Contact Sheet 157 by Mary Goodwin

Co n tact S h e et t h e l i g h t w o rk a n n u al 2 0 1 0 N o . 1 5 7

C o n t en t s

Introduction

Demetrius Oliver Artist-in-Residence

Karen Garrett de Luna Artist-in-Residence

Rachelle Mozman Artist-in-Residence

Meggan Gould Artist-in-Residence

Chad States Artist-in-Residence

Doug Manchee Artist-in-Residence

Leslie Hewitt Artist-in-Residence

Dean Kessmann Artist-in-Residence

52 Eileen Perrier Artist-in-Residence 58

Yolanda del Amo Artist-in-Residence

Shawn Records Artist-in-Residence

Priya Kambli Artist-in-Residence

2009 Light Work Grants

Karen Brummund, Laura Adams Guth, and Stephen Shaner

Jon Reis Collection Gift

T h e Ac t i v i s t & E n t r e p r e n e u r 2

Contact Sheet number 15 announced that the Light

separates Light Work from most mainstream organiza-

programs we are very conscious of not being consis-

Work Grants were awarded to three photographers

tions and unites it with a small network of like-minded

tent. We look consistently for quality that is conscribed

on May 1, 1980. The Light Work Grants award fel-

artist-run spaces across the country. In creating a

in the many different styles and passions that artists

lowships to photographers, critics, and historians liv-

new model these artist-run spaces could look through

will use to extend traditions or chart new paths. We

ing in Central New York. The program was started in

the older models of established institutions that were

take risks because artists take risks.

1975 and continues to prosper, making it one of the

based on connoisseurship, market forces, and conser-

longest running photography fellowship programs in

vative traditions, borrow some of their practices and

make a change in the status quo, we soon were com-

the country.

strategies, and turn them around to make artists the

mitted to respond to issues that were bigger than the

What was notable for me about Contact Sheet

focus of the effort.

art world. Issues of racial and gender equality that

15 was that I was one of the recipients of the Light

The idealism and activism that grounded this

were not being addressed by mainstream institutions

Work Grants, and then a few months later on July 2,

effort had to be infused with an entrepreneurial drive

became priorities for Light Work and other similar

As an organization that was formed to try and

1980 I was hired as Light Workâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assistant director

to generate the financial resources to make it all come

artist-run organizations. Through the publication of

and helped produce Contact Sheet 16. To a greater or

together. Oddly enough we found the government a

Contact Sheet we were able to bring these issues

lesser extent I have worked on every issue of Contact

willing partner, and the National Endowment for the

and the work of artists to a large audience and into

Sheet since then, plus an additional fifty Menschel Gal-

Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts were

an international dialogue about equality and inclusion.

lery catalogues, and a few dozen more miscellaneous

two of the earlier supporters of artist-run organiza-

Things began to change.

Light Work publications.

tions. At Light Work we benefitted by our affiliation with

On July 2, 2010 I will have been at Light Work

Syracuse University, who has given us a home for

because we were convinced that it was simply

for thirty years. Milestones are, by their nature, a time

thirty-six years. We have always worked to make

the right thing to do. But even our eyes had to be

for reflection, but I think an even better opportunity for

money the old fashioned way, by earning it through

opened up and our coat tails pulled before we made

forward thinking. Change has been an essential char-

service and course fees at Community Darkrooms,

inclusion an institutional priority. Like most progres-

acteristic of photography and needs to be embraced

our public access photography and computer lab, and

sive actions the decisions to change came about in a

by any organization that serves the needs of artists

through revenue generated from Contact Sheet sub-

dialogue with others.

working in photography.

scriptions and the sale of signed books and prints.

One of the important catalysts for change for

Serving the needs of artists is what defines the

In order to make it all work, and have that work

Light Work was our participation in peer review panels

mission and vision of Light Work. This annual issue of

remain relevant, many things have come together in

at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA),

Contact Sheet is evidence of what some of the artists

a process built on change. So once our goals were

where inclusion was stressed and discussed as a

we worked with over the past year did with that sup-

firmly established to support emerging and under

quality component of all applications. The peer review

port through our Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program.

recognized artists, we also became empowered to

panels were generally composed of individuals from

The AIR program clearly defines our goal as we pro-

break rules and eliminate barriers. We became and

diverse backgrounds, so NYSCA itself became the

vide artists with the time to do what they do bestâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

remain interested in looking at the medium of pho-

example of how to achieve change through the con-

make new work. How we operate the program further

tography from the broadest possible viewpoint, less

sciousness of inclusion.

defines us as an organization committed to activism

concerned with narrow categories and traditions, and

In 1974 we exhibited the work of Roy DeCarava

and change as we concentrate our support on emerg-

more concerned with the many directions artists move

and published his work in Contact Sheet number 1. We

ing and under recognized mature artists. This is what

the medium. In selecting artists to participate in our

started our Artist-in-Residence Program in 1977, but

At Light Work we embraced those changes

it was not until 1985 that Dawoud Bey was selected

time, but the experience became an important lesson

with the lack of outcry and protest. Complacency is a

as the first artist of color to participate in the program.

in respecting boundaries even when you are trying to

dangerous drug. Without agitation everything sinks to

Both DeCarava and Bey would play important roles in

break down walls.

the lowest level where fairness gives way to fear, and

Light Work’s development and become touchstones in

exclusion becomes a comfort zone.

the progress and regression of larger issues of diver-

the art world and the world at large. DeCarava had

sity and inclusion in our society.

a groundbreaking retrospective at the Museum of

banner of protest and change fueled by an entre-

In 1983 Sy Rubin, who ran the Midtown Y

Modern Art in New York City in 1996, and women

preneurial thrust and enthusiasm, we find hope for

Photography Gallery in New York City, was a visiting

and artists of color are no longer relegated to occa-

the future, but only if we are vigilant. Bey summed

artist at Light Work. We knew that Rubin was see-

sional group exhibitions that are race and gender spe-

up that spirit succinctly by stating, “We still need to

ing work by a lot of photographers that we did not

cific. But many of the same conditions that willfully

agitate for a transformed worldview within institutional

know about and asked him to pass the word about

neglected women and artists of color thirty years ago

culture that embraces the truly global and multiracial

Light Work to artists who he thought would be good

are present today in the form of institutional malaise at

character of our human community. Anything less

candidates for our residency program. One of his

best, and intentional neglect at worst, where diversity

than that should be met with continuing, vocal, and

first recommendations was Dawoud Bey. With Bey’s

was only accepted as a political necessity but inclusion

vociferous protest.”

residency we opened up a dialogue and opportunity

was never embraced as a core value.

for many other artists of color who began to look at

In 2010 Bey was the featured speaker at the

Jeffrey Hoone

Light Work as a place where they knew they would

SPE National Conference in Philadelphia. The direc-

Executive Director

be considered.

tor of Light Work, Hannah Frieser, chaired the con-

Light Work

This process taught us two valuable lessons. One

ference with Miriam Romais, the director of En Foco

July 1, 2010

was the importance of relying on artists to recommend

in the Bronx. They selected the conference title,

other artists, and the other was that if you let artists

“Facing Diversity: Leveling the Playing Field in the

know that their voices will be heard you can create

Photographic Arts.” In one regard I took a cynical view

a program of inclusion that becomes a natural rule

of the conference theme. I thought that after all these

rather than a forced exception.

years as a relatively progressive organization, SPE had

In 1986 at the national conference of the Soci-

to draw attention to the issue of diversity instead of

ety for Photographic Education (SPE) in Baltimore I

being able to host this conference and every confer-

attended a Black Caucus meeting with the intention of

ence as an organically inclusive program where the

making connections with other African American art-

norm was for many voices to be heard.

ists. The meeting was being run by DeCarava, who was

also the honored educator at the conference. About

conference in Philadelphia was celebrating diversity

twenty-five people attended the meeting, and after

the current Whitney Biennial, which used an image of

a few minutes of discussion DeCarava decided that

Barack Obama on the catalogue cover, included no

he wanted a very candid exchange to take place and

Latinos and only three African Americans among the

asked the three or four white people in attendance to

fifty-five artists in the exhibition. Bey expressed equal

leave. I don’t remember my specific reaction at the

concern at the lack of inclusion in the exhibition as

Since that time progress has been made within

But as Bey pointed out in his speech, while the

As an organization that was founded under the

d e m et r i u s o l i v e r

Certain artists have so transformed particular objects

an African American neighborhood, and the residents

the inky blackness of coal. He does not confirm what

with their vision that they lay claim to those objects in

would also appreciate the reference to the operators

his props mean, using them evocatively, not for any

our minds. In the late 1930s, Walker Evans drew atten-

of the Underground Railroad. Similarly, as curator

specific narrative thread.

tion to roadside billboards, their increasingly ubiquitous

Yasufumi Nakamori observed, the relevance of light

presence in modern life, and the ironies in their place-

bulbs in Oliver’s later projects lies in Ralph Ellison’s

duced large-scale digital photographs which he installs

ment. He made us aware of the signs, so we tag our

novel The Invisible Man, in which the African American

in grids or long horizontal lines or he projects onto vari-

cognizance to Evans’ tutelage. Giorgio Morandi painted

protagonist lives in a basement illuminated with 1,369

ous surfaces, including a plastic bucket “telescope” and

the same bottles and boxes in his studio for over half a

light bulbs and equates truth with light.

groups of light bulbs held in his hand. The pictures in

century. His persistent contemplation led to subtle but

In later works, the teakettles’ original function is

Almanac and in the Firmament segment of the larger

seemingly endless variations of arrangement and per-

exchanged for their capacities as shiny surfaces. In his

installation Observatory were not made with a fish-eye

ception; he expanded our understanding of the depth

monumental series Almanac, Oliver aimed his camera

lens as has been frequently written in reviews. Rather,

of discernment possible from an intelligent mind look-

at the body of various teakettles, which reflected the

Oliver used Photoshop to cut out the circular reflec-

ing at such humble objects.

room and its contents back to the lens, including the

tion from the teakettle. Each circular image floats in a

While Demetrius Oliver’s career does not yet span

reflection of the camera itself. The camera sits on a

black square in the final print. In both series, where the

a decade, he has already collected about him, and

table or a tripod with no human hand near the shut-

prints are hung abutting one another in a line(s) around

inserted into his art, certain objects whose steady reap-

ter, making its role as recorder a matter of deduction.

the room, the orbs evoke a strange celestial reference

pearance has begun to lay his claim. Chunks of black

The rooms and the objects within them are ordinary,

when seen from a distance.

coal, slices of bacon, light bulbs, and teakettles are all

but his arrangements are unexpected. Hammers stand

mundane objects in the daily lives of most people. He

on end, sometimes with bacon strips plastered to the

new objects to employ in his investigations and prob-

has nevertheless begun to expand our appreciation of

handles. Oliver is the magician, or as some critics have

ably continue to use those that have served him well

their evocative possibilities to such an extent that they

observed “the trickster,” whose presence moves in the

thus far, but in new contexts. Like Morandi, he uses the

are becoming linked to his art in challenging ways.

space, lifting lids on boxes that emit a burst of light

familiar to make himself, and us, question what we see,

He began to collect teakettles for his first major

from an unseen source. Sometimes only his hand is

what we know, and who we might be in the mix.

installation at Project Row Houses in Houston in

visible. Oliver is another recurring visual in much of

2004. In Conductor, he placed a group of kettles on

his work. But for a man so frequently recorded, he is

hot plates on the floor allowing the water to boil and

intensely private. Like Cindy Sherman’s use of her own

the pots to whistle like trains. Oliver’s titles often have

body in her art, we have come to know Oliver’s face

double and triple references, many being grounded

and body, but not his person.

in his knowledge of African American history and his

Oliver has an artist’s eye for physically distinct

love of nineteenth century American literature, particu-

objects that have little traditional emotional load, leaving

larly the writings of the Transcendentalists, especially

them more open to his manipulation on both physical

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. For example,

and metaphorical levels. Formally they are well-chosen,

Conductor alludes to the teakettle as container and

from the mechanically shiny but use-damaged surfaces

conduit for the water’s transformation to steam and

of the teakettles, to the icky limpness of raw bacon and

to noise. In addition Project Row Houses is located in

how it molds itself to whatever it is wrapped around, to

Since the early single images, Oliver has pro-

As Oliver’s works continue to evolve, he will find

Anne Wilkes Tucker 1.

Yasufumi Nakamori, email to author, February 6, 2010.

Demetrius Oliver lives and works in New York City. He was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in April 2009. For more information about Oliver, visit demetriusoliver.blogspot.com. Anne Wilkes Tucker is the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has contributed essays to over eighty publications and catalogues, some of which she also edited, and most of which were for exhibitions that she curated. She has published many articles and lectured widely.

Firmament XX, 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2008 All images are pigmented inkjet prints, 36 x 36"

Firmament I, 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2008

Firmament XXI, 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2008

Firmament IV, 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2008

Firmament VII, 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2008

k a r e n g a r r et t d e lu n a

The wearing of talismans, tokens, charms, and amulets

De Luna’s subjects are also all naked from the neck-

Bogdan, whose Russian-Orthodox cross is separated

is a practice thought to have originated in the Stone

lace up, eliminating any external variables besides the

from his skin by a blanket of beautiful tattoos, grounds

Age over 40,000 years ago. More than simple per-

necklaces that could reference the subjects’ identities,

his article of faith in a scratchy statement that refer-

sonal adornment, these special necklaces have been

beliefs, or positions in society. Placed next to every

ences everyday remembrance of his family and the

worn to evoke and intensify some of humanity’s most

portrait is a still life of the subject’s necklace, also shot

realities of life. These statements make it clear that the

basic endeavors, including the desire to protect, to

in a similarly scientific way.

message contained within the image garners strength

remember, to ward off the evil eye, or even to seduce.

The diptychs of worn/wearer create a contradic-

from profession. In this way, de Luna’s project closes

Hanging close to the heart, each is imbued with its

tory relationship in which the almost surgical repetition

the gap between the material and the immaterial, the

own unique aura, and each works its particular magic

of each subject’s portrait is juxtaposed to the artifact

external and the internal.

next to the skin of the faithful.

that marks that individual uniquely. The 65 diptychs

The artist makes no claims for religion or spiritu-

Karen Garrett de Luna’s book and ongoing proj-

that currently comprise the series combine the look

ality. She presents these objects and the people who

ect, Articles of Faith, speaks to the relationship between

and feel of a laboratory experiment with the diversity

believe in them to the viewer for inspection and retro-

these objects and the beliefs that transform them into

of humanity and its many beliefs. Photographing the

spection without judgment. By retaining a certain dis-

a testimony of faith. In the series people from all walks

necklaces alone and then with their wearers under-

tance from the themes of her project, de Luna makes

of life, age, race, gender, and creed are photographed

scores the fact that it is the believers who choose to

it possible for viewers to investigate the relationship

with the necklaces that adorn them every day. The rit-

don the articles of faith who give them any human

between the material and the spiritual and to draw their

ual of wearing these articles of faith is a tie that binds

significance or power.

own conclusions.

the series together. It also serves as an external, visible

Accompanying each work is didactic text, written

In her artist’s notes on the series, de Luna writes

symbol of internal, invisible convictions.

in the subject’s own hand. These are personal testa-

that life is fragile, and yet her archive of faith reminds

The project, in its use of the photograph as

ments to their faith and their relationship to the mate-

us that within this fragility, there is strength. For while

index, stands within the tradition of phenomenological

rial manifestation of this faith. Without this text, the

life may be fragile, this project shows that the ties that

photography. The concept that objects have a mean-

project would not have the emotional resonance that

bind us to our faith are not. Regardless of the specific

ing specific to human experience and understand-

it does. The diaristic text grounds the project in a vis-

belief or function attributed to the necklace by the indi-

ing begins with the advent of image making itself.

ceral and emotional way; the handwriting also prevents

vidual, wearing it has a common basis in the comfort

Remembrance and meaning are the foundations of

the work from having a too clean, rather commercial

that the bearer is not alone.

the photographic experience. But de Luna takes this

catalog look, keeping the project out of the purview of

idea further by making Articles of Faith an exploration

cold examination.

and construction of binaries and dualities.

De Luna creates a fascinating archive of both

of the images, we are invited to investigate the rela-

the spiritual and the material with a clinical eye. Her

tionship between Kris and her quartz crystals. Kris,

subjects are all photographed uniformly, which cre-

who possesses the delicate good looks of a model

ates a consistent look for the project as a whole.

as she gazes confidently into the camera, erases any

Each person strikes the same straightforward pose,

notion of her necklace as fashion statement when

shoulders squared to the picture plane, against a white

she writes that, “My belief is that we are all spirit or

background, and each image is lit evenly and neatly.

energy. Everything is vibration and intent.” Similarly,

Song Chong

For example, within the blank, white framework Karen Garrett de Luna is a graduate student of photography at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in April 2009. Her website is www.delunatic.net. Song Chong is currently working on her dissertation project on North Korean photographic archives at New York University, in the Department of Media, Culture and Communication, where she is an adjunct professor. She also works at Magnum Photos as education manager.

Bernard with Protection Cord, 2008 All images are pigmented inkjet prints, 22.5 x 36"

Kris with Quartz and Rose Quartz Crystals, 2008

Dwayne with Silver and Bronze Penises, 2009

Bogdan with Russian-Orthodox Cross, 2008

Lourdes with Eucharistic Crucifix, 2009

R a c h e l l e M oz m a n

I grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to Jew-

these complexities, she uses a variety of photographic

ish parents in an elevator building with doormen who

and art historical traditions ranging from the staged

in the majority of these photographs, rendering skin

shook hands and high-fived. Although the neighbor-

narratives of Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall to the

tones near pastel and emphasizing the subjects’ sense

hood was considered safe, stores stuck “safe haven”

documentary traditions of August Sander and Diane

of complete disconnection from their environments as

stickers in their windows. If we ever felt any danger or

Arbus, the investigative portraiture of Rineke Dijkstra,

they, much like their houses, are literally dropped into

threat to our livelihood, we could escape to them, call

and even some influence from sixteenth-century por-

their surroundings. The contriving of narratives, layer-

our parents, and be on with our protected, comfortable

trait painters like Agnolo Bronzino.

ing of multiple negatives, and literal construction of

lives. These gestures gave my family, friends, and me a

The children in Mozman’s images grow up fast,

these images directly parallels the fabrication of the

sense of community and security.

lack commonly held signifiers of youthful emotion, and

planned communities that Mozman photographs.

As a young child, I remember my older sister’s

in the case of Costa del Este, made in Panama, spend

friends frequently raiding the refrigerator for pints of

the majority of their time inside air conditioned homes

over the end product, her subjects are communities

ice cream and rectangular toaster oven pizzas, one

to avoid the excruciatingly hot temperatures outside. In

and children who actually exist in the world. Although

of these friends being a teenaged Rachelle Mozman.

one photograph, Natalia on the Stairs, a young girl in a

Mozman’s work has some dialogue with staged narra-

Decades later I stumbled upon an exhibition of her

red dress sits awkwardly on a clean, curved staircase,

tive, her subjects are real people and real communities,

work in a gallery on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. I was

her hands pressed flat against its third step, trying to

no matter how far removed. To emphasize this point,

struck by a particular image of a young girl standing

balance as if the stairs might collapse or even disin-

almost every photograph from this series is anchored

awkwardly beside a digitally manipulated one-eyed

tegrate below her. Like the staircase, both her outfit

by a window or door. Their presence underscores the

cat. Seeing this photograph, one would not imagine

and her complexion are immaculate, and her gaze is

gatedness of these communities and the isolation of

a pillager of Jewish freezers on the Upper West Side.

removed. She appears deep in thought or in a complex

the children from the outside world.

Mozman’s series American Exurbia and Costa del Este

inner monologue, yet the viewer has little information

offer a different image of communal security where the

suggesting what that might be. In another photograph,

nal security that diverge from the wholesome idealiza-

term “safe haven” reflects a homogenous world that is

Twins in Yellow, two girls in identical yellow dresses

tion many Americans imagine. In dialogue with portrai-

closed off and isolated from its surroundings.

sit on a similarly identical curved staircase confronting

ture, documentary, and staged narrative photography,

In both series, Mozman makes highly stylized,

the viewer with unsympathetic, hardened gazes. While

she depicts communities where a certain economic

heavily directed portraits of children living within

their legs are crossed with a bit of awkward twee, their

and cultural milieu ultimately sacrifices one idealization

exurban and gated communities in New Jersey and

eyes stare through the viewer as an outsider and show

of security for a closed off illusion of protection.

Panama. While the communities Mozman photographs

the girls as threatened and questioning.

exist in separate geographical regions, they are strik-

Even in the images that contain more common

ingly similar in their social, racial, and economic

symbols of childhood, there is a maintained sense of

homogeneity. Often these communities are inserted

distance in the subjects. In Boy With Dog, a pre-teen

into recently deforested landscapes, essentially ensur-

boy stands in a doorway holding his pet Chihuahua.

ing their own removal from the outside world. Mozman

Though one might expect a tender bond between the

successfully documents and manipulates this alternate

boy and his dog, the dog actually stands stiff on the

and controlled sense of security that diverges from that

boy’s arms, which serve more as shelving rather than

childhood on the Upper West Side. In order to illustrate

an emotional cradle.

Digital manipulation plays a large conceptual role

Despite Mozman’s heightened sense of control

Mozman’s work investigates notions of commu-

Jon Feinstein

Rachelle Mozman lives and works in New York City and Panama. She was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in May 2009. Visit her website at www.rachellemozman.com. Jon Feinstein is an independent curator, photographer, and co-founder and curatorial director of Humble Arts Foundation, a New York City based not-for-profit organization committed to new art photography.

Boy with Chihuahua, 2009 Chromogenic print, 21 x 16"

Costa Bella, 2006 Chromogenic print, 38 x 26"

Natalia on the Stairs, 2006 Chromogenic print, 36 x 30"

Twins in Yellow, 2007 Chromogenic print, 30 x 24"

Garden Doors, 2009 Chromogenic print, 17 x 22"

m eg g a n g o u l d

Meggan Gould’s series Verso, a compendium of

appears on the front side of these photographs is

when photographs were actual, concrete things to be

images of the backs of personal and found family pho-

likely both milestones (such as birthdays, weddings,

experienced in the flesh, not just virtually. If Gould’s

tographs, offers up the photograph as a palimpsest for

and family vacations) as well as the most mundane

series is a lament, it is for the loss of the photograph

imagined narratives. The viewer never sees the front

moments of a personal history. But we will never catch

as an artifact of modern society.

side of the vernacular photograph, just the residue of

a glimpse of what for the original maker and possessor

that object’s journey through time—abstract traces

was a memory made real and tangible.

Verso project. Muniz’s witty recreations of iconic

of adhesive which used to affix the photograph to an

Roland Barthes famously wrote in Camera Lucida

images in chocolate, dust, or detritus have long chal-

album page, markings from the photo lab that printed

about the nature of the photograph and its ability to

lenged the presumed veracity of the photograph. In his

it, or written notations by the original maker identify-

evoke memory and the specter of death by analyzing

series, Muniz painstakingly recreated (with the help of

ing what we might see on the reverse if given the

a portrait of his mother. Interestingly, though Gould’s

experts in various fields) the backs of painted master-

opportunity. With each new viewer, it is as if the slate

vehicle is the family photograph, the project is not a

pieces. Where Gould’s are photographic reproductions

were wiped clear for a new layer of interpretation or

meditation on relationships or humanity in general.

of vernacular photographs, Muniz’s are three-dimen-

imagined history.

Rather it is an open-ended narrative that invites the

sional facsimiles of masterworks in paint (or iconic

viewer to complete the story. When there are enough

images from the newspaper age, another dinosaur in

photographs from her grandmother. Many had come

cues that extend the invitation, that is.

the history of print).

loose from the pages, and the artist found herself look-

In most images, the aforementioned traces—

ing at strangers. These relations who were unknown to

the adhesives, the hand-written descriptions or dedi-

ently asks why these images are compelling. They

her were unidentified on the album pages or on the

cations, discolorations from age—do not pique the

are not beautiful in any conventional sense. They are

reverse side of the photograph. This was a marked

viewer’s curiosity about what is on the flip side. Texts

almost anticlimactic in what they offer. Like a cliff-

contrast to Gould’s mother’s ritual of carefully anno-

such as “a year or so later” or “can I take it,” for

hanger, they tease us and allow us no resolution to the

tating each family photograph on the backside in the

example, are too generic or cryptic to lure the viewer.

impending narrative we know must occupy the side

same location, in the same hand, and with the same

Gould’s approach is a more detached, clinical, almost

hidden from view. In Gould’s work, they mock the very

class of data (who, where, when). The act of flipping

anthropological consideration of the photograph as a

notion that a photograph can represent a reality. Hers

each photograph in search of information interested

cultural artifact. Her photographs deny us any illusion

are photographs of photographs, and her practice is

Gould. It suggested that the photograph withholds as

of intimacy with or connection to the personal history

photography about photography. Yet the representa-

much information as it gives. To test the idea, Gould

that transpired to result in the photograph before us.

tion before us is not a familiar image but a reversal of

sought out family photographs from antique shops,

The photograph is approached as a three-di-

our normal expectations.

flea markets, and the collections of friends and stu-

mensional object, not a two-dimensional representa-

dents. The source material has radiated further and

tion of an individual at a particular moment in time.

further from her nuclear family to become an unlikely

Gould lights and photographs the picture backs in

gathering of faceless portraits.

order to emphasize their “objectness.” To scan them

The anonymity of both the hidden subjects and

would result in images too flat to be convincing. In the

the found photograph’s maker is significant to Gould’s

digital age, the photograph as object, and the album

project, a characteristic she emphasizes by obscur-

as a collection of those entities, risks extinction. They

ing the image from us. We can speculate that what

are “relics” of what Gould calls the “pre-pixel age,”

Verso began when Gould inherited an album of

Gould’s project brings to mind Vik Muniz’s own

Any series based on the verso of a picture inher-

Laura Addison Meggan Gould is a visiting assistant professor of Photography at Bowdoin College in Maine. She was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in May 2009. Visit her website at www.meggangould.net. Laura Addison is the curator of contemporary art at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe.

Verso #2, 2008 All images are pigmented inkjet prints, 19 x 13"

Verso #12, 2008

Verso #16, 2008

Verso #57, 2008

Verso #63, 2008

C h a d Stat e s

Artist Chad States documents public cruising sites—

foliage. At this point in the series, States struggled

Practically white text on white paper is hard to read

outdoor areas where men congregate for anonymous

with the morality of compromising the privacy of his

with a quick eye, and at first all one sees in these

sex. Without prior knowledge, most of these land-

subjects. Eventually, he devised a way to give peeks

pieces is a blank sheet. Once one’s eyes adjust, the

scapes appear to be rather innocuous. In fact, when

of action without actually revealing the identity of any

text begins to emerge, and with some effort the sub-

one sees the whole project, most of the images in the

of the participants. While serving a practical purpose,

liminal passages then can be read.

series function almost completely as straightforward

the technique also heightens the voyeuristic tenor of

The textual pieces, like the cruising sites them-

landscapes. The lush, Edenic terrain in Jean-Antoine

the photographs. In viewing States’ prints, one catches

selves, are nearly invisible. The words here do not

Watteau’s rococo paintings comes to mind when look-

a peep of the sexual activity while remaining invisible

merely serve as captions for the pictures. Instead

ing at these photographs, as do the luxuriant trees and

oneself. In all of the photographs there is a palpable

they play alongside the images, adding another layer

vegetation in Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s later canvases,

tension, a moment of pause when one must decide

to States’ process and the ritual followed by the men

whose work, like States’, only partially veils licentious-

whether to go further into the woods or turn back.

seeking sex. The words are part of the hunt; and

ness and blatant eroticism.

States goes further into the woods. By being

part of the hunt is deciphering the text. These rules

In the absence of obvious clues, the true use

physically present at these sites, he embarks on an

of engagement and codes of culture not only instruct

of these sites is invisible to the naked eye—and

adventure, indeed the same adventure taken up by the

men on how to behave, they function in tandem like a

certainly to the general public. This, of course, is by

men who seek physical pleasure. It is this part of the

complicated game in which one goes out with a map

design. The cruising spots, which are often in public

artistic process—the mystery, the risk, and the related

in search of adventure and hopeful treasure.

parks or wooded areas to the side of parking lots, for

exhilaration—that plays into the psychology of the

example, do not appear out of the ordinary unless one

sexuality of cruising. The excitement of the uncertainty

knows what evidence is there to be revealed. It is this

and peril (however real) are half the gratification and

irony that first interested States. And it is this tension

feed the sexual urge. Indeed, cruising is easily equated

between invisibility and visibility that makes the subject

with man’s primeval urge to hunt, incorporating the

a particularly rich one for the camera.

outdoors, the thrill of the chase, and the element of

Photography, as a medium, is inherently voy-

danger, which are all related to primordial masculine

euristic. Photographs titillate our compulsive curiosity

urges. States’ photographs manage to mine those

to see what is labeled as secret or private or “per-

feelings and emotions and compulsions, sometimes

verse.” These images expertly exploit that obsession

with the simple depiction of a dark and empty path.

by playing with how much of the actual cruising is

To find these cruising spots, States turned to the

revealed to the camera and how much remains hid-

internet. He found that the online cruising websites

den. States’ photographs continuously reference the

provide tips for finding the action and for how to better

intersection and interweaving of vision and sexuality in

one’s odds for success (i.e., “Tap your brake lights to

which it is the physical act of looking that arouses.

signal to other cars”). States jotted down the words on

While the earliest images in the series were

scraps of paper, and when he came across them later,

entirely unpopulated, as the project progressed and

they read as poetry. He incorporates these snippets of

evolved, States began to incorporate scenes that

directions or phrases into the series by printing them

include obstructed glimpses of figures through the

in a very pale, subtle, gray type on white backgrounds.

Brian Paul Clamp

Chad States lives and works in Rehoboth Beach, DE. He was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in June 2009. View more of his work online at www.chadstates.com. Brian Paul Clamp has nearly twenty years of experience in the fine art world. He is the director and owner of ClampArt, a gallery that specializes in modern and contemporary art with an emphasis on photography. Clamp holds an MA in Critical Studies in Modern Art from Columbia University and is the author of numerous publications on American art to date.

Under 95, 2009 All images are pigmented inkjet prints, 16 x 20"

Thornden Park Trail, 2009

Man in White Car, 2007

Meet up by the Pond, Then Go Deeper into the Pond for Seclusion, 2009

Man in Woods, 2009

Doug Manchee

Doug Manchee spent three years photographing in the

what is inevitably there, though non-specific. We arrive

us clusters of information. His work expresses the

Research Center at Visual Studies Workshop (VSW)

at a conception of memory: that it is everything and

physical-ness of clustering (for example, an image

in Rochester, NY. This hybrid library/archive holds

nothing at once.

shows wads of paper prints that have curled and

roughly 800,000 photographic print, negative, and

This

through

attached to one another); it shows the gravitation of

slide images; 500 original audiotapes of image maker

Manchee’s portrayal of storage devices. His photo-

one element to another as in the grouping of like

and historian lectures; 25,000 volumes related to the

graphs of boxes, bags, and diskettes confront us with

things; and it reveals the significance of clusters to our

media arts; 5,000 artists’ books; and thousands of

vagueness. An unmarked audiotape could be blank,

thinking. Moreover, the project as a whole is organized

periodicals. A good portion of what is collected in the

or every magnetic second might have information.

in clusters of related images. All of this communicates

Research Center, specifically many of the photographic

Boxes that rest on shelves in opened metal cabinets

an idea about the role of categorization in the mind.

images, was saved from destruction. For example the

could contain dozens of prints or be empty altogether.

We do not just see an object or a photograph,

archive of Lejaren á Hiller, the first ever practitioner

In Manchee’s photographs the archive is not some-

we see a kind of object, or a type of photograph,

of commercial photographic illustration, salvaged from

thing that can be seen. The archive is an abstraction

and this categorization is important to our common

sidewalk trash piles in New York City after the illustra-

as much as a collection of photographs, documents,

thinking, not just the classification of collected things.

tor’s death, is now stored at VSW.

and ephemera. It is held in objects like manila archive

Manchee clearly identifies this idea in how he photo-

Manchee did not set out to document objects in

boxes photographed to appear as solid objects, their

graphs VSW’s vernacular print collections in particular.

the Research Center or record the state of the place

flat surfaces reflecting light to emphasize their opacity.

In these images his full frame focuses on handwritten

in time. His approach is more equivocal and evoca-

The archive comes out as a subject because it is hid-

classifications like “Unemployed” and “War Wounds,”

tive, and his photographs of the archive summon the

den and immersed in objects.

examples of the complexity and flexible boundaries

search, but forgo the retrieval, of memory. Manchee

Manchee shows us that the archive remains

of categories. The edges of a few of the vernacular

conceptualizes storage, a key concern of our time, and

veiled even when a box is opened. In one picture the

images are clearly legible poking out of file folders,

what is archival about the mind.

topography of an open box is plastic-bagged opaque

faces peep out from bundles, or make eye contact

In his interiors, Manchee creates picture planes

white papers revealing nothing. Light reflecting off the

from the top of a heap of prints. The role of these wit-

with large blurry areas and a pivot point at the edge

clear plastic’s crinkled corner is a playful comment on

nesses is less vague. They remind us that the archive

of the image. His picture method encapsulates what it

how the archive is protected by its lack of transpar-

is defined by the presence of people like Manchee, his

is to physically be in the space, closely approximate

ency. The blank whiteness of the paper offers us a

point of view, and how he categorizes experience.

to one thing, while in possession of the knowledge

sign: the archive is vague because it is unwritten. It

that there are hundreds of items beyond you. With this

may not always be clear why we store something,

conceptualization

continues

awareness we are both in the place and also within a

but throwing it away may also be an act of hubris.

fuzzy mental space where everything is obtainable, but

Manchee’s project examines the virtue of being kept.

nothing is immediate. This everything/nothing sense

To keep something is to do nothing to it more intensely.

is affirmed by our eye activity as we turn from the

We keep the archive as it is but add levels of protec-

area in focus to the blurry vastness and back again,

tion (acid free boxes, buffered paper, and so on) not to

our eyes pivoting on a point of structure—a hinge or

perfect it, but to preserve its sense of potential.

shelf—that links and holds different parts of things

together. In this way, Manchee engages a search for

or knowledge, and Manchee’s photographs show

Memory is the retrievable storage of experience

Tate Shaw Doug Manchee is a professor of photography in the School of Photographic Art and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he is chair of the advertising area. He was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in July 2009. For more information visit www.dougmancheeprojects.com. Tate Shaw is the director of Visual Studies Workshop, a non-profit center for the media arts in Rochester, NY with an MFA program in Visual Studies. He is a book artist and writer and co-publisher of Preacher’s Biscuit Books.

2009:060:030, 2009 Pigmented inkjet print, 15 x 20"

2009:060:036, 2009 Pigmented inkjet print, 20 x 15"

2009:060:009, 2009 Pigmented inkjet print, 20 x 15"

2009:060:017, 2009 Pigmented inkjet print, 20 x 15"

2009:060:002, 2009 Pigmented inkjet print, 15 x 20"

Leslie Hewitt

The eight images in Leslie Hewitt’s Midday series pres-

was contingent upon multiple readings of the objects

tacked onto the wall above the board shows that the

ent a surface of things: a perfect square piece of wood,

under intense description. Here, Hewitt’s oranges con-

board is not flush with the wall, a suspicion further

books, single photographs, a skein of striped fabric,

jure Florida, and they incant migrant workers or the

confirmed by the picture postcard tucked in at its

and sometimes an orange. These items re-occur in

discourse around genetically modified food.

top. On its lower right side, a paperback book shoved

combinations with more or less of them included, save

Hewitt has some interest in the currency of com-

behind it proves the board’s odd stability. A penny on

for the wood, which sits prominently as the subject

mon objects, having spent time in the Netherlands

the floor is the scale measure for all of the objects.

of each image. It is a sort of face for the body made

immersing herself in its art historical literature. Her

The blue and white striped fabric, turned over and onto

by the photographs, books, and fabric formed in each

images, and their ultimate presentation as built forms,

itself, falls onto the board, its pattern of parallel lines

composition. The images are, in turn, a surface for the

take on the task of describing rather than photograph-

in opposition to those formed by the wood floor slats

sculptural installations (or photo-sculpture) that Hewitt

ing, taking, recording, noting, capturing, or any of the

and the grooves in the baseboard. The strict geometry

constructs by placing the photographs within frames.

actions normally ascribed to the two-dimensional pho-

of the lines as well as the book rectangles and squared

These frames then rest on the floor, propped at an

tographic process. What this means is that what we

photograph play against the two circular features, the

angle against a wall. In this series the two-dimensional

read into these images is determined by our own con-

orange (sphere) and the penny (full circle).

image that presents itself so clearly masks an archi-

notations led by Hewitt’s vivid photo-real descriptions.

tectonic function. These are images to be looked at

In Midday the same assembled objects are

might easily read. The turning fabric has a frayed edge,

and to be moved around.

reconfigured for each image, making each discrete

while lines can be drawn from a red-edged book to

The items in Midday are composed into a still life,

but related. In the most spare of the works, Untitled

the penny and the orange in the foreground. This little

a composition type associated with painting, specifi-

(Hours), two books form a pedestal, lifting the wood

detail might be a comment on a waning economy as

cally seventeenth century Netherlandish painting. For

square from the ground as if it were levitating. The

surely as it is a study of the shared tonal properties of

the series, Hewitt closed her objects into a set: a wood

wood appears to be a thin wafer whose shadow

red, orange, and copper. As with all of the images, it

floor abutted by a white a wall. The thin seam where

emerges slimly from one side. The light streak in

was Hewitt’s photographic description that led there.

the wall and the floor meet is a dark crevice running

the upright wood’s face is brightened, as if reflect-

parallel with the horizontal lines incised into the wall’s

ing the day’s light. So too is the illegible text on one

baseboard. In the spare background, unevenness in

of the books. Both evoke the sensation of a bright

the wood grain or faded spots on the floor play against

light whose incandescence has outshone what would

areas of built-up white paint on the wall, performing

otherwise be visible. Natural light was a component

a variation of tones and textures that would normally

of Hewitt’s process as she embarked on the series

be invisible. Hewitt’s work is charged by the history

at midday in an effort to catch the specific colors and

of low-country visual culture in which the acute detail

tones cast by the sun into her studio.

afforded to commonplace objects, like fruit, bestowed

In comparison to the other seven images, Untitled

meaning about the interrelated commercial, imperial,

(Hours) is a description of compositional sparseness,

or social values attached to objects and their viewers.

whereas Untitled (Seems to be Necessary) describes

If an orange symbolized the Dutch trade relationship

fullness. Here, the square is more like a board than a

with the East, it was also emblematic of the exotic and

sheet, its density multiplied by the width and depth

the royal House of Orange.1 Each meaning’s fluidity

of the objects that surround it. A faded photograph

All of these items work together in ways that we

Courtney J. Martin 1. Julie Berger Hochstrasser, Still Life and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007): 75-78. 2. Svetlana Alpers set in motion a disciplinary shift away from the narrative tradition applied to painting by defining Dutch art “as being an art of describing…” Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983): xx. Leslie Hewitt lives and works in New York City. She was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in July 2009. Courtney J. Martin is an art historian. In 2009–2010, she was Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Untitled (Seems to be Necessary), 2009 All images digital chromogenic prints, 40 x 50"

Untitled (Connecting), 2009

Untitled (Geographic Delay), 2009

Untitled (Holding Still), 2009

Untitled (Pyramid), 2009

d e a n K e ss m a n n

Millions of times daily across the country we are asked

modern sense of angst. He debunks the easy char-

In this video only the digital record of process (and an

the seemingly benign query, “Paper or plastic?” This

acterization of the pulp substrate as a neutral creative

incomplete record, at that) remains. A stack of paper

quintessential rhetorical trap has no right answer.

space and celebrates its duality as both simple surface

is imperceptibly reduced sheet by sheet as it is put into

Our selection identifies us as either part of the cal-

and complex object. The artist is almost reverential

motion on an unseen turntable until only a single sheet

lous consumptive class that condemns old-growth

in his investigation of its physicality, scientific in his

remains. The activity, though not the turntable itself, is

forests, or those who facilitate the digestive demise

mapping of its aesthetic, and playfully insidious in his

reversed until all sheets are replaced and the process

of marine mammals. After our long descent into the

revelation of its conceptual implications.

begins again. The video refutes both the stack and

darkest corners of a landfill mentality, we, as a society,

Intersecting Data: Light/Dark; Reversing Nega-

its component sheets as objects in a way that is both

are ethically immobilized by a relatively simple mate-

tives: Inside/Outside; and Shifting Dimensions: Begin/

conceptually numbing and visually unfulfilling, which is,

rial decision. When taken to its most extreme conclu-

End share a reliance on an intricate weave of physical

of course, Kessmann’s point.

sion, however, this dilemma bears lasting implications

subjects (sheets of paper), digital processes (scanning

With Art as Paper as Potential, Kessmann nods

to that class of problem solvers upon whom we rely

and manipulation), and analog output. The character

to the Conceptual and Minimalist art makers who have

to provide some sort of ethical and intellectual guid-

of each piece relies on how the artist deploys each of

preceded him. He acknowledges his place as a part of

ance. The dilemma: What are the ethical parameters

these components and the ratio of each element to the

their continuum as well as his place within the trajec-

of the things we consume? The problem solvers: art-

whole. The three pieces are, to extend the artist’s own

tory of photographic practice. By doing so, he frees

ists, especially those whose practice culminates in the

metaphor, the recto/verso/recto of his investigation, or

himself from the restrictions that any one of them

making of objects.

more wryly put, the three sides of the same sheet.

could have placed upon him. From this perspective

Kessmann lets these conceptual parameters fold

Kessmann gives voice to the existential question that

online, and the Kindle has become the alternative of

in upon themselves. Reversing Negatives: Inside/Out-

every artist who makes objects must, at one time or

choice to hard- versus soft-cover. The exquisite hairline

side allows the scanning process to render each paper

another, ask: Is the object still relevant? With a keen

sting of a paper cut has all but vanished as an experi-

sheet as an infinitely reproducible pattern that moves it

sense of conceptual sophistication, an acute under-

ential reference. Yet, at a time when offices are going

beyond its identity as a neutral substrate. Each scan’s

standing of the value of visual punning, and the matu-

paperless and irony is supposed to have been ban-

reversed tonality references the artist’s positive/nega-

rity of an artist who knows that such questions even

ished from the art-makers’ arsenal, Dean Kessmann’s

tive photographic heritage while celebrating each

exist, Kessmann affirms both the activity and the prod-

paean to the blank sheet of paper—the physicality that

sheet’s individuality not as an object but as a surface.

uct of object making and slyly answers the original

defines it and the potential it represents—is a body of

Intersecting Data: Light/Dark takes this strategy one

“Paper or plastic?” query with a satisfied, “certainly.”

work that cannot be completely accessed without a

step further as Kessmann dissolves the physicality of

clear nod to its wit and subversion. How appropriate

his sheets of paper. His scans are digitally de-materi-

that we should be given a body of work that clarifies

alized and arranged across a broken field. The result

the nature of material objects by an artist whose previ-

is a ghosted mass of rectangular separations, overlaps

ous ruminations have fetishized the logo’d plastic bag.

and intersections that define new planes of activity

manifested through light—again a nod to the essential

Mail is electronic, headline news is retrieved

Kessmann’s Art as Paper as Potential: Giving/

Receiving consists of three discreet, though interde-

character of photography.

pendent pieces. He beatifies the sheet of paper as

both object and concept without falling prey to a post-

Kessmann’s meditation on the nature of object-making.

Shifting Dimensions: Begin/End concludes

Tim B. Wride

Dean Kessmann is an associate professor of photography at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. He was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in July 2009. Visit his website at www.deankessmann.com. Tim B. Wride is the executive director of the No Strings Foundation that provides individual artist grants to US photographers. His website is www.curatorialeye.com.

Shifting Dimensions: Begin/End, 2009 Video projection, 90 minutes

Reversing Negatives: Inside/Outside, 2009 Pigmented inkjet print, 13 x 10.5"

Intersecting Data: Light/Dark, 2009 Backlit Duratrans, triptych, 4 x 21'

eileen perrier

Reflecting on Eileen Perrier’s latest series of portraits,

ability to create a studio environment in any open

eyes, wide open and arctic blue. The disconcerting

I am haunted by the memory of her early image of a

space, its very location often represents the missing

intensity of his gaze conflicts with the idyllic scenery

blue-eyed, blue-haired girl posing in front of a set of

link that completes the genealogy of Perrier’s work.

painted on his T-shirt that depicts a group of brown

luscious, larger-than-life lips at the annual Afro Hair

Her untitled photographs at first appear to be

bears fishing in a lake. He appears imprisoned, except

and Beauty show in London in 1998. Fast forward

unrelated juxtapositions. Closer inspection reveals

that the bars are behind him.

to Syracuse, 2009, when Perrier was a resident at

them to be significant sites of interest in the history

Light Work: inspired by photographs of the late Harriet

of the nineteenth century abolitionist movement, such

with the aesthetic of a classic mug shot, Perrier’s

Tubman, the great African American abolitionist, ex-

as Rose Hill Cemetery on Lodi Street. Built in 1848,

images oscillate between a state of apprehension and

fugitive slave, and advocate for women’s rights, Perrier

it was once the most prominent burial place for Afri-

nonchalance, revealing little of the sitter’s personal cir-

set out on a personal journey following a tourist map

can Americans who lived and died in Syracuse before

cumstances. At once compliant and complicit inhabit-

of the city’s Freedom Trail.

the Civil War. Another photograph depicts the former

ants of Perrier’s latest body of work, these strangers

In the mid 1850s, Syracuse was a key destina-

Wesleyan Methodist Church at Columbus Circle, once

find themselves literally confined to the frame. Sub-

tion for thousands of African Americans on the journey

a safe house providing refuge for hundreds of free-

jected to the politics of representation, they become

from slavery to freedom on the Underground Railroad,

dom seekers each year. The cemetery has been trans-

anonymous characters on a stage with a script that

an informal but established network of anti-slavery

formed into a lush park, lonely gravestones scattered

has yet to be written.

activists, secret routes, and safe houses. As Perrier

around the green; the chapel is now a popular local

wandered through modern Syracuse, a contemporary

restaurant. Once the histories of the sites are laid bare,

to a key quality at the core of photography’s powers:

equivalent to Baudelaire’s inquisitive flâneur, its places

these metamorphoses taint a collective memory and

its ability to resurrect the past and open up the gates

and people became signposts along this cultural land-

highlight the need to preserve a vanishing past.

to remembrance through visual testimony.

scape, heavily impregnated with history and socio-

political relics of the past. Armed with her camera

headrest renders the sitter temporarily immobile dur-

and tripod, as well as a mechanical headrest, British-

ing the long exposure. Perrier’s use of the apparatus

born Perrier found herself an outsider charting a path

is ambivalent; in the late nineteenth century, cultural

through the memory of an alien nation, searching for

anthropologists and criminologists used it as an aide

traces of what remains of the Freedom Trail today.

to catalogue, construct, or fix people’s identity. As a

prop, the employment of a headrest dates back to the

As an artist, Perrier finds her inspiration in pre-

As a series of anthropometric portraits imbued

Perrier’s new body of work bears silent witness

Providing simultaneous support and restraint, the

meditated encounters with strangers. Photograph-

early years of photography.

ing particular places in Syracuse, she was often

approached by passers-by, which in turn led to them

ignation accompanies the two portraits in profile.

having their portrait taken. Each location that she visits

Both subjects appear strangely absent yet confidently

becomes a stage, and the sitters become performers

relaxed, fixed by the mechanical top end of the head-

in the artist’s personal journey of discovery through a

rest that almost fuses with the back of their heads.

visual landscape of memory, identity, and history.

In contrast, an elderly man with wild, silver hair,

Perrier is a master of the art of the in situ portrait,

also supported by the here invisible headrest, looks

fascinated by photographing people. With her uncanny

startled, a sudden mild shock or alarm dancing in his

A calm sense of uneasy confinement and res-

Renée Mussai

Eileen Perrier is a lecturer in the Department of Photography at the University of Westminster, London. She was a Light Work Artist-in-Residence in August 2009. Her website is www.eileenperrier.com. Renée Mussai has been closely affiliated with Autograph ABP since 2001, where she oversees the establishment of its Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography at Rivington Place, London. She regularly lectures on photographic history and cultural identity. Each year, Light Work welcomes one Artist-in-Residence selected through Autograph ABP, which works internationally to educate the public about photography, with a particular emphasis on issues of cultural identity and human rights. For more information about Autograph ABP, visit www.autograph-abp.co.uk.

Untitled, 2009 All images are pigmented inkjet prints, 20 x 20"

Untitled, 2009

Yo l a n da d e l A m o

An extremely pregnant woman leans back in her

related, and definitely know each other, are placed

chair, baring her naked belly without acknowledging

together, yet deny the viewer the clarity brought by

pelago series in 2004. Six years later the images in

it. Cropped sharply by the composition of the color

interaction and emotional response.

the series continue to evolve. Her series, which she

photograph, the features of her face are just beyond

The people in her photographs never quite amal-

intentionally keeps culturally ambiguous, has taken

the viewer’s reach. The sliver that can be seen sug-

gamate into a whole. In fact even where figures are

her to Spain, France, Germany, Argentina, the United

gests she is gazing out of the window next to her.

touching, they seem remote and distinctly separate.

States, and most recently to Italy. She has changed

Meanwhile the presumed father of her child looks

They never become husband and wife, grandfather

camera formats from her comfortable 4 x 5 to the

on pensively. Sitting nearby at an immaculately clean

and granddaughter, brother and sister. None of the

new dynamics of 5 x 7. And she has stepped outside

marble breakfast table, he reveals few emotions as he

people in del Amo’s photographs blend into socially

to photograph her groupings in newly defined exterior

quietly considers their beckoning future. This domestic

recognized constructs, rather they remain man,

settings such as beaches and parks, allowing the dif-

setting is arranged with the care of still life paintings by

woman, child.

ferent planes of the open landscapes to expand the

the Great Masters; though the photographer softens

The overall atmosphere never shifts into soci-

possibilities of her compositions.

the formality introduced by the nicely arranged fruit,

etal despair. This solitude enjoys company. The people

This series set out to examine what happens

designer cups, and meticulously decorated room, with

may be locked into their own set of thoughts in their

when two people share a space and emotionally

the casualness of bare feet and relaxed body posture.

own little sphere. But none of them express discomfort

connect or disconnect. Consistent with the project’s

Details such as his wedding ring anchor the image in

or animosity. Little items around the room evoke a

beginnings, del Amo’s powerful photographs exist in

domesticity, but it is her forlorn gaze toward the win-

warmth and home life that balance out the void of

the absence of definable activity. They describe people

dow and the life outside that interrupts the tight com-

activity and quiet contemplation, and suggest that

caught in deeply private moments of inner reflection.

positional center of man, fruit, and belly that define

the silence may not be a permanent one. Another

Yet instead of withdrawing physically, they choose to

their interior world.

moment, and the woman might turn to the man with a

share this moment with another person without the

Time is of no consequence to the photograph.

smile. With one quick shudder he might shake himself

need to engage with them. As a result, del Amo’s

Not quite at a standstill, life seems to have slowed

loose from his thoughts to jump onto his next task.

images are wrapped in a calm silence and acceptance

down into one long moment. Silence prevails as if

What makes del Amo’s images captivating is

that suggests the slowing down of life into an expres-

everything had already been said, at least for the time

how natural and real they feel. They are in fact a mix-

sion of undiluted humanity.

being. One can imagine the subdued sound of quiet

ture of real and constructed. Just as a writer may take

breathing, the ticking of a clock, or the muffled rum-

aspects of real people and weave them into his or her

bling of distant traffic. But none of this breaks the spell

stories, del Amo photographs people she has gotten

of the image. Spanish-born photographer Yolanda del

to know well and recomposes them into invented nar-

Amo knows what she is doing. She is an expert at

ratives. She photographs people in their own homes,

creating scenes that depict people who are equally

thereby beginning with something real, but rearranges

close in their shared physical space as they are dis-

and restages their lives into something of her making.

tant in thought and emotion. Brought together in what

She may change their clothing, remove or add furni-

has been called “sustainable silence,” the figures in

ture, bring in additional embellishments, or get rid of

del Amo’s photographs elude easy interpretation.

them all. The end results are familial images that are

These protagonists, who may be couples, may be

fictional portraits of real people.

Del Amo began photographing for the Archi-

Hannah Frieser

Yolanda del Amo lives in New York City and makes her work all over the world. She participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program in August 2009.

Aron, Helen, Laura, 2008 Digital chromogenic print, 40 x 50"

Claudia, Peter, Luna, 2006 Digital chromogenic print, 40 x 50"

Clover, John, 2009 Digital chromogenic print, 42 x 60"

Edith, Juan, 2007 Digital chromogenic print, 40 x 50"

Hunter, Piper, Frances, 2008 Digital chromogenic print, 48 x 60"

S h aw n r ec o r d s

Located about fifty miles west of Olympia, on the

alongside a strip of rough asphalt spattered with bird

persistent rot, the rust, the ever-thickening moss. Why

cold shore of the Pacific, in the cold shadow of the

shit. This unremarkable plot of earth could sit in any

build anything when Nature tears down so quickly?

Olympic rain forest, Aberdeen, WA has historically

number of parks or playgrounds within a five-hundred

Why, ultimately, bother?

been known, if at all, as a home of serial killers like

mile radius of Aberdeen, and maybe it is partly due to

The irony and achievement of Cobain’s Nirvana

Billy Gohl, famous for clubbing sailors and dumping

this universality that the image evokes such a coun-

was the band’s ability to turn this dismal torpor into

their corpses through a trapdoor into the bay; hermits

terintuitive gust of nostalgia in the viewer—something

the very definition, for a moment, of the mass-cultural

like John Tornow, once described as “Thoreau with-

akin to gasoline fumes at the Arco station, or flattened

New. The serrated sludge of the guitar like rain clouds

out brains”; and the mothballed nuclear plant of the

straws in the 7-Eleven parking lot. As Records seems

grinding over trees, the sarcasm of the lyrics, the loud

infamous Washington Public Power Supply System,

to recognize, though, beauty is no prerequisite for

celebration of failure in every form, made the likes of

or “Whoops,” halted in the early eighties, whose two

affection, and an image like this, of cruddy grass, is

Aberdeen and the region at large seem somehow vital

cooling towers still lurk on the edge of town.

also an image, for some, of pristine sunlight.

for a time, and in the aftermath the area has never

To children of the late twentieth century, though,

Another image shows a window. It is a plate glass

exactly been the same. People elsewhere got the idea

Aberdeen will always be known as the birthplace of

storefront window, and around twilight it turns into a

that the rain forest could support human life after all,

Nirvana, the band with the cheesy name that burst

seething collage of reflections, a scramble of criss-

and they moved here and proved it to be so. But as

from the alternative music scene of the late eighties

crossing electrical lines, barren parking lot margins,

Records’ images gently remind us, the new notions are

and changed the face of rock and roll—or at least

mural images depicting some kind of grand historical

founded at least in part on illusion. Greater Aberdeen,

commercial radio—for the next two decades and

scene, and, in the middle, the white hole of the setting

which is really everywhere in the Northwest barring a

counting. To commemorate this world-altering event,

sun. In the day’s final bath of light, the window man-

few pinpricks on the map, is a place that only hap-

Aberdeen now boasts a statue of its favorite son,

ages briefly to collapse Aberdeen’s time and place,

pened to look fast for a moment because it had moved

Kurt Cobain, and the bridge he slept under is almost

turning everything in sight, be it city or country, clean

so slowly for so long, a place lapped so many times

a shrine on the level of Jim Morrison’s gravestone in

sky or chapped wall, historical fantasy or hard fact,

that it briefly gave the impression of pulling ahead.

Père Lachaise Cemetery.

into a single last dying gasp.

Today, we live in a putatively post-Aberdeenian

It is this mythic Aberdeen—a state of mind

It is this sense of dilapidation, of belatedness,

Northwest, a region that dares to imagine itself as

as much as a fixed place on the map—that artist

of missed opportunity that not long ago was perhaps

forward-looking and young. But Records’ attentive eye

Shawn Records has semi-lovingly documented in the

the main form of consciousness in the Northwest,

keeps watch on the backward-swimming undertow

series of pictures called Harbor. After three years of

poeticized by Richard Hugo and inscribed in story by

lapping at the edge of town. His images remind us,

trolling for clues to the region’s heart of darkness, he

Raymond Carver. One thinks of the scene in Some-

mercifully, just how much useless beauty is still out

has emerged with a collection of images at once lucid

times a Great Notion when Jonah Stamper, the family

there wasting away.

and mysterious, artful and banal, full of acutely ambig-

patriarch, flees the woods after finding his bright new

uous perceptions of history as it fluxes on a particu-

nails have rusted overnight. Or the homesteaders in

lar marginal patch of ground, and fairly coursing with

H.L. Davis’ Honey in the Horn, who travel within sound

peripheral beauty trapped in the stasis of daily life.

of the Pacific Ocean and stop, never bothering to go

One representative image in Harbor shows

the last mile to the water. These are archetypal stories

some dingy grass. That’s it—just some grass littered

of the Northwest because they capture something of

with dandelions, cigarette butts, and seagull feathers,

the incompletion and impermanence of the place—the

Jon Raymond Shawn Records was an Artist-in-Residence in November 2009. Visit his website at www.shawnrecords.org. Jon Raymond is the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of short stories, two of which were adapted into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy.

Untitled, 2007 Pigmented inkjet print, 37 x 30"

Untitled, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print, 37 x 30"

Untitled, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print, 30 x 37"

P r i ya K a m b l i

Connections between displacement and photography

spaced pattern picked out on the cloth draped across

are both literal and metaphoric. The record of a moment

the thighs. Is the pattern part of the woven textile? Our

decorative border of a traditional Indian garment. The

of light on a fragment of matter not only isolates that

eyes are not enough and our fingers move to touch

body it shows is fragmented so only hands and torso

fragment but separates it irrevocably from the place

so as to clarify. Occupying the remaining third of the

are visible, and there is evidence of an Indian tradition

and time it once occupied. A photograph is inevitably

image is a simple oil lamp, used in Hindu worship,

radically altered by its presence in the artist’s American

a representation of there that is read here, and it is

ubiquitous in India but rare and exotic here. It is, the

life. The image refers to tattoos in henna, a vegetable

both marker and manifestation of then, seen now. This

artist tells us, something she has always had, brought

dye that is drawn in elaborate patterns on the hands

is true when the dislocation is just across the room or

with her when she left India at age eighteen. On top

of Indian brides. Here, instead of the detailed and

a matter of days, but in the work of Priya Kambli, we

of the lamp is a carefully crafted cone of flour. As with

precise stylings seen in customary Hindu practice, we

must consider the distance between worlds, cultures,

the textile pattern, we are bewildered and challenged

see wildly spontaneous markings made by the artist’s

and continents, and measure the time in generations.

by the ambiguities of the artist’s personal symbols,

young son. Below are two mirrored figures of Kambli’s

The ability of a photograph to record our sur-

and again, we wish to touch what we see in an effort

mother, in a photograph taken by her father, staring

roundings in encyclopedic detail makes it ideal for

to understand it. The flour—both the cone and the

intently at the small cage she holds.

confronting the wonders and terrors of places seen for

design on cloth—would not survive our curious fin-

the first time. This attribute also makes photographs

gers. The photograph protects and preserves a fragile

American lives of people from India comes from writ-

ideal for retaining and exploring memories of home.

and temporary reality.

ers such as Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai. It may

The tension between these elements in Kambli’s work

Dada Aajooba and Me creates a similar balance.

be significant that these writers are women, for it is

establishes the authority that characterizes both her

In the left third, a man stands in an academic gown,

women who traditionally have been the keepers of cul-

images and her life as a woman from India who has

clutching a diploma against a photographic studio

ture and memory even in families whose experiences,

chosen to live in the United States. Kambli’s photo-

background. In the right two thirds, we see a woman’s

like Kambli’s, are of two contradictory worlds. Kambli

graphs are thoughtfully assembled fragments of other

legs, resting casually on the floor and dressed in the

pictures what she calls her dual nature, a binary self

photographs, appropriated from the kind of family

top half of the usually trousered salwar kamiz, here

that finds resolution where it can. Perhaps the stron-

archive that might accompany a traveler on a journey

unconventionally reconfigured as a mini-dress paired

gest example of this is her son, with whom she can

of expatriation, but also using her own body as both

with black stockings, a fitting metaphor for Kambli’s two

“finally” speak the language of her childhood.

prop and canvas. The juxtaposition of both sorts of

worlds. Next to her, a rectangle of sunlight is balanced

images changes them all, creating resolution where

by the rectangular photographic portrait on the other

one might expect conflict.

side of the line. We presume it to be a photograph

The key formal elements in Kambli’s constructions

of Dada Aajooba; it either obscures or establishes the

are straight bisecting lines, delineating the contradic-

face of the gowned man. Even without knowing that

tory yet balanced elements that each piece embodies.

Dada Aajooba is Kambli’s name for her mother’s long-

In Me (Flour) roughly two thirds of the frame is occu-

dead father, we sense loss, memory, confrontation,

pied by a kneeling female form in white, cropped so

and the protective and preserving power of photog-

the arms and hands, fingertips gently resting on a worn

raphy itself. As in Me (Flour) the photograph affirms

hardwood floor, are the only parts of the body that are

presence and absence, past and present, India and the

visible. The mysterious element here is the regularly

United States, and differences and similarities.

Similarly, in Muma and Me, the dividing line is the

Much of our contemporary knowledge of the

Alison Devine Nordström

Priya Kambli is an associate professor of art at Truman State University, MO. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in December 2009. Alison Devine Nordström is the curator of photographs at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY. She is the international editor of the academic journal Photography and Culture, and she holds a PhD in Cultural and Visual Studies.

Me (Flou Pigmented inkjet

ur), 2009 t print, 17 x 22"

Dada Aajooba Pigmented inkjet

and Me, 2008 t print, 17 x 25"

Muma and Me (Henna), 2008 Pigmented inkjet print, 20 x 17"

2 0 0 9 LIGHT WORK GRANTS

Each year Light Work awards three grants to photog-

beauty and extreme detail of collectable dolls such as

Light Work would like to congratulate all of the winners

raphers, critics, or photo-historians who reside within

those sold on television shopping networks like QVC.

of the Thirty-fifth Annual Light Work Grants in Photog-

a fifty-mile radius of Syracuse, NY. The Light Work

Her curiosity in this subject stems from the polarity

raphy and extend a special thank you to our judges.

Grants in Photography program, founded in 1973, is

with which these dolls are generally regarded—while

one of the longest-running photography fellowships in

many find them decidedly creepy, others feel strong

photography in the Department of Art, Art History and

the United States. The grants encourage the creation

endearment toward them. Her objective is to illuminate

Design and Director of the Center for Creative Com-

of new work and scholarship in Central New York.

this difference of opinion by skirting the boundaries

puting at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame,

Each recipient of a Light Work Grant in Pho-

amid beauty and unease, adulation, and deviancy.

IN. His artwork explores the relationship between pho-

tography receives $2,000 to aid in his or her work

Guth is a photographer, multi-media installation

tography, technology, and human identity with an inter-

or research. In its history the program has supported

artist, and educator. She has exhibited internationally

est in the role science plays in redefining the contem-

more than 110 artists, some multiple times. With the

and has received numerous awards, including a fel-

porary self. He has taught photography and exhibited

help of the grant, artists have been able to continue

lowship with The Photography Institute. Guth teaches

his photographs internationally for twenty-five years.

long term projects, print and frame photographs for

photography at Cazenovia College.

exhibition, collaborate with others, purchase equipment, and promote their work, among other goals.

Richard Gray is an associate professor of

Gina Murtagh is a freelance photographer,

curator, and arts educator. In the past she has served Stephen Shaner (Syracuse) creates images that

as assistant director of Light Work and as executive

reference traces of remote incidents. In December

director of Sculpture Space in Utica, NY. Since leav-

Karen Brummund (Ithaca) creates time-based

1981, during the Cold War, nearly 1,000 people

ing Sculpture Space, she has been an adjunct profes-

drawings of architecture that become the basis of

were brutally murdered in El Mozote, El Salvador. It

sor at Cazenovia College, Utica College, and Pratt at

photographic and video art. Her drawings of buildings

was the largest massacre in Latin American history.

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. Since 2002

are enlarged digitally to the size of the actual structure

One of the few survivors, Rufina Amaya, accused

Murtagh has been working to catalogue, exhibit, and

and are then printed in sections on small sheets of

an abusive Salvadoran military, partly trained and

preserve her mother’s serigraphs.

paper. The pages are attached to the building’s facade,

supported by the US, of the massacre, but was

thus creating, in Brummund’s words, “interlacing layers

ignored. In 1992 a team of forensic archaeologists

to specific domestic environments, combining prosaic

of the real and represented.” Brummund also makes

began to find evidence of and expose the slaughter.

materials, such as coal, light bulbs, and sometimes

photographs and videos of the performative installa-

Images from Shaner’s El Salvador: Faded Scars

food, to reinterpret our perceptions of photography

tion as it happens, recording the exchange between

series, as well as his other work from different coun-

and also of the objects and spaces that we think of

the materials and buildings and changes to the instal-

tries, strive to capture selected world events that may

as everyday. His work ultimately occupies a space

lation over time.

once have been viewed as catastrophic but have since

between sculpture and photography as it tempts the

Brummund is a lecturer at Cornell University and

begun to fade from memory. According to Shaner,

viewer to discover the unexpected in the mundane.

a professor of Studio Art at the University of Rochester.

“Long after the nightmare act has occurred, or is even

Oliver’s work has been exhibited widely, and he was

Her work has been exhibited internationally.

acknowledged, I choose to inventory and recover a

an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in April 2009.

Demetrius Oliver creates images in response

past in these places where trauma and death is but the Laura Adams Guth (Manlius) submitted large-scale

fragment of a memory.” Shaner is a freelance photog-

color photographs from her Guilty Pleasures: Little

rapher and an instructional design consultant. His work

Lolitas series, which closely investigates the macabre

has been exhibited nationwide.

Jessica Heckman

7 37

Karen Brummundâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Documentation of Light Work installation, 2009

Laura Adams Guthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;China Girl, 2008 Chromogenic print, 28 x 20"

Stephen Shanerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Tierra Arrasada. Chalatenango Department, El Slavador, 2006 Pigmented inkjet print, 16 x 16"

J o n R e i s : C o l l ec t i o n G i ft The Light Work Collection is comprised of over 3,500 works, almost all of which have been donated by our Artists-in-Residence over the years. In 2009, we 76

received a large gift of ninety-three silver gelatin prints from Ithaca-based photographer Jon Reis, whose long-standing relationship with Light Work represents the kind connections that happen here.

Back in the mid 1970s when Reis started com-

ing to Light Work, both he and we were early in our careers. Light Work had just been “born” in 1973, and Reis was a young and hungry photographer looking for images and people to connect with. He was also on the lookout for places to exhibit his growing body of images. (At the time, and still now, Reis calls himself a street photographer. He is a documentary photographer of the American social landscape who counts Gary Winogrand among his heroes.)

Jon Reis, Blimp and Palm Trees, Miami Beach, Florida, 1978. Silver gelatin print, 6.25 x 9.5”

Reis had heard that universities usually had

small galleries tucked away in their many buildings. He called the main number at Syracuse University hoping

Reis’s aviation images are an excellent entry

the camera somehow sees best—that reveal us and

to expand his horizons as well as the possibilities for

point to the world of municipal airfields. These small

the places we build and live in for all of their beautiful

showing his work. Thankfully, the operator he spoke to

airports are tucked into the landscape all over the

irony and poignancy.

put the call through to Light Work. Soon Light Work

place, kind of like galleries in large universities. They

Reis imbues his work with a good natured

founders Tom Bryan and Phil Block were telling Reis

are usually placed pretty close to one another so that

humor, which makes his 2009 gift to the Light Work

about the lecture, workshop, and grant programs here

pilots of small craft can take off, fly for an hour or so,

Collection especially great. His gift of ninety-three sil-

and urging him to apply.

and then swoop down and take a break as frequently

ver gelatin prints gives us all a lasting opportunity to

He listened, applied, and received the first of his

as they need to. Maybe it is because they are almost

delight in life’s sometimes amazing improbability.

two Light Work grants in 1979 (followed by another

always deserted save for the radio operator, or maybe

in 1991). His work was featured in an exhibition in

it is just the unnatural quiet you feel after getting out in

the Light Work Gallery in 1984 and again in a Light

the middle of nowhere after the constant droning of a

Work retrospective exhibition in 1985. Light Work

small engine craft, but these airports tend to be places

supported him in his application for a NYSCA Con-

where little idiosyncrasies in the buildings and land-

duit Grant, which he received in 1986. Reis used this

scape are magnified until they become monuments

money to, among other things, fly to and photograph

to the surreal nature and quirkiness of being human.

municipal airports all over Central New York.

Reis’s images capture those magic instants—the ones

Mary Goodwin The exhibition Jon Reis, By the Way: Two Decades of America Observed 1973-1993 was on view from April to December 2010 at the Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Schine Student Center, Syracuse University. The Light Work Collection is available and searchable online at http://photography.cdmhost.com.