Griffin Museum of Photography

Abstraction Attraction

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“Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes….Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an exploration into unknown areas.”
― Arshile Gorky

The artists in the Abstraction Attraction exhibition are:

David Anderson, Jan Arrigo, Janine Autolitano, Gary Beeber,  Sheri Lynn Behr, Karen Bell, Patricia Bender, Edward Boches, Joy Bush,  Wen-Han Chang, John Chen, Richard Cohen, Benjamin Dimmitt, Alex Djordjevic, Nicholas Fedak II, Yoav Friedlander, Dennis Geller, Steve Gentile, Carole Glauber, Linda Grashoff, Elizabeth Greenberg, Aubrey Guthrie, Law Hamilton, Sandy Hill, Sue Anne Hodges, Carol Isaak, Leslie Jean-Bart, Cynthia Johnston, Amy Kanka Valadarsky, Marky Kauffmann, Robert Lanier, Stephen Levin, Joan Lobis Brown, Joni Lohr, Alina Marin-Bliach, Mahala Mazerov, Ralph Mercer, Judith Montminy, Robert Moran, Julianne Nash, Lisa Nebenzahl, Ruth Nelson, Erin Neve, Walter Oliver, Marcy Palmer, Madhugopal Rama, Katherine Richmond, Russ Rowland, Joshua Sariñana, Wendi Schneider, Tony Schwartz, Sara Silks, Leah Sobsey, Vicky Stromee, Neelakanantan Sunder, Donna Tramontozzi, David Underwood, Melanie Walker, Nicole White, Dianne Yudelson, Joanne Zeis and Mike Zeis

The Griffin Museum Secondary School Photography Exhibit

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The Griffin Museum brings a Juried Secondary School Photography Exhibition to the Carney Gallery/ Regis College Fine Arts Center at 235 Wellesley Street, Weston, MA 02493

January 5 – 19, 2019
Reception and Awards Ceremony January 6, 2019 from 1 – 3 PM

18 schools will be participating in the exhibit.

Public schools:
Winchester High, Weston High, Concord-Carlisle Regional High, Lexington High, Arlington High, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
Independent schools:
Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, Concord Academy, Milton Academy, Dana Hall School, Beaver Country Day School, The Winsor School, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School, Pingree School, Brooks School, The Rivers School, Nobles and Greenough School.
This exhibition is made possible by The Gertler Clark Foundation.

Crisis of Experience

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Statement
In February 1979 I began taking Polaroid SX70 self-portraits on a daily basis to explore the idea of time as connected to a lunar month, but also to find a way to stay grounded as much of my life was imploding. Months turned into years and I continued the daily documentation of self for eight years, until November 1987.

Spontaneously deciding when and where to take the photo, arbitrarily choosing which exposure and focus to use, allowed me to incorporate elements of randomness and chance in my creative process.Additional self-imposed guidelines prescribed that the camera was always handheld and only one image a day could be created, regardless of the outcome. I was searching for the intuitive.  My interest in the moon began when I wanted to present the Polaroids using a standard measure of time and I chose a variation of a lunar month.

The Polaroid series was a visual journal waiting to be decrypted as if I was looking into a mirror, seeking to understand who I was, who I was becoming, and attempting to make sense of life experiences out of my control. As we all know, the camera never lies, and now revisiting this extensive self-documentation I begin to understand what is revealed.

Women throughout history have found journals a sympathetic medium. I was looking to define myself at a time when the feminist revolution had already won many new freedoms and choices for women.  I realize now that I was exploring the politics of identity–and not just gender identity– and deciphering who I was in relation to photography.  The reconsideration of this project, now with the patina of time, allows for a deeper understanding of self and a legacy of the Polaroid medium that can never be replicated. – J.K. Lavin

Bio
J. K. Lavin is a fine art photographer living and working in Venice, California. Recurring themes in her work are memory, self-portraiture and marking the passage of time. Duration is an important dimension of her practice, as well as experimentation with randomness and chance.

After moving to Los Angeles, J. K. Lavin received a Master’s Degree of Art in Photography from California State University at Fullerton, CA. She also studied photography at The Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York and The Center of the Eye in Aspen, Colorado. Currently Crisis of Experience, photographs from her Polaroid SX70 self-portrait series, is on view as a solo exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA. Crisis of Experience have received several prestigious awards.

J. K. Lavin has had one-person exhibitions at Spot Photoworks, Los Angeles, CA and at Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA. Recently her work has been exhibited at San Francisco Camerawork Gallery in San Francisco, SE Center for Photography in Greenville, SC, The Center for Fine Art Photography in CO, Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR, Building Bridges Art Exchange in Santa Monica, CA and Fotofever 2015 and 2017 in Paris, FR.

Website

Mark Feeney Boston Globe Review

Self Reflection

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Statement
These photographs are seen through my eyes as sitter, as maker, and as a viewer from a time in photography I thought we might not wish to lose track of. The birth we give our life passes through archetypal wombs spun of fibers, glow, and exposed in the way we develop ourselves. Self-Portraiture and portraits of me by photographers provided insight to provoke me to express myself at moments of emotional shifts and curiosity. The self-portrait is a composition of structured forces and aspects of our developed knowledge of life.  It is a guide toward “Who am I?” Working with the psyche is much more than narcissistic exercise, though it fulfills that role too. I experimented with ‘presenting’ myself to the camera to gain possession of powerful “self-hood.” When I see a print or screen image of myself, it is something real, something physical, and something that increases awareness. With this collection of photographs over time, I’ve a reference to compare and contrast and notice things I was not consciously ready to deal with before. – LT

Introduction to “Self Reflection”
by Toby Kamps, Director, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas
“Artist.  Model.  Author.  Muse.  Linda Troeller plays many parts in her photographic life.  Throughout a prolific career photographing and publishing books on female sexuality, healing-water spas, the AIDS epidemic, and her home in New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel, Troeller has regularly served as a subject for the camera, her own and those of her colleagues. The collection of images by Troeller and other photographers from the 1970s to today, is an intimate, illuminating assessment of one artist’s deep engagement with seeing and understanding herself through the camera’s lens.

The images are waypoints in Troeller’s aesthetic and personal evolution.  Some are carefully planned; others are quick and spontaneous. All are telling responses to a time and place.  Early self- and family portraits trace her progress as a young feminist carving out an identity in a male-dominated photo world.  She shoots herself in a dorm-room mirror, as a Lolita-like gamine in a terrycloth robe, and in dramatic half-shadow with her proud father.  Later images show her exploring her emotional and erotic sides and working as a model for other photographers.  She depicts herself healing from a breakup in a Mexican hot spring and poses nude for greats like Eikoh Hosoe and Lucien Clergue.  And current work shows her as a stylish, older woman living and working in an epicenter of creativity.

Troeller’s dual roles behind and in front of the camera make her an anomaly in a community where most hide behind their viewfinders.  But her exceptional beauty, along with the strength, openness, and willingness to collaborate with other artists on subtle, spiritual levels manifested in each photograph, made it inevitable that she would inspire other photographers as a subject.  In each fearless image Troeller depicts the creative arc of a soul in love with photography and life.”

Toby Kamps is the  director at the Blaffler Museum and was curator at the Contemporary Art Museum and then curator of modern and contemporary art at the Menil Collection since 2010. He has curated some of Houston’s most acclaimed solo shows including Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, and William N. Copley.

Bio
Linda Troeller is a NYC art photographer with a relatively new book Living Inside the Chelsea Hotel published by Schiffer. Her exhibitions include the Laurence Miller Gallery, F-stop Festival, Leipzig, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and Coda Museum, Netherlands.

She is published by Aperture, Healing Waters, and Scalo, Erotic Lives of Women, (with writer Marion Schneider), reviewed in the NYTimes, “as one of the gutsiest books of the decade.” She lectured at Griffin Museum, Yale, Parsons and SVA. Some of her archives are at Syracuse University and the TB-AIDS Diaryis in the collections the Norton Museum of Art.

Website

The Arts Fuse

The Eye of Photography

Mark Feeney Boston Globe Review

Winter Solstice 2018 Members’ Exhibition

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For the sixth year, The Griffin Museum is inviting all of its current members to exhibit in the Winter Solstice Exhibition. From across the world, artists will enter one piece to be on display for December 2018. Photographs will be presented in the Main Gallery of the Griffin and display a spectrum of genres and processes. The opening reception is Thursday, December 6, 2018 from 7-8:30 PM. Sales are encouraged and many artists have donated the proceeds back to the Griffin.

Prospectus

CALL FOR ENTRIES: WINTER SOLSTICE SHOW
Griffin Museum of Photography’s ALL Members Show

Exhibit dates: December 6 – December 30, 2018
Reception: December 6, 2017 from 7-8:30pm
67 Shore Road, Winchester MA 01890

ELIGIBILITY: This Call for Entries is open to all Member photographers. There is no entry fee.

Entrants must be members of the Griffin Museum of Photography (with expiration after 12/08/2018). The Griffin Museum invites photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought to participate. Experimental and mixed techniques are welcome. We accept only one image that you’ve carefully considered. Artwork submitted must be original and by the submitter. Framed images must be no larger than 16 x 20 inches framed. Frame must be ready to hang.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Work must ARRIVE at the Griffin between November 16, 2018 – November 30, 2018.

We are not open on Mondays. Our hours are noon to 4 PM. If you need something outside of those hours, call us to see if we can handle your request.

HOW TO ENTER:
Use the digital portal on our website for submitting:

  1. Submit jpg file of photograph. 300 dpi rgb. more or less 4×6 inches. Name your file: your last name_your first name.jpg. We will use images for website, to plan layout, for media and possibly for catalogue if found we can handle it in time.
  2. Sale Price
  3. Title of Photograph
  4. Creation Date
  5. Medium (i.e. archival inkjet print, silver gelatin print)
  6. Size of framed print
  7. Download loan agreement on website, read, sign and return to the Griffin Museum with framed piece. Any questions email: iaritza@griffinmuseum.org.
  8. Download Winter Solstice Form and attach to back of framed piece, filled out.
  9. Will piece be dropped off or shipped?

Loan Agreement: LAST NAME_ First NAME_Loan_Agreement_ or Word Doc version 
Winter Solstice Form to go on back of frame: Winter Solstice Form to go on back of framed print

If we do not receive submission before November 30th (when work is due in museum) work will not be included.

IMAGE PREPARATION:

  • Framed and ready to hang
  • Framed piece may not exceed 16×20 inches
  • Must include artist name on the back of your frame with form attached.
  • Must include complete form sheet on the back of frame

MAILED SUBMISSIONS:

  • Please include complete Winter Solstice Form link and return to Griffin Museum to put on back of framed piece.
  • Label package “Winter Solstice Members’ Show 18”
  • Must include return shipping label with package

Mail to:

Griffin Museum Winter Solstice Show 2018
67 Shore Road
Winchester, MA 01890

We will ship immediately after show so please expect to receive the package soon after the exhibition is over. (See loan agreement link for more information)

DROP OFF / PICK UP:
The museum does not have sufficient space to store work that has been dropped off. Work can not be removed from wall on Dec. 30, 2018. You are responsible to pick-up immediately after the exhibition is over on January 8, 2019 from noon – 4 PM. We need to organize 150 pieces for return.  (See Loan Agreement link for more information)

EXHIBIT PRINTS: All images submitted for exhibition must be printed and framed professionally with either glass or plexi. The Griffin Museum recognizes that some work is non-traditional and incorporates the framing as an integral part of the presentation. Artists will be responsible for shipping their framed images to the Griffin Museum in advance of the gallery show and for supplying a pre-paid return-shipping label. All must provide the signed Loan Agreement Contract and Winter Solstice Form. See link above. (To Come)

SALES: All work accepted for the Winter Solstice gallery show must be for sale. The Griffin Museum will retain a 35% commission on the sale of any work with the option to give all proceeds to the Griffin Museum. Thank you so much if you choose this option.

USE RIGHTS: Artists maintain copyright on all of their work. By submission, artists grant the Griffin Museum the right to use their images for the purpose of marketing the exhibition and other Griffin Museum programs; and for reproduction online, social media and in a print exhibition catalogue. Artists grant the use of their image(s) as stated without further contact or compensation from the Griffin. Artist’s recognition is provided with any use. Submitting artists will be added to the Griffin Museum’s monthly newsletter subscriber list. They may opt out using a link on each newsletter at any time. Any questions, please email iaritza@griffinmuseum.org

We always look forward to our members show. You make our everyday happen!
Thank you for being a part of the Griffin community.

Image accompanying post by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano

The Race: Tales in Flight

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Laconia Gallery Presents The Race: Tales in Flight
433 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118
Laconia Gallery is run by the Laconia Artists Corporation (LAC), a non-profit 501(c)3 organization.

For this exhibition Laconia Gallery will be open Tuesday through Saturday, Noon to 4 PM.
Closed on Sundays and Mondays. Closed November 21, 22, 23 and 24, 2018.
There will be a Film Screening called “Living in the Story” with film director Lynn Estomin on November 11th at Laconia Gallery from 4 – 6 PM
There are Limited tickets that must be purchased in advance. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

[Patrick] Nagatani’s  novel “The Race: Tales in Flight” is the story of the discovery of Supermarine Spitfire aircraft buried in Burma at the end of World War II. The aircraft are brought to Tokyo and transformed with new technology into state-of-the-art floatplanes. Fifteen women pilots are selected to participate in a trans-Pacific race from Tokyo to San Francisco.

The exhibition features a portrait of each plane flying into solitude. Each image must then be de-coded within terms of the larger subjects of challenges, gender, ethnicity, society, individuality, joy, technology, environmental disorder, the color of the plane, the color of the sky, and the history and magic of these concepts.

The Prologue of the novel sets up the logistics and story behind Keiko Kobahashi and introduces the diverse international group of women pilots. The “Training” chapter examines some of the concerns and interests of the women, as well as the camaraderie and respect that’s established between them. Each subsequent chapter is the pilot’s story while flying in the race.

The novel, in essence, is not about the race but the stories that each pilot has and the issues that they are dealing with in their lives. Most important is the catharsis that occurs in dealing with these issues as they fly alone in the vastness of earth space and clouds. They are in control in this tight little cockpit and there is a lot of time to think.

The outer and the inner is the essence of the novel. Outer vast physical space simultaneously exists with the inner psychological thinking of the pilots. Each pilot comes to terms with what she is dealing with. Catharsis hopefully occurs as the will to live and embrace the moment and contribute to humanity is realized.

[Patrick Nagatani passed away at home almost a year ago on October 27, 2017 from cancer at the age of 72. He lived to see his book completed and had a book signing at the Aluquerque Museum a week before his death.] He [was] first and foremost a long time visual artist who [had] recently challenged himself with creative writing. Much of his past work has evolved around storytelling and narrative fiction as photographic “fact”. He has dwelled in the land of fiction and magic with his images and now does so in this novel. Additionally, he is choreographing the creative writing of 12 other writers who are contributing to the novel. The images here will be at the beginning of each chapter of the pilots’ stories. They are meant to illustrate the novel with a feeling of flying spirit and magical space.

The choice of work and “The Race” images in this exhibition are meant to examine and develop a dialogue between the physical and the spiritual; something that Nagatani [had] in a daily conversation with his cancer. “The Race” images hope to form the connections in this dialogue of a Yin Yang nature.

– Liz Kay

Used with permission from Liz Kay,  Andrew Smith Gallery, Tuscon, Arizona. Direct all inquiries on purchase of Patrick Nagatani’s work to the Andrew Smith Gallery.

A SPECIAL NOTE FROM PATRICK NAGATANI (about his show at the Andrew Smith Gallery in 2013)

“This exhibition comes at a crazy time for me. In dealing with metastatic cancer stage 4 for the 5 months (radiation and now heavy duty chemotherapy) I have been dealing with the realization of impermanence and have been introspective of the spiritual and the physical aspect of my life as it is. I have tried to be in the moment and totally enjoy what life has to offer. I have chemo brain (good for writing and playing blackjack) and chemo emo (cry and cuss a lot and mostly happy). So Andrew Smith has graciously invited me to have the inaugural show of his recent gallery for contemporary work in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has let me curate the show and I have chosen work that hopefully establishes a dialogue between the spiritual and the physical, the inner and outer, the mind and the body. I will be showing work from my Novellas series, 24 Buddhist tape-estries and images from my ongoing novel, The Race (developed with the help and expertise of Scott Rankin, Christopher Kaltenbach, and my visual technical collaborator and designer, Randi Ganulin.) Most of the work has never been exhibited in New Mexico. I hope to see you at this special and exciting exhibition. Namaste! December 2013.” – PN

Recently retired [in 2007] as a distinguished professor of photography at the University of New Mexico, Patrick Nagatani continue[d] to produce entertaining and thought-provoking photographic works that deal with various facets of the human condition. Along with tableaux artists Thomas Demand, Gregory Crewdson and Sandy Skoglund, Nagatani pioneered the Contemporary Constructed Photographic Movement in the late 1970s. He has been highly influential in developing a vocabulary of ideas and presentation based on directing, producing and constructing photographs, sets, sculptures, magazine and newspaper articles, models, and paintings as the subjects of his tableaus.

Nagatani design[ed] each photograph both with the creation of subject matter and by manipulating the scenes photographically by adjusting the camera’s narrow depth of field with forced perspective, a filmmaking technique used to create optical illusions, such as making objects appear smaller or larger, or appear far away when set space is limited. Having built and then photographed his sets, Nagatani print[ed] the images as Polaroid, Cibachrome or Ilfoflex photographs before destroying the sets.

With an innate sense of magical realism, Nagatani encompasses such diverse subjects as Buddhism, gender and ethnic injustice and paradoxes, the creation and history of nuclear modernity, Japanese-American heritage, history of photography, theories of media as the message, bodybuilding, color, light, healing, cancer, technology, magic, counting cards, family, favorite dogs and toys, falling out of the sky and flying into it. Each print is coded with multiple visual layers of clues and information, which lead to unrelated parallel strands of vision and emotion.The intensity of his subject matter is softened by the sheer beauty of the images and the humor he often brings to them. – Liz Kay

On our website we have shown 16 photographs. There are twenty photographs in the exhibition. We thought we wouldn’t spoil the ending for you here. Come see the exhibition Presented by Laconia Gallery 433 Harrison Avenue in the South End. For the duration of this show, the gallery will be open Tuesday through Saturday, Noon to 4 PM. Closed on Sundays and Mondays. Closed November 21, 22, 23 and 24, 2018.

A Murder of Crows

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Artist Statements
My first trip to Southeast Asia in April 2018 found me attracted to the symbiotic life and culture of the rivers, lakes, and ocean bays of Vietnam and Cambodia. I have been rendering these captures  mostly as references or sketches to create dreamy, evocative spaces and places that transform the viewers sense of location and reality. Anonymity and references to painting are important to the mood I am attempting to convey. The alterations and enhancements, the manipulations of color and form add to the emotional response I am seeking from the viewer. There is often no consideration to reveal the content as it was.

This approach has carried over to a body of evolving work “Murder,” a yearly annoying  invasion of crows in the town where I live, into an artistic, whimsical body of work. (A flock of crows is referred to as a “murder.” )

With my discovery of Instagram a year ago,   I have been excited to dig deeper into the art/photo universe and I gratefully receive inspiration on a daily basis from other artists who excite me. My Instagram presence features many of the subjects I love.

Bio
Lawrence Manning’s personal and professional goals and life changed when he served as a Peace Corps English teacher and independent educational media consultant in Africa from 1969 through 1976. Not only did his entire global view and perception shift, but he passionately  fell in love with taking pictures.

In 1976 he returned to the United States and was fortunate to be hired as a staff photographer at a fortune 500 company. He learned a great deal of his craft and knowledge while on the job making technical images as well as working with portraiture and journalistic news within the company.

By 1983 he opened his own freelance business and became intensely involved and  invested in the early days of stock photography while pursuing commercial work.  This business eventually evolved into Hill Street Studios, a full time commercial media production studio.

In 2004, HSS with 21 other major producers of stock imagery formed Blend Images, the first stock agency dedicated to producing ethnic business and lifestyle imagery. His commercial and stock   images have appeared virtually everywhere in the world from small marketing campaigns to large scale advertising campaigns.

By 2016, the photography world had changed. With the evolution of the internet, the ubiquity of everyone being a photographer, and the saturation of stock photography, business declined and  he began to seek projects that would challenge his creative needs, to give himself assignments and challenges,  and  commit his time and passion to creating a new more individualistic artistic style.

In the past two years he has seriously been experimenting, altering, and enhancing his images in post production and the production of art prints. His art often is an enhancement of what might be termed “street photography” to more dreamlike impressions with a painterly look.

Instagram

Website

 

On the Water in Southeast Asia

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Lawrence Manning – Photographer
Griffin Museum of Photography – Critic

Artist Statement
My first trip to Southeast Asia in April 2018 found me attracted to the symbiotic life and culture of the rivers, lakes, and ocean bays of Vietnam and Cambodia. I have been rendering these captures  mostly as references or sketches to create dreamy, evocative spaces and places that transform the viewers sense of location and reality. Anonymity and references to painting are important to the mood I am attempting to convey. The alterations and enhancements, the manipulations of color and form add to the emotional response I am seeking from the viewer. There is often no consideration to reveal the content as it was.

This approach has carried over to a body of evolving work “Murder,” a yearly  annoying  invasion of crows in the town where I live, into an artistic, whimsical body of work. (A flock of crows is referred to as a “murder.” )

With my discovery of Instagram a year ago,   I have been excited to dig deeper into the art/photo universe and I gratefully receive inspiration on a daily basis from other artists who excite me. My Instagram presence features many of the subjects I love.

Bio
Lawrence Manning’s personal and professional goals and life changed when he served as a Peace Corps English teacher and independent educational media consultant in Africa from 1969 through 1976. Not only did his entire global view and perception shift, but he passionately  fell in love with taking pictures. 

In 1976 he returned to the United States and was fortunate to be hired as a staff photographer at a fortune 500 company. He learned a great deal of his craft and knowledge while on the job making technical images as well as working with portraiture and journalistic news within the company.

By 1983 he opened his own freelance business and became intensely involved and  invested in the early days of stock photography while pursuing commercial work.  This business eventually evolved into Hill Street Studios, a full time commercial media production studio.

In 2004, HSS with 21 other major producers of stock imagery formed Blend Images, the first stock agency dedicated to producing ethnic business and lifestyle imagery. His commercial and stock   images have appeared virtually everywhere in the world from small marketing campaigns to large scale advertising campaigns. 

By 2016, the photography world had changed. With the evolution of the internet, the ubiquity of everyone being a photographer, and the saturation of stock photography, business declined and  he began to seek projects that would challenge his creative needs, to give himself assignments and challenges,  and  commit his time and passion to creating a new more individualistic artistic style.

In the past two years he has seriously been experimenting, altering, and enhancing his images in post production and the production of art prints. His art often is an enhancement of what might be termed “street photography” to more dreamlike impressions with a painterly look.

Instagram

Website

Martello Tower Project

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Statement
Martello Towers dot the coast of Dublin and then more sporadically the coast of Ireland. They have been in my peripheral vision since we first started visiting our family in Dublin fifty years ago. Though they have been ever-present it is only in the last few years that I have come to know more about the history and intended use of the Martello Towers.

After deciding to document these beautifully situated structures I purchased a tiny book published in the 70s by Victor J. Enoch, an American man who had owned and lived in a Martello Tower in Killiney, South Dublin. My initial intent was to find out where all the towers stood, to have a road map. However this small book provided me with information well beyond location.

Prior to reading this publication my knowledge as a child was none, not even the name of them. Then as a young adult the fact that Bono from U2 bought and lived in a Martello Tower made me much more conscious of their existence. Years passed, and Bono moved out of his tower. I then had the idea to document a different kind of structure in Ireland but my cousin Ann quickly redirected me to the Martello Towers for which I am ever grateful.

Ann O’Laoghaire told me in no uncertain terms that the Martello Towers were a much more interesting project because of how varied their uses are currently. Some are homes, others are museums–including the James Joyce Museum where Ulysses began from, tower number 11 in Sandycove–and many are derelict.  They are all numbered.

The towers were originally built in 1804-1805 to defend against a Napoleonic invasion by sea. Napoleon never came and Victor J. Enoch’s book informs that the towers did in fact deter what seemed to be the inevitable. The Martello Towers were built closely together so as to function as signal towers. When standing at one you will surely see at least one other. In Dublin you will see one to the left and one to the right. There are more in other countries too but Ireland is the filter through which I chose to document the towers.

Documenting each tower has been its own adventure, traveling by land and by sea to reach them has all been quite remarkable. The information people have shared, the help people have given me and the moments of awe as I stand solitary in the presence of these historical, coastal towers has been an honor. I have four towers left to document and when my project is complete I will have captured all 37 remaining towers in Ireland. 

 

Bio
Tricia O’Neill has been making photographs since the 1970’s. She formalized her love of photography by completing a fine arts degree at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University in 2007. Tricia studied film photography and digital photography at the SMFA, rendering her a versatile photographer with knowledge of both analog and digital photography. Tricia also studied the art of hand lettering at Butera School of Art and founded the company Signs Unique in 1986. Photography and the completion of a fine art degree are fitting extensions of Tricia’s creative endeavors. Tricia’s years behind the brush–painting signs and murals–informs her photography.

Tricia works in a documentary style. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Northeast, in solo shows, juried shows, group shows and is in private collections.

 

Website

Strange World

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Statement

Strange World
The World We Never Know.

No one can be exempted from the need of sleep. In sleep, we are restored and refreshed while suspending between bodily functions and consciousness. We do not know what was happening when lying asleep. Further, those almost in trance are cut off from the reality. What is the relationship between the actual world and the realm reigned by Hypnos? 

As a photographer, the camera was applied to expend my vision. It record what was going on when I was in deep sleep and visual sensation was closed. The camera lens was set up to focus on the surroundings such as ceilings, walls, and corners of my room. The shutter of camera would take pictures when I was not awake. When my perception was limited and cut off from the usual, the camera started to see, to reveal the world I never saw. 

Every day and every night several kinds of light, came from the street-lamps, headlights and so on, went through the windows and reflected around. Rays of light implied that something travelled through time and space. The light caught by my camera left a stroke, a layer on the film. In other words, something or someone passed by, but their traces entered my room, and being record by my camera. 

Layers of light, from the world we are familiar, accumulated on the film, and thus developed an unfamiliar world. In a parallel, we are strangers to the world during our sleep. By the use of camera, the time of sleep could be collected as remains of light and colors. As a result, a strange, yet fantastic, world to all would be created and become visible 

Bio
Wen-Han Chang was born in Kaohsiung, a southern city of Taiwan, in 1982. His journey into photography began in university. While doing his BS in physics, he studied light, and was fascinated with laser photography and optics. Soon, he found that he loved photography more than physics, so he decided to forfeit his masters degree in physics. 

Time went on until the 2008 financial crisis, he was laid off from an engineering job and left nothing except his camera. In order to try if the career of photography could be continued, he signed up for the 2008 EPSON contest, of which the judges were all Japanese, including Daido Moriyama, Mitsuo Katsui, and so forth. The first prize came when he almost gave up taking photos. Following that, more try rewarded him with international competitions and prizes, such as PX3 and IPA. 

From 2009 to 2017, he worked as a medical photographer. The work led him to a professional field consisted of photographing procedures, such as heart surgery, and documenting patients’ visible symptoms. The work was fascinating, but didn’t satisfy his artist’s soul. Therefore, he quitted his job in 2017 for his true passion, abstract photography. Now, he is studying MFA in Photography at School of Visual Arts, continuing his exploration of time, light and space through photography. 

 

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