What is better than staying at home with a good book? This week we look at the 10th Annual Photobook Exhibition currently at the Griffin. A photobook relies on the image to form visual sentences,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “A photobook that is produced well can transport us in time and place just as any book produced with the written word.”
We will break this overview of 30 artist books, all self published into a few parts so you can spend time getting to know the artists intent. Today’s offerings look at the natural spaces we inhabit.
Nancy Oliveri – Flora & Fauna , People of the Scorched Earth
Flora and Fauna evolved from my 2016 solo exhibition of found photographic compositions of dead birds, fish, insects, industrial debris and hospital waste found in the Gowanus Canal. I moved the project into my studio to have more control over staged lighting and composition of Post-Mortem Portraits.I wanted the viewer to embrace a heightened celebration of death as the force that makes life most mysterious and compelling by staging dead creatures and natural beauty through a fairly indirect and palatable metaphor. The series is inspired by Surrealism, 17th Century Dutch and Flemish painting and Victorian Post-Mortem Photography.
People of the Scorched Earth is a collection of fictional photographic landscapes created in response to the recent manifestations of and climate change including extreme fires, floods and monster storms around the world. It’s a series about grief and horror presented in a seductive, fantastical storybook landscapes scenes from the future and the past. My intention was to induce a state of psychological conflict somewhere between destructive impulses and denial, rationalizations and magical thinking and power of healing and resilience in the natural world.
What is your next project? –
This is an image from my current work during the COVID quarantine. Since I have been working on still life photography for several years in my home studio in Brooklyn where I know the light and seasons, it hasn’t been much of an inconvenience for me.. I have an ancient and gigantic Magnolia tree outside of my window so I have been using it in my still lifes. It’s primeval and one of the oldest flowering trees on Earth so I consider it the greatest gift this spring.
About Nancy Oliveri –
Nancy Oliveri is an American who lives in NY. She was raised in a small Connecticut town named Uncasville after the Chief of the Mohegan tribe. She grew up during the 60’s and 70’s, inspired and influenced by the drive-in movie theater where her father worked. She later studied film and photography at Hartford Art School in the 80’s with an emphasis on conceptual art which continues to be a central influence in photographic and artistic practice.
She has shown her work extensively in the US and internationally including a solo show Ph21 Gallery Budapest in 2016 and also was acknowledged as a finalist for the Julia Margaret Cameron and Pollux awards and was invited to exhibit in the Berlin Foto Bienniale.
She is also a licensed psychotherapist in private in Manhattan where she works with artists, writers & creative entrepreneurs.
Flora and Fauna
2019 8 x 10” 62 pages
60 images Hardcover edition of 100
Self-published by Olive&Root
$200
People of the Scorched Earth
2019 8 X10” 64 pages
62 images hard cover edition of 100
Self-published: Olive & Root
$200
James Collins – Patio Life
Statement about Patio Life
There is a mean-looking wasp sitting on the arm of an empty teak chair on the patio in my backyard. Every day the wasp visits. Why does it keep landing on the chair?
I want answers.
I live in a small town, at least spatially, in Greater Boston. The town is five and a half square miles with 42,000 residents and an abundance of tiny, often unseen critters lurking in its yards—yards measured in square feet, not acres. With a couple of chairs and a few flowers, a small suburban oasis was created on the patio. But those wasps…and these tiny spiders that seem to jump into thin air? What else is living around me?
I need answers.
The camera provides an up-close peek at my fellow patio dwellers whose respective behaviors pique my curiosity and intrigue me. All subjects seen were photographed outdoors in my backyard or front porch; none were harmed. Whether planting a single flower or large garden—you won’t have to travel far to find interesting neighbors if you look close enough.
If you plant it, they will come.
About James Collins
James Collins has over 25 years of industry experience working as an award-winning graphic designer and commercial photographer working with clients ranging from international corporations to local small businesses in the design and production of their corporate communications. His work has appeared on billboards, brochures, catalogs, magazines, tradeshows, websites and packaging. He specializes in product photography and environmental portraits.
His exhibit “Patio Life” takes a closer look at the often unseen life that surrounds us at home. The exhibit features over 20 large format reproductions of macro life, an overhead map featuring the locations of where the insects where photographed, identification guide and his book. Patio Life has been exhibited across MA, NY, NH and PA including at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center, Hopkinton Center for the Arts, the Banana Factory and upcoming at 3SArtSpace.
For more information about James Collins work, log onto his website.
Patio Life
2018 8″ x 8″ book 124 Pages
Pigment prints by artist Soft cover, perfect bound
In custom designed box 8.5 x 8.5”
Includes package of seeds
Nick Pedersen- Ultima
Where did the idea for the book come from?
My main inspiration for this book project came from seeing the incredible jungle-covered ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Being surrounded by these ancient structures of a lost kingdom that have been completely reclaimed by the natural environment was a very powerful experience. After researching literature such as The World Without Us by Alan Weisman and Collapse by Jared Diamond, I grew specifically interested in what our own cities might look like after being abandoned for hundreds of years. Through my images I was inspired to create striking juxtapositions between the ruins of modern civilization and a futuristic ecological utopia. The narrative progression of the work shows a rediscovery of these remnants belonging to the conceivably forgotten past.
What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?
I wanted to take this concept and visualize it in a contemporary sense because we are facing many of the same problems as these ancient civilizations, but on a much larger scale. This body of work examines modern humanity’s role during our time on this planet and questions the legacy that we will be handing down to the next generations. Humans now have the unprecedented potential to affect the Earth to a global degree, and my images depict an extreme example of what we might be capable. With this project, my main goal is to show a glimpse into this hypothetical world and give viewers a space in which to contemplate the future of our planet.
What is your next project?
My newest series, “Floating World” is an ongoing project exploring the impending issues of climate change and sea level rise in coastal cities around the world, and depicting some of those most threatened by flooding in the future. So far I’ve worked on a few of these colorful and satirical images of urban cities on the east coast like New York, New Orleans, and Miami. The idea with this project is to create a juxtaposition showing a beautiful, postcard view of the city that is halfway underwater with sharks and other sea creatures.
About Nick Pedersen
Nick Pedersen is a photographer and digital artist whose work primarily focuses on nature and environmental issues. A main theme in his work is “beautiful decay,” creating elaborate, photorealistic pieces that reveal a satirically, post-apocalyptic vision of the not-too-distant future. He holds a BFA degree in Photography, as well as an MFA degree in Digital Arts from Pratt Institute in New York.
His artwork has been shown in galleries across the country and internationally, recently including the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Paradigm Gallery, and Arch Enemy Arts. He has published two artist books featuring his long-term personal projects Sumeru and Ultima, and his work has been featured in numerous publications such as Vogue, Create Magazine, Juxtapoz, and Hi-Fructose. In the past few years he has also completed Artist Residencies at the Banff Center in Canada, the Gullkistan Residency in Iceland, and the Starry Night Retreat in New Mexico.
See more of Nick Pedersen‘s work on his website.
Find him on instagram at @nick_pedersen and Facebook as Nick Pedersen Artist.
ULTIMA
2015 8″x10″ 88 pages
36 photographs Hard cover
Price: $80
Roslyn Julia – Imperfect
Where did the idea for the book come from?
The idea for Imperfect came from a series of images I had stored away and labeled “failed photographs”. They were images I thought had something wrong with each, yet I still was very drawn to the feeling of them so I decided to make the series into a book.
What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?
I hope that viewers who are artists themselves will follow their intuition about the work they like most themselves and pay a little less attention to what they are taught to consider “good” photographs, or what they feel will be accepted by others.
What is your next project?
I am mainly focused on an extensive book project of my series Exist that I started in 2011, which I hope to be published as a larger run hard cover book eventually. I am also in the midst of releasing a group photography zine with my publishing partner, Grace Tyson at Goldenrod Editions (a small publishing company we started last year), where we have included almost 70 artists. We also plan to release more of our own work as small run artist books down the line!
About Imperfect
Imperfect is a collection of images that show moments within a journey during a chapter in my life of intense realization and transformation. The experiences during this time led me to more wholly accept myself, my path and my photography as inherently flawed. The images, some of which I at first rejected, yet later came to appreciate, can represent the subjectivity of what one considers fit to include in the narrative of their life story. This project explores the value of what we may choose to disown at first, and how accepting both sides of the spectrum may lead to a more total picture of our world. This collection is a self-published photo book released in June 2019.
About Roslyn Julia
Roslyn Julia is a photographic artist. Drawn to the medium of photography through her sense of awe, the theme can be found all of her images. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in 2013 and is currently based in Ithaca NY.
Roslyn has multiple photobooks of her work published, including 3 self-published books. In 2019 she founded a small publishing company called Goldenrod Editions with artist Grace Tyson where they continue to publish books of their own works and others. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group shows in the US and internationally, including an online exhibition with Aviary Gallery. She has also been featured in many online publications including: F-Stop Magazine, Lenscratch, Muybridge’s Horse, Float Magazine and Fraction Magazine.
To see more of Roslyn Julia‘s work, log onto her website.
Imperfect
2019 6.25 x 8.25” 68 pages
64 images Soft cover
Printer: ex why zed
To Purchase
Ellen Toby Slotnick – Apparition
Where did the idea for the book come from?
Living here in coastal Maine we get some pretty amazing fog. And being outdoors in the fog is so much fun, because your mind starts playing tricks on you. We can always “see” something hidden in the fog, whether it is there or not. Not all the images in the book are from Maine, photographing in fog has long been a personal favorite.
What would you like us as viewers to take away from your after seeing your work and words?
That there is a calmness, a stillness in the fog. And not to be fearful of what you can not see.
What is your next project?
Well I was going to be taking several bookmaking classes this spring and summer, I hope that at least some of them are able to happen. I wanted to put together a small book on the Olson House (the house made famous by Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World). While access to the house had been fairly open and easy for a long time, it is now no longer possible to photograph inside and you now need to be on a museum tour to get into the house. I am hoping to be able to create Photo Gravures of my images and make them into a book.
Artist Statement: There is a certain fleeting elegance that can be found in the work that I do. The majestic trees that haunt the forest, the transient dignity of a once proud house that is no longer needed. A fallen tree that now lays rotting in a pond, or a building that is no longer occupied, each has a story, a history of their existence. Some long ago, others not too far passed.
These are the stories I wish to tell.
About Ellen Toby Slotnick
Ellen Toby Slotnick, is a visual artist born in Boston, MA. She received her BS degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and MBA from Simmons University. Her practice focuses on examining the ethereal nature of structure and landscape, investigating personal histories, and uncovering the unseen.
She has had solo exhibitions at the Gallery of Photographic Art in Tel Aviv, Israel and the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA, She has exhibited in group and juried shows at the Concord Art Association, The Danforth Museum of Art, Galatea Fine Art Gallery, The Floyd Center for the Arts and The Texas Photographic Society. Ellen’s book, Traces was selected for the Davis Orton Gallery and Griffin Museum 2016 Photobook Show. In 2017 she was selected for Critical Mass 200. Her work is also held in private corporate collections.
Ellen actively serves on the board of the Griffin Museum of Photography. She has had two books published by Lobster Roll Press and now lives and works in Maine.
To see more of Ellen Slotnick‘s work log onto her website.
Apparition
2019 12″H X 14.5″W 41 pages
30 photos
Hand made, hand bound, hard cover, Japanese stab binding
Ellen Slotnick Printer, Other Contributor: Richard Reitz Smith, letterpress
Price: $1200 Limited Editions
Thomas Pickarski – Snow, Sand, Ice
The day I moved to a desert as a teenager, someone welcoming me to the area said, “Look how big the sky is!” I became intrigued with how landscapes that are void of most vegetation can strikingly portray the illusion of vast spaciousness, as well as allow for a direct experience with the raw forms, colors and surfaces that might otherwise be obscured by grass, moss, or trees.
For this body of work, I traveled extensively through the treeless arctic deserts of Iceland, the world’s driest desert, Atacama of Northern Chile, the deserts of the American West, and the mouth of the ice fjord in Greenland where the most productive glacier in the Northern Hemisphere surrenders to the sea.
I’ve created a series of landscape photographs that offer a glimpse of the most remote corners of the world. These natural settings invoke the beauty and drama of fairy tales, when long-ago giants and elfs walked the earth.
About Thomas Pickarski
I am a multi-media visual and performance artist. The themes I work with include minor obsessions, the bizarre landscape, self realization, and social justice. I often integrate storytelling into my work through text and spoken word. I hold a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Performance Art, both from Arizona State University. I have had solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. including at The Cultural Center of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa, Florida. My previous photographic exhibition, Floating Blue, debuted at the 10th Annual Songzhuang Art Festival at the Czech China Contemporary Museum in Beijing, China, in the fall of 2017, and is currently touring 6 US cities. My self published photography books include, Floating Blue, The Middle of Nowhere, The End of Nowhere (Stories and Photographs), and, Adventures of Otto, a Tiny Toy Dinosaur. I live in Greenwich Village, New York City, USA.
For more information about Thomas Pickarski log onto his website.
Snow, Sand, Ice
2018 10 x 8” 32 pages 29 images hard cover
Price $79
To purchase
