Griffin Museum of Photography

The Last Stand

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“As a youngster on Cortes Island, in Canada’s Pacific Northwest, I walked daily through the woods to catch the school bus, passing by remnants of the old growth forest. These giant looming stumps, peering through the second growth trees as far as I could see, seemed an ominous presence. They remain so.

Five generations of my family have been a part of the forest industry in British Columbia from falling old growth trees and clear cutting to contributing to local sustainable harvest initiatives and environmental responsibility. My great grandfather and great uncle, in providing for their families and future, fell many of the actual trees whose remnants you now see in these photographs. It was in this familial context, filtered through the contemporary environmental crisis and thoughts of personal responsibilities in that regard, that the seeds of this series were sown.

As this project began the iconic remains of the old forest first served as a meditation on the human- altered landscape but soon evolved into a metaphor for the natural world, contemporary globalized culture and the essential incompatibility of the two. This incompatibility is evident in the forests through the historical lens of conflicting cultural and social attitudes. British Columbia’s aboriginal people harvested trees as needed by their local communities over the millennia – a truly sustainable approach reflected in the majestic forests found by the arriving Europeans. Colonists added an overriding attitude of “commodification” to activities in the forests, extracting timber for sale into the expanding global market and contributing to serious concerns about the long-term sustainability of forest ecosystems.

The cognitive dissonance arising from this dilemma of participation in, and yet responsibility for, the fouling of one’s own nest was a dominant theme guiding the creation of these photographs. This discomfort from holding conflicting beliefs or ideals, and perhaps more importantly where it leads one, remains a key motivator in my work.

Although the pattern of progress and disaster has been repeated throughout human history, the urgency I now feel in our globalized world is one of scale…a scale said to be so vast, perhaps nearing a point of no return. No doubt evolution is progressing as it should, which brings some measure of comfort, yet I cannot help but feel apprehension for the life my family will lead in the not-too-distant future.”

View the LensCulture video on “The Last Stand”.

b. 1969, Campbell River, BC, Canada
Lives and works in Victoria, Vancouver and on Cortes Island, BC, Canada.

David Ellingsen is a Canadian photographer and environmental artist creating images of site-specific installations, landscapes and object studies that speak to the natural world and Man’s impact upon it. Ellingsen acts as archivist, surrealist and storyteller as he calls attention to the contemporary state of the environment both directly and through conceptual, subversive commentary about our consumerist society. Ellingsen’s images engage questions around the transience and temporality of existence and his thematic subjects are marked by simplicity, empathy and a wounded sense of humanity’s fate.

Ellingsen began his artistic career studying the craft of photography at a trade institute, through apprenticeships and then working as a freelance editorial and advertising photographer with clients that included the New York Times Magazine, Mens Journal, CBC Radio Canada, Telus and MTV/Nickelodeon. Simultaneously, Ellingsen was exhibiting his personal artwork within public and private galleries in Canada, the USA, and Asia and appearing as a guest speaker and instructor at educational institutions in British Columbia such as the Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Langara College. Ellingsen continued this hybrid path for 12 years and then in 2013 focused fully on his artistic practice.

Ellingsen’s photographs are part of the permanent collections of the Chinese Museum of Photography and Vancouver’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum and have been shortlisted for Photolucida’s Critical Mass Book Award, awarded First Place at the Prix de la Photographie Paris and First Place at the International Photography Awards in Los Angeles.

Ellingsen lives and makes his work in Canada’s Pacific Northwest, moving between Victoria, Vancouver and the farm where he was raised on the remote island of Cortes.

CONTACT

www.davidellingsen.com david@davidellingsen.com

Kalacharam

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Kalacharam

The Bindi Collection and Morning Poetry

Photographs by Julie Williams-Krishnan

“Kalacharam” means “culture” in the south Indian language Tamil. Under this primary theme, Julie Williams-Krishnan presents two exhibitions: The Bindi Collection,  and Morning Poetry.

Williams-Krishnan’s series, “The Bindi Collection” and “Morning Poetry,” are featured in the Griffin @ the Colson Gallery in Easthamton, MA. March 21 – May 21, 2016.

Williams-Krishnan has been traveling regularly to Chennai in south India since 2007. These trips are made to visit her husband’s family, who is based in Chennai. As a Caucasian originally from a small town in Pennsylvania, Williams-Krishnan says, “I use photography as a way to observe, process, and celebrate my growing familiarity with my south Indian family and the region. The three bodies of work on display here are all shot in the family home, where Tamil is spoken, Brahmin traditions are strictly observe my understanding of a place that is my home, but even after all these years, remains fascinating.”

In Hindu tradition, the third eye is referred to as the “the eye of knowledge,” the seat of the “teacher inside.” This is denoted with a dot or mark on the forehead between the brows. It is a state of having deeply personal, spiritual or psychological significance. In The Bindi Collection, Williams-Krishnan has photographed her mother-in-law’s bindis after she wears them. She sticks them to the wall to re-use another day – a habit shared by Hindu women throughout India. Williams-Krishnan discovered this custom upon her first visit to her husband’s family home. The Bindi Collection has been photographed over several years in Chennai, India and London, United Kingdom. Currently comprised of twenty images, the collection is trace evidence of a growing relationship and understanding between mother and daughter-in-law, as well as social commentary and anthropological study. Once Amma realized Williams-Krishnan was photographing her bindis, she began to remove them from the walls prior to visits. They are now a rare and precious find.

Morning Poetry was photographed one morning in and around the family home. As prayers were being said, and food was being prepared, Williams-Krishnan breathed in the morning, with all its blessings, and wondered around the house responding to the call of the day.

Julie Williams-Krishnan holds a MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster in London, UK. Based in Boston Massachusetts since 2010, Julie lived in London, UK for more than 16 years and has traveled to more than 60 countries. She is the Director of Programs at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Traces

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Delving into the past has long been a passion for photographer Ellen Toby Slotnick. It began with photographing on archaeological excavations, and then photographing the recovered artifacts. Years later, Slotnick is still photographing what has been left behind: abandoned churches, schools, farmhouses and the artifacts they hold. Fine art photographer, Slotnick started out as an archaeological photographer in Israel documenting excavations and photographing finds for publication. Her current work, Traces, reflects her early interest in what is left behind, in this case, in Rugby ND where individual farms are rapidly disappearing. Slotnick’s fascination with Rugby began in 2013 and called her back for the next three years.

Ellen Toby Slotnick’s  Traces will be featured in the Griffin Museum’s Atelier Gallery at the Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA, April 11 – June 11, 2017. A reception will take place on April 11 from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM. Traces runs parallel to the theater’s productions of “Gabriel” and “MacBeth and I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spagetti.”

 

“Each vacated farmhouse, church or school I came upon was vacated for basically the same reason. Economics,” says Ellen Toby Slotnick. She goes on to say, “The business of farming has become such that it is far more cost-effective to farm square miles rather than square acres. So consortiums were formed and fields were planted where families had lived. The families moved into town. The remnants of the lives that inhabited the structures make each and every building tell its own story,” she says.

Ellen’s work is held at the Danforth Museum of Art, Newton-Wellesley Hospital and in private collections internationally. She is a 2016 Finalist in Critical Mass, an international portfolio online competition.

Ellen holds a BS degree in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. She also holds an MBA from Simmons College in Boston.

Return to the Clouds

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The Griffin Museum of Photography Brings Fran Forman to Massachusetts State House

 

The Griffin Museum of Photography is proud to announce that we have been invited by Senator Jason Lewis to exhibit at the Massachusetts State House. The Griffin has chosen Watertown artist Fran Forman to exhibit Return to the Clouds. The exhibit is the 12th installment of a new Senate effort to showcase local art from across Massachusetts outside of the Senate Chamber at the State House in Boston.

Return to the Clouds exhibition will run at the Massachusetts State House from March 18, 2017 – June 1, 2017. An opening reception will be April 27, 2017 from 3-5 PM. The exhibition will be shown in Room 426 of the State House which is the room where the Senate will temporarily meet in spring due to renovations of the Senate Chambers and the Lobby where exhibits usually take place.”

“The Griffin Museum of Photography is one of our region’s most impressive cultural institutions and a treasured Winchester destination,” said Senator Jason Lewis.  “I’m thrilled that the Griffin Museum will have the opportunity to showcase an exhibit at the State House to give the entire Commonwealth a taste of our local flavor.”

The Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of photography Paula Tognarelli is the curator of the exhibition “Return to the Clouds.” She says, “We are excited to exhibit Fran Forman once again as her last exhibition with us was in 2008.” Tognarelli says more about the exhibition. “Much of what Fran Forman speaks to in her artwork is humankind’s relationship to the past, to history and myth, our animal brethren and the concept of hope. The bird-cage shows itself in many of Forman’s images due to her influence by the surrealist artist, René Magritte.  The bird is a reoccurring character in her narratives that speak to freedom, escape and the natural world.”

Fran Forman received her BA from Brandeis University in sociology and art, an MSW in psychiatric social work, and an MFA from Boston University. Forman is a Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis and represented by Pucker Gallery in Boston, AfterImage, Dallas TX and Susan Spiritus, Los Angeles, CA. A monograph, “Escape Artist, the Art of Fran Forman,” was published in 2014 from Schiffer Books. Curator and designer Elizabeth Avedon selected it as one of the best photo books of 2014, and it won first prize in an international juried competition selected by 21st Editions.

The Massachusetts State House is located
at 24 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02133. The exhibition is open to employees and guests and special events made specifically for the exhibit. For reception enter through the Hooker entrance. Go through metal detector. Take elevator to the 4th floor. Room 426.

Faded Elegants

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April 26, 2017 (Winchester, MA) “Faded Elegants,” are photographs of objects that throughout the years have been left to decay; objects that have lost their “nobility or usefulness”. Even in their deterioration though, Wilson sees them as metaphors of the past, artifacts that were once important and beautiful.

Wilson’s series,“Faded Elegants,” is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography from June 1st through July 4th, 2017. An opening reception will take place on June 8th, 2017 from 7-8:30PM. Event is free and open to the public.

In Wilson’s statement, he thoroughly explains image by image that “The tattered dictionaries [in the photographs] are perhaps metaphors for the precarious state of printed reference material. The amazingly dog-eared pages of these books convey decades of utility as tools for crossword puzzle solving.” Some objects in the photographs refer to historical places. For example Wilson explains, “Writing on the Wall, taken at Old Schwamb Mill, shows the marks of where a worker penciled important measurements on a wooden wall board for the factory note-taking in the late nineteenth century.”

Wilson’s photographic process and analysis is of much importance in the finalized photograph. Wilson explains, “One extremely satisfying aspect of making photographs is my continuing late career growth in skill and vision. Paintings inform my visual literacy in the same way classical photographs do. [These visual references] obscure the boundaries between painting and photography.”

Timothy Wilson has had a dual career as an educator and fine art photographer. In 1966, Wilson received a bachelor’s degree in English at Boston University. He later received his master degree in Education at Antioch Graduate Center for Education. He then began his career as an elementary and secondary teacher and administrator in local public schools. He was also a curriculum specialist with the Massachusetts Department of Education. For several years, he taught both English and darkroom photography. Simultaneously he was also working on his personal photo projects. He built his own darkrooms where he printed both color and black and white photos. During this work trajectory, he also taught himself how to mount, mat and frame his own work. Timothy Wilson has had solo exhibitions including, the Field Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. Wilson has been part of many group shows, such as Galatea Fine Art Gallery, Cambridge Art Association, Panopticon Gallery and “People of Somerville: Portraits and Lives” at the Somerville Museum in 1989, where he was also recipient of a Municipal Arts Grant. Timothy has recently been honored at the Cambridge Art Association, where he continues to host critiques for artists.

 

Steven Keirstead

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In Quarries of New England, Steven Keirstead creates photographic diptychs and triptychs of abandoned rock quarries in the six New England states. Most of the early stone quarries ceased operations due to a change in construction techniques and road materials and the quarries reverted to a natural state. The last active New England quarry closed in 1963.

Keirstead’s series, Quarries of New England, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography from April 6th through May 28th, 2017. An opening reception will take place on Sunday, April 9th, 2017 from 4-6 PM. Keirstead will do an informal talk on his exhibition at 3:15 PM on April 9, 2017.

Keirstead says that his photo series “documents the rebirth of abandoned quarries as something else, as wildness reclaims what industry left behind.” He goes on to say that, “Slowly, human alterations to the landscape were obscured, but not erased. Vegetation grew back, open pits filled with water, iron and steel tools rusted, and wooden derricks rotted.”

Steven Keirstead was born in Saigon, lived Chiang-Mai, Thailand with his family for several years and all returned to their North Carolina hometown of Brevard. Keirstead received a B.A. in Biology/Art and Art History as well as a BFA from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Currently, Keirstead works as a biologist at Harvard University’s Knowles Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories, supporting labs in Life Sciences. He resides in Boston.

Steven exhibited in the group show Light and Vision 2 at the Rice Media Center during FotoFest 2010, in Fresh Works at Flash Forward Festival Boston 2011, in New England Scapes in 2011 at Gallery Seven in Maynard, Massachusetts, and at auctions for the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. Steven organized a solo exhibit of his Quarries of New England portfolio at The Blue Hill Public Library in Maine in June 2015, and recently showed triptychs of Boston alleyways at night in the group exhibit Night Becomes Us at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Keirstead avidly continues his photographic endeavors.

Lee W. Bass

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“In Arbor & Frost, Lee W. Bass creates photographs in nature that direct us to her intent using all of our senses,” says Paula Tognarelli executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “Bass offers a poet’s invitation to ponder the gestures of each captured moment, the gist of which seem to unfold in layers, ebbs and flows.”

Bass’ series,  Arbor & Frost, is featured in the Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum of Photography” from April 6th through May 28th, 2017. An opening reception will take place on Sunday, April 9th, 2017 from 4 – 6 PM.

Bass says of her work, “I make small, intimate photographs. I am drawn to the tactile, to the subtleties of light, shadow and mood. I often am revising the same subjects over time. They become old friends who slowly reveal their secrets to me…They are reminders, of who I am, my dreams and often something that cannot be described in words.”

Photographer and printmaker Lee W Bass has worn many different hats during her lifetime. She grew up playing outside from dawn to dusk. She was a young woman of the sixties and walked acres of alfalfa looking for the five leaflet leaf.

Later she took on the roles of wife and mother, painter, and worked for the University of Minnesota in raptor rehab and as a falconer. Today she can be found walking the bluffs of the rivers of the Midwest – or striving to transfer its essence to paper. Lee W. Bass resides in Bloomington, Minnesota.

 

24th Annual Juried Members’ Exhibition

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Griffin Museum of Photography Juror’s Choices for the 24th Juried Exhibition
Juror: Richard McCabe, Curator of Photography, Ogden Museum, New Orleans

Review Mark Feeney The Boston Globe
Review Suzanne Révy What Will You Remember
Elin Spring Curator Viewpoint Richard McCabe

24th Juried Show Catalog

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Albert
Philip Augustin
Siobhan Beasley
Gary Beeber
Molly Block
Rachel Boillot
Cody Bratt, Honorable Mention
Edie Bresler, Director’s Prize
Terri Bright
Jeff Caplan
Lauren Ceike
Tom Chambers
Fehmida Chipty
David Clarkson
Martha Coe
Ashleigh Coleman, Honorable Mention
James Collins
Maura Conron
Emily Corbato
Robert Dash
Norm Diamond
Barbara Ford Doyle
Bill Franson
Ashley Gates
Danielle Goldstein
Susan kae Grant, Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Greenberg
William Hamlin
Frank Hamrick
Jeannie Hutchins
Paul Ivanushka
Jamie Johnson
Paul Johnson
Eleanor Owen Kerr
Stefanie Klavens
Molly Lamb, Griffin Award $500
Joseph Landry
JK Lavin
Joyce P. Lopez
Rhonda Lopez
James Mahoney
Darrell Matsumoto
Andy Mattern, Arthur Griffin Legacy Award $1000
Molly McCall, Honorable Mention
Katherine McVety
Alyssa Minahan
Judith Montminy
Rebecca Moseman
Nancy Newberry, Richards’ Family Trust Award $2500
Robin Radin
Paula Riff
Joshua Sarinana
Janet Smith
Ryan Steed
Susan Swihart
Paul Wainwright
Jacqueline Walters
Liza Wimbish
Cate Wnek
Jane Yudelman

24th Annual Juried Members’ Exhibitions
Exhibition dates: July 19 – September 2, 2018
Reception: July 19, 2018 7-8:30 PM
Richard McCabe gallery talk 6:15 PM, July 19, 2018
67 Shore Road, Winchester MA 01890

AWARDS: $2,500 Richards Family Trust Award, $1,000 Arthur Griffin Legacy Award, $500 Griffin Award, and Honorable Mentions. We will award 4 exhibitions that will take place next June and July 2019. We will award 1 Director’s prize that will result in a catalog and exhibition. We will produce a catalog of the 24th Juried exhibition. We will produce an online exhibition from photographs not chosen by the juror and it will run on Instagram as well. We will award a Member in Focus.

– Director’s Prize, Edie Bresler
– 4 Exhibits for June and July 2019, Eleonora Ronconi, Kay Kenny, Richard Cohen and J. Felice Boucher
– Member in Focus, Sarah Anthony
– Virtual Gallery, Natalie Christensen
– Critic’s Pick, Kevin Hoth
– Instagram Exhibition, TBA

Juror’s Statement For 24th Annual Juried Exhibition: Griffin Museum of Photography

When asked to jury an open-call exhibition, I view the photographs online with an open mind, and let the work dictate the direction of the exhibition. By looking for consistent formal and conceptual threads throughout the submissions, and following visual clues or signifiers from the work submitted, I hope to jury a cohesive exhibition that also features the best work.

Visual storytelling seemed to be the dominant thread throughout the work submitted and selected for the Griffin Museum of Photography’s 24th annual juried exhibition. These images were made by photographers who use the camera to explore and make sense of their world through the traditional genres of portraiture, still life, and the natural and built landscape. Their stories – told with the camera – ranged from straight, documentary photographs to constructed narrative work made on site or manipulated post-production by the computer.

The work that resonated the most with me was the constructed reality or narrative photographs. These photographs reimagine the traditional photographic image through manipulation of the photographic process or the act of making a photograph. My top three award selections all counter the idea of photographic purity or truth in photography.

In first place, the Richards’ Family Trust Award goes to Nancy Newberry. Smoke Bombs and Border Crossings featured a constructed narrative revolving around the myths and history of the state of Texas. Her portraits feature subjects acting out scenes – real and imaged based on Texas-folklore.

In second place, the Arthur Griffin Legacy Award goes to Andy Mattern. His series, Average Subject / Medium Distance features Postmodernist images that are almost anti-photographic – made through computer manipulations of “found  objects” or materials usually associated with the average college photo darkroom. His work is painterly and clever,reflecting early 20th century constructionist painting.

In third place, the Griffin Award goes to Molly Lamb.Untitled, The Fog is a dreamy subjective visual manifestation of memories from childhood,constructed and re-imagined years later in the camera, and realized in the form of a 2-diminsional photographic print

What makes a successful photograph to me comes down to the image. Based on many factors including light, subject matter, and composition, I ask, “Does the image work?”. I really don’t care how the photographer arrived at the image; the only thing that matters is if the image resonates with my visual sensibilities, which are totally subjective.  

-Richard McCabe, Curator of Photography, Ogden Museum

ELIGIBILITY: This Call for Entries is open to all member photographers. Entrants must be members of the Griffin Museum of Photography (with an expiration after 4/1/2018). We do not advocate for members to join the museum for this juried opportunity only. We always welcome new members as part of our family and offer a broad range of member opportunities. While some opportunities are for long distance members like our on-line classes, we are working on increasing our offerings this year for distance members. The Griffin Museum invites member photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought to participate. Experimental and mixed techniques are welcome. There is no theme. The juror will choose between 50 – 60 photographs. We ask the juror to TRY not to choose more than one photograph per photographer. The juror will choose the recipients of the monetary awards. We encourage submitting images from a singular, unified body of work for a cohesive selection for the Juried Exhibition. Artwork selected for gallery exhibition will be limited to FRAMED SIZE of 30×40 inches and under.

JUROR: Richard McCabe is the Curator of Photography for the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. He received an MFA in Studio Art from Florida State University in 1998. Also in 1998, he received a Fellowship to New York University to attend the American Photography Institute, National Graduate Seminar. From 1998 – 2005 he lived in New York City where he worked for numerous art galleries and museums including – The International Center for Photography, Robert Miller Gallery and the El Museo del Barrio. He was also an adjunct Photography Professor at Pratt Institute, New York City, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, and Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey.

In 2005, He relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana and has worked within the curatorial department of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art for the past twelve years. In 2010, he became the Curator of Photography at the Ogden Museum. He has curated over 25 exhibitions in the past seven years including – Eudora Welty: Photographs from the 1930s and 40s, The Mythology of Florida, Mark Steinmetz: South, Self-Processing: Instant Photography, The Rising, and Seeing Beyond the Ordinary. (Photo of Richard McCabe by Patrick Barnes).

PROGRAMMING: 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.

HANDLING FEE: The handling fee is $25 for 5 images. We have kept our handling fee very low for many years. *The fee is waived for institutions who have Academic Memberships to the Griffin for their photo students and faculty.

SUBMISSION TIMELINE: February 20 – April 23, 2018 (We want to get the images to the juror in the last week of April.) Due to server crashes from high volume traffic, we have extended our submission period to April 24, 2018 at Midnight.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

  • Must be a member of the Griffin Museum of Photography through April 2018. Availability to renew membership on submission page.
  • All images must be submitted as jpeg files, sized to 1200 px on the longest dimension, 72 dpi is fine, and in Adobe RGB or sRGB color space only.
  • Files should be titled as follows: LastName_FirstName_Title_ImageNumber (Ex. Smith_John_Sunset_01, Smith_John_Flower_02)
  • All entries that do not adhere to the guidelines above will be rejected.
  • $25 Handling Fee
  • Upload through our portal  5 images. 8 images can be submitted for members at the dual level ($75) or above.
  • We ask for an artist project statement copied and pasted from word file or typed into application.

MAILED SUBMISSIONS:

Please include a title sheet, artist statement and information page including: Name, E-mail, Address, Phone and proof of membership or membership renewal form.

Prepare your images to the same specifications.

Burn images to CD and mail to:

Griffin Museum 24th Juried Submission

67 Shore Road

Winchester, MA 01890

ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATION:
Selected artists will be posted on the website by May 28, 2018. Please do not call the Griffin Museum to inquire whether your images were chosen. We have very limited staffing.

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • Entries: February 20 – April 23, 2018
  • Notice of Acceptance: May 28, 2018
  • Final day framed works will be accepted to hang June 29, 2018 although earlier is appreciated.
  • Gallery Exhibition at the Griffin Museum: July 19 – Sept 2, 2018
  • Opening Reception: July 19, 2018 @ 7pm
  • Richard McCabe gallery talk 6:15 PM on July 19, 2018

EXHIBIT PRINTS: All accepted 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. The FRAMED size may not exceed 30×40 in. We have found that images mounted on aluminum have a high damage rate. We cannot be held responsible for any damage to photographs mounted on aluminum.

SALES: All work accepted for the gallery show can be for sale. The Griffin Museum will retain a 35% commission on the sale of any work.

 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 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.

Please retain this information and your filename information for your files until after announcement of the jury selection.

 

Charter Weeks

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Charter Weeks

Realometer: 50 Years of America

March 7 – May 12, 2017

reception is April 20, 2017 from 6-8

As an art student in the 1960’s studying with Harry Callahan at the Rhode Island School of Design, Charter Weeks got a fundamental grounding in the technical and structural elements of image making. The influences of Callahan, Steichen’s Family of Man, Walker Evans, Weston, Adams and others of the time “shaped every element of his photography and sustained his desire to say something useful with his photographs.”

Week’s series, Realometer: 50 Years of America, is featured in the Griffin’s satellite gallery, The Griffin@Digital Silver Imaging from March 7 through May 12, 2017. A reception will take place on April 20, 2017 from 6­-8pm. The reception is free and open to the public.

Independent Curator J. Sybylla Smith has been working with Charter Weeks to bring this exhibition to the gallery. “Charter and I met during the New England Portfolio Reviews where he introduced me to his expansive curiosity via an eclectic batch of black and white images spanning years, continents and subjects,” Smith said. “Charter gladly furnished back-stories with a sharp memory for detail and an obvious delight. Fast-forward a year of culling his vast archives, and you have, Realometer: 50 Years of America, a glimmer of Charter’s empathic eye,” she said.

In his book Walden, Hendy David Thoreau writes about the existence of an imagined instrument called the realometer that is capable of measuring the extent of reality inherent in one’s perceptions. He says the purpose of the instrument is to move us beyond the “mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance … to a hard bottom.” Smith says, “Weeks’ photographs are this hard bottom.” She continues, “Charter Weeks has spent 50-plus years mining, illuminating and recording from vantage points around the globe. From the window of his lower East Side tenement in New York during the 1960’s to the back roads of the Carolinas where he made it his mission to chronicle the impact of the 2008 recession, Charter has consistently kept a measured eye on the evolving landscape of his homeland, America. Here is a multi-decade glimpse of his honed humanistic vision – full of our shared painful, wonderful, absurd reality.”

Charter Weeks studied with Harry Callahan in 1961. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1964 with a degree in art and went on to study film making at the London School of Film Technique. He returned to the US and worked as a commercial photographer in New York City in the late 1960s shooting for ad agencies, magazines and the music industry. He was also a partner in Chicago Films producing documentaries and working for the BBC shooting news and documentary subjects. Weeks lived in Japan for 18 months teaching design and photography at Friends World College in Hiroshima and returned to the US in 1972 to build his own home in a rural community. He had various jobs from framing carpenter to film editor and in 1981 started his own business as a free lance photographer and owner of Isinglass Marketing, an Industrial and Business to Business marketing and communications company, which he still runs.

Found in Collection: Contemporary Photography from the Danforth Art Permanent Collection Part II

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The second install of Found in Collection: Contemporary Photography from the Danforth Art Museum Permanent Collection will be presented in two parts at the Griffin Museum of Photography. Both paintings and photographs will be exhibited, including work by John Brook, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Julie Melton, Jesseca Ferguson, Samuel Quinn, David Prifti, Jaclyn Kain, Molly Lamb, Gail Samuelson, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, among others. The first install of exhibitions took place at the Griffin Museum of Photography during the month of December 2016. In Part Two Memory will be shown in the Atelier Gallery and Mirrors will be exhibited in the Griffin Gallery as part of Found in Collection: Contemporary Photography from the Danforth Art Museum Permanent Collection from March 9th through March 31st, 2017. An opening reception will take place on March 9, 2017 from 6:30-8:30pm. The will be a curator’s talk, with Roscio on March 16, 2017 at 7 PM at the Griffin Museum.

“Memory and absence wind their way through the second part of Danforth Art’s two-part exhibition Found in Collection,” writes Jessica Roscio, curator for the Danforth Art Museum. “Imagined travel narratives, lost places, and remembered spaces are envisioned in photographs, paintings, and drawings from the late nineteenth century to today…… [and] is apparent in works throughout this exhibition,” she says. Roscio goes on to say that the works in Mirror “comment on the surreal aspects of one’s interior life, and its collision with an often fantastical and disturbing reality. In turbulent, uncertain times, the allure of an alternate reality, or simply the belief in illusion, appeals to our need for escapism.”

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