Griffin Museum of Photography

Rachel Loischild: Not As Of Yet Stories of Aftermath and the Unknown

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Not as of Yet: Stories of Aftermath and the Unknown quietly explores ideas of both literal aftermaths alongside surreal images of unknown circumstances, the ambiguous nature of these photographs offering the viewer space for their own serenity or anxieties. The combinations of these landscapes become representations of Rachel Loischild’s history and perturbations. The exhibition runs during FlashPoint Boston.

Not As of Yet started in 2011 after Hurricane Irene caused the Connecticut River to overflow its bounds flooding its low-lying banks. After the water receded, the river left its silt and clay clinging to all it touched. The destructive waters marking the flood line of about nine feet, visually desaturating the lower half of the world, destroying crops, homes and affecting all it touched, creating a surreal environment Loischild could not ignore – or fully understand.

In this work, Rachel aims to reinterpret the standard trope of the inviting bucolic large format landscape photograph. Still drawing the viewer in visually, but instead of inviting the viewer to visit the awe-inspiring vista of a national park, she presents subtle unsettling views of what has happened, both real and imagined. These photographs meander from the aftermath of hurricanes to the settings of the Catholic churches sex abuse, from visual mountains created in the building of a suburban mall to alien abduction, from the effects of floods to the venues of her childhood nightmares, from the disrupted terrain of new growth after a highway was rebuilt to the disquiet experienced as a woman when walking alone – the scheme of societal dangers imposing on one’s psyche. Altogether these images serve as quiet landscapes waiting for the viewer. This ongoing series of landscape based photos shot on film with a 4×5 camera explores the emotional complexity of the history of these spaces.

Rachel Loischild is a Boston-based artist and photographer as well as a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Photography. She holds her MFA in photography from Pratt Institute and her BA in studio art from Clark University. Her work has been widely shown nationally at galleries and museums, and internationally at the Jounju Photo Festival in Korea, she was also recognized by the Inge Morath Foundation in IM magazine for her photo essay Estate Sales and in Landscape Stories magazine of Italy for her project Drive-in. Her work is held in numerous collections including the Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Canadian based Magenta Foundation for Photography. Additionally, Loischild is a recent recipient of the City of Boston Arts Opportunity grant. Rachel teaches photography at Clark University and is the Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Pine Manor College.

Donna Tramontozzi: Optical Shards

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During the rush of everyday life, one forgets about the visual beauty that light creates. Donna Tramontozzi’s photographs are a representation of those moments that disappear.

Optical Shards by Donna Tramontozzi, is featured in the Griffin Museum @ Colson Gallery in Easthampton, MA from June 9, 2017 through August 27, 2017. The gallery is located at 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton. MA. The exhibit will run with Love Song: Intimate Portraits by Arnold Skolnick that runs through end of June, followed by Eyes of Western Mass. with reception on July 14, 2017 from 6-8 PM.

Tramontozzi says of her work, “When I photograph reflections, I muse on feelings I had forgotten to feel, details I must have missed, dreams I can’t quite recall, conversations I don’t understand, and places I didn’t experience in my rush through life. Just out of reach, but for me, still worth pursuing.”

Currently based in Boston, Tramontozzi has studied at the Santa Fe Photographic workshops and has participated in Atelier 22, 23 and 24 at Griffin Museum of Photography. Her work has also been part of the juried show, Projections! Art on the Brewery Wall, at the Jamaica Plain Open Studios. Her photo has also been featured as the cover of the best selling textbook. Currently, Donna is a corporator on the Griffin Museum Board of Directors.

Ioana Moldovan: Aging Romania

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Aging Romania
Critic: Griffin Museum of Photography

Statement

Romania’s population is getting older with each generation. Economic instability and lack of job prospects have decreased the country’s birthrate and at the same time people simply live longer than they used to 100 or even 50 years ago. Romania’s aging population is a topic of public discussion but only in terms of money. Pension fund deficits are making news headlines at least twice a year within governmental budget decisions. Public policies regarding the elderly though are seldom thought of, let alone planned and approved by public authorities.

Is longevity a gift in Romania or rather a commodity that expires if people’s money run out?

About

Ioana Moldovan is a freelance photojournalist, documentary photographer and writer based in Bucharest, Romania. Her work has been published by The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, Huffington Post, LensCulture, Radio France Internationale and Vice among others. She has also worked on multimedia projects funded by the European Commission and Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

In 2016 she took part in the Eddie Adams Workshop and was awarded The Bill Eppridge Memorial Award for Excellence and Truth in Photographic Journalism. The U.S. Embassy in Bucharest presented her with the “Women of courage” award for outstanding achievement in highlighting truth through photojournalism.

Ioana Moldovan was one of the ten Eastern-European photographers selected for a Masterclass in Documentary Photography by the Dutch NOOR Photo Agency. Her photos have illustrated books, were shown in theatre shows, accompanied an international event at the Grand Palais Museum in Paris, France and some were selected in the Top 40 of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken on BuzzFeed.

website: http://ioanamoldovan.com

“Unscene” – Griffin Museum of Photography POP-UP at Pearl Street Gallery, Chelsea

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Part of Chelsea Art Walk, at Pearl Street Gallery (100 Pearl Street, Chelsea)
Gallery hours are June 17th and 18th, 12:00 – 6:00 pm
Opening Reception: June 17th 2017, 6:00 – 8:30 pm

Unscene – A scene that was seen, but not. The three bodies of work in this show, Unchartered Constellations, The Intimacy of Distance, and Terra Novus (New Land), all are depicting things that are there and not there at the same time.

Jane Yudelman, in Unchartered Constellations, has made space-scapes out of problematic spectral highlights that presented while photographing snow. What we get, instead, are galaxies where our imagination can go and contemplate what is and what could be.

 

Gregory Albertson’s series, The Intimacy of Distance, is made of ethereal landscapes taking us somewhere between earth and the moon, between here and there. In his images, made from stacked-focused shots of bark, we can go to places unknown, places we might begin to recognize from our dreams, and if we use all our senses, we might be aware of stardust echoing back our journey from places where we might have come.

 

Amy Rindskopf’s series, Terra Novus (New Land), tethers us right here to Mother Earth. Her images draw us in to the plants that nurture us, the fruits that feeds us. Her landscapes undulate from the kitchen table and take us to places where we can contemplate the earth and the sun, and give thanks for the harvests that keep us strong.

 

The Visual Metric

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Anyone from a manufacturing background has a propensity for visual depictions of measurement, process and outcome. Whether it be an excel graph for tracking a trend, a work flow diagram following a widget through production or a fish bone chart to problem solve, it is easier to analyze with a pictorial rendering than a spread sheet of raw numbers or a written description of a procedure. This is the thread of the idea leading to “The Visual Metric” exhibition for the Griffin Museum of Photography.

What is a metric? Loosely put, a metric is a system for measuring the relationship between linked elements. Creating a metric involves unbiased observation over a period of time, mapping observations into numbers, and creating ratios that have a relationship to the outcome. The result of the ratio is the metric.

Metrics can also mean the measure of a meter. While the metric system never quite took hold in the United States as the daily norm for measure, we rely on conversion charts to understand the meaning when presented to us.

Recently a friend took me to the hospital due to an injury I incurred. The hospital set me in a chair to weigh me. When I realized what they were doing I told my friend to leave the room. The nurse told me not to worry as the scale reported in kilograms and nobody understands what that means. I asked my friend if she could convert kilograms to pounds. “Not even if my life depended on it,” she replied.

For the purpose of this exhibition I did not intend to actually hold fast to statistical principles but only suggest scientific measure. In the end I am more concerned with the poetry of the visual metric rather than in its veracity.

In finding candidates to exhibit, I looked for photographs that visually mapped, measured, analyzed, or implied a system of topological relationships albeit sometimes imprecisely. As the curator, I take great enjoyment from exercising curatorial license as in this exhibit. Photographers submitted selections for me based on a “call for entry.” Other photographers I invited from my recollection of their work. There are fifty photographs in this exhibition and forty-two photographers. Two of these photographers work collaboratively. The artists come from all over the United States and Canada. The artists included are:

Roger Archibald, Julie Anand and Damon Sauer, Rachel Barrett, Karen Bell, Meg Birnbaum, Joy Bush, Kim Campbell, Richard Alan Cohen, Charan Devereaux, Norm Diamond, Randi Ganulin, Karen Garrett de Luna, Steve Gentile, Mary Daniel Hobson, Carol Isaak, Andrew Janjigian, Frances Jakubek, Doug Johnson, Marky Kauffmann, Sant Khalsa, Tom Lamb, Susan Lapides, Ralph Mercer, Noritaka Minami, Adam Neese, Troy Paiva, Barry Rosenthal, Daryl-Ann Saunders, Nicolo Sertorio, Sara Silks, Jean Sousa, Jane Szabo, JP Terlizzi, Donna Tramontozzi, David Weinberg, Grace Weston, Julie Williams-Krishnan, Susan Wilson, DM Witman, Dianne Yudelson, and Charlyn Zlotnik.

Collaborators Julie Anand and Damon Sauer photographed “a system of 256 calibration targets that were created as part of a secret surveillance program in the mid-1960s in the Sonoran Desert.” In addition they mapped “specific satellites present in the sky at each site at the moment of photographing using a satellite tracking application.” (Anand and Sauer)

Noritaka Minami photographs the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. Architect Kisho-Kurokawa, built the tower in 1972. “The …… aim was to formulate flexible designs that facilitate continual growth and renewal of architecture. Kurokawa attached the building with 140 removable capsules to promote modifications to the structure over time, theoretically improving its capacity to adjust to the rapidly changing conditions of the post-industrial society.” (Minami)

Dianne Yudelson sets up a scene of measuring tape and a pattern for making clothing. She says, “My image represents the process of how we use measurement to map our bodies.” Jane Szabo created a dress made out of maps, while JP Terlizzi stitched on a photograph of his mother. Karen Bell presents her stiches on her hand while Carol Isaak photographs a tracing of a hand.

“In today’s world, consumer goods are increasing in volume. At the same time their useful lives are shorter and shorter,” says Barry Rosenthal. He lines up and photographs in a manner as if to count all the objects that he’s pulled from the shores of New York Harbor. David Weinberg lays out pomegranate seeds in a similar way.

Several photographers measured time in different ways. Meg Birnbaum and Randi Ganulin used tree rings as a metric. Donna Tramontozzi photographed the marks on the wall of a familial home where a family watched all of the children grow. Susan Lapides makes a comparison of the time in different times zones. Jean Sousa presents a body turning to stone.

Mapping was presented in multiple ways by globes, aerial views and land and terrain maps. Roger Archibald photographed random snails’ trails. Geometry is also woven through the exhibition in architecture and the landscape. Kim Campbell maps a process while Norm Diamond charts the colors for a painting.

“The Visual Metric” has been organized to flow as a narrative from the beginning to end of the passageway. We hope our audience enjoys the exhibit and finds more interpretations of the visual metric within the show. Any questions regarding the artwork can be directed to the Griffin Museum at 781-729-1158 or via email to photos@griffinmuseum.org. We open with the exhibit on August 4, 2017 and end in early November. The exhibit is running during FlashPoint Boston.

We want to thank the Downtown Boston Improvement District and Lafayette City Center for their continued support of the Griffin Museum of Photography. We have enjoyed every moment you have allowed us to exhibit here.

Elin Spring’s review of The Visual Metric

Lost and Found

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Lost and Found
I feel that pain is one of our greatest guides in life. It shows us where we should and should not be and what we are truly made of.
Lost and Found is an ongoing project that began in 2014. It is a document of my journey of self-discovery and enlightenment through loss. Parts of it document the loss of a beloved dog, the experience of living with a grieving grandparent, and the gain and loss of my first romantic relationship.

About

Marijane Ceruti studied Fine Art Photography at the University of Connecticut. Her work has been exhibited in the 2016 Portrait: Photography exhibition at the Black Box Gallery, the 2015 State of Being Human exhibition at the University of Central Oklahoma, the Kerri Gallery in Willimantic, Connecticut as well as the Fairfield Museum 2014 IMAGES exhibition. Her awards include the 2014 Dean’s Award from the University of Connecticut and the 2013 Charles and Pasqua Alaimo Scholarship. She currently resides in her home state of Connecticut.

Website: www.marijaneceruti.com

23rd Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition – Ed Friedman Legacy

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The juror for the Griffin’s Juried Exhibition this year is Hamidah Glasgow. Ms. Glasgow has been the Executive Director and Curator at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado since 2009. Hamidah holds a master’s degree in humanities with a specialization in visual and gender studies and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Hamidah’s contribution to photography has included curatorial projects, national portfolio reviews (FotoFest, Photolucida, Medium, Center, Filter, etc.), professional development education programs, contributions to publications and online magazines and the co-hosting of regional conferences.  Hamidah is also a co-founder of the Strange Fire Collective. This collective is dedicated to photo-based work that engages with current social and political forces, highlighting the work of women, people of color, and queer and trans artists, writers, and curators. Glasgow resides in Colorado.

The 23rd Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition is on display in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum July 6 through September 1, 2017. An opening reception is July 13, 7-8:30 p.m. The opening reception is free to all. Hamidah Glasgow will give an informal gallery talk at 6:15 PM on July 13, 2017 followed by portfolio reviews on July 14th  and portfolio sharing. Portfolio reviews are for members only and on a first come first served.

The 23rd Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition will be named in honor of Ed Friedman, a celebrated Arlington-based photographer who unexpectedly passed away through a tragic accident in July 2016. Ed was an active member of the Griffin Museum. His Old Schwamb Mill photographs were exhibited at the Griffin in 2011. He was also an active member of Gallery Galatea in SoWa and the Cambridge Art Association.

After earning a degree in physics from Carnegie Mellon University, he had a long career working with computers. For a long time, Ed focused on landscape photography, but broadened his approach to include street photography and portraiture. When not working on photographic projects, Friedman worked as a web developer. Ed Friedman was loved and remembered by many. During the 23rd exhibition the Griffin will exhibit a number of Ed Friedman’s photographs from his work.

Alongside the juried exhibition, the Griffin Museum is organizing a series of professional development workshops presented by a diverse range of thought leaders. These workshops will share instrumental ideas, methods and tools to help build the business and legal foundation of a thriving artistic practice.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by the friends of Ed Friedman; Mary Ryan and Joe Rizzo, Mary and Rob Gold, The Maximowicz and McAvoy family, Amy Vreeland. Charlie and Lauren Duerr, Tom Diaz, Paula and Dragan Pajevic, Bill Clougher and Hayes Miller.

Selected Artists (55 photographers/57 photographs): Anne-Laure Autin, Zeren Badar, Hannah Bates, Clare Benson, Richard Boutwell, Alexandra Broches, Robert Calafiore, Lauren Ceike, Rebecca Clark, Lisa Cohen, Virgil DiBiase, Kev Filmore, Randi Freundlich, Preston Gannaway, Randi Ganulin, Amy Giese, Leonard Greco, Joe Greene, Frank Hamrick, Robert Johnson, Gregory Jundanian, Brian Kaplan, David Kelly, Richard Kent, Barbara Kyne, Emily Hamilton Laux, Susan Lirakis, Joshua Littlefield, Ward Long, Joyce P. Lopez, Molly McCall, Alyssa Minahan, Astrid Reischwitz, Suzanne Revy, Amy Rindskopf, Michelle Rogers Pritzl, Charles Rozier, Claudia Ruiz-Gustafson, Joshua Sarinana, Michael Seif, Wendy Seller, Karen Sparacio, Tema Stauffer, John Steck Jr., Robert Sulkin, Jane Szabo, Jerry Takigawa, Sal Taylor Kydd, David Underwood, Claire A. Warden, David Weinberg, Nina Weinberg Doran, Stuart Zaro, Ryan Zoghlin, Mary Zompetti.

AWARDS: $2,500 Ed Friedman Award- Claire A. Warden, $1,000 Arthur Griffin Legacy Award- Charles Rozier, $500 Griffin Award- Hannah Bates, and Honorable Mentions: Randi Ganulin, Molly McCall, Alyssa Minehan, Astrid Reischwitz, Tema Stauffer, Clare Benson, Robert Calafiore.

Director’s Award: Suzanne Revy. Suzanne will receive a catalog of her work and a solo exhibit in the Fall 2017.

Awagami Factory Paper Award, $300 worth of Awagami ‘A.I.J.P’ photo inkjet papers: Jerry Takigawa
Awagami Logo

Exhibitions to run June and July 2018: Catherine Wilcox-Titus and Sheri Lynn Behr/ Russ Rowland and Craig Becker. Each of these four artists will have solo exhibits.

Virtual Gallery to run simultaneously with 23rd Juried Exhibition: Susan Lapides

Critic’s Pick on-line gallery to run simultaneously with 23rd Juried Exhibition: J. Felice Boucher

Instagram exhibition: See web exhibition

Member in Focus: Kay Canavino

 

Juror’s Statement
In my mind and through my eyes, this exhibition is an expression of life, creativity, and ultimately, of love. It is through the lens of love that we cherish the days past and the memories. Emotions of longing, pain, and regret are available through exploring history. While it is our collective love of our humanity and the creatures that inhabit the planet that creates concern for others and our home. Finally are the moments of beauty that remind us to be present.

The lives of images are complicated and in many ways mystifying. As our culture has become a visual society, the images of our lives take on new meaning. While some artists have chosen to create their work by exploring photography in new ways as Claire Warden has done with her series, Mimesis. Others have taken a more traditional route albeit photographing the ordinary and daily moments of family life for over twenty years as Charles Rozier has in his series, House Music. Playing with the notions of the Real, Hannah Bates uses photographic backdrops to play with our senses and push us to examine what we see and understand or think we know.

It is through these artists that we can see the world in a new way. We, in the photography world, are in an exciting time of growth in the myriad of ways that photographic artists can express themselves. Old meets new with a mash-up of approaches and a host of techniques unavailable just a few years ago. While the art isn’t about technique, the ways that people are able to make the work have expanded exponentially. We are the beneficiaries of this wave of innovation and creativity.

My gratitude goes to the artists participating in this exhibition and to The Griffin Museum for inviting me to be the juror.

– Hamidah Glasgow

Purchase the catalog for the 23rd Griffin Museum Juried Exhibition – Ed Friedman Legacy

PHOTOSYNTHESIS XII

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By creating photographic portraits of themselves and their surroundings, students from Burlington High School and Winchester High School have been exploring their sense of self and place in a unique collaborative program at the Griffin Museum.

In its twelthth year, the 5-month program connects approximately 20 students – from each school – with each other and with professional photographers. The goal is to increase students’ awareness of the art of photography, as well as how being from different programs and different schools affects their approach to the same project.

The students were given the task of creating a body of work that communicates a sense of self and place.  They were encouraged to explore the importance of props, the environment, facial expression, metaphor, and body language in portrait photography.

Students met with Cheryle St. Onge, a photographer and educator and Guggenheim Fellow in November.  St. Onge explained her process of finding imagery in the everyday and nature.

Andrew Mroczek met with students in February and discussed the path of his photography career. He reminded students that work can come from a very personal place. His photography and mixed-media work is done in collaboration with artist Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo (Barboza-Gubo & Mroczek) and focuses on themes of masculinity, sexuality, gender, gender-identity, and the effects of patriarchy as a social system; currently focusing on gay and transgender rights in Peru. Students also met with photographer Sam Sweezy to discuss sequencing of images. Sweezy is a professional fineart and commercial photographer and educator who resides in Newton, MA. He has exhibited at major photography venues including the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.

Alison Nordstrom, the former curator of the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., and photographer Sweezy gathered with students for a one-on-one discussion of their work and a final edit was created for the exhibition at the museum.

“In collaboration and through creative discourse these students have grown,” said Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum. “We are very pleased to be able to share this year’s students’ work. We thank the mentors and teachers for providing a very meaningful experience for the students. We also want to thank the Griffin Foundation and the Murphy Foundation, whose continued commitment to this project made learning possible. To paraphrase Elliot Eisner, the arts enabled these students to have an experience that they could have from no other source.’’

Personalities

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In 2006 Gary Beeber began making documentary films of burlesque shows and accompanying side performances. His focus was on people who led unconventional lives. The films he produced led him to the Triad Theater on West 72nd Street in Manhattan where he began to produce Gotham Burlesque and at the same time photograph the performers of the variety shows.

Beeber’s series, “Personalities,” is featured in the Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography from July 6 through September 1, 2017. An opening reception will take place on July 13, 2017 from 7-8:30pm. An informal gallery talk by Hamidah Glasgow will take place at 6:15 PM on July 13th followed by a reception that is open to all. Portfolio reviews with Hamidah will take place on July 14th on a first come first served basis with a portfolio sharing to come.

In Beeber’s exhibition the viewer is introduced to Mona Marlowe a NYC trans-gender nightlife personality. Beeber says, “Mona sacrificed everything in order to become the femme fatale she always wanted to be.” He continues, “When I photographed Mona I remember how intensely the room smelled of perfume.” Other personalities in Beeber’s ensemble include Steve D., a red blooded American with a very strong point of view. Jimmy Mack is another unconventional fellow who Beeber met at a Polar Bear plunge when Mack to raise money for charity arrived in a mermaid costume. Scott Baker (The Twisted Shockmeister), Bettina May (International Burlesque Star), Shelly Watson (the Sinking Siren), Early Ross (late-night host), Mss Vee (late night entertainer), and David Slater (Collage Artist) join the other personalities on the walls of the Griffin Gallery.

Gary Beeber is an award-winning American photographer/filmmaker who has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Europe. Solo exhibitions include two at Generous Miracles Gallery NYC and this show (2017) at The Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.  Beeber’s work has been included in juried exhibitions throughout the country. Among Fortune 500 companies who collect his work are Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Goldman Sachs and Chase Bank.

Prior Pleasures

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Ellen Cantor says of “Prior Pleasures” that in it she celebrates the joy of losing oneself within the pages of a favorite childhood tale especially in an age when technology replaces the tactile experience of reading a book.

Cantor’s series, “Prior Pleasures,” is featured in the Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography” from June 1 through July 4, 2017. An opening reception will take place on June 8, 2017 from 7 – 8:30 PM. Ellen Cantor will do a gallery talk on June 8th at 6:15. All are welcome.

“This series explores memory and preservation of the past while ensuring the creation of a visual legacy for the next generation,” says Cantor. She adds that, “The books photographed for this series are the ones I have carried with me since childhood. My mother read them to me and, in turn, I read them to my children, carrying on a tradition of the written and spoken word.”

Ellen Cantor was born in Chicago, Illinois and lives in Southern California. She is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, Gallery 825 and the 2015 recipient of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Fine Art. Her photographs have been exhibited in Europe, Asia and the United States and have appeared in Lenscratch.com, f-stopmagazine.com, fractionmagazine.com, rfotofolio.com and Silvershotz. In 2016, she exhibited at the Dina Mitrani Gallery, Cob Gallery’s 10 Castle Street Gallery, UK, The Los Angeles Center of Photography, Texas Photographic Society, The Vermont Center for Photography, the Berlin Foto Biennale and USC Hoyt Gallery at USC School of Medicine among others.

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