Griffin Museum of Photography

Julia Borissova, Running to the Edge

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The probability of returned memory

Igor Lebedev, Critic

Memory rolls in like waves causing a sudden and acute experience which doesn’t refer to a life of a specific person. This memory is connected to a cultural stratum. Everything is mixed here, the present and the past, some old photo portraits telling the stories of life which were erased by flow of time, dried flowers that represent markers of what was important but was forgotten, the memories of what happened, but couldn’t be remembered. So we can see it all in the pictures of the new series Escape to the edge by Julia Borisova.

The imperfection of memory provokes an artist to restore it, so in her work she turns to archives again and again, systematically reinterpreting them at the new levels of personal awareness of not ancestral memory but the memory of the nation. Through its reconstruction it’s easier to recover what has been lost and what has continued as consequences of birth traumas which took place in Russian history so often.

An archive is an anonymous evidence of elapsed time. The anonymity is inherent in a multi-level cultural de-identification of the past. However, despite the apparent constancy of its anonymity, it is surprisingly ready to manipulation according to the needs of everybody who faces it.

The material included in the archive has great variability of its stories, as a rule, on a superficial level, which can be read from the perspective of nostalgic feelings of the past time in the context of personal experience.

But the work with an archive is not only a subconscious desire for nostalgic revival of the past or an affect of overcoming losses in a chain of generations, although it means also some sensual experiences. It is rather an intuitive feeling of the boundaries rigidly dissecting an established world order, an attempt to understand the reasons for the “explosion” that changes the lives of many generations. And, in the end, created statement based on fetishes (old photographs in this case), the objects of so-called personal museum according to Sigmund Freud is an expression of protest arising at the point where the traumatic overcoming of a loss merges with the desire to counteract the possibility of its recurrence in the future.

It seems that such attempt of expression protest is characteristic for Julia Borisova who in her works refers to events from Russian history connected with the revolution and after that the first wave of emigration. In the old pictures the author adds the multi-layer effect through the using collage technique. The pictures themselves already have the images of a distant, “frozen” by photography past while the fragments of flowers imposed on them marked the present undefined in the flow of time. The occurring in the gap of the past and the present becomes for the author the field of exploring her relationship with the historical predestination.

The people in the photographs can’t realize their future, but for the author it’s ajar from the other side, as the future-in-the past. This is the future as the opposite shore of rapid flow of history, which destroyed the whole world, erased the relations of collective memory, forced to experience the pain of the absence of something that wasn’t experienced. And the most important, provoked a conversation about the “deformed, broken world” made in our minds by the old Soviet and the new post-Soviet society in turns, whose features have collage nature.

Critic – Igor Lebedev
Photographer, curator, teacher. Born in the family of Valery Lebedev in Leningrad (1966). Studied photography at technical college (1983–85). Took up professional photography (1985). Taught at a children’s photographic studio (from 1992). Opened the FK photographic studio at the Petrograd District House of Children’s Creativity. Member of the board of the Photoimage Gallery (1995) and the Traditional Autumn Photomarathon Festival (2000). Member of the Union of Photographic Artists of Russia (1996). Curator of exhibitions of photography. Contributed to exhibitions (from 1995).


Photographer – Julia Borissova
info@juliaborissova.ru
View her personal  website.

Julia Borissova was born in Tallinn, Estonia. She lives in St.Petersburg, Russia where she studied at the Academy of Photographic skills in 2009-2010. She graduated from the Foundation of Informational and Cultural projects “FotoDepartament, the program “Photography as a research”, 2011-2013. Julia took part in the Masterclass by Jan Grarup (Denmark, agency NOOR) 2011; Morten Andersen (Norway) 2011, 2012; Luuk Wilmering (Dutch) 2012; Anouk Kruithof (Dutch) 2013; ; Jaap Scheeren (Dutch) class, 2014; participated in a Workshop of the international photography magazine FOAM.

Her works were included in several Russian and international group shows. Besides she had five solo exhibitions, the last one was in 2014 at FotoDepartamet Gallery in St.Petersburg, Russia.
Julia Borissova is the winner in the 2013 International Fine Art Photography Competition in the Experimental category; the competition “The Baltic Photo Biennale. Photomania” in the Fine Art category; participant at the Noorderlicht International Photofestival 2013 TWENTY. Her first book “The Farther Shore” was selected for the shortlist of the 50 books in the International Photobook Festival 2013 in Kassel, Germany. The project “Running to the Edge” was selected for the top 10 professional shortlist in the Conceptual category, in the 2013 Sony Word Photography Awards.
Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg) and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris).

Julia Borissova considers photography as a way of research and recognition the intangible meaning in the world. She thinks that act of photographing attemps to make sensation visible. She explores ideas of the image and the materiality of the medium of photography. She also uses photographs as a material for making collages and transfers them on different surfaces to create the other forms. She also creates and publishes art-books.

Publications:
The project “DOM. Part 3″ on Prizm
The project “DOM” on Posi+tive Magazine
The project “DOM. Part 3″ in the art-magazine “Iskusstvo” (Moscow)
“Running to the Edge” on Elephant Magazine
“The Farther Shore” on Phases
The project “DOM” on v-e-l-l-u-m
“In the mountains is my heart” on SMBHmag
The project “DOM” on Le Journal de la Photographie
The interview for the Japanese magazine “Chemodan”
Landscape Stories Magazine 12 | River
F-Stop Magazine
“Tideland” on Naturae
‘The Farther Shore’ on Urbanautica
The interview for the Sony World Photography Awards
Archivo Portfolio’13 editor’s choice
“FOTO & VIDEO” Magazine, № 6 June 2012 (Moscow)
“FOTO & VIDEO” Magazine, № 3 March 2012 (Moscow)
“Home & Space” Magazine №20 (Tumen, Russia), Aug 2011
“RUSSIAN REPORTER” Magazine, № 25 Jun 2011 (Moscow)
“FOTO & VIDEO” Magazine, № 2 Feb 2011 (Moscow)
“FOTO & VIDEO” Magazine, № 8 Aug 2011 (Moscow)

Amanda Francoeur, Death of Goldie Series

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Death of Goldie Series – Artist Statement
A reflection on routine and repeating habits we create in our daily lives.

We go through the motions and experience new things with the inevitability of death lingering heavily above our heads. We clutch at ephemeral pleasures, desperate to assuage the crushing monotony of existence. The various risks or changes we make for love, murmurs of joy, or happiness only suffice for an instant in our otherwise blip of a lifespan.

Illustrative of our own evanescence, the betta fish and goldfish are commonly recognized as short-term pets. Destined to sit on a shelf or a table, confined in a glass display, hoping the owner remembers the only required task of feeding them in order to continue their instinctual act of swimming in circles.

There is a primitive requirement of being submerged in water, as we are in air, that if subtracted, one would cease to exist. Even though we sometimes equate discomfort in the human realm to a “fish out of water”, in the aquatic world it would inevitably lead to death. We lightly empathize with the sensitive ecosystem needed to maintain a well-balanced existence.

Unlike fish, our desire and ability to achieve happiness, no matter how short lived, dwells inside us. We take leaps of faith in the self-serving pursuit of happiness. Everyone dies and life is full of events, some beneficial, some debilitating. Having the ability to digest those incidents, we deduce which direction to take next. When it ends, one venture is over, but others continue. We each go through our separate journey seeking our own sublime path.

Amanda Francoeur – Artist Bio
Primarily trained in digital arts and graphic design at the AiMiami International University of Art & Design (2008), she has since fallen in love with the tactile nature of the photographic darkroom. After extensive exploration of alternative photographic processes, she came to appreciate the rawness of the photogram.

Light Matter, Mary Kocol and Judith Monteferrante and Susan Simon

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The four fundamental states of matter are solid, liquid, gas and plasma. In the Griffin Museum’s exhibition Light Matter, flowers are immersed in the solid and liquid states of ice and water. In addition the focus is turned on the tiny secret universe inside an icicle. In her “Ice Gardens” Mary Kocol creates “botanical ice tablets.” Judith Monteferrante stages floral compositions in water and ice. Susan Simon explores the interplay of light on ice.

Kocol’s, Monteferante’s and Simon’s photographs, Light Matter, are featured in the Griffin Museum’s Atelier Gallery at the Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA,
May 15 – August 5, 2014. It runs parallel to the theater’s productions of “The Secret Garden.”

A reception is June 12, 2014 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Mary Kocol says, “I am inspired by gardens within my urban midst…..The blossoms are frozen into ice and photographed in sunlight to become fanciful and ethereal constructions. Blooms and ice are temporary; the photograph becomes the permanent art object – the record that they once briefly existed.”

Judith Monteferrante says, “When I plunge a blossom into a pool of water, the elegant flower expresses its stalwart agility under water. By photographing the flower, I can share my appreciation for beauty in nature, the purity of light and its reflections, as well as refine the viewers’ eyes to see more simply.”

“I am most inspired by the minute details of the natural landscape,” says Susan Simon. “My photography practice began as a means of meditation and seeking solace from the tumult of the classroom.”

Mary Kocol is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design MFA in Photography program. She has had a numerous solo exhibitions and is collected widely. She resides in Somerville, MA. Her photographs are courtesy of Gallery NAGA, Boston.

Aside from her noteworthy career as an artist, Judith Monteferrante was a practicing cardiologist for over 25 years, specializing in heart imaging and female cardiac issues. Upon retirement from her medical career, the artist received her MA in Digital Photography (MPS) in 2009 at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Dr. Monteferrante exhibits nationally, including group and solo exhibitions in Massachusetts, Arizona and New York. Dr. Monteferrante resides in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Susan Simon is a retired middle school teacher and photographer living on the Cape in Barnstable, MA.

Ri Anderson, Mexican Parlour Games/Secret Sibling World

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Ri Anderson photographs her two young daughters at home in her studio in Mexico as well as at play in their surroundings. In her words her work “is influenced by magical realism, Rousseau’s jungle paintings and the photography of Graciela Iturbide.” She also photographs her children as fictional characters from literature, the bible, art history or from her daughters’ imaginations.

A series of her images, Mexican Parlour Games/Secret Sibling World, is featured at the Griffin Museum at Digital Silver Imaging, 9 Brighton St., Belmont, MA, June 1 through July 18, 2014. A reception and informal talk with the artist is July 17, 2014 from 6-8 p.m.

“I use an assortment of costumes for my daughters that are left over from school plays, artisan market acquisitions, and circus accessories that come from my part-time career as an aerial circus performer,” says Anderson. She adds, “These items include Virgin of Guadalupe dresses, revolutionary braids, crown of thorns, wings, flowers, rosaries, boas, false eyelashes and makeup – a dream for young girls. The final portraits are amalgams of our cultural and personal influences.”

Ri Anderson holds an MFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art, and resides in Mexico.

She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, most recently as a finalist for Critical Mass, Photolucida, Portland, Oregon for 2011, 2007, and 2006.

Her work has been exhibited at Galeria 6 in Mineral de Pozos, Gto., Mexico, and La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, ON, Canada. She was the featured Northeast Exposure Online Artist at the Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA in 2005.

Clyde Heppner, The Ancients’ Views Portfolio

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Clyde Heppner is a fine art photographer who has focused largely on depicting the landscape. His training in Psychology and Eastern art has greatly influenced how he configures the environment for the viewer.

Heppner’s series, Ancients’ Views, is featured in the Griffin Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 10 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I am captivated by ancient Chinese paintings," says Clyde Heppner. “The Ancients’ Views is a series of photographs from the Chinese gardens of Suzhou and the Huangshan Mountains in China,” he says. “These locations are magical places and over the centuries Chinese master painters traveled to capture them or were inspired by them. Being in the gardens of Suzhou and the Huangshan Mountains in 2013 was a particularly powerful experience for me as it allowed me to see what the ancient masters’ saw and apply their principles to my photographic compositions."

"Clyde Heppner offers us serene studies of the landscape," says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. "In looking at each photograph the viewer is invited into the natural world to engage in sublime dialogue."

Brian Alterio Human Nature

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Brian Alterio’s successful photojournalism career was put on hold due to the advent of digital technology. As a digital pioneer Alterio helped shaped the imaging technology that we know today. After thirty years, in late 2011, Alterio roused his creative interest in photography and began again shooting botanicals in black and white in parallel to the human figure.

Alterio’s series, Human Nature, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 10 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I observed the slow, magnificent blooming of an Amaryllis and it inspired me," says Alterio. "I was entranced by the flower’s organic beauty, but even more taken by the powerful push/pull of its form against an accidentally dark background. This fascinating journey with floral images seemed strikingly evocative of the humbling studies of the human figure by our esteemed photographic predecessors. In response, I began also to study of the human figure in conjunction with my ongo­ing studies of floral images, finding the coincidences of the human form and lines in space played against the floral images infinitely compelling."

"One could say that Alterio’s studies of the flower and human form speak to his realization of the inevitability of life’s cyclic twists and turns," says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. "We all look back to canvass our experiences and accomplishments. What Alterio’s photographs say to me is that eventually, women and men alike, seek out respite and sanctuary from a success-oriented life style."

Dominic Chavez, U-turn

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Dominic Chavez is a freelance photographer based in Boston, Massachusetts, but he has spent much of his career on the road working in some of the world’s most challenging places. Chavez has recorded the effects of war in Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Angola; the AIDS crisis in more than a dozen countries in Africa; and the battle to eradicate polio in countries in Africa and Asia. In addition, he has covered stories locally and nationally, focusing on the aftermath of 9/11; homeless populations; and those addicted to drugs.

Chavez’s series, U-TURN, is his newest body of work focused on the landscape and is featured in the Main Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 10 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I’ve ventured into places too horrible for words, and horrible enough for pictures, such as a lonely forsaken spot along the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, where tribal cousins fought as is they were in World War I, charging each other on foot, dying by the thousands, bulldozed into piles, and half-buried by dirt," says Dominic Chavez.

"When I was 19, I tried to photograph trees as if they were people. When I examined the frames, I was disappointed,” said Chavez. “As years have passed, it has become trying for me to distance myself from the difficult stories I shoot when I return home to the United States. Almost unconsciously I made a U-turn. I found myself again drawn to places without people," he says. "But this time, when I raised my camera, the scenes came alive. I saw the embrace of trees on Cape Cod, the weeping rocks of an icy cliff in Utah, and the uncertainty on a mountaintop in Maine, where fog obscured the ocean beneath."

"As a photojournalist Chavez unearths a narrative in nature in his series of photographs called U-Turn" says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography."The story he tells is laden with emotion and portrays the strengths and frailties of the landscape."

Kate Jordahl, Crystal day

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Kate Jordahl photographs places where spirit of the earth and the human spirit come together. The black and white landscapes she creates are reflections on the crooked, unmapped roads of our lives.

A series of Jordahl’s photographs, Crystal Day, is featured in the Hall Gallery of the Griffin Museum April 10, 2014 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception is April 10, 2014, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I plan my journey for "destinations" like national parks and World Heritage sites and then celebrate as the places between are also full of visual wonder. For all the spaces, both recognized and by the way, I strive to recognize and capture the spirit and power of place in my photographs," says Kate Jordahl.

All of Jordahl’s photographs in the exhibition are Silver Gelatin Prints, printed in editions of 50. Her work is included in various collections including Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France, Muse Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ohio University Library, Rare Book Collection, Athens, Ohio, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, University of Texas, Dallas and Yosemite Museum, Yosemite, California. She is represented by Modernbook Gallery in San Francisco, CA.

Ms. Jordahl has produced three books of photography: The Song Within, Afternoons with Ruth and Walking with Kandinsky. Her fourth book Crystal Day is in production.

Ms. Jordahl is a resident of Hayward, CA. She earned her MFA in photography at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She is a professor and chair of the photography department at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills in California. She is also the Director of PhotoCentral, a community organization dedicated to photography, located in Hayward, CA.

Brian Alterio will give a members’ talk at 6:15 PM before the exhibit opening on April 10, 2014 at 7 PM.

Classic Style

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Sean Sullivan has been photographing “old school hot rods, muscle cars, custom and classic cars” for well over a decade. The bold colors and clean lines of the classic car scene drew him to local car cruise nights during his summers and to various auto shows.

A series of Sullivan’s photographs, Classic Style, is featured at the Griffin Museum at Aberjona River Gallery in Winchester, MA, January 28 through March 18, 2014. An opening reception with the artist will take place on February 11, 2014 from 6 – 7:30 PM.
Simultaneously, Panopticon Gallery in Boston is featuring six of Sullivan’s images in its emerging artist gallery.

The Griffin Museum of Photography has produced a catalog to accompany Sullivan’s exhibition. After the exhibition at the Aberjona Gallery, Sullivan’s photographs will move to the Griffin’s Gallery at the Cambridge Homes in Cambridge, MA from March 25 – May 20, 2014.

“I am drawn to a car’s intricate details,” says Sullivan. “I truly believe the details set the cars apart from each other.” He adds, “By using the frame to compose images that possess a strong graphic quality, I am enabling the viewer to focus in on these incredible details that otherwise go unnoticed.”

Sean is a Boston-based photographer and a graduate of Northeastern University. His work has been featured in the Improper Bostonian Magazine and Northeastern University Magazine. He specializes in location photography for events, editorial and fine art clients.

Robbie Kaye, Beauty and Wisdom

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Robbie Kaye was trained as a classical pianist. She came to photography looking for visual melodies. She found a captivating study at the beauty parlor.

A series of Kaye’s photographs, Beauty and Wisdom, is featured in the Griffin Museum at the Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA, March 20 – May 11, 2014. It runs parallel to the theater’s productions “Somethings Afoot” and “Unbleached American.”

A reception is March 27, 2014 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Beauty and Wisdom highlights the women of the beauty parlor. They have been going regularly to the salon once a week, not as a luxury, but as a necessity for most of their adult years. Kaye explores the graceful, courageous and brave surroundings in which these women age. “Ironically, these women opened doors for generations of women,” says Kaye. “They are now part of an invisible generation.”

“The women in this fading generation may be invisible to many, but hey are quite visible to me,” says Kaye. It is even more apparent to me since I began driving throughout the country to photograph and interview them for Beauty and Wisdom.”

Kaye, originally from New York, now resides in California.

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