched the career of a now well­ regarded photographer.

Arnold was always a teacher, when he was in the classroom, delivering a lecture, or even just sharing a meal. To learn from Arnold, was to learn from a great master of craft, a visionary photographer and genuinely learned man. He helped many understand, in a most profound way, what it is to be an artist. I am now a teacher. My students know that I do so love to tell “Arnold” stories, stories of my time working with him and to recount his many stories as a way to teach history. To a great extent, it was through these stories that I learned.

The life and work of Arnold Newman have had tremendous impact on the world, on those who know him only through his photographs as well as on those who have had the great fortune to know him personally. He shared with the world his keen observations of the great figures in our history; now, he is a part of that history, and an indelible part of the history of the Workshops.

~ Elizabeth Thomsen Greenberg, Rockport, March 2010

Women’s March

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Statement
At a portfolio review,  the reviewer asked me why I shoot street photography.  But that is not an easy question to answer because my work does not fit into what most photographers consider street photography.

The “purist” say that you should take a picture and do little or no editing to the image.  Any changes that are made are global.  These photographers document the world as it “is.”  (But that would depend on what your definition of the word “is” is.)  They are more of a documentary photographer by creating a sort of time capsule to share with future generations showing them what the world was like in the past and is hard to put into words.  For example, if they were to photograph a child chasing a bouncing call down the street, they would leave the image as it is. That alone is a lovely image and tells a story the photographer wants to share.

The second camp of street photographers envisions the world more artistically.  These people wish to change the public’s perception of the world in their vision.  Let’s take the image example of the child chasing a bouncing ball down a street. They may want to try and convey a message of impending doom if the child continues to pursue the ball any further. They might darken the shadows, remove any distractions that take away from the story.  By doing this, they would try to convey a message the photographer wants to share. Maybe the message the photographer is trying to convey is about a dream they recently had or even a repressed memory.

From my portfolio, you should see that I am in the other camp of street photographers.   I see the world more artistically and with dashes of negativity.  I would have to admit that my vision of the world around me is a little different than most people.  It is dark, mysterious, and unusual.   You will not find puppy dogs or flowers in my photography.

Being able to be unique is a great privilege, and we all should be able allowed to explore this.  If people are not permitted to be an individual, society will not be able to grow and evolve.

Hopefully, I made myself clear with my vision and purpose in my photographic style.  It is pretty unique and hard to explain. I am guessing that my pictures speak louder than my words.  – JR

Bio
John O. Roy rediscovered his love of photography when his father-in-law gave him a digital camera in the late 1990s. John did dabble a little in photography when he was a teenager, but with limited funds, he was unable to pursue it.  In the years that followed, John refined his skills through self-instruction, a close friend, and several photography workshops at a local community college.

In the Spring of 2006, John wanted to make photography a more significant part of his life, so he enrolled in a Professional Photography Program and The Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University.  John refined his skills through one on one instruction with real-world photographers. The school was a fantastic experience for him.

After graduation in 2008, John attempted to be more a traditional photographer by taking portraits as well as photographing weddings.  He quickly realized that wasn’t his calling.

While contemplating his future, John recalled something from a photography review during his last class at CDIA.  The instructor, Jim Fitts, pointed out that he had real skills as a fine art photographer. John then started experimenting with shooting items with studio lighting.  John also experimented with street photography, something that he enjoyed and excelled in.  Some of his heroes are Stanley Kubrick, Joel Meyerowitz, Marie Laigneau, and Gary Winogrand.

When John isn’t shooting, he is cooking, riding his bike, and working at his grownup job as an Inside Sales Rep. John is also a board member of the American Society of Media Photographers.

Website

I AM: For the Love of Nature

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Statement
I AM: For the Love of Nature are nude self-portraits composed in the Western U.S. at age 64-65, exploring the solitude and contemplative environment of the unoccupied landscape. Being in the natural environment provided solace for me during and after childhood difficulties. The landscape became a logical setting to explore personal and universal themes often associated with women — consumerism, sexualizing the female form, and judgments regarding the appearance of women in society. The images are performance pieces where my unclothed body, my gestures, and the surrounding natural elements, prompt questions about the meaning of vulnerability, nakedness, self-acceptance, and aging.

The images invite the viewer to accompany the artist in the less obvious adventures being presented, to experience the freedom, privacy, restfulness, and self-assertion conveyed in the photographs. The images declare: I will not become invisible with age and I am content being alone. Poetry created for each image explores these ideas further.

The subject is present and often standing, bearing witness to the places and memories of the journey that led her there. In others, the subject is reclining, finally finding a state of rest and comfort from a life of struggles, while hiding behind norms and protocols. The character is vulnerable, yet the scenes and accompanying words contrast the idea of fragility and exposure with empowerment – much like nature itself. The images aim to present the beauty of living natural things, in contrast to the desecration of both women and the environment.

The ideas of waste, trash, trash talk, merchandizing, old and useless often apply to women’s bodies and the environment. Rather than overt finger pointing in acid tones, the artist uses her own nakedness in nature to find beauty. She prefers honey rather than vinegar. Her image titles give clues; her accompanying poems invite the viewer to go deeper with her, into self-acceptance and respect for nature. – RD

Bio
I am an emerging artist living in Santa Fe, NM. I work in various media, including photography, ink drawing, painting, and conceptual installations. Words are important to me, so they often play a role in my art.

I like being naked in nature — it feels like a default state to me. I am also a private and at times formal person, which, I know, sounds like a contradiction. And so continues my transformation from being the dutiful daughter to an older woman more interested in free expression and self-acceptance. I’m more honey than vinegar, more focused on creating beauty than proselytizing.

I’ve been fortunate to work in many diverse professions — all of which feed into my creativity as an artist, now in my 60s.
-RD

Website

Treasures: Objects I Have known All of My Life

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Statement
The photographs in Treasures are of simple objects from my mother’s home that I have known all of my life. My mother has always been very particular about how she likes her things—every item has its place, every task has its way of being done. Inevitably, these things and this way have become part of my life as well.  The truth is, I am uncomfortable talking about my work as it reveals parts of myself that would be easier left unexamined. In photographing my mother’s personal items, I thought I was merely documenting objects. Instead, it has turned out to be a portrait not only of my mom, but also of me and of our relationship. It’s not that these things are her ‘Treasures’ per se, it’s that because she thought these things were so important to take care of, and there were so many rules around how these things were to be handled, they felt as if they were more important than me.So while this collection of photographs started out as an act of curiosity, it now feels like one of acceptance. I realize now that this work is not about me being less important than these items, but more about my fears—fears of not only becoming my mother, but also of affecting my son through the lessons I have learned from her.  These objects that we live with, that we build our lives around, that we give breath to, eventually become part of our lives—and tell our stories.  -BH

Bio
Bootsy Holler (American, b. 1969) is a fine art photographer. Her work examines the nature of identity, the reimagined family album and the deep secrets we all keep.

Bootsy is an intuitive artist who has been a working photographer for over 25 years in music, editorial, advertising and art. Best known for her remarkably sensitive style of portraiture, she has been noticed and awarded by the Society of Photographic Journalism (SPJ) and Association of Alternative News-media (AAN).

She received her BA with a concentration on Textiles from Western Washington University, Bellingham. After a career as a freelance Director, Producer and Photographer she relocated to Los Angeles to focus on fine art.

Bootsy has exhibited in 17 solo shows and over 30 group exhibitions at institutions such as The Center for Fine Art Photography, Ogden Museum, Benham Gallery, The New Space Photo Center, Photo Center Northwest, and Fotofever, Paris. Her fine art has been featured in publications including PDN, NPR, Lenscratch, Rangefinder, Fraction Magazine as well as Seattle Weekly, The Stranger, Santa Barbara News-Press, and Real Simple Magazine.

Her Visitor series was selected for Critical Mass Top 50 in 2011. She has been commissioned by commercial companies to design and produce art for their creative advertising spaces and has work in the Grammy Museum permanent collection, as well as in private collections around the United States and Europe. In 2019 she published her second monograph TREASURES objects I’ve known all my life.

View Bootsy Holler’s Website

Purchase directly from Bootsy Holler

Allowed to Grow Old

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Statement
For nearly a decade, I have visited farm animal sanctuaries across America to create photographic portraits of geriatric animals. I began this series shortly after caring for my mom who had Alzheimer’s disease. The experience had a profound effect on me and forced me to confront my own mortality. I am terrified of growing old and I started photographing geriatric animals in order to take an unflinching look at this fear. As I met rescued farm animals and heard their stories, though, my motivation for creating this work changed. I became a passionate advocate for these animals and I wanted to use my images to speak on their behalf.

For each image, I strive to reveal the unique personality of the animal I photograph. Rescued farm animals are often wary of strangers, and it can take several days to develop a comfortable rapport with the animals I photograph. I often spend a few hours lying on the ground next to an animal before taking a single picture. This helps the animal acclimate to my presence and allows me to be fully present as I get to know her. In order to be as unobtrusive as possible, I do not bring any studio lighting into the animal enclosures and instead work only with natural light.

Nearly all of the animals I met for this project endured horrific abuse and neglect prior to their rescue. Yet it is a massive understatement to say that they are the lucky ones. Roughly fifty billion land animals are factory farmed globally each year. It is nothing short of a miracle to be in the presence of a farm animal who has managed to reach old age. Most of their kin die before they are six months old. By depicting the beauty and dignity of elderly farm animals, I invite reflection upon what is lost when these animals are not allowed to grow old.

Bio
Isa Leshko is an artist and writer whose work examines themes relating to animal rights, aging, and mortality. Her images have been published in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, Photograph and Süddeutsche Zeitung. In April 2019, the University of Chicago Press published her first monograph, Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Rescued Farm Animals, which included essays by activist Gene Baur, NY Times bestselling author Sy Montgomery, and curator Anne Wilkes Tucker.

Isa has received fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation, the Culture & Animals Foundation, the Houston Center for Photography, the Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Silver Eye Center for Photography. She has exhibited her work widely in the United States and her prints are in numerous private and public collections, including the Boston Public Library, Fidelity Investments, the Harry Ransom Center, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Isa—whose full name is Isabell Carmella—grew up in Carteret, New Jersey, in an Italian-American working class family. She received her BA from Haverford College, where she studied cognitive psychology, neurobiology, and gender studies. She spent a decade working for dot.com startups before she discovered her passion for photography. She currently lives in Salem, Massachusetts, with her domestic partner, Matt Kleiderman, and their cats Alfred and Higgins. Isa has also lived in Houston, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Providence, Rhode Island.

These images appear in “Allowed To Grow Old” published by University of Chicago Press in April 2019.

Isa will have a gallery  talk and book signing on November 21, 2019 from 7 PM – 8:30 PM

Photograph Magazine features Isa Leshko’s Allowed to Grow Old in its Sept/October 2019 issue with a feature by Jean Dykstra.

Website

Our sincere gratitude to
for their sponsorship of the framing of
Allowed to Grow Old

100 Years, Age of Beauty

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Statement
During her meetings with 10 centenarians from the Montérégie region, Québec, Arianne Clement became interested in the efforts that these women put into (or don’t), looking good and the many challenges that they face. She asked  them about youth, old age, feminism, sexuality, charm, appearance, love, etc. Through these portraits, Arianne questions society’s obsession with youth and beauty standards. She also seeks to give a voice to these women whose beauty is rarely acknowledged.

Bio
While working as a journalist in Nunavut, Arianne Clement began playing with photography. This experience inspired  her to do a Master’s degree in photojournalism at the University of the Arts of London, which she obtained with honors. During her numerous trips abroad, she developed a photographic style that combines both art and documentary.

From the Great North to the West Coast, the Amazon to Eastern Europe, Argentina to Ireland, her most recurrent themes are the forgotten ones, the excluded, and the marginalized.

Attracted to rough coarse and grainy textures, she is constantly on the lookout for powerful contrasts:  light and texture, past and present, but especially contrasts between the attractive and the unsavoury, serenity and calamity, the beauty of life and its cold cruelty.

For years, Arianne has been taking interest in the “invisible” people living in her community. She now devotes a big part of her art to the elderly—her approach and the expertise she has developed give her work an unrivalled depth and authenticity. She has recently participated in a number of exhibitions on senior citizens, and obtained numerous awards, grants and honors.

Website

Widow/er

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Statement
“There is nothing like the grief one experiences after a life partner passes away. When I lost my first husband in 2008, I searched for books and articles addressing this particular loss. I was looking for suggestions on coping techniques from others who’d been widowed. There wasn’t much.

I remarried in 2012. After focusing on my loving relationship with my second husband, Joel in my body of work “Second Time Around,” I realized that my feelings about my first husband’s passing were still evolving, bubbling up occasionally at random times.

Since March of 2018, I have been meeting with widows and widowers of all ages, gay and straight, having been in legal marriages or in committed partnerships. We have a conversation, recorded for accuracy, and I make the portrait. A printed statement from the subject accompanies each photograph. This process is emotionally satisfying as my sitters and I examine together how a marriage can shape us going forward. I hope that by sharing their stories, those suffering this profound loss – whether recently or not – will take comfort in recognition and shared experience.”
– SRJ

Bio
My work centers on home and community. What does it mean to be home, and to whom do we feel connected?

Awards and Honors

2017 Critical Mass Top 50
2017 Baxter Street at CCNY Annual Juried Competition, Honorable Mention
2016 PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, Honourable Mention

Online articles about my work:

Podcast interviews:

Online interview F-Stop Magazine

 

Solo Exhibitions:

  • October 2019: Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA: Widow/er Project
  • September 2016: Camerawork Gallery, Scranton, Pennsylvania: Building 1

Juried group exhibitions:

Website

 

Photography Atelier 30

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The  Photography Atelier 30 will showcase at the Griffin from September 5 – September 28, 2019. The reception will take place on September 8, 2019  from 4:00 – 6:00 PM.  At the same time Gordon Stettinius’ Miss Americana and Sal Taylor Kydd’s Janus Rising  run from Sept 5 – October 20, 2019 with receptions on September 8, 2019 from 4:00 – 6:00 PM and October 10, 2019.

The Atelier is a course for intermediate and advanced photographers offered by the Griffin Museum of Photography. You are invited to come view the photographs at the Griffin Museum, 67 Shore Road, Winchester, MA 01890.

Photography Atelier Instructor and Photographer Meg Birnbaum shared, “The Photography Atelier has such a long and rich history, I’m honored to be leading this workshop for emerging photographers with Julie Williams-Krishnan assisting. The talent among the 23members of this group show is varied and inspiring — from our relationship with architecture, photographic gestures, conceptual ideas, abstracted imagery, identity, color, light and objects, the landscape/natural world, metaphor, street scenes and portraits — the show is very satisfying feast for the eyes and soul.”

The 23 photographers of Photography Atelier 30 include: Stephanie Arnett, Larry Bruns, Lee Cott, Sue D’Arcy Fuller, Shravan Elapavuluru, David Feigenbaum, Susan Green, Don Harbison, Jackie Heitchue, Betsey Henkels, J. Jorj Lark, Marcy Juran, Jeff Larason, Frederica Matera, Michele Manting, Michael King, Connie Lowell, Scott Newell, David Poovu, Katalina Simon, Mike Slurzberg, Guy Washburn and Julie Williams-Krishnan.

Stephanie Arnett – Title: Self Portrait in 4 Seasons and 360-Degrees -Stephanie Arnett’s Self Portrait in 4 Seasons and 360-Degrees use spherical panoramic techniques to construct identity from the artist’s perspective.

Lawrence Bruns – Title: Mannequins – Mannequins, that are merged with reflections off of storefront windows which portray the street scenes itself, create mysterious, unexpected and multidimensional images.

Lee Cott – Title: Not Quite Architecture – These impressionist images consider photography as an alternative representation of reality and recollection.

Sue D’Arcy Fuller – Title: The Journey is the Destination -Sue D’Arcy Fuller’s images of maps frozen in ice represent preserving past adventures and explorations.

Shravan Elapavuluru – Title: Contemplate -My project, Contemplate captures moments in space that encourage us to look inwards to find meaning rather than to seek it in what we see.

David Feigenbaum – Title: I am my Hands – Feigenbaum’s images invite the viewer to give more than ordinary attention to poses of the human hand, its mirrored reflection, and objects that fall within its grasp.

Susan Green – Title: The Light You Left Behind –The Light You Left Behind explores the concept of home with an abstraction of bold colors and shapes from otherwise ordinary settings and of discovering magic in the mundane.

Don Harbison – Title: Found Father – “These photographs attempt to express the emotional turmoil of reconstructing my father’s last years of life sixty-seven years later. Creating these images has helped me discover and establish a new relationship with a man I never knew, my father.”

Jackie Heitchue – Title: The Poetry of Mushrooms – These tiny vignettes portray mushrooms in domestic scenes meant to tell stories of a real or imagined past.  Each portrait is a prayer, a spell I cast in search of feelings remembered or wished for.

Betsey Henkels – Title: Floral Disarrangement – “My photographs celebrate the beauty of the undersides, stems, spikes and samaras of trees and flowers”.

L. Jorj Lark – Title: Reflections, Refractions, and Interactions – L. Jorj Lark photographs the nexus between humans and environment in an effort to comprehend consequences.

Marcy Juran – Title: Myth, Memory, and Violets – “Myth, Memory and Violets is a visual re-imagining, exploring iconic moments and imagery of my family mythology, creating a metaphoric narrative set in the context of my native New England.”

Jeff Larason – Title: Andre and Elizabeth -Reimagining the love of Andre and Elizabeth Kertesz, together again

Frederica Matera – Title: The Woods at Faraway – Exploring and documenting a rain forest on the coast of Maine.

Michele Manting – Title:  Innocence Lost -Using the vehicle of an American Doll knock-off, the project explores a range of dissonances arising among and because of the expectations, perceptions and two-dimensional realities within  a throw-away society.

Michael King – Title: René Magritte and the Art of Illusion – Michael King’s portraits portray his son, Adam, trespassing in the surrealistic world of the painter René Magritte.

Connie Lowell – Title: Motion – Youth in Cars – Youth in Cars explores how young adults grow up in cars as they transition from dependence to independence and adolescence to adulthood.

Scott Newell – Title: Sand patterns at Crane Beach – The physical elements in the environment are somewhat randomly shaped by living and natural forces, occasionally resulting in evocative patterns.

David J. Poorvu – Title: Hiding in Plain Sight – Most of us recognize lichens on trees and rocks, but their amazing variety of shapes, colors and textures can only be seen when magnified. They are not plants but a composite organism of fungi and algae/bacteria.

Katalina Simon – Title: The Land Beyond the Forest –  The Land Beyond the Forest is a series of rural tableaux depicting a fading way of life in rural Transylvania.

Mike Slurzberg  –  Title: Festival – Festival follows a music festival in Western Massachusetts over several years, looking at the audience as a small, temporary city.

Guy Washburn – Title: Les équivalents de la rivière – The project is an inquiry into the the subtler, deeper voice of the water.

Julie Williams-Krishnan – Title: Yesterday’s Flowers – Yesterday’s Flowers is a series of photographs of flowers that were used in the family home in South India for daily prayers.

Photography Atelier Website

 

 

Seeing You, Seeing Me

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Statement
Seeing You, Seeing Me is a photographic collaboration between my 21-year-old daughter, Leah, and me.  She is in front of the camera, while I stay behind it.  However, in our images we share the roles of observer and participant.  In these pictures, I see myself at her age while simultaneously imagining her as an adult: I also, see her seeing into the future while she observes me behind the lens in my new role as a photographer.

This project has allowed me to slow time with intent.  In front of the camera, I pose Leah along with personal artifacts and articles of mine.  In doing so, I image the traditions and morals that I have imbued in her.

Inspired by Dutch artists, particularly Vermeer, and books of my childhood such as Jane Eyre and Little Women, I attempt to create timeless and romanticized portraits that capture a fleeting and pivotal moment in time – the still of life as she stands on the cusp of adulthood.  -BB

Bio
Becky Behar is an emerging photographer born in Bogota, Colombia, raised in Miami, FL and currently living near Boston, MA.  Her love of photography started in high school where she worked with pinhole cameras and black and white film.  At Wellesley College, she studied photography with Judith Black, who introduced her to the art of the domestic interior; she then spent a summer studying photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.

After raising three children, Behar has returned to the world of photography, studying at the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA, with Emily Belz as her teacher and mentor. There she has refined her interest in photographing domestic spaces, while also fine tuning her technical skills at the New England School of Photography in Waltham, MA.

Behar enjoys incorporating still lifes and family portraits into her images of domestic spaces.  Apart from her mentors, she is heavily influenced by Dutch Golden Age paintings, especially those of Johannes Vermeer. Light occupies a central role in her images.

Becky Behar was a finalist for the 2020 Chervinsky Awards.

View Becky Behar’s website.

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