June 1 – June 11, 2023
PhotoSynthesis XVII is a collaboration between Burlington High School and Winchester High School facilitated by the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Join us on Thursday June 8th from 6 to 8pm for an Artist Reception to celebrate these talented student works and meet their instructors and supporters.
Now in its eighteenth year, this 5-month program connects approximately 20 students with each other and professional photographers, artists and curators. Using photography as a visual language, student’s increase their vocabulary to communicate about themselves and the world around them. Interacting with fellow students from different programs, backgrounds and schools the students create a capsule of who they are in this moment, learning from each other to create a united exhibition showcasing all they have learned during the program.
The participating student artists from Winchester High School:
Neave Bunting | Claire English | Avery Robinson
The participating student artists from Burlington High School:
Madison Bairos | Lindsay Bullock | Kirsten Dew | Georgia Doherty | Samantha Goneau | Lindsey Lavoie | Alyssa LoCicero | Alex McGillivray | Lily Passaretta | Ava Restivo | Caroline Sciarratta
The students are 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.
This year, three photo based artists, Donna Garcia, Anne Eder, Jeremy Dennnis spoke to the students via zoom conference and in person workshop. Donna Garcia will meet the students for an in person review during the exhibition opening at the museum.
Donna Garcia is lens-based artist, filmmaker, curator, art director and educator based in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from Boston, her work often illustrates a semiotic dislocation that has been organically reconstructed in a way that gives her subjects a voice in the present moment; something they often did not have in the past. Her images rise above what they actually are and become empathic recreations in a fine art narrative. She often utilizes self-portraiture with motion to provide an indication of the other in her work; a surplus threat to the perpetuity of our modern day grand narratives in defining elements like gender and race.
She has worked as an art director for Ogilvy, NYC, an adjunct faculty member at the Art Institute in Atlanta, a contributing editor of LENSCRATCH and founded the Garcia | Wilburn Fine Art Gallery, where she directed and curated a number of influential exhibitions highlighting the work of emerging and established artists. Garcia and her partner, Darnell Wilburn launched the Modern Art and Culture Podcast. In their first year, they were chosen to become the official podcast of the Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival, the United States largest, month-long photography festival, held annually in October.
She has exhibited internationally and has had her work published worldwide (donnagarcia.com). She is a 2019 nominee of reGENERATION 4: The Challenges of Photography and the Museum of Tomorrow. Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland. Emerging Artists to Watch.
Donna Garcia has a Master of Fine Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a Master of Science in Communications from Kennesaw State University.
Anne Eder is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, working in photography, sculpture, and fiction writing. She has been internationally exhibited, awarded, and published, including multiple Julia Margaret Cameron awards in alternative process photography. She is currently faculty at Harvard University, Penumbra Foundation, and is guest faculty at Princeton University, co-teaching with Guggenheim fellow, Deana Lawson. She holds a master’s degree in Photography and Integrated Media from Lesley University College of Art and Design where she studied with Christopher James. Much of her work is experimental and research based, combining historic processes, science, and contemporary conceptual thinking.
Throughout her career she has been an advocate for increased access to the arts, cofounding and operating artist run galleries and programming in the Philadelphia metro area, and the creation of public art is a dedicated part of her practice. She lives in Boston writing fairy tales and catering to her fabulous chihuahua, The Brain.
www.anneeder.com Instagram @darcflower
Jeremy Dennis (b. 1990) is a contemporary fine art photographer and a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY. In his work, he explores indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation.
Dennis was one of 10 recipients of a 2016 Dreamstarter Grant from the national non-profit organization Running Strong for American Indian Youth. He was awarded $10,000 to pursue his project, On This Site, which uses photography and an interactive online map to showcase culturally significant Native American sites on Long Island, a topic of special meaning for Dennis, who was raised on the Shinnecock Nation Reservation. He also created a book and exhibition from this project. Most recently, Dennis received the Creative Bursar Award from Getty Images in 2018 to continue his series Stories.
In 2013, Dennis began working on the series, Stories—Indigenous Oral Stories, Dreams and Myths. Inspired by North American indigenous stories, the artist staged supernatural images that transform these myths and legends to depictions of an actual experience in a photograph.
Residencies: Yaddo (2019), Byrdcliffe Artist Colony (2017), North Mountain Residency, Shanghai, WV (2018), MDOC Storytellers’ Institute, Saratoga Springs, NY (2018). Eyes on Main Street Residency & Festival, Wilson, NC (2018), Watermill Center, Watermill, NY (2017) and the Vermont Studio Center hosted by the Harpo Foundation(2016).
He has been part of several group and solo exhibitions, including Stories—Dreams, Myths, and Experiences, for The Parrish Art Museum’s Road Show (2018), Stories, From Where We Came,The Department of Art Gallery, Stony Brook University (2018); Trees Also Speak,Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College at Old Westbury, NY (2018); Nothing Happened Here, Flecker Gallery at Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY (2018);On This Site: Indigenous People of Suffolk County, Suffolk County Historical Society, Riverhead, NY (2017); Pauppukkeewis, Zoller Gallery, State College, PA (2016); and Dreams, Tabler Gallery, Stony Brook, NY (2012).
Dennis holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, NY.
He currently lives and works in Southampton, New York on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.
The Griffin Museum is grateful to all of our tremendous sponsors. Photosynthesis is generously supported by grants from The John and Mary Murphy Foundation, The ENKA Society, and The Winchester Cultural District.
