January | February 2006 - Boston Photography Focus
January | February 2006 - Boston Photography Focus
January | February 2006 - Boston Photography Focus
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14 | DOCUMENT<br />
Michael Manning (Cambridge, MA), Lee on the corner, Frances<br />
and Churro stay warm on the grate, 2003, From the series “La<br />
Familia,” 2003, gelatin silver print, 14 x 21 inches, Courtesy<br />
of and copyright Michael Manning<br />
exhibited at the <strong>Boston</strong> Architectural Center,<br />
Fidelity Corporation (<strong>Boston</strong>, MA), and the<br />
Danforth Museum of Art (Framingham, MA),<br />
for which he was juried into the biennial New<br />
England Photographers twice and won<br />
a purchase award in 2005. A former staff<br />
photographer to CNC publications, he has<br />
also contributed to the Associated Press,<br />
New York Times, Rolling Stone, <strong>Boston</strong> Magazine,<br />
and the <strong>Boston</strong> Globe, among others.<br />
Manning’s other projects include an inside<br />
look at a large Greek Orthodox Church in<br />
Watertown, MA, the festival of Cosmas and<br />
Damien in East Cambridge, MA, and an<br />
ongoing series on his own family. His website<br />
is michaelmanningphoto.com.<br />
AMBER DAVIS TOURLENTES<br />
(Somerville, MA)<br />
For the past eight years, Davis has been<br />
photographing her family: her gay father, his<br />
lifelong partner, mother and stepfather as well<br />
as other gay-parented families. This project,<br />
“Families on Stage,” features selections of<br />
images of <strong>Boston</strong> area gay-parented families<br />
taken during Family Week in Provincetown,<br />
MA over the course of 4 years (2002-2005).<br />
Sponsored by the Family Pride Coalition—a<br />
unique non-profit organization that supports<br />
legislation, funding, and research regarding<br />
LGBT families—the weeklong conference<br />
draws thousands and garners national attention.<br />
Taken on stage at the local town hall,<br />
each portrait serves to put forth a muchneeded<br />
candid glimpse of the gay family,<br />
which recently shifted demographically to<br />
the <strong>Boston</strong> suburbs. Davis plays with expectations<br />
of documentary work with her frank<br />
compositional choices and sheer repetition.<br />
A unique blending of art and activism, Davis’<br />
project takes on increased meaning given the<br />
ruling on gay marriage in our state, but also<br />
speaks to how we all picture ourselves as and<br />
within family.<br />
A native of <strong>Boston</strong>’s South End, Davis<br />
received her MFA in <strong>Photography</strong> and Computer<br />
Arts at the University of Massachusetts<br />
at Amherst in 1998 and then taught at Princeton<br />
University (Princeton, NJ). Currently,<br />
she teaches photography and new media at<br />
Massachusetts College of Art and Emerson<br />
College (<strong>Boston</strong>, MA). She is involved with<br />
many activist and support groups such as<br />
HRC (Humanity Rights Campaign), Families<br />
Like Mine, and COLAGE (Children of<br />
Lesbians and Gays Everywhere). Davis’s work<br />
with gay-parented families has been featured<br />
in countless solo and group exhibitions and<br />
gay, lesbian, and transgendered targeted publications.<br />
In 2005, she received one of five<br />
individual grants in photography from the<br />
Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her website<br />
is amberdavisphotographer.com.<br />
CONCLUSIONS<br />
Each of the photographers in DOCUMENT<br />
has expressed to me, on various occasions and<br />
in various ways, an assortment of sentiments<br />
beginning with the same verb: “remember….”.<br />
Remember the issues behind the<br />
photos. Remember the subjects. Remember<br />
Amber Davis Tourlentes (Somerville, MA), detail of Families<br />
On Stage, one family from the <strong>Boston</strong> area out of the series<br />
“Family Portraits,” Archival ink jet print, (original in color),<br />
2002-2005, dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist<br />
that these people are sharing their lives. I<br />
encourage you, as readers and viewers, to consider<br />
this advice as well. What do the subjects<br />
give (or not give) to the photographer and<br />
by extension, to us What do we take from<br />
this documentary encounter What could or<br />
should we give back to them The photographs<br />
on display in the gallery represent only<br />
the tip of the iceberg for the photographers<br />
and for the PRC. Inspired by the exhibition,<br />
we have planned an extensive menu of educational<br />
programs (see page 4), school tours, and<br />
an online component with additional information,<br />
interviews, and links. As an added<br />
resource, in the gallery and online, the PRC<br />
presents what hopes to be an ever-expanding<br />
annotated timeline of past and current documentary<br />
projects by <strong>Boston</strong> photographers<br />
focusing on <strong>Boston</strong>. As this goes to press, even<br />
more outreach efforts are in the works. Philosophically,<br />
these educational offerings are as<br />
much a part of the exhibition as anything else.<br />
Seen through the eyes and lenses of these 9<br />
artists and their distinctive interests, sensibilities,<br />
and methods, I hope a larger picture of<br />
<strong>Boston</strong> and some of the social issues before us<br />
at this particular time will come into focus.<br />
Beginning with the opening of the gallery<br />
exhibition, we encourage you to visit the<br />
online component to DOCUMENT at www.<br />
bu.edu/prc/document. In addition, a special<br />
display of publications related to the themes<br />
in the exhibition will be available in the<br />
PRC’s Aaron Siskind library.