November | December 2002 - Boston Photography Focus

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

October 23, 2002–February 2, 2003 

November | December 2002 

Volume 26, Number 6 

Rare prints by a master photographer 

Criss-Crossed Conveyors—Ford Plant, 1927. Gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. 

617-267-9300 

www.mfa.org 

Sponsored by 

Media sponsor is 

Print media sponsor is 

SNAPSHOT 

November 7 

2002 Benefit Auction (call for details) 


Campos-Pons/Ladd lecture (see page 3) 


American Perspectives and Two Views opens 

(see page 2) 

December 3 

Wild Bill Melton portrait workshop (see page 3) 

December 4 

Leslie Brown gallery talk (see page 3) 

January 15 

Stacey McCarroll gallery talk (see page 3) 

January 25 

John Goodman portfolio review (see page 3) 

January 27 

Karin Rosenthal portfolio review (see page3) 

Photographic Resource Center 

at Boston University 

602 Commonwealth Avenue 

Boston, MA 02215 

Non-Profit 

US Postage 

PAID 

Boston, MA 

Permit No. 1839

MISSION STATEMENT 

The Photographic Resource Center is guided by a philosophical 

inquiry into the role of photographic media in the 

formation of human knowledge and experience. By emphasizing 

new work, ideas, and methods, and by creating opportunities 

for interaction among the diverse communities that 

it serves, the Photographic Resource Center strives to be a vital 

international voice in understanding the past and shaping 

the future of photography. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Rick Grossman, President 

Mark Young, Vice President 

Robert Birnbaum 

Marvin F. Cook 

Andrew Epstein 

Roger Farrington 

Michael Jacobson 

Keith Johnson 

Emily Kahn 

STAFF 

Terrence Morash, Executive Director 

Ingrid Trinkunas, Coordinator of Programs and Administration 

Leslie Brown, Curator 

Alice Hall, Librarian 

Elizabeth Schneider, Editorial Assistant 

Sarah English, Editorial Assistant 

GENERAL INFORMATION 

Photographic Resource Center at Boston University 

602 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 

Tel 617-353-0700 prc@bu.edu 

Fax 617-353-1662 www.bu.edu/prc 

HOURS (see announcements) 

Tuesday–Sunday: 12–5pm 

Thursday: 12–8pm 

Closed Mondays 

Rodger Kingston 

Gary Leopold 

Walt Meissner 

Kim Sichel 

Jonathan Singer 

John Stomberg 

Maggie Trichon 

Charles Zoulias 

ADMISSION (see announcements) 

Adults: $3 

Students (with valid ID) and Seniors: $2 

Members, children under 18, and school groups 

are admitted free. Admission is free on Thursdays 

and on the last weekend of every month. 

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION 

Take the Green Line “B” train to Blandford Street, one stop 

west of Kenmore Square. 

COVER IMAGE 

Patrick Nagatani, detail of Alamogordo Blues, 1986, 

Polaroid 20x24" Polacolor photographs. 

©Patrick Nagatani/Andrée Tracey. 

Courtesy of the artist and the Polaroid Collections. 

DESIGN CREDITS 

This issue of in the loupe was designed by Irma S. Mann, 

Strategic Marketing, Inc. of Boston (www.irmamann.com). 

It was printed by Cambridge Offset Printing on Mohawk 

Superfine Ultrawhite 80# text. 

A Note from the Director 

As I write this note, the PRC’s 2002 Benefit Auction is still a few days away on November 7th. With 

auction planning in full swing, numerous visitors previewing the artwork, and absentee bids arriving 

daily, all indications suggest that this year’s event will be an enchanting evening and a tremendous 

success. 

Accordingly, I would be amiss to not thank the numerous individuals and business who have helped 

make the auction possible. These include the members of the Auction Committee, Rick Grossman, 

Barbara Hitchcock, Michael Jacobson, Jonathan Singer, and Eelco Wolf, whose outstanding efforts 

made planning this auction smooth and, I dare say, enjoyable; the Friends of the PRC who, led by 

Co-Presidents Kristin Anderson and Bruce Myren, generously volunteered as support staff for the 

event; and, of course, auctioneer Stuart Whitehurst and the staff at Skinner, Inc., who allowed me 

not to think about paddles and gavels. 

Among the various businesses that facilitated this event are American Printing, Ardon Vinyl Graphics, 

BeeDigital, the Bonni Benrubi Gallery, Boston University, BU Parking Services, Cambridge Offset 

Printing, Crestar-The Frame Factory, Elias Fine Arts, Gallery Naga, the Lee Gallery, Mohawk 

Paper Mills, Neilsen & Bainbridge Co., the Panopticon Gallery, Rouge, the Robert Klein Gallery, 

Singer Editions, and Skinner, Inc. The ongoing generosity of these business cannot be underestimated. 

I encourage all to return the favor. 

Most of all, I would like to thank the nearly 160 individual artists who donated works for the auction. 

While your donations are tremendously generous, it is your ongoing commitment to this 

organization that fuels our efforts. We are honored by your enthusiasm and dedication, and strive to 

do the same for you. Thank you. 

Best regards, 

Terrence Morash 

Executive Director 

Support 

The programs and exhibitions of the Photographic Resource Center are made possible 

through the generous support of its members, Boston University, various government and 

private foundations, and corporations including: 

Adesso 

American Printing 

Ardon Vinyl Graphics 

Art New England 

artsMedia 

Associated Press Photos 

Becket Papers 

Boston Beer Company 

Boston Bluegrass Union 

Boston Cultural Council 

Boston Park Plaza Hotel 

Boston University 

Calumet Photographic 

Cambridge Offset Printing 

The Charles Hotel 

Christie’s 

City of Boston 

Paula Cooper Gallery 

Crestar Mfg. 

Deborah Bell Photographs 

Arthur Dion 

Dixie Butterhounds 

Jim Dow 

Eastman Kodak 

Jesseca Ferguson 

Filene’s 

FleetCenter Neighborhood Charities 

Fox River Papers 

Gay’s Flowers and Gifts 

Gourmet Caterers 

Hasselblad 

Harpoon Brewery 

Helicon Design 

Henrietta’s Table 

Michael Hintlian 

Mark Hunt Backdrops 

Hunter Editions 

Keith Johnson 

Deborah Kao 

Kabloom 

KISS 108 FM 

Robert Klein 

Lina Kutsovskaya 

Rachel Lafo 

Lee Gallery 

E.P. Levine 

Joanne Lukitsh 

Luminos Photo. Corp. 

Irma S. Mann Strategic Marketing 

Massachusetts College of Art 

Massachusetts Cultural Council 

MassEnvelopePlus 

Ted Marrazzo 

MCS Frames 

Merry Maids 

Inge Milde 

Museums Boston 

Bruce Myren at Bee Digital 

National Endowment for the Arts 

Nielsen & Bainbridge Co. 

Nikon Inc. 

Alison Nordstrom 

Nylon Magazine 

Olympus 

Panopticon, Inc. 

Perfecta Camera, Corp. 

photocurator.org 

Photography in New York 

Polaroid Corporation 

Rialto 

Rouge 

Sandy’s Music 

Sebastian’s Catering 

Skinner, Inc. 

Sonya’s Catering 

Jerry Spagnoli 

Spectrum Select Printing 

Betsy Urrico 

Peter Vanderwarker 

WBUR 

Howard Yezerski Gallery 

Keitaro Yoshioka 

Zeff Photo Supply 

Zona Laboratories 

Zoo New England 

PRC 

Announcements 

Mother’s Day 

Gift Certificates Available 

Are you looking for a great gift idea for your 

friends and loved ones? During this holiday season, 

the PRC will be offering gift certificates for 

its 2003 Mother’s Day Portrait Extravaganza. For 

those of you who are new to the PRC, the 

Mother’s Day Portrait Extravaganza is an annual 

benefit event that provides participants with 

affordable fine art portraits by some of the area’s 

most acclaimed and talented photographers. 

Buy a gift certificate today and find out why participants 

have been smiling for more than a 

decade. For more information, contact the PRC 

at 617-353-0700, or visit www.prcboston.org. 

Special Information Regarding 

Hours and Admission 

The PRC will have expanded hours and no 

admission charge throughout the presentation of 

American Perspectives: Photographs from the 

Polaroid Collections. The expanded hours will be: 

Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm; Thursday, 10am- 

8pm; Saturday-Sunday, 12am-5pm; Monday, 

closed. Please note that the PRC will be closed 

December 21, 2002-January 3, 2003. 

PRC Teams up with Local 

High Schools 

This September saw the start of a new PRC program 

to benefit local high school students. In 

collaboration with the Boston Arts Academy 

and Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, 

the PRC developed Photoprocess, an academic 

year-long program which aims to encourage 

high school students to continue their practice 

of photography, to provide them with knowledge 

about careers in photography, and to facilitate 

their efforts to pursue such careers. 

Photoprocess is a two-part program. During the 

first half of the academic year, students are introduced 

to professionals who are leading successful 

careers in photography. Among the highlights 

will be a visit to photographer Lou Jones’s 

studio and a tour of the Museum of Fine Arts 

PRC Coordinator Ingrid Trinkunas (left) speaking to students 

from the Boston Arts Academy and Cambridge Rindge and 

Latin High School during Photoprocess. 

photography department with Curator of Photography 

Anne Havinga. During the second half 

of the academic year, the students will engage in 

one-on-one discussions with local photography 

professors who will view their photographic 

work and give them guidance on building a 

strong portfolio for their applications to photography 

programs. 

For more information about this program, contact 

Ingrid Trinkunas at 617-353-0700. 

Friends of the PRC 

As many of you already know, the Friends of the 

PRC is an enthusiastic and active volunteer group 

that is interested in strengthening the PRC’s role 

in the photo community. Among the various 

projects that the Friends have helped with, they 

played a crucial role in the planning and operation 

of the 2002 Benefit Auction (November 7, 

2002). Interested in becoming a Friend? Contact 

Bruce Myren at 617-719-5674, or Kristin Anderson 

at 617-345-0060 for details. 

Massachusetts College of Art Professor Frank Gohlke 

(standing left center) discussing Martha Casanave’s auction 

photograph with his students. The 2002 Benefit Auction will 

occur on November 7th. 

1

Upcoming PRC Exhibitions 

education programs at the prc 

American Perspectives: 

Photographs from the 

Polaroid Collection 

A collaborative exhibition between the Boston 

University Art Gallery and the Photographic 

Resource Center at Boston University 

November 22, 2002 – January 26, 2003 

Opening reception: Thursday, November 21 

(PRC: 5:30 – 7:00 pm; BUAG: 6:00 – 8:00 pm) 

This fall, New Englanders will get a rare 

opportunity to see a cross-section of the 

historic 23,000-item Polaroid collection via a 

collaboratively presented exhibition hosted by 

the Boston University Art Gallery and the 

Photographic Resource Center at Boston 

University. After opening at the Tokyo 

Metropolitan Museum of Photography and traveling 

to three prestigious Japanese venues, selections 

from this impressive exhibition will be presented 

to U.S. audiences, appropriately in 

Boston, near the home of the Polaroid 

Corporation. 

This unique corporate collection and exhibition 

highlights the evolution of Polaroid techniques as 

utilized by photographers and artists alike from 

the 1950s to the 1990s. Presenting a total of over 

90 stunning works by almost 50 artists, these 

exhibitions feature some of the masters of twentieth-century 

American photography: Ansel 

Adams, Dawoud Bey, Nancy Burson, Aaron 

Siskind, and Carrie Mae Weems. Add to this 

impressive list several well-known New England 

photographers who have made Polaroid processes 

part of their signature style—Maria Magdalena 

Campos-Pons, Béla Kalman, and Olivia Parker— 

to name a few—and this exhibition appeals to 

both local and international audiences. Ranging 

from the familiar small-format Polaroid SX 70 

photographs to large-scale photographs produced 

by the celebrated 20 x 24-inch and 40 x 80-inch 

cameras, the show will dazzle audiences with the 

lush color and impressive presence of the images 

on view. Archival information as well as cameras 

and ephemera illustrating the history of Polaroid 

technology will also be showcased. 

Patrick Nagatani, Alamogordo Blues, 1986, Polaroid 20x24" 

Polacolor photographs. ©Patrick Nagatani/Andrée Tracey. 

Courtesy of the artist and the Polaroid Collections. 

Two Views 

Members Project Room: An informal exhibition space curated and installed by members 

November 22, 2002 – January 12, 2003. Opening reception: November 21, 5:30–7:30pm 

In Two Views, photographers Evie Lovett and Lynne Weinstein explore the world of children. Weinstein 

combines the traditional still life subject matter of fruit, vegetables and flowers, with children. 

The images explore the wonder of the world in its natural state along with that which we grow and 

cultivate, including our children. Lovett captures fleeting moments in a child's magical and intense 

world. The combined work reveals unexpected surprises and reminds us of the beauty in the everyday. 

Top: Lynne Weinstein, Strawberries. Bottom: Evie Lovett, Untitled. 

LECTURES 

History of People Who Were 

not Heroes: A Lecture by 

Maria Magdalena Campos- 

Pons and Florence Ladd 

Co-Sponsored by the New England School 

of Photography and the PRC 

Thursday, November 14, 2002, 7:30pm 

Boston University School of Education 

Room 130, 605 Commonwealth Avenue, 

Boston. Free and open to the public. 

Campos-Pons, a former Bunting Institute Visual 

Artist Fellow, has exhibited her work worldwide 

including at such venues as MoMA, The Art Institute 

of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 

and the Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. She 

is also the recipient of The Lois Comfort Tiffany 

Grant, the Canada Council Media Grant, and a 

grant from the LEF Foundation. 

Ladd is an author, social critic and psychologist. 

Her novel, Sarah's Psalm received the 1997 best fiction 

award from the American Library Association's 

Black Caucus. From 1989-1997, she was 

director of the Bunting institute of Radcliffe, a multidisciplinary 

center for advanced studies for 

women. She is a Writer-in Residence at the Radcliffe 

Institute for Advanced Study. 

American Perspectives 

Gallery Talks with Leslie Brown 

Curator, PRC 

Wednesday, December 4, 2002, 1pm 


Free and open to the public. 

with Stacey McCarroll 

Interim Director/Curator, BU Art Gallery 

Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 1pm 

Free and open to the public 

PRC CURATOR PORTFOLIO 

REVIEWS 

Below you will find dates for our monthly portfolio 

reviews (and corresponding call-in reservation 

information) with the PRC’s Curator, Leslie 

Brown. As before, the reviews are 45 minutes long 

and scheduled on the hour beginning at 9:00 am 

with the last one at 3:00 pm. Reservations will be 

accepted on a first-call, first-served basis. It is recommended 

that you bring supporting materials 

(resume, images, and statement). 

Review Date: Monday, December 9, 2002 

(call in for reservations at 10 am, Friday, 

November 15th) 

Review Date: Monday, January 20, 2003 

(call in for reservations at 10 am, Friday, 

December 13th) 

WORKSHOP 

The Unconventional Portrait: 

A Workshop with 

Wild Bill Melton 

Tuesday December 3, 2002 7:00-9:00pm 


Saturday December 7, 2002 10am-4pm 

Wild Bill Studios, NH 

$150 Members/$175 Non-Members 

Reservations Required. 

Please call 617-353-0700. 

This program will be a two-part workshop. The 

participants will meet Tuesday evening at the 

PRC for a slide presentation/discussion about 

portraiture. Melton will present some of his own 

work, as well as that of other interesting photographers. 

Participants are encouraged to bring 

samples of their own work to discuss. 

The second part of the workshop will take place 

at Melton’s studio in New Hampshire (45 min 

from Boston). This will be a full day of hands-on 

participation with live situations and models. In 

addition to touching upon the technical aspects 

of portraiture, Melton will discuss the psychology 

of dealing with people. Melton will also talk 

about environmental/landscape portraits and 

street shooting, since some of the best portraits 

are completely spontaneous. 

Melton was born and raised in Lake Charles, 

Louisiana and has been shooting pictures professionally 

for 20 years. He lives in Boston, but his 

business, Wild Bill Studios is based in New 

Hampshire and New York City. He shoots advertising 

campaigns, fashion, and annual reports for 

clientele worldwide. Some of his most notable 

clients are Lapham Miller, Cambridge University, 

Young and Rubicam, The Metropolitan Museum 

of Art, Agilent Technologies, Coca-Cola, Hewlett 

Packard, and Continental Airlines. Most recently 

he shot the worldwide print campaign for 

Schweppes starring Clive the spotted Leopard. 

Over the years he has become one of the world’s 

premier exotic animal photographers bringing the 

animals into "human like" situations. Please visit 

www.wildbillstudios.com for more information. 

© Wild Bill Melton. 

GUEST PORTFOLIO REVIEWS 

In addition to the monthly critiques given by the 

PRC curator, the PRC offers regular portfolio 

reviews with invited experts. This opportunity 

allows photographers to have their work seen by 

nationally-known museum professionals, gallery 

owners, critics, and artists. The November/December 

portfolio reviews are: 

John Goodman 

Photographer 

Review Date: Saturday, January 25, 2002 

Call-in date: 10 am, Friday, January 10, 2002 

Goodman’s work is in many of the country’s 

most important collections, including those of 

The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of 

Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, 

Houston, and San Francisco Museum of Modern 

Art. He has published and exhibited extensively 

and has gained acclaim for his commercial 

work. For more information, visit www.goodmanphoto.com. 

Karin Rosenthal 

Photographer 

Review Date: Monday, January 27, 

Call-in date: 10 am, Friday, January 17, 2002 

Karin Rosenthal’s signature nudes are published 

internationally and are included in the collections 

of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Brooklyn 

Museum of Art, Fogg Art Museum, and Polaroid, 

among others. Her work was recently published in 

Karin Rosenthal: Twenty Years of Photographs. 

Constantine Manos 

Photographer 

Review Date: TBA 

Manos’s photographs are in the permanent collections 

of MoMA, The Art Institute of Chicago, 

Bibliothèque Nationale, and others. He is a member 

of Magnum Photos, and has four books of 

published work. His work was recently on display 

at the Panopticon Gallery (Waltham, MA). 

2 

3

of image that pops right out of the camera and develops 

before one’s eyes. Although realized approximately 

100 years after the first experiments in photography, 

Polaroid instant imaging expanded the possibilities of 

photography in ways that had not been previously 

imagined. Even as we embrace the digital revolution, 

the spontaneous thrill of that instant image still 

delights us, for the idea and application of instant 

imaging are paramount in our desire to represent and 

interpret the visual world. Land, the “genius” as Life 

called him, had perfected a means to combine the 

desire to fix one’s image with the satisfaction of immediate 

recognition. 

4 

AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES: PHOTOGRAPHS 

Lloyd E. Moore, Sisler, from the series Living Room, 1984. 

Polaroid Polacolor 8x10” film type 808. © Lloyd E. Moore. 

Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections. 

The Boston University Art Gallery and the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University 

have collaborated to host selections from this large-scale exhibition. Exploring the implications 

and applications of "instant imaging" in the work of artists and photographers, each venue 

approaches the theme from a different perspective. 

Magic Land 

By Stacey McCarroll, Acting Director & Curator, The Boston University Art Gallery 

The October 27, 1972, cover of LIFE magazine advertised the revolutionary Polaroid SX-70 

system—the first fully automatic, motorized folding single lens reflex camera that ejects selfdeveloping, 

self-timing color prints—with an image of Dr. Edwin Land using his “magic 

camera.” Land’s Polaroid Corporation had been a thriving American company for almost 

35 years by the early 1970s, cornering the market on one-step instant imaging. Land and 

his kind of magic photography were well-known worldwide by this time as the company had 

been producing a wide variety of Land cameras and Polaroid films for personal and professional 

use since 1947 when Land first announced his one-step instant photographic process. 

Yet for most contemporary photography consumers, particularly those in my generation and 

after, “Polaroid” signifies the hand-held instant color snapshot originated in 1972: the kind 

The far-reaching uses of the SX-70 system for personal 

photography have been well established, but 

professional photographers were also excited by the 

magic of instant imaging. For artists caught up in a 

wave of experimentation in the 1970s—particularly 

driven by a keen interest in the possibilities of color 

photography—Polaroid became synonymous with 

cutting-edge photographic technology. The simplicity 

as well as the thrill of instantaneous photographic 

results captivated both artists and novice photographers 

alike. From the beginning Polaroid Corporation 

had encouraged artists to experiment with their 

medium, as Land fostered a relationship between 

artists and scientists, believing that the artists' point of 

view offered a valuable alternative to that of the company's 

technical staff. Land put Ansel Adams on staff 

as a film consultant in 1948, and grew the artist/consultant 

staff over the years. In the 

late 1960s the company developed 

an outreach program that provided 

photographers with small 

film and equipment grants in 

exchange for images presented to 

the permanent collection. As a result, a unique corporate collection 

began to emerge, and Polaroid generated an impressive collection of photographic 

artwork, artwork that now comprises the over 23,000 item 

Polaroid Collection. 

FROM THE POLAROID COLLECTION 

The diversity of photographs represented in the Polaroid Collection illustrates 

how artists and photographers have embraced Land’s version of 

photographic magic. Among the vastly different kinds of images collected—color 

or black and white, in formats ranging from the small Captiva 

size to murals created with the giant 40x80-inch Polaroid camera— 

run themes that are common in the history of photography. The 

Polaroid Collection is made up of images rich with personal and collective 

meaning. Like the millions of snapshooters who look to Polaroid 

instant imaging to record their special personal occasions and to liven up 

their parties, photographic artists also turn to Polaroid as a means of selfexploration 

and self-representation, further demonstrating how we all use 

photography to register and create our lived experience. To develop this 

point, I have organized the images in this exhibition into three rather 

broad, yet meaningful conceptual categories: representations of a place, 

Albert Chong, The Two Sisters, 1987, gelatin silver photograph 

from Polaroid Positive/Negative 4x5” film type 55. © Albert 

Chong. Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections.

one’s past, and the portrait. These categories certainly do not characterize the entirety of 

images in the collection, but they do offer a means for thinking about these images in relation 

to each other and to the history of photography. 

A lawyer by trade, Lloyd E. Moore lives and photographs in the small Ohio River town of 

Ironton. Like the work of photographer Shelby Lee Adams, who photographs the people of 

his native Appalachian Kentucky, or the landscapes of William Clift, images from Moore’s 

Living Room series document a particular place. Moore creates visually captivating images of 

his clients, friends, family, and neighbors, photographed in their own intimate surroundings. 

His work, such as the image of Sisler from the Living Room series (1984), capture the particular 

color palette of the Polaroid Polacolor 8x10” film Type 809 he uses, while revealing a 

kind of familiarity and quirkiness of the subjects he photographs. His images are both common 

yet strangely unsettling, and his vision is certainly distinctive. 

Rest assured. 

Lucas Samaras, Life-Sizes, 1983, Polaroid 40x80” Polacolor 

photograph. © Lucas Samaras. Courtesy of the Polaroid 

Collections. 

Ansel Adams, Self-Portrait, 1978. Polaroid SX-70 photograph. 

Photography by Ansel Adams. Used with permission of the Trustee 

of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. All Rights Reserved. 

Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections. 

Jamaican born Albert Chong creates images that interpret his family’s Chinese and African 

cultural past. A photographer, video and installation artist, Chong creates highly ritualized 

and nostalgic images by combining family photographs, flowers, spiritual and everyday 

objects—the remnants of a life lived—to create still life photographs that investigate the 

notion of ancestral identity. Chong uses the popular Polaroid Positive/Negative 4x5” film 

Type 55 format, to produce gelatin silver photographs including The Two Sisters (1987). 

Chong often exhibits these images alongside contemporary portraits of residents from his 

native Jamaica, thereby juxtaposing the past and the present. Chong uses particularly personal 

objects and images to explore his cultural past. Similarly, Cuban born artist Maria Magdalena 

Campos-Pons creates enigmatic large-scale installations that reawaken her own Afro- 

Cuban cultural and familial history. Chong and Campos-Pons utilize different Polaroid 

processes in constructing their work, creating entirely different effects: Chong employs the 

more established black and white 4x5” film, while Campos-Pons uses the more unique 

Polaroid 20x24-inch instant color process. Yet both artists use Polaroid as a means to translate 

notions of individual and collective identity. 

In his ultra large format self-portraits, artist Lucas Samaras takes the conventional portrait 

tradition to extremes. Samaras has built an artistic career out of an obsessive desire for selfrepresentation, 

a desire made manifest in photographic self-portraits ranging from his smallformat 

manipulated SX-70s to his grandiose Life-Sizes (1983), Polaroid 40x80-inch Polacolor 

photographs. In this self-portrait, Samaras presents himself as a kind of performer, a photographic 

magician, pulling back the curtain to reveal the tools of his trade. Standing in the 

studio surrounded by lighting equipment, Samaras engages the camera, and the viewer, with 

his steadfast stare. His longstanding narcissistic project of photographing and rephotographing 

himself using Polaroid processes signifies the familiar fascination with photographic selfpreservation 

gone grotesquely awry. Samaras represents one end of the photographic portrait 

continuum, while most of our everyday family snapshots are contained at the other end. 

In comparison, a rare 1978 SX-70 self-portrait of Ansel Adams from the Polaroid Collection 

(rare in the context of Adam’s oeuvre although the collection is abundant with SX-70 portraits 

by other photographers) pictures Adams in the surprisingly more impromptu and coy 

portrait. Photographing himself as a reflection in a small wall mirror, Adams, the most wellknown 

traditional American landscape photographer of the twentieth century, plays not only 

with the processes, but also with his own image. For even Adams was seduced by Land’s 

magic, unable to resist the spontaneous informality and creative opportunity offered by the 

small-format instant image. Adams’s experimental portrait was a success. Yet as we all know, 

the most important reassurance of the Polaroid processes rests in the knowledge that if we’re 

unhappy with that image as it rolls out of the camera, we can simply shoot another one. 

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6 

7

Imaging the Image: A Perspective on Polaroid 

By Leslie K. Brown, PRC Curator 

The same year that Edwin Land announced his discovery of instant photography, Harold 

Edgerton captured on film the explosion of an atomic bomb. It is pure coincidence that the first 

photograph of the atomic age and Polaroid instant images have the same birth year, 1947. 

However, in one signature image from American Perspectives, the two are combined to an acerbic, 

yet poignant effect. In Patrick Nagatani’s 20 x 24-inch Polaroid diptych Alamogordo Blues 

(1986, see cover), Japanese spectators click away furiously on the New Mexico desert, tell-tale 

SX 70s fluttering through the air. Put simply, this is a photograph about and of photographs 

and the act of photographing. This image encapsulates the intent of the PRC’s presentation of 

the exhibition, as it asks: what happens when Polaroid references itself? 

Joyce Neimanas, M.H., 1985, Polaroid SX-70 collage. © Joyce 

Neimanas. Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections. 

Within the realm of “instant imaging,” I am interested in the implications of “imaging an 

image” and have organized the show into five themes listed below. Before 1839, the proto-photographer’s 

initial aim was to reproduce neither people nor landscapes, but images themselves. 

Practitioners attempted to make permanent any number of already rendered images, including 

maps, engravings, and paintings. As most Polaroids are discrete entities (usually without negatives 

and therefore irreproducible), it is intriguing that many artists have altered the image surface 

itself or chosen to replicate photographs. In addition, Polaroids themselves are often used 

to create artworks that lie somewhere between diptychs, tripychs, photomontages, and photosculpture. 

In their choice of subject and technique, artists who use Polaroid seem to recapitulate 

and recast many topics in photographic history. 

Photo Composites 

Although photomontage came to the fore in the 

1920s through the German Constructivists, its roots 

can be traced back to the 19th century. In fact, many 

Polaroid collages reference previous photographic 

genres and exude a certain amount of naïveté seen in 

vernacular photography. Often, Polaroids are used as 

both raw material and source material. Perhaps like 

Barbara Kasten says, “the beautifully rich velvety 

Polaroid surface makes the works more of an object 

than a paper transmitting a photographic illusion,” 

Polaroid is the perfect medium and message. 

In M.H. (1985), Joyce Neimanas presents a portrait 

that traverses the time-space continuum. This work’s 

seeming random nature belies its carefully planned 

creation. It’s as if a photographic album were condensed 

into one composition. David Hockney, 

another artist known for his composites, takes this 

approach one step further. His medium is not necessarily 

Polaroids, but the end product was. Hockney 

constructed a typical composition out of hundreds of 

regular color pictures, then shot the result with the 

largest Polaroid in existence, the 40 x 80-inch camera. 

This practice is akin to assembling a puzzle and photographing 

the result to prove its existence. 

Manipulation 

During the early twentieth century a wide variety of 

new photographic processes were introduced, many 

of which emulated effects in other visual media. 

Desiring to legitimize photography as an art, not only did photographers radically alter their 

images but they also took inspiration from artistic subjects. Polaroid artists were not immune 

to this impulse. Since Polaroid technology was so novel, it appeared to inject a new fervor into 

artists. Thus they tried any means necessary to capitalize on its characteristics. 

As a Polaroid contains the film as well as the necessary chemicals to process it, modifying the 

surface results in a variety of effects. Lucas Samaras was one of the first to manipulate Polaroid’s 

surface with an artistic intent. To create the surreal effects in his Untitled (1974) and other 

works, Samaras heated, scratched, and otherwise marred the emulsion layer of Polaroid prints 

immediately after taking them. Polaroids thus become miniature malleable laboratories. 

Photos of Photos 

What does it mean to photograph a photograph from an artistic and philosophical standpoint? 

Moreover, when the latter is a Polaroid, how does that medium change this act, and by extension 

its meaning? Photographs capture an instance in time and often stand in for memory 

when used in art. The doubling effect of photographing a photo can serve as a metaphor for 

memory itself. Like Alice going through the looking glass, an image in a photograph might 

serve as a time and space machine, a shared cultural vehicle and symbol through which we can 

enter the work. 

Alma Davenport, Totem #7, 1976, Polaroid Polacolor 8x10” film 

type 808. © Alma Davenport. Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections. 

8 

9

In Alma Davenport’s series Totem, for example, she places snapshots over photographs and takes 

a Polaroid of the result. In Totem #7 (1976), an anonymous photo booth portrait covers a 

crayon-colored elementary school class picture. Are these two possible histories or outcomes? In 

his Quadrant series, Drex Brooks uses some historical photographs documenting hangings and 

observers thereof. To deny that these photographs exist would be dangerous. This layering effect 

serves to compound the photograph’s evidentiary nature. The original speaks to the idea of 

“being there”; the second serves to acknowledge that the first actually existed, however anonymous 

or distasteful. The first person nature of the original image is superceded by the viewpoint 

of the contemporary observer. 

Lucas Samaras, Untitled, 1974, Manipulated Time Zero 

Supercolor photograph. © Lucas Samaras. Courtesy of the 

Polaroid Collections. 

Images of/from Pop Culture 

One of the markers of the post-modern age in which we live is image appropriation. Simply put, 

believing most topics in art to be used up and the nature of authorship in question, artists have 

turned to history for material. Interestingly, the recycling of images from popular culture occurs 

with great regularity in Polaroids. From Bob H. Miller’s Polaroids of magazine cutouts of models 

combined with other scenes to David Levinthal’s recasting of toy figurines from 1950s playsets, 

images and icons can be put into new contexts on which to comment, either positively or, 

more often, negatively. By casting a net back into history, Polaroid artists allow us to consider 

the image laden world in which we live. 

Composing the Still Life 

Commenting on the 20 x 24-inch camera, photographer Gary Metz has remarked that “the pictures 

recover the first moments of photography’s public history. It’s as if we have the opportunity 

to start all over again.” Indeed, Land’s announcement to a stunned Optical Society of 

America has interesting parallels to announcement of the invention of photography itself to the 

French Academy of Sciences. It is not a surprise then that artists who wanted Polaroids to be 

viewed as art, analogous to early photographers, turned their lenses to a very traditional subject, 

the still-life. In a way, the still-life is an already imaged image, pre-composed and arranged. The 

20 x 24-inch camera lends itself to elaborate stage-like set ups and theatrical lighting. Although 

she uses modern utensils, Marie Cosindas’s compositions still reference the Dutch idea of vanitas 

(fleetingness of life). Titled Memories II, a jumbled conglomeration of toys, cards, and dolls 

makes for a modern twist on this genre. In the attic of our minds, images too numerous to be 

comprehended stack up to be sorted through later. 

Marie Cosindas, Memories II, 1976, Polaroid Polacolor 8x10" 

film type 808. © Marie Cosindas. Courtesy of the Polaroid 

Collections. 

By reducing the literal and metaphorical distance between subject, artist, and artwork, a 

Polaroid condenses Land’s self-proscribed “aesthetic need” to one step. This relationship could 

be what accounts for Polaroid (and now digital) artists meditating on the nature of images. 

Conceivably as Land stated in 1950, what was at once impossible for photographers—simultaneously 

beholding the “original subject and partly finished work”—was now possible. The 

entire photographic continuum condensed, it could be witnessed almost as if by spontaneous 

generation. It thus seems natural that artists would make this sea change—this radical alteration 

of the traditional understanding of the photographic process—a potentially minable subject as 

well. 

If the post-modern age began at the detonation of the atomic bomb, as some critics argue, then 

Polaroid was at its forefront. Somehow, the increasing democratic nature of photography—first 

with Kodak’s “you press the button and we do the rest” and the rise of the amateur in the 1880s; 

then with Polaroid’s and digital photography’s revolutionary twist on the same statement— 

seemed to cause tremors in photography’s ontological status. Perhaps Polaroid can teach us a lesson 

as we move through and make sense of the digital and post-modern visual revolution. 

Works cited: 

Kao, Deborah Martin with introductions by Barbara Hitchcock and Deborah Klochko. Innovation/ 

Imagination: 50 Years of Polaroid Photography. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with 

The Friends of Photography, 1999. 

10 

11

insight 

Olivia Parker 

An Interview with 

Artist Olivia Parker has had more than 140 one-person exhibitions in the United States and 

abroad, and her work is represented in major private, corporate, and museum collections, 

including The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and MoMA. There have 

been three monographs of her work: Signs of Life, Godine, 1978, Under the Looking Glass, 

NYGS, 1983, and Weighing the Planets, NYGS, 1987. 

How did you get started in photography? 

I think it was when I was making pictures as 

sketches and records for my paintings. I began to 

notice what was happening with the light and 

got fascinated. I had also taken photographs as a 

kid, starting with a box brownie camera and 

then wanting a better camera. I also wanted a 

dog. My parents said I couldn’t have a dog, so 

that is when I bought my first good camera. A 

year later, through persistence, I did get the dog 

too. [laughter] These funny relationships with 

photography have happened throughout my life. 

Odd little twists and turns. A friend who was a 

portrait photographer was moving out of our 

town about thirty years ago. I asked if I could 

borrow her stuff and I started working with it in 

the attic and washing the prints in the bathtub. 

Also, when I was starting out, I married very 

young and had two little kids. It was very traditional, 

which was good fortune for me because 

there were those bits of time that I could get to 

make work that gradually grew as the kids went 

to school and such. 

That’s interesting because there seems to be 

very little influence of the domestic home 

environment in your work. You seem to have 

avoided being pigeon-holed into a certain 

kind of genre throughout your career. 

It’s funny because I think that can work against 

an artist too. I’m glad not to be pigeon-holed, 

but sometimes I get some funny reactions to 

work. I’ve had a couple dealers say to me, “Well, 

people have to work too hard to understand your 

images.” Yes, there may be a lot of other stuff 

there, but different people bring different things 

to it and, certainly at this point, I want to do the 

work that I love doing the most and stay excited 

about. I had a difficult experience with that in 

Japan. The gallery I was with only wanted the 

work from the seventies and the early eighties. 

There just wasn’t anymore of that particular 

work around and I certainly wasn’t going to do 

more. So, I left the gallery, which is something 

one doesn’t do in Japan. I don’t jump around 

from gallery to gallery, but I like to be very 

straightforward and fair with people. That experience 

really threw me. I’ve always found that 

when I do something new it seems to take about 

three, four, or five years to be accepted. 

What got you started with digital 

photography? 

To be able to do your own color printing without 

toxicity is marvelous to me—just the possibilities 

for dodging, burning, and actually 

increasing tonal range. For me, it was a natural 

transition. I had been experimenting with my 

own computer in 1990, but home computer 

software then was very primitive, and I thought 

it would be a long time before the print output 

would be good enough. It came much faster 

than I thought. Someone showed me some Nash 

[Editions] prints and I got intrigued. I took a 

one-week crash course in Photoshop and was off 

and running. I worked over at Crimson Tech., 

because they wanted pictures to show their 

clients. That was a wonderful experience. Then, 

I got a Mac, and about three months later, I was 

in a skiing accident. I was on crutches for a year, 

and would have gone crazy if it hadn’t been for 

that computer. I spent a lot of time working with 

it and I feel that the depth of working with it was 

probably caused by that accident. I don’t think 

that I would have drifted away from the darkroom 

as much as I have. I still think I may make 

silver prints again, but I’m not sure because some 

of the black and white digital output is beautiful. 

The last couple of years, I’ve been using all digital 

cameras. The clam one in [the PRC’s 2002 

Benefit Auction], was made with a Cannon D-30. 

I’m really hooked and haven’t done any black 

and white work with the digital cameras. 

What inspires you to make artwork? 

I’m rather omnivorous when it comes to art. I 

have a rather wide range of interests. When we 

travel, I’m always interested in looking at how 

world ideas change. That’s why I’ve been so 

interested in the 17th century because you get 

this marvelous and strange shift from knowledge 

being derived from previous knowledge to 

knowledge being derived from observation. 

That’s why I like early science books so much. 

Olivia Parker with her 2002 Benefit Auction photograph. 

Photograph by Terrence Morash. 

Part of what I am doing this year involves one of 

those books that I think has both of these ways 

of looking at the world in it. I just don’t find any 

shortage of ideas right now. I never get bored. 

Let’s put it that way. [laughter] 

Tell us about the red string that appears in 

some of your work. 

The red string came about for several reasons, 

but I think the primary reason was that it made 

a kind of red line that I didn’t see in anything 

else. It was also because of that Polaroid color 

too, though I might be able to come near that 

color digitally now. I remember that in one picture, 

I had used some pears. I had hidden them 

from the kids so I could photograph them and I 

had forgotten them. They were sort of falling 

apart and it was just instinctive to stick some red 

strings on them to hold them up. 

Do you miss using the Polaroid materials? 

Oh yeah. It has a richness that I really like. I just 

don’t like to work with too many different media 

at once because I think that the work just 

becomes about that. Early on, I had looked at a 

lot of prints and I noticed that a lot of artists 

were so bound up in the process that their results 

really weren’t very interesting. Although I’ve 

worked with many processes, I’ve tried to keep 

the process from intruding on what I’m doing. I 

think that’s one reason why I stopped working 

with film. 

Thank you. 

Thank you. 

P E G G Y 

SIROTA 

GUESS WHO? 

SEPTEMBER 19 THROUGH DECEMBER 28 

67 Shore Road Winchester MA 01890 PH 781 729.1158 

Tuesday through Sunday, Noon – 4:00 

www.griffinmuseum.org 

12 

13

photography events in new england and beyond 

EXHIBITIONS 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Addison Gallery of American Art 

John O’Reilly: Assemblies of Magic (thru Dec 22). 

Tue-Sat, 10-5; Sun 1-5. At the corner of Rte. 28 and 

Chapel Ave., Andover, MA. 978-749-4015. 

www.andover.edu/addison 

Art Complex Museum at Duxbury 

The Inner Eye: Pinhole Photographs by Jesseca Ferguson 

(thru Jan 12). Wed-Sun, 1-4. 189 Alden St., 

Duxbury, MA 02331. 781-934-6634. 

www.artcomplex.org 

Art Interactive 

Time Share (includes work by Jane Marsching, Michael 

Mittelma, Andrew Neumann, Scott Snibbe, 

Jeff Talman, and Camille Utterback) (thru Jan 5). 

Sat & Sun 10-5. 130 Bishop Allen Dr., Cambridge, 

MA 02139. www.artinteractive.org 

Boston Athenaeum 

Renovation: Photographs by Shellburne Thurber (thru 

Nov 30). Mon, 9-8; Tue-Fri, 9-5:30; Sat, 9-4. 10_ 

Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108. 617-227-0270. 

www.bostonathenaeum.org 

Brandeis University 

Art Spaces @ the Women’s Studies Research Center 

Vsevo Khoroshevo-All Good Things: A Black and White 

Photographic Essay of the Jews of Ukraine by Emily 

Corbató (thru Dec 2), Mon-Fri, 9-5; evenings and 

weekends by appt. 515 South St., Waltham, MA 

02454. 781-736-8114. www.brandeis.edu/hirijw 

Danforth Museum of Art 

New England Currents: Eric Lewandowski (Nov 7-Jan 

18). Wed-Sun, 12-5. 123 Union Ave., Framingham, 

MA. 508-620-0050. www.danforthmuseum.org 

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park 

Looking at Ground Zero: Photographs by Kevin Bubriski 

(thru Feb 23). Tue-Sun, 11-5. 51 Sandy Pond Rd., 

Lincoln, MA 01773. 781-259-8355. 

www.decordova.org 

Elias Fine Art 

Shellburne Thurber: Boston Athanaeum Photographs 

(thru Oct 26) and Asphalt (various mediums) (Nov 1- 

Dec 21). Wed-Sat, 12-5. 120 Braintree St., Allston, 

MA 02134. 617-783-1888. 

Essex Art Center 

Juried Show 2002: 9th Annual Exhibition in main 

gallery (thru Nov 29). Tue-Thu, 10-7; Fri, 10-3. 

56 Island St., Lawrence, MA 01840. 978-685-2343. 

www.essexartcenter.com 

Fitchburg Art Museum 

Adams and O’Keefe on the Road and Eliot Porter: 

Landscapes East and West (thru Jan 12). Tue-Sun, 12-4. 

185 Elm St., Fitchburg, MA 01420. 978-345-4207. 

www.fitchburgartmuseum.org 

Fort Point Arts Community Gallery 

Double Vision: One Landscape, Two Photographers 

(Dec 13-Jan24). Mon-Fri, 10-3; Sat, 12-5. 

300 Summer St., Boston, MA 02110. 617-423-4299. 

www.fortpointarts.org 

The Griffin Museum of Photography 

Peggy Sirota: Guess Who? fashion photographer, 

includes works from her debut book GUESS WHO 

(thru Dec 28). Tue-Sun, 12-4. 67 Shore Rd., 

Winchester, MA, 01890. 781-729-1158. 

www.griffinmuseum.org 

Harvard University Art Museums 

Busch-Reisinger Museum 

Wolfgang Tillmans: Still Life (thru Feb 3, 2003) Mon- 

Sat, 10-5; Sun, 1-5. 32 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 

02138. 617-495-9400. www.artmuseums.harvard.edu 

Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology 

Chaerles Fletcher Lummis: Southwestern Portraits 1888- 

1896 (thru March 2003) Mon-Sun 9-5. 11 Divinity 

Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. 617-496-0099. 

www.peabody.harvard.edu 

Higham Public Library 

Mayo Moments: In the West of Ireland, Photographs by 

Lance Keimig (Nov 15-Jan 3). Mon-Thu 10-9; Sat 9-5; 

Sun 1-5. 66 Leavitt St., Hingham, MA 02043. 

781-741-1405. 

Howard Yezerski Gallery 

Studio Series from the mid-1980’s: John O’Reilly (thru 

Nov 5). Tue-Sat, 10-5:30. 14 Newbury St., Boston, 

MA 02116. 617-262-0550. www.howardyezerskigallery.com 

Lee Gallery 

World War II: Vintage Photographs by Bill Brandt, 

Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Morris Engel and others 

(Nov 1-29). Mon-Fri, 10-5:30, and by appt. 

9 Mt. Vernon St., Winchester, MA 01890. 

781-729-7445. www.leegallery.com 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

Lens Landscape (thru Feb 23), Adam Fuss (thru Jan 

12), and The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American 

Modernist (thru Feb 2, 2003). Mon-Tue, 10-4:45; 

Wed–Fri, 10-9:45; Sat-Sun, 10-5:45. 465 Huntington 

Ave., Boston, MA 02115. 617-267-9300. 

www.mfa.org 

New England School of Photography 

Gallery One 

Eugene B. Epstein (thru Nov 22) and Workshop Show 

(Dec 2-Jan 30). Mon-Fri, 9-5. 

537 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215. 

617-437-1868. www.nesop.com 

Panopticon Gallery 

Four Decades by Ulrich Mack (Nov 2-Dec 14). Mon- 

Fri, 10-6; Sat, by appt. 435 Moody St., Waltham, MA 

02453. 781-647-0100. www.panopt.com 

Peabody Essex Museum 

Bohnchang Koo: Masterworks of Korean Photography 

(Nov 9-Feb 18). Tue-Sat, 10-5; Sun, 12-5. East India 

Square, Salem, MA 01970. 978-745-9500. 

www.pem.org 

Robert Klein Gallery 

Mario Giacomelli (thru Nov 30) and Michal Safdie 

(Dec 5-Jan 31). Tue- Fri, 10-5:30; Sat, 11-5. 

38 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. 617-267-7997. 

www.robertkleingallery.com 

Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University 

Fictions: New Narrations in Contemporary Photography 

Video (thru Nov 24). Wed-Sun, 12-5. 415 South St., 

Waltham, MA 02454. 781-736-3434. 

www.brandeis.edu-rose 

School of the Museum of Fine Arts 

December Exhibition and Sale (various media) 

(Dec 5-8). Thu, 12-8; Fri-Sun, 12-6. 

230 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115. 617-369-3662. 

www.smfa.edu 

The Valley Portfolio Photographic Center 

Altered States (Thru Nov 30). Pixels (Dec 17-Jan 31). 

Tue-Sat 11-2; Thu 6-9. 1500 Main St. Springfield, 

MA 01115. 413-781-1553. www.valleyportfolio.com 

in the loupe listings deadlines 

January/February issue: 

November 15, 2002 

March/April issue: 

January 15, 2003 

Worcester Art Museum 

Mask of Mirror?: A Play of Portraits (various mediums) 

(thru Jan 26). Wed- Fri, 11-5; Sat 10-5; Sun 11-5. 

55 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609. 

508-799-4406. www.worcesterart.org 

Zona 

Somerville High schools, (Nov) and Sarah Norton, 

(Dec). Mon-Fri 8-8; Sat 10-4. 561 Windsor St., 

Somerville, MA 02143. 617-628-2545. 

ELSEWHERE IN NEW ENGLAND 

Bowdoin College Museum of Art 

The Culture of Violence (various mediums) (thru Dec 8) 

Focus on Nature: American Photographic Views (thru 

Dec 15), Tue-Sat 10-5; Sun 2-5pm. Brunswick, ME 

04011. 207-725-3275. www.bowdoin.edu/artmuseum 

Middlebury College Museum of Art 

Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1936-1942. 

(thru Dec 1), Tue-Fri 10-5; Sat & Sun 12-5. 

Middlebury College Center for the Arts, Rte. 30, 

Middlebury, VT 05753. 802-443-5007. 

www.middlebury.edu/~museum 

Newport Art Museum 

Surface and Place: Photographs by Jennifer Uhrhane. 

(thru Nov 10), Mon-Sat 10-5; Sun 12-5. 76 Bellevue 

Ave., Newport, RI 02840. 401-848-8200. 

www.newportartmuseum.com 

Rhode Island College 

The Bannister Gallery 

The Photography of Stephan Jacobs and Seth Rubin. 

(Nov 1-27), Mon-Wed & Fri 11-5; Thu 12-9. 

600 Mt. Pleasant Ave., Providence, RI. 

401-456-9765. www.ric.edu/bannister 

Saco Museum 

Depicting the Maine Coast: James Mullen and Michael 

Kolster. (thru Nov 7), call for hours. 371 Main St., 

Saco, ME 04072. 207-283-3861. 

Salt Institute for Documentary Studies 

Domestic Violence, (Oct. 11 thru Nov) and Salt Graduates, 

(opens Dec 16) Mon-Fri, 11:30-4:30; First Fri 

5-8pm. 110 Exchange St., Portland, ME 04112. 

207-761-0660. www.salt.edu 

University of New Hampshire 

The Art Gallery @ the Paul Creative Arts Center 

Series: Work by Six artists including Photographer Luigi 

Cazzania. (thru Dec 15), Mon-Wed 10-4; Thu 10-8; 

Sat & Sun 1-5. 30 College Rd., Durham, NH, 03824. 

603-862-3712. www.unh.edu 

University of Rhode Island 

Fine Arts Center Galleries, Main Gallery 

Translations/Transgressions (including photographs by 

Rosamond Purcell, Gary Schneider, and Nancy 

Bursom, among others) (thru Dec 8), Tue-Fri 12-4 

and 7:30-9:30; Sat-Sun 1-4. 105 Upper College Rd., 

Ste. 1, Kingston, RI 02881. 401-874-2775. 

www.uri.edu/artsci/art/gallery 

EDUCATION 

The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, 

through the Office of Continuing and Professional 

Education is offering Fall/Winter 2003 workshops in 

Digital Media, Photography, Marketing, and Framing/Matting. 

Inquiries may be directed to Diana 

Arcadipone, 617-585-6729. 

www.aiboston.edu/EXTRA 

The Cape Cod Photo Workshops offers a wide 

variety of courses on photography. For more information 

please contact Cape Cod Photo Workshops at 508- 

255-6808. P.O. Box 1619, N. Eastham, MA 02651. 

The Essex Art Center offers classes in all artistic 

media, including photography. The Essex Center for 

art is located at 56 Island Street, Lawrence, MA 

01840. For more information go to www.essexartcenter.com 

or call 978-685-2343. 

The French-American Collaborative and The Art 

Institute of Boston will hold the 7th “Photography as 

An Art” Workshop in Guadeloupe from November 24- 

30th, 2002. The workshop will cover camera and film 

basics, color theory, the physiology and psychology of 

vision, composition and the correlations between photography 

and art. Readings will include standard photographic 

texts as well as essays from Virginia Woolf, 

Proust, Roland Barthes, Luc Sante, EH Gombrich, etc. 

Artists in other media are encouraged to apply. 

Though some camera experience is necessary, in 

selected cases, beginners may be accepted. Costs range 

from $995 and up depending on accommodation 

needs. College Credit for 1.5 credits is $150. Call 

Regis de Silva at 617-492-8055 or check last year’s 

web-site at www.geocities.com/facil_art. 

Horizons to Go Travel Programs offers classes in all 

artistic media, including photography. For more information 

and prices please contact Horizons to Go! PO 

Box 2206, Amherst, MA 01004, or go to www.horizons-art.com 

or call 413- 549-2900. 

John Sexton Photo Workshops will offers a wide variety 

of courses on photography. For more information 

please contact us on the web at www.johnsexton.com. 

John Sexton Photography Workshops, 291 Los Agrinemsors, 

Carmel Valley, CA, 93924. 

The Maine Photographic Workshops will be offering 

a large variety of fall related Photography workshops 

during the months of September and October. Subjects 

include: Destinations such as Martha’s Vineyard 

Landscape, Fine Art, Nature, Color Photography, 

Vision and Seeing and Photo I. The Maine Photographic 

Workshops are located at 2 Central Street, PO 

Box 200, Rockport, ME 04856. For more information 

go to www.theworkshops.com or call 1-877-577-7700. 

Santa Fe Photography and Digital Workshops are 

hosting a wide variety of workshops and programs this 

fall. For more information contact Santa Fe Workshops, 

PO Box 9916, Santa Fe, NM 87504-5916, or go to 

www.santafeworkshops.com or call 505-983-1400. 

Snow Farm, The New England Craft Program offers 

classes in all artistic media, including photography. 

For more information please contact Snow Farm at 5 

Clary Road, Williamsburg, MA 01096, or go to 

www.snowfarm-art.org or call at 413-268-3101. 

South Shore Art Center offers classes in all artistic 

media, including photography. The South Shore Art 

Center is located at 119 Ripley Rd., Cohasset, MA 

02025. For more information go to www.ssac.org or 

call 781-383-2964. 

OPPORTUNITIES 

The Flat Street Center for Photography is accepting 

portfolios for exhibition dates in 2003. Send 20 slides 

min. of final prints for exhibition. The gallery will 

charge a 30 % commission on work that is sold. 

Details on other artists and gallery responsibilities can 

be obtained by writing or calling the gallery that 

located in Brattleboro, VT 05301. www.flatstreetphoto.org 

2002 Gordon Parks Photography Competition is 

seeking works reflecting the important themes in the 

life works of Gordon Parks, such as social injustice the 

suffering of others, and family values. For updated 

rules and guidelines and more information e-mail 

photocontest@fortscott.edu or call 620-223-2700. 

The Valley Portfolio Photographic Center will be 

accepting entries Nov 1-21 for an open call for entries 

show curated by Richard Swiatlowski and Bill Myers. 

The show will hang alongside the exhibition Pixels 

with work by Jim Gipe. The Valley Portfolio Photographic 

Center is located at 1500 Main St., Springfield, 

MA 01115. For more information go to 

www.portfolio.com or call 413-781-1553. 

About the Arts invites artists working in all medias to 

submit work for a new television series airing in 2003. 

About the Arts was created in 1995 to provide exposure 

and visibility to the arts and bring local artists to the 

forefront. It has produced more than 250 visual, performing, 

literary and media artists, museums, and gallery 

events. The series aims to produce 12 half hour documentaries 

on artists who bring awareness to issues such 

as racism, AIDS, poverty, and homelessness. For more 

information go to www.aboutthearts.com, email jamesbrown@aboutthearts.com, 

or call 617-644-0143. 

Trusted by professional photographers for over 60 years! 

YOUR DIGITAL 

& PHOTOGRAPHIC 

CONNECTION 

• Excellent Service • Huge Selection • Discount Pricing 

• Quality Products • Digital Mini-Lab • Digital Cameras 

• Film Scanners • Digital Printers • Digital Storage 

• Albums, Folders, Folios & Frames 

And a whole lot more! 

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM 

Mon-Fri: 8:30-5pm • Saturday 9-4pm 

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14 

15

phonelines: member news from near and far 

Congratulations to all for your 

recent successes. Please keep us informed 

of your news and triumphs. 

PRC member and Juror’s Award Member’s 

Exhibition winner, Oscar Palacio received a 

grant-in-aid from the St. Botolph Club Foundation 

this year. 

Jo Sandman’s altered photographs were featured 

in sole exhibitions in 2002 at 55 Mercer 

Gallery, New York and New England School of 

Art & Design at Suffolk University, Boston. 

The Missing Generation, an exhibition of documentary 

work about orphans and guardians in 

Africa by Richard H. Goldman, will be exhibited 

in the Great Hall at the Boston Public 

Library, December 2-29, 2002. 

Photographs by Isa Leshko will be part of a 

group exhibition at the Boston Photo Cooperative. 

The exhibition will feature photographs 

from Leshko’s Car Wash Series, and opens on 

September 28th and will be open through the 

month of October. The Boston Photo Cooperative 

is located at 67 Brookside Avenue in 

Jamaica Plains. For directions and any additional 

information visit the website at 

www.bostonphoto.org/contact.html. 

Sid Limitz opened a new web-site on June 21. 

This is his second web-site, and it will document 

aspects of American culture and sub-culture. 

It will also showcase various topics from 

his new book/DVD series Scenes from an American 

Phenomenon. The address for his web-site 

is www.sidlimitz.com. In addition he took a 

greyhound bus to GRACELAND, Memphis, 

TN to document ELVIS WEEK where fans 

came from all over the world to pay homage to 

their fallen king on the 25th anniversary of his 

death (8-16-77) You can view footage on Monday 

night October 14th at the Coolidge Corner 

Movie Theater. PRC members will get in 

half price by showing membership card. 

PRC member Phyllis Crowley participated in 

the 8 Reflections on Time exhibition at the John 

Slade Ely House center for contemporary art, 

at the 51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, CT. 

The Exhibition was part of The Edge Festival. 

PRC members Ri Anderson, Monique 

Deschaines, Lalla A. Essaydi, and Neeta 

Madahar are currently participating in Almost 

Home: An Exhibition of Photographers Exploring 

Domestic Space, at the Fuller Museum of Art in 

Brockton, MA. The show opened in June and 

will run until September 8, 2002. 

A cover article by Georgia Litwack on Photographer 

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864- 

1952) has been published in the New England 

Journal of Photographic History, Number 160, 

Spring 2002. 

The exhibition Lines, Arcs and Other City Pictures 

by Karen Davis opened on June 20th at 

the Dean’s Gallery in the MIT Sloan School of 

Management at 50 Memorial Drive in Cambridge 

MA. The exhibition will run through 

August 23. For a preview of images visit 

www.YesThatKarenDavis.com. 

Donna Hamil Talman’s artwork can be seen in 

the Schneider Gallery in Chicago IL, The 

Gallery at South Orange in Baird Center, NJ 

and in the Copley Society Member’s Show in 

Boston, MA all this summer. Awards include 

Second place in the Southboro Center for the 

Arts photography Show, and received a Third 

place prize for participation in the photography 

show at Stebbies Gallery 

Jessica Ferguson’s Contemporary Alternative 

Photography was on view at the White Room 

Gallery in West Hollywood, CA from June 8- 

July 13th. jferguson@mindspring.com. 

Statuesque: New Explorations In Personal And 

Cultural Identities an exhibition of recent photographic 

works by Chehalis Henger is being 

shown at the Fusion Coffee & Tea Gallery in 

Manchester, NH from July 12, 2002 through 

September 12, 2002. 

The photographic work of Paul Cary Goldberg 

titled Objects Of My Affection was on view from 

July 12 – July 24, 2002 at The Driskel Gallery 

at The Schoolhouse Center in Provincetown, 

MA. 

Craig Barber, Luciana Frigerio, and Micheal 

McLaughlin were all shown at the Robin Rice 

Gallery of Fine Photography in New York City. 

The show was titled Summertime and could 

have been seen July 10 – September 7, 2002. 

July 11 – August 17, 2002 Embody Inference in 

Figurative Photography was being shown at the 

Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston, MA. John 

Goodman, Dana Salvo, and John Coplans 

were shown as well as Nan Goldin, and Mari 

Mahr. 

On June 8th, 2002 a book titled Wood, Wind, 

and Water: A Story of the Opera House Cup Race 

of Nantucket was released. The book provides a 

photographic chronicle of the classic-yacht 

regatta that was founded more than a quarter 

of a century ago. Work by photographer Anne 

T. Converse is featured and is accompanied by 

a history of the event written by Carolyn M. 

Ford. The book is available at local bookstores 

or online at www.annetconverse.com. 

Attorney Andrew Epstein, a PRC Board member 

and one the leading legal representatives for 

photographers and visual artists, was recently 

awarded the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of 

Massachusetts’ first Attorney of the Year Award 

for his pro bono work on behalf of artists. 

Alex S. MacLean work was shown in Play in 

America Seen from the Sky an exhibition at the 

International Photography Festival in Arles, 

France from July 6-August 18. His work is also 

in La ville americaine par Alex MacLean a solo 

exhibition in Paris, France from October 2002 

through December 2002. 

Mori Insinger had several photographs in the 

juried exhibition entitled South Enders at the 

Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, that 

was exhibited September 13 through November 

3, 2002. 

Bill Franson was recently awarded first place 

by the Texas Photographic Society’s 11th 

National Competition, Austin, Texas, for an 

image from his series on international adoption. 

Three more images were also included in 

the show, which opened during Austin, Texas’s 

annual PHOTOsynthesis. 

Photographs of Italy and France by Alexia 

Berry were featured in Dorchester, MA during 

September 2002 and later at the Newton Free 

Library, during October 2002. 

The University of Toledo’s Center for the 

Visual Arts, Toledo, OH, featured Bollywood 

Cowboys & Indians from India, an exhibition of 

work by Annu Palakannathu Matthew, 

August 26 through October 4, 2002. 

In the Company of Men: Photographs of Men’s 

Social Clubs, an exhibition of work by Paul 

D’Amato was featured at the Museum of Contemporary 

Photography, Chicago, IL, September 

17 through November 2, 2003. 

Kay Canavino’s Sommerville Photographs: The 

Last Decade, were exhibited in the Somerville 

Public Library, Somerville, MA, during the 

month of October 2002. 

Photographs by Gloria DeFilipps Brush were 

selected for the D-Art 2002 gallery and on-line 

exhibition, part of the International Conference 

on Information Visualization IV at the 

University of London, London, UK, July 2002. 

Deborah Bright was part of the exhibition 

Evidencing: Drawing with Light and Pixels at 

the College Art Gallery at the College of New 

Jersey, Ewing, NJ, during the month of October, 

2002. 

become a member of the prc 

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and foundation support, your membership provides critical income to support our programming and educational mission. Join for the 

obvious benefits listed below, but also for the more subtle perks. PRC members enter the network of the New England photographic 

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November | December 2002 - Boston Photography Focus

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