Larissa Leclair

Zev Schmitz was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery. The selected photograph above, Birth of a Cloud, is from his series “Plume.” The cloud, in the context of this exhibition, came to symbolize for me the concept of nostalgia in abstract form – an ungraspable entity. “Plume” is an ongoing body of work that came out of the series “Still Limits.” About “Still Limits” Schmitz writes, “[t]he horizon is a symbol of perceptual failure – an unreachable and undefinable mark which dictates our understanding in both two dimensional and three dimensional space. Selections from “Still Limits” are shown below.

Zev Schmitz has his BFA in Photography from MICA. His website is www.zevschmitz.com.

Polly Gaillard was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont. Snow Day, as seen above, is from the series “Re-Collecting.” About the body of work, Gaillard writes “[t]o investigate family, I went back to my childhood home where my parents still live and posed myself in places where some of our most memorable family photographs were taken. I then used Photoshop to revisit the past by altering the original family photograph and placing myself within the scene as a disruption to the original photograph. This adult intruder becomes an interruption to the memory of the snapshot and to the familial gaze that takes place within the scene. The photographs are printed small to reference the size of the family snapshots held within the family album… I was intrigued by this investigation into my past and also the disruption of the very specific memory. ‘Re-Collecting’ references time and memory and how family photographs are real but they also illustrate personal fictions to the people within the frame.”

Polly Gaillard has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her website is www.pollygaillard.com.

Andrew Blaize Bovasso was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont. The selected photograph above is from the series “Conversations with Dan McNulty.” (McNulty photographed Jersey City from 1940-1960.) More than just a re-photographic survey, Bovasso breathes life into the archive to explore both historical and personal connections. Bovasso was born and grew up in Jersey City. At the age of fifteen, his father died and Bovasso turned to photography as a way to connect with his father posthumously and to explore the passage of time and fleeting moments photographically. About this body of work, Bovasso says, “[t]hrough [McNulty's] images alone I traveled throughout Jersey City to rephotograph his work, along my way I noted that this concept was a lot like having a ‘conversation’ with him, not only in the physical representation of the triptych, but in rephotographing in the first place. Finding the places and using the camera’s frame to investigate and determine the accurate place where he must have stood in order to obtain his images was very spiritual, and I do truly believe that his presence was with me… It is in this conversation that I can tell him that his photographs are not dead; they are very much living documents, and the conversation between him, myself, or anyone, can continue forever… So you see, the project is a metaphor for my relationship with my father, an earthly way to reach out into the unknown and take a hold of something for a few seconds before it’s gone.”

The book “Conversations with Dan McNulty in Jersey City” is available through the Blurb bookstore and includes the full collection of over fifty triptychs from this series.

Bovasso has another body of work called “Conversations with Family at Home” that explores some of the same themes. Through re-filming Bovasso creates haunting pieces of past presence and memory. Watch one here. Andrew Bovasso has a BFA from MICA. His blogspot is http://bovasso.blogspot.com/.

Yoav Horesh was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont. The selected photograph above is from the series “Intransition.” About this work, Horesh writes, “‘Intransition’ is a series of photographs that concern time/change and how these elements are rendered photographically. As much as the work is derived from my personal experiences, collective history/memory and serves as a visual diary, it also challenges the notion that photographs ‘capture the moment’ and could serve as an historical fact. From a Spanish school that still carries its physical history from when it was used as a prison, to fields where prisoners’ barracks once stood in a concentration camp in Germany, photography is not limited as a record of the present but also is a fusion of the past and possible future.”

Yoav Horesh teaches at Massachusetts College of Art, Queens College, and Columbia University. His website is www.yoavhoresh.com. An exhibition catalog for “Intransition” is available from Gallery Kayafas in Boston. Work by Yoav Horesh will be on view at Gallery Kayafas June 3-July 17, 2010.

Julia Paul was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont. The selected photograph above is from the series “far from the city.” This body of work is one of “several instant Polaroid series centered on rural landscapes, the unique ebb and flow of use and degredation that occurs in between cities, and the local forest as a metaphor for change and resilience.” Julia Paul’s website is www.juliapaul.com.

The photograph Kodak Headquarters by Emma Powell was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont. This photograph is part of the series ”A Life Reviewed: George Eastman through the Viewfinder” - a photographic biography of George Eastman that embraces “nostalgia, legacy, and the portrayal of the past.” To quote from Powell’s website, she says, “[o]f all people, George Eastman’s biography should be photographic… I have photographed subjects related to Eastman’s life and legacy through the viewfinders of a variety of old cameras… Around Rochester, at every turn, I find Eastman’s presence; in the Kodak buildings, in the park that bears his name, and in my own practice of photography.”

Emma Powell has her MFA in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She utilizes alternative photographic processes as well as digital media and her work often addresses photographic history. Emma’s website is www.emmapowellphotography.com. An exhibition of “A Life Reviewed” will be on view at the George Eastman House from August 6-October 31, 2010.

Gretchen Arnold was selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery. The selected photograph above is from the series “re:collection.” It is an ongoing body of work initially begun during graduate school at RIT and is an investigation of memory and the family photograph.

About this series Gretchen writes “[t]he task of establishing a narrative in my own box of photographs was daunting;there was no writing on the back of the photos whatsoever – only an occasional date stamp. Upon interrogation I found that the memories of others were as unreliable as my own… I found myself recognizing the details in the setting of the photograph rather than the ostensible event or occasion that was occurring… Do I remember the actual event or moment of a photograph from the past or does the photograph stand in for the memory?… My interest focuses on the reconstruction of imagery from the appropriated family photograph and representing it in a new, yet familiar, installation experience (see installation shot below) for the viewer. The images are made to speak to the idea of memory and or loss of memory in regard to family photographs.”

Gretchen Arnold has an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her website is www.gretchenarnold.com.

Estelle Dougier and her photograph of a small red plane on the windowsill (L’envol du Pere Noel) were selected for the juried exhibition “Nostalgia” at the Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery. That photograph, as well as the other images above, are from the series “Backyard.” About this body of work Estelle writes “[t]hese photographs were taken in the attic of an old house in the French countryside. Entering an attic is like ‘falling into nostalgia.’ In this small and confined space under the dust and spider webs, … dog-eared books, forgotten toys, abandoned furniture, and torn open boxes are resting. They are proof of time passing by and memories of vanished moments. This attic is like a childhood backyard, a memory album in three dimensions.” Estelle Dougier’s photograph is the cover image for the Nostalgia exhibition catalog.

Estelle Dougier is a fine-art photographer born in Paris. Her work has been exhibited in France, the U.K., the United States, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria and Belgium. She was selected as a finalist for Critical Mass 2009. Her website is www.estelledougier.com.

“Nostalgia” opened yesterday at the Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery and the artist reception is this Friday, April 9, from 5-7pm. It was a pleasure selecting work for this exhibition. Thank you to all the photographers who submitted their photographs.

Nostalgia
selections by Larissa Leclair
PhotoPlace Gallery
3 Park Street, Middlebury, Vermont
April 6-May 1, 2010

Artists Reception: April 9, 5-7pm

Photographers for the gallery exhibition: Geoffrey Agrons, Amber J. Anderson, Alexander Anisimov, Kristyna Archer, Gretchen Arnold, John Bergholm, Andrew Bovasso, Shelly Cohen, Meghan Cronrath, Raleigh Crowder Rodger, Shana D’Attilio, Adrienne Defendi, Joseph Deiss, Blake Dieters, Estelle Dougier, Polly Gaillard, Ken Gibson, Nancy Goodrich and Jill Mass, Sarah Hadley, Steffanie Halley, Brian Hollingsworth, Yoav Horesh, Emma Horning, Daniel Hughes, Hugh Jones, Amy Kwalwasser, Emma Leblanc, Clay Lipsky, Zachary Mazur, Caitlin McCaffrey, Carly Miller, Julianna Nagy, Jackson Nichols, Julia Paul, Emma Powell, Timothy Price, Nadia Sablin, Angelika Schilli, Zev Schmitz, Dennis Yermoshin.

Photographers for the on-line gallery: Iwan Bagus, Shelly Calton, Claudia Danielson, Gerry Davis, Gina de la Chesnaye, Lisa Fanning, Steve Genatossio, Stephen Hilger, Sarah Paz Hyde, Jeni Jeffrey, Jill Keech, Jonas Kulikauskas, Walter Landry, Nick Marshall, Marilyn Maxwell, Kathryn Mayo, Sonia Melnikova, Trevor Messersmith, Cynthia Miller, Sissel Myklbust, Allen Palmer, Nancy Ridenour, Eric Rippert, Anastasia Samoylova, Stefan Sappert, Virginia Saunders, Debora Schwedhelm, Peggy Shaw, Len Speier, Duane Stevens, Gayle Stevens, Athena Petra Tasiopoulos, Ira Wagner, Willie Wright, Zelda Zinn.

If you can’t make it to Vermont, the work is available online and the exhibition catalog, which features all 75 photographers, can be purchased through the Blurb bookstore.

Congratulations to all the photographers!