Friday, October 31, 2014

The World Outside

I have been allowing myself to get sidetracked with just plain old nature.  I think I need to do more trees.





Interior of Deering Farmstead

I have managed to put cameras inside the Deering Farmhouse and Barn.  These are the products of very long and experimental exposures.  None of the Barn images came out.  My cameras were discovered in the barn one day by someone, and despite my note attached to them, the cameras were tampered with.  Whoever it was tried to put the cameras back (although not in the same place), but the the overexposure to the image by the outside light had already occurred.  I hope I will able to do more, but the place is a bit dangerous and tricky, and very close to a final collapse.









Exterior of Deering Farmstead

More exterior images as the barn continues to decline rapidly.  Because of the foliage, in these images nature seems more prominent, and the structures more incidental, as nature takes over.  The overexposed images dissolve the structures in light.








Sunday, August 31, 2014

Camera Obscura & History of Photography at Willowbrook Museum

I was asked to give a talk on the early history of photography and the pinhole camera at Willowbrook Museum in Newfield Maine (http://www.willowbrookmuseum.org/), on August 16th & 17th.  I thought an interesting way to enter into the discussion would be through the visual demonstration of the camera obscura.  The Museum Director agreed to letting my husband, Paul, & me turn the museum's historic ballroom into a giant camera obscura.  It tok quite a bit of doing, blacking out 10 large widows and 2 doors (all with great care, so as not to damage anything).  The end result was a grand success. Young and old visitors all loved it, and photography became alive for them as cars drove across the ceiling and the world walked by on the wall upside-down.  And somehow it made sense to talk about history in the dark.  For researching the past all begins with looking into blackness, and an image only develops through the process of research and understanding. 





Unfortunately this opportunity arose with only enough time for me to put it all together.  So I did not have enough time to prepare for photographing the event.  But I did manage to take a couple of pinhole photographs of some of the old photographic equipment in the ballroom.




Show at Willowbrook Museum

To coincide with my camera obscura demonstration and historical talk on the birth of photography, my work was on display at Willowbrook Museum from  August 16th thru October 5th.  My pinhole photographs looked right at home in the early 19th century setting.





Summer After Graduate School

After graduating, my focus was initially quite scattered.  In a way that was good, because I tried photographing many types of things.  But unfortunately the process of primitive photography requires quite a bit of focus, so despite many photographic attempts my summer resulted in limited success.








Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition, June 22 - 28, 2014, Boston, MA - Lesley University College of Art & Design








The first two pieces are vellum composite images, where an image printed on vellum is adhered over a color image printed on cold press paper: Remembrance and Old Dreams, each 14.5 wide X 20.5 High.  The left-hand center image is Light, a five minute exposure pinhole photograph of a copper house sculpture burning.  The right-hand center image is Rendition, pinhole photograph of the Deering Barn.  both center images are printed on cold press paper, each 31" wide X 39" tall.  The last two images are multiple exposure pinhole images: Huntington River and Flowing Downstream, both also printed on cold press paper, size 17" wide X 21.5" tall.  All are framed so the paper can float without glazing.


Thursday, May 1, 2014

Patriot's Weekend Pinhole Images

I was so excited to get my MFA thesis approved that I spent the whole long Patriot's Day weekend making art.  the first thing I did was burn my Memory House sculpture - and of course, photograph it.  I almost burned my cameras up as well!  But I rescued them, and now they have more character!







I was finally able to take photos inside the Deering Farmstead house.  It has been boarded up for years, but this winter part of an exterior wall collapse.  And I think some spirits were waiting for me.