Griffin Museum of Photography

Kerry Mansfield, Expired

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Kerry Mansfield photographs expired library books that “have traveled through many hands, and across county lines until they have reached their final resting place” as a discard and withdrawn from circulation.

Mansfield’s series, Expired, is featured in the Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum January 8 through March 1, 2015. An opening reception with the artists takes place on January 10, 7-8:30 p.m. Magdalena Solé has a gallery talk and tour of Mississippi Delta at 4:00 PM. Brandon Thibodeaux has a gallery talk and tour of When Morning Comes at 5 PM. Bryan David Griffith has a members’ talk on his exhibition The Last Bookstores at 6:15 PM. The talks are FREE.

“The first rite of passage upon learning how to write one’s name was to inscribe it on a library check-out card promising the book’s safe journey and return,” says Mansfield. “I remember reading the list of names that had come before me and cradling the feeling that I was a part of this book’s history and it’s shared, communal experience,” she says.
“[The books in Expired] show the evidence of everyone that has touched them, because they were well read, and often well loved,” says Mansfield. “They were not left on shelves, untouched. Now they have a new life, as portraits of the unique shared experience found only in a library book,” she says.

Kerry Mansfield lives in San Francisco, CA. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in photography. She also studied architecture at California College of the Arts. Mansfield has had exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. Her work has garnered several national and international awards including the Lens Culture Single Image Award, First Place IPA in the Fine Art Professional Self-Portrait Category, the Worldwide Photography Gala First Place Storyteller Award and a spot on the Shortlist in the Professional Documentary Portrait category for the 2012 World Photography Organization (WPO) Awards. “Expired “was featured on the New York Times Lens Blog in 2013. The Filter Photo Festival in Chicago awarded this exhibition, at the Griffin Museum.

Jenny Riffle, Scavenger: Adventures in Treasure Hunting

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Jenny Riffle has been photographing Riley, a modern day Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and treasure hunter. Riley has been scavenging for treasure since age eleven. Riffle photographs Riley as he hunts utilizing a metal detector in the dirt and on sandy beaches. Riffle then photographs the objects Riley finds and collects.

Jenny Riffle’s Scavenger: Adventures in Treasure Hunting will be featured in the Griffin Museum’s Atelier Gallery at the Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA, January 9 – March 26, 2015. It runs parallel to the theater’s productions of Young and Co. offerings, “Loretta Laroche,” and “That Hopey Changey Thing.”

A reception is February 19, 2014 at 6:30-8:00 p.m.

“I explore the line between documentary and fantasy as I look at [Riley’s] objects, what drives him to continue and the mythology and history of the treasure hunting persona,” says Riffle.

“I express my romantic view of his life and his treasure hunting obsession and choose not to show his daily activities outside of that,” says Jenny Riffle. “By only showing one side of his personality I create a larger than life character. I photograph him in Twain’s spirit, as a mythical adventurer, like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.”

Mark Twain writes in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, “There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.”

“A monetary value often can not be placed on hidden riches,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator for the Griffin Museum of Photography. “It is the journey and the process of seeking treasure in the mundane and forgotten that is alluring.”

Jenny Riffle received her MFA in Photography from School of Visual Arts in 2011 and her BA in Photography from Bard College in 2001. She currently lives and works in Seattle, WA. In 2014 Riffle was chosen as one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. She received the Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer’s Fellowship grant in 2013.

Brandon Thibodeaux, When Morning Comes

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Dallas photographer Brandon Thibodeaux has been photographing in the Mississippi Delta since 2009. While his work makes specific reference to the rural black experience, in his work we see themes of faith, identity, and perseverance that are common to us all. Thibodeaux states that these are “the traits of strong men.”

Thibodeaux’s series, When Morning Comes, is featured in the Main Gallery at the Griffin Museum January 8 through March 1, 2015. An opening reception with the artists takes place on January 10, 7-8:30 p.m. Magdalena Solé has a gallery talk and tour of Mississippi Delta at 4:00 PM. Brandon Thibodeaux has a gallery talk and tour of When Morning Comes at 5 PM. Bryan David Griffith has a members’ talk on his exhibition The Last Bookstores at 6:15 PM. The talks are FREE.

“I first traveled to the [Delta] in the summer of 2009 because I needed to breathe after my own troubled times,” said Brandon Thibodeaux. “I was in search of something stronger than myself and attended its churches not to photograph but to cry and be redeemed and to just be a part of the place. I was there to listen as I prayed for a revelation.”

“Over the past five years I have witnessed signs of strength against struggle, humility amidst pride, and a promise for deliverance in the lives that I’ve come to know here,” says Thibodeaux. “This is a land stigmatized by poverty beneath a long shadow of racism. I do not wish to overlook this fact but rather look between it for evidence of the tender and yet unwavering human spirit that resides within its fabric.”

“Brandon Thibodeaux’s photographs describe a sort of “splendor” in the ordinary,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “Thibodeaux’s Delta narrative recalls a spiritual and humane dialogue with the land and its people.”

Brandon Thibodeaux is a freelance photographer for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Shell Oil and Time. He is a member of the photography collective MJR, based in New York City. His work has been recognized by American Photo Magazine, PDN, and the Oxford American lists him as one of their 100 Under 100, New Superstars of Southern Art 2012. He is the 2014 recipient of the Michael P. Smith Fund For Documentary Photography Grant.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by Critical Mass in Portland OR.

Bryan David Griffith, The Last Bookstores: Americas Resurgent Independents

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Bryan David Griffith explores America’s remaining independent bookstores. In this age when on-line retailers dominate the book ordering terrain, Griffith examines the remaining independents to see what marks their resilience and questions our future should they go away.

Griffith’s series, The Last Bookstores, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum January 8 through March 1, 2015. An opening reception with the artists takes place on January 10, 7-8:30 p.m. Magdalena Solé has a gallery talk and tour of Mississippi Delta at 4:00 PM. Brandon Thibodeaux has a gallery talk and tour of When Morning Comes at 5 PM. Bryan David Griffith has a members’ talk on his exhibition The Last Bookstores at 6:15 PM. The talks are FREE.

“The booksellers I met are passionately committed to sustaining their local communities and keeping the flame of literary culture alive’” says Griffith. “Far from giving up, they’re fighting back,” he says.

“The American Bookseller’s Association, which represents most independents, grew from 1,410 member stores in 2010 to 1,632 in 2013—a fraction of the 5,200 stores in 1991,” says Griffith. “This is the first steady increase in 20 years. Is this the dawn of a remarkable comeback, or a heroic last stand for independent bookstores?” asks Griffith.

Bryan David Griffith lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. He studied engineering at the University of Michigan and followed a career in consulting. Feeling unfulfilled in his job he has pursued a nomadic life and the life of a photographer. He has exhibited world wide including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Phoenix Art Museum. His work is held in public and private collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.

Like the book industry, the last decade has been a time of turmoil for photographers. In keeping with the theme of books—an elegant, functional, and affordable technology threatened by an ever-changing parade of electronic gadgetry—Griffith photographed this project using cameras without electronics on large and medium-format film, a slow but superlative craft in jeopardy. Two of the films he used to create these images have since been discontinued.

Erwin G. Markowitz Selections from the Archive

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Erwin G. Markowitz has been shooting photographs since he was gifted a Kodak Bullet at age thirteen.

Markowitz was the president and cofounder of Red Knit Mills where he worked with textile manufacturing and oversaw all aspects of design, production and marketing of high quality knitted fabrics for the majority of his career. The influence of textile design is evident in his hand-made prints. “When a print slowly comes to life in a tray of developer, it is magic! It is still always a thrill for me when that image once seen in the viewfinder comes to life in the darkroom,” says Markowitz.

A series of Markowitz’s photographs, Selections from the Archive will be featured in the Hall Gallery of the Griffin Museum December 11, 2014 through December 30, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is also scheduled for December 11, 2014 from 6-8pm.

In my early days of making photographs, Erwin states, “All of my film was processed in a dish or soup bowl in the family linen closet in our New York apartment using the “see-saw” method. Film those days cost about a quarter a roll and the developer that came in a tube with a cork at either end plus one in the middle to separate the two types of chemicals was all of a nickel.”

Erwin G. Markowitz, 91, is an accomplished photographer who has been taking pictures for over 75 years. He’s captured compelling images across North America, Europe and Africa, focusing primarily in black and white photography, particularly shooting and printing nature, landscape, wildlife and scenic prints. “Like most people,” says Markowitz, “my photography often revolves around my other interests and hobbies-primarily those that take me closest to nature. Informal portraits of people in their natural habitat have become an additional focus for me.”

Markowitz has exhibited his work at the Griffin Museum of Photography, The Ward Museum in Maryland and the Fitchburg Art Museum in addition to galleries in Amherst and the Worcester area. He has also won various awards throughout his photography career.

Winter Solstice Exhibition

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For the second year, The Griffin Museum has invited all of its current members to exhibit in the Winter Solstice Exhibition. From across the world, artists entered one piece to be on display for December 2014. Over 140 photographs are represented in the Main Gallery of the Griffin and display a spectrum of genres and processes. The opening reception is Thursday, December 11, 2014 from 6-8pm. Sales are encouraged and many artists have donated the proceeds back to the Griffin.

PHOTOGRAPHING PEOPLE Photographs from the Harvey Stein workshop

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This exhibition is a direct result of a workshop for the Griffin Museum led by photographer and educator Harvey Stein. The 3-day workshop took place in June 2014 on the streets of Boston. It focused on providing each student knowledge of and experience in photographing people in a variety of ways, including on the street, indoor locations, and in the subject’s environment. The workshop also focused on creating inventive portraits that are personally based and meaningful. Stein juried the images for this exhibition from photographs submitted by workshop participants.

The Griffin Museum will be offering Harvey Stein’s 3-day Photographing People workshop again in June 2015. Watch for details on our website.

Exhibitors include: Meredith Abenaim, Anne Brooks, Marion Cohen, Cynthia Cole, Anna Gemelli, Cathy Higby, Yair Melamed, Barbara Trachtenberg, Minglun Wang and Maria Zugartechea.

Excerpts from the Photography Atelier Exhibition

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The Griffin Museum presents excerpts from its Photography Atelier 20 Exhibition at the Lafayette City Center Passageway that links Macy’s with the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The exhibit will run from November 19 through Feb 16, 2015. The Photography Atelier is a course for intermediate and advanced photographers offered by the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA and taught by Meg Birnbaum and course assistant, Amy Rindskopf.

The photographers in this show include:
Bill Davison, Ellen Feldman, Cassandra Goldwater, Sunny Gupta, Claudia Gustafson, Tira Khan, Carol Krauss, Tricia O’Neill, Astrid Reischwitz, Andrea Rosenthal, Ellen Slotnick, and Cindy Weisbart.

About the class:
Photography Atelier, in its twentieth year, is a unique portfolio-making course for emerging to advanced photographers. In addition to guidance and support in the creation of a body of work, the class prepares artists to market, exhibit and present their work to industry professionals.
Each participant in the Atelier presents a final project in the form of a print portfolio, a photographic book or album, a slide show, or a mixed media presentation. In every Atelier students hang a gallery exhibition and produce work for their own pages on the Atelier website. To see the photography of present and past Atelier students and teachers, please visit: www.photographyatelier.org.

Liz Calvi Lost Boys

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“Ask your brother if he knows my brother. He will know him. He’s terrible….”

Lost Boys depicts young men living in the American suburbs. Their age’s range from 18
to 25, they are from Generation Y. In reverie between youth and adulthood, this
generation has been called the peter pan generation because they’ve had delays into
adulthood and frequently return to their hometowns because of financial hardships. These
are my brothers. Some I knew from my past and others I’ve met recently. Not only do
they embody a generation, but they also epitomize the actions of generations past.

I want to feel what home means to these boys and what it means to feel happiness and
freedom; ideas that we have constructed in relation to the American Dream. These boys
are all in a state of repose in their parent’s homes; not the common trajectory for males in
accordance to the American Dream.

I aim to have the boys dually express a level of vulnerability and tenderness that is often
looked down upon for men. Being a female photographer, I am also questioning the male
gaze to further challenge gender stereotypes.

“If your brother is so terrible then what are you?” I asked this boy casually smoking in
front of me. He took a deep inhale before responding.

“Beloved.” He replied with an exhale. “Or at least that’s what I’d like to be.”

John O. Roy, South Beach

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For me, photography is the greatest form of self expression. It communicates with my soul; a kind of a “catharsis scream”. This offers me a mental release from my professional career. After using my left brain all day, it is nice to use my right brain to create something meaningful. This brings a yin and yang to my life.

When I pick up my camera after work, I prefer to shoot inanimate objects. Using light, shadows and selective focus, I am attempting to give the objects a life force; allowing them to tell a story. Because of this, I sometimes tend to become lost in my perception of light and shadows. It allows me to constantly visualize different angles and perspectives of spaces and even people around me.

When I photograph people, I am drawn to capturing them in communal areas. I usually try and catch people off guard to create a pensive state of being which is a window into their souls. You would be surprised how much people tend to let their guard down and become relaxed when they think no one is watching. (Ever notice how differently children behave when they know they are being watched?)

I’ve come to this place of artistic expression after experimenting with several other approaches to photography. I finally listened to an art director and a close friend of mine and I redirected my work to reflect my own true artistic expression.

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