PDN (Photo District News) just released their eagerly-anticipated Photo Annual. Besides announcing their Annual winners, providing an insightful year in review, and giving the amazing advice they usually do, they had a great feature titled “46 Reasons to Love Photography Now.” The PRC, along with our annual juried show, is thrilled to be one of the 46 things!
PDN wrote in part: “The economy got you down? PDN’s editors and writers have compiled a list of the innovations, inspiring people, innovations, and idiosyncrasies that make photography as rewarding and exciting as ever.” PDN- we heart you too!
A special thanks goes out to Jeanine Fijol, PDN Photo Editor, who was our juror for the 11th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition in 2006, who first contacted me. The PRC joins a whole host of diverse people, places, and things, reminiscent of our unique 30th anniversary exhibition, PRC/POV (the venerable Dashwood Books made both of our lists!). Below is a montage from the magazine (thank you Cara!) and a few of the other 46 favorite things. Get thee to a newsstand and buy one now!
* Lee Friedlander * National Geographic * ICP Infinity Awards
* on demand printing * Wired magazine * Arles
* Taschen Books * B&H’s overhead conveyors * Nadav Kander
* Columbia College, Chicago * 20×200 * The Eddie Adams workshop
In this new feature, we are featuring an image per week from our upcoming 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. This is our 4th to date.
Cree Bruins is the the product of a Kodak family, just like myself. We have a lot in common as you can read in her statement below and in my blog post on growing up in Rochester, NY.
Come to the PRC opening on May 22nd and see the real work. Or if you are out of town, don’t worry, we’ll be posting images of the installation and reception on our PRC Flickr page.
ABOVE IMAGE: Cree Bruins, Lost and Found, 5B, 2006/2007 from the series “Leader Series,” Iris Print, 18 x 12 inches, courtesy of the Boston Drawing Project at Bernard Toale Gallery
“Leader Series - Lost and Found”
I was raised in Rochester, New York, the home of Eastman Kodak. My father worked for this well-known company for over 30 years. This early introduction to photography continues to exert its influence today in my art.
I use discarded end leaders from processed 35mm film that had been partially exposed to light during the loading process into the camera. These film parts are digitally captured, then converted to an Iris print. Each image merges the disappearing art form of film photography with the digital technology of today.
Inspired by our current landscape show, New England Survey, I thought it would be interesting to place a map in the gallery and encourage folks to notate it with their own “senses of place.”
It took me a while to track down a map of New England with the region all on one side (thanks AAA!). My hunt for map pins also took a little longer than expected (thank you Bob Slate!). I stocked a wooden sketch box full of materials (thanks Pearl!) and cut up pieces of vellum upon which to write. After ironing the map flat, I hung it up in the gallery and waited…
Whenever I come up with such ideas, I never know if visitors will go along. Well, I am happy to report that they did! After the opening, we had about 25 notes/places and as of yesterday, I counted over 125! As you can see in these installation shots, folks have shared a wide variety of places and ideas. Interestingly, a vast majority of them are along the New England coast, Cape Cod, or in Maine.
I have noted a few of my favorites below, but you can also check out others on the PRC Flickr page. (In our flickr group we’ve had an active discussion on what makes New England, New England.) I’d love to hear more. What spaces and places in New England are you moved by and why? Share them below, or come to the PRC and add to the collective notion of our region before the show’s last day, May 11th!
~ When I was 9, I was mobbed and pinched by a flock of geese. It was the first time I saw the ocean - Chatham Beach, MA
~ Jack’s Old Cottage - Craigsville Beach, MA
~ I fell in love, and felt home - Ayer, MA
~ Where I lived my whole life - Hudson, NH
~ Every October, our family gathers in this isolated cottage. Each morning I’d wake to the breathtaking harbor view - East Boothbay, ME
~ I realized that there is always a back road leading home - Near the border of MA & NY
In this new feature, we are featuring an image per week from our upcoming 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. This is our 3rd to date.
Clint Baclawski will be showing two of these amazing lightbox constructions at the PRC. Clint was recently selected by Cate McQuaid in the Boston Globe as a local graduate student to watch. Check out the slideshow of “The Graduates” online at boston.com. His MFA thesis show opens at MassArt May 1st.
Come to the PRC opening on May 22nd and see the real work. Or if you are out of town, don’t worry, we’ll be posting images of the installation and reception on our PRC Flickr page.
ABOVE IMAGE: Clint Baclawski, Exhibition Hall A, 2008, constructed lightbox with back lit pigment prints, 42 x 52 x 12 inches, courtesy of the artist and artist in inventory @ the jen bekman gallery. www.clintb.com
In this new feature, we’ll be featuring an image per week from our upcoming 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. We’re very excited here at the PRC to see it all come together. Come to the opening on May 22nd and see the real work!
ABOVE IMAGE: Claire Beckett, Private Dan Floyd at Basic Training, Fort Knox, KY, 2007, from the series “Simulating Iraq,” Digital C-Print, 29 ½ x 36 ½ inches, courtesy of the artist and the Bernard Toale Gallery
Every year since 1996, the PRC has presented a juried exhibition with a nationally-renowned juror. We were honored to have as our 2008 juror, Lesley A. Martin, Publisher, Aperture Book Program.
For this year’s exhibition, Ms. Martin selected 14 artists out of a total 376 international submissions—the largest number of entries ever received in the exhibition’s history. A special spread will appear in the summer issue of the PRC’s newsletter, in the loupe and the exhibition will run May 23 - July 2, with the opening reception on Thursday, May 22, 5:30 - 7:30pm. Click here for more information on the PRC Juried Exhibition and its history.
Here is a sneak peek at the selected artistswith links to their web sites. CONGRATULATIONS!
Mariliana Arvelo, Beatriz and a branch, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from the series “Generations,” 2007/2008, C-Print, 30 x 40 inches, courtesy of and copyright the artist
Can’t make it physically to see the exhibition New England Survey at the Photographic Resource Center? Or, you did see it, were inspired, and want to respond artistically? Or even, have you scads of wonderfully poetic photographs of and about the New England landscape?
Well then, you are in luck… we have launched a topical PRC flickr group. Help us test the waters of this new idea in the hopes that we can do it with other topics in the future. Share your work with us and the world! To date we have over 100 photos, 40 members, and an active discussion. Browse the photographs in the pool here and see how to add yours below.
This is an open opportunity for all to share and discuss photographs which resonate with our current exhibition and asks “What is New England about New England landscape?” We are hoping to gather together images that explore a state of mind and a sense of place that is unique to this region. We invite you to post your thoughts about this issue as well as any information on your images (and even poems too!).
To share your New England photographs and get started, first you must have a Flickr account (free!). After you do, sign in as yourself first, then go to the PRC’s group page by clicking here and to the right you’ll see “Join this Group” link. Click on it, read the rules and if you agree, and then join the group! (The rules are very minor but will help to keep the group running smoothly and a joy to all.) After you’ve joined, return to your Flickr page, click on the picture you want to share and along the top of it you’ll see “Send to group.” Click on that, select our group’s name, and then presto you are all set! If you have any issues, first visit these Flickr group FAQs, or send us an email.
Tuesday was an important newspaper day in Boston. Gracing the front page of the Boston Globe was the Red Sox’s opening day at Fenway and the announcement that their own Mark Feeney won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, as noted in the last post.
Humbly for us, Mark Feeney’s review of the current PRC landscape exhibition, New England Survey, also ran in the very same Globe. (And luckily for us, he liked it!) I am thrilled at the confluence of events. I wrote to congratulate Mark, and he modestly replied that it’s a win for the paper and different than organizing an exhibition. To his and their credit, we had several people visit today because of his review and lots of calls. Here’s to the power of well-crafted words and the media!
I am delighted to report that Mark Feeney, resident art, photo, and culture critic at the Boston Globe, has won the Pultizer Prize in Criticism! I just learned about the great news. Congratulations Mark! You so richly deserve it!
I am also honored to report that one of the 10 stories with which Mark was nominated and won was his review for the PRC exhibition Picture Show. You can read all of Mark Feeney’s nominated, prize-winning stories here.
This series of 10 reviews includes his musings on the photographic efforts of several PRC friends, including Kim Sichel’s aerial photography show, Arlette Kayafas’s Charles Teenie Harris show, and Abe Morell’s Mead Art Museum show. Being that we are a smaller non-profit in a largish city, I am thrilled and humbled that Mark has written about our shows so often, or even at all. You can read 5 of Mark’s reviews of PRC exhibitions here.
I so very much appreciate the time that Mark spends in understanding an exhibition and I know the artists do too. He always asks for all of the wall text and artist statements. I have long admired Mark for his insightful commentary and ability to create brilliant turns of phrases. In his writing, you can tell how much he enjoys pondering ideas of all stripes.
ize="2">Here are some excerpts below from the Boston Globe story and above, a photo by another of our favorite Globe staffers, Dominic Chavez. From the Boston Globe, Globe writer wins Pulitzer for Criticism By Don Aucoin, Globe Staff, April 7, 2008
Mark Feeney, an arts writer and photography reviewer for The Boston Globe, today was awarded the 2008 Pultizer Prizefor criticism.
It is the 20th time the Globe has won the Pulitzer, which is considered the most prestigious award in journalism, and the second time in the past seven years that the newspaper has won the award for criticism.
Feeney, 50, won for 10 essays on visual culture that ranged from photography to painting and film. A self-described Globe “lifer” who began working at the newspaper shortly after he graduated from Harvard in 1979, Feeney noted today that the Globe has long made arts criticism a cornerstone of its identity.
“More than anything else, it’s about the paper,” he said of the Pulitzer. “There are so many people who are deserving who don’t get it. It’s a crapshoot. I’m just amazed, overwhelmed, and really, really pleased that the dice came up for me this time. But it’s not just for me. It’s for the paper.”The awards were announced this afternoon at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. …
Feeney won the Pulitzer for 10 critical essays that suggest the fluency and brio of his writing style, and the range of interests on which he brings that style to bear. …
“The Globe has a great tradition of reviewers, not just such prior Pulitzer winners as Robert Campbell and Gail Caldwell, but so many others, going all the way back to Michael Steinberg, Robert Taylor, Richard Dyer, Margaret Manning, and several current colleagues whom I will not embarrass by naming,” said Feeney.
Feeney was born in Winchester, Mass., and raised in Reading, Mass. His mother,
Agnes, who still lives in Reading, will turn 90 on Saturday. “I’ve been at a loss as to what to get her for a present,” Feeney said. “I guess I’m all set now.”
We just posted new pics on our PRC flickr page. So surf on in and check out photos from Aperture’sLesley A. Martin’s seminar on book publishing from April 1st and snaps from the opening reception of New England Survey from March 27th. Just click the photomontage below!
A sneak peek, CLOCKWISE from upper left:
* Lesley A. Martin gave a superb seminar on publishing. It was very well attended!
* The 2 Lesley/ies. Lesley of Apeture and the other Leslie of the PRC pose with the Boston Skyline.
* Exhibiting artist Barbara Bosworth (center) with Sage Sohier & Margot Kelley - both of whom have shown at the PRC! [in Group Portrait (2005/2006) and Land/Markrespectively (2005)]
* Some folks in this picture: photographer Bob O’Connor, Kate from MassArt and BU photohistorian and PRC board member Kim Sichel
Join us @ the PRC this Thursday, March 27, for the opening of New England Survey, from 5:30 - 7:30pm. All of the artists will be in attendance, and even my parents! It is a beautiful show and I am putting the finishing touches on it now. See below for some behind-the-scenes pics of the installation in progress.
A survey of contemporary regional landscape photography - but much more than that really - New England Survey is about “senses of place” and is like a walk in the woods. Dive into 40 x 50 inch C-prints by Barbara Bosworth, follow a path in Jonathan Sharlin’s diptychs, ramble along a stonewall in Janet L. Pritchard’s work, stare into infinity in Tanja Hollander’s minimal Maine marshes, follow a family’s story on the land in Thad Russell’s saga, and boat down the mighty Connecticut in Paul Taylor’s wet plate collodion tea-stained images. Read more and see more about the New England landscape exhibition here.
The PRC’s 2008 Student Exhibition presents a dizzying array of photographs from our 18 member schools. It is proof positive of the boundless talent, energy, and creativity offered by this next generation of artists.
Two of these students have harnessed their photographic prowess to render utterly adorable images of fairly anthropomorphized animals. But, in the history of cuteness, and the ongoing dispute between cats and dogs, (and much like the HIGHLANDER) there can be only one! One species who can forever lay claim to being the cutest of them all. Let’s settle that right now with…
Student Exhibition Battle Royale (cat v dog)
Image Credits, Top to Bottom: Julie E. Brady, Natasha Brady (10 Months Old), 2007, Archival Inkjet Print, 15 x 11 inches, Boston University, College of Fine Arts, Senior; Troy Lee, Cupcake for Momo, 2007/2008, Archival Inkjet Print, 16 x 20 inches, Hallmark Institute of Photography, 1st Year
We’re deeply saddened to report that Tobias McConchie, a NESOP student in the current show, passed away February 18, 2008 at the age of 22, due to complications arising from cystic fibrosis. Toby was able to attend the opening on February 7th and we respectfully share this portrait. The PRC is honored to have Tobias’s work in the exhibition.
Battling CF since childhood, Tobias chose to focus his energy on what he could accomplish in life and dedicated himself to the positive pursuit of his goals. A promising and conscientious student artist, one of his most recent accomplishments was having his work chosen to represent NESOP in the PRC Student Exhibition. For those of you who may be unaware, cystic fibrosis (CF) is a common genetic disease affecting primarily the lungs and digestive system, causing increased disability.
- from the New England School of Photography.
The PRC has made a donation to the family’s selected charity—Child Life Fund/UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center, a part of the UMass Memorial Foundation in Worcester—in Tobias’s name and encourages visitors to consider making a donation as well, using the fundraising widget above or directly to UMass.
Over at the PRC, it’s one of our favorite times of the year when even more creativity and boundless verve adorn our walls…that’s right, it’s the PRC Student Exhibition! 18 of our institutional member schools brought us their 5 best photographs (yes, that is 90 works). Because each program juries as they see fit, we don’t see the pieces until they show up on our doorsteps! Our favorite art installer Vinnie and I had a blast playing with the works this past Saturday.
You can check out some of the student images at this audiovisual feature on BU Today. We gathered over a dozen images and students together and the nice folks there did their magic. Click here for the slideshow and here to listen to the students speak quite eloquently about their work. For local folks, there is also a smashing, full-page spread in the Weekly Dig.
Pictured above is the work of our poster child Alan Alan Arsenault, a junior at New England Istitute of Art. I was immediately smitten with this photograph and knew that it had to be on our postcard. People have been going ape over this picture and deservedly so, it’s an amazing piece and series. If you look twice, you realize that this is not an Edgerton: the “bullet” is hanging on a string and there is cotton stuffed into the apple. We also took a lot of behind-the-scenes pictures, installation shots, and portraits of the students and posted them on the PRC flickr site.
Our Daily Red (the blog of Big Red and Shiny) gave us a shout out early on. Mr. Matt Nash points out that the PRC Student Show is “a great chance to see the work of upcoming artists — and many of the artists we write about on Big RED got started at the PRC.” Thanks Matt! (He also has a interesting essay on the future of photography in the current issue of BRS.)
Join us for the dry opening Thursday, February 7 from 5:30 - 7:30pm, where we’ll have izze drinks flowing freely and way more hummus than you can shake a stick at. - Leslie
ABOVE IMAGE: Alan Arsenault, Exploding the Forbidden, from the series “Edgerton Follies,” 2006/2007, Inkjet print, Junior Photography major, New England Institute of Art
Boston Photography Focus is a blog dedicated to Boston photographers, Boston photography exhibitions and education, photo enthusiasts, and all manner of photo-based activities, news, happenings, topics, and ideas in and around Boston, New England, and beyond. It is sponsored by the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston University, New England's center for photography. The PRC is an independent non-profit organization that serves as a vital forum for the exploration and interpretation of new work, ideas, and methods in photography and related media.
From PDN magazine
Boston Photography Focus is a blog dedicated to Boston photographers, Boston photography exhibitions and education, photo enthusiasts, and all manner of photo-based activities, news, happenings, topics, and ideas in and around Boston, New England, and beyond. It is sponsored by the 
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