January | February 2006 - Boston Photography Focus

Installation shot of Jaimi Laird touching James Patten’s piece at
the Piano Factory Gallery, July 2005. James Patten (Cambridge,
MA), “Tactile Photograph” of Mariliana Arvelo’s Nagala’at
performers II, Watertown, MA, 2004, CNC laser etching on
wood, 2005, 15 x 24 inches, Courtesy of the artists.
DOCUMENT showcases recent social
documentary work from Boston on Boston
through the eyes of 9 emerging to early midcareer
photographers. The title of this exhibition,
DOCUMENT, is itself a call to arms as
well as a record. As a verb, the word “document”
implies the act of furnishing factual
support or portraying what is in front of you.
As a noun, “document” references the proof
or evidence. Any exhibition itself is all of these
things and more—a time capsule of what is
deemed important at that time, culturally and
aesthetically, by both the artists and the curator.
Unfortunately, social documentary work
rarely finds its way into galleries, commercial
or non-profit, and increasingly so, the press.
Nevertheless, Boston has a long tradition of
documentary work, burgeoning especially
in the 1970s and 80s—from its production
to exhibition, collection, and publication. 1
Acknowledging the important endeavors
that have come before, and even the recent
National Millennium Survey (1995-2000), this
exhibition respectfully offers up for consideration
a new slate of regional photographers,
methodologies, and projects. 2 Borrowing
a phrase from the prospectus of the NEAfunded
“Boston Photo-Documentary Project”
from the early 1980s of which PRC founder
Chris Enos was a part, the photographers
featured in DOCUMENT build upon this
groundwork and equally serve as “historians
of the present.” 3
DOCUMENT is held in conjunction with
the Boston University Art Gallery’s exhibition
A Photographic Portrait of Boston, 1840-1865
(February 10 - April 2, 2006) and will coincide
with the College Art Association’s (CAA)
national conference, which will be held in
Boston, February 22-25, 2006. In addition,
Boston University’s School of Visual Arts is
sponsoring and hosting a juried BFA show for
CAA featuring work by 14 New England area
art programs in the 808 Gallery. Interestingly
enough, almost all of the photographers in
the PRC’s show are not originally from this
area. Given this region’s strength in education,
photographers are often drawn to the city
and stay, lending their unique perspectives to
Greater Boston.
BOSTON AND
THE DOCUMENT SCENE
Admittedly so, DOCUMENT offers forth a
very wide swath of topics and approaches.
While this selection does hope to be an
introduction to socially-oriented and sociallyconscious
work going on in and about the
city today, it does not claim to be complete.
It concentrates on people-based work and
saves the natural and built environment (two
elements very unique in and to Boston) for
another project and future consideration.
Likewise, just as each selected topic differs
vastly—ranging from Somerville firefighters
to the homeless in Chinatown—so does each
photographer’s method. A number of photographers
use one particular group or person
to elaborate on issues that are specifically
Boston-related, and others showcase issues
that affect the whole nation through a local
connection. Several photographers incorporate
a significant amount of text and context; others
aim for minimalism and overall aesthetic
effect. This balance between “art” and “document”
is an ongoing debate within academia
and documentary photography and recapitulated
periodically. Indeed, several current
artistic trends are reflected here—interactivity,
the grid, the solo, close-up portrait—but the
photographers attempt to reference or use
them for other aims.
As the PRC beings to celebrate its 30th anniversary,
and we look back to 1976, it is wise
to ingest the lessons learned from the 1970s
photographic documentaries when considering
the work and photographers in DOCU-
MENT. As Mark Rice, chair of the American
Studies department at St. John Fisher College
(Rochester, NY) points out in his insightful
study Through the Lens of the City: NEA
Funded Photography Surveys of the 1970s:
[…there is no] “one correct way to undertake
a survey…[no] laundry list of sociological
topics that need to be answered.” 4 Later, he
goes on to remind us of the importance of
these surveys to documentary and art photography
today:
“In part because of these projects, photography
has shaken free from the impossible
burden of objectivity. We are more apt than
our predecessors were to recognize that all
photographs are art and documents, mirrors
and windows, traces and transformations.
Representations of place are inherently
political, and art is always social.” 5
Together, the works and photographers in
DOCUMENT share many of these key sensibilities
and urges. Elements that further unite
the work are the photographers’ passionate
involvement and relationships, often repeated
and often long-term, with their topics and
their subjects. Like any good documentarian
or photojournalist, their desires go beyond
simply clicking the shutter, and it shows.
Their projects are self-conscious and often
self-funded. Most of the projects were born
out of a personal desire to know or experience
more about a certain group or community
matter. Accordingly, many of the artists are
highly involved with a whole host of activist,
support, and charitable organizations.
Furthermore, each of these undertakings
represents only one of many issues in which
the photographers are interested. In order
to fuel such missions, they hold day jobs as
adjunct professors and educators as well as
professional, commercial, and editorial photographers.
What follows is a brief synopsis
of the photographers and projects featured in
DOCUMENT.
MARILIANA ARVELO AND
JAMES PATTEN (Cambridge, MA)
Mariliana Arvelo and James Patten exemplify
a unique partnership and approach to social
documentary. Arvelo began this project
through Jaimi Lard, a remarkable woman
who was born completely deaf with almost
no vision and works in public relations for
the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown,
MA (perhaps best know for its famous
alumna, Helen Keller). Through Laird,
Arvelo was introduced to a larger deaf-blind
community centered around the Deaf Blind
Contact Center and began to photograph
and learn sign language. Based on Arvelo’s
compelling color photographs, her partner
Patten then designed a computer program to
produce a series of “tactile photographs” on
wood panels through a CNC laser etching
process. The result is a photographic relief
that can be touched and is truly interactive
and educational for people of all abilities.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Arvelo graduated
in 2002 from the New England School
of Photography, specializing in editorial
photography and photojournalism. Her
work has appeared in several international
publications and been exhibited at the Danforth
Museum of Art (Framingham, MA),
the ARC Gallery (Chicago, IL), and the
Gallery at the Piano Factory (Boston, MA),
among others. Originally from Virginia,
Patten has exhibited or performed in venues
such as Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA),
Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY),