Best Photo Picks November 2020

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Early recollections place this in an 1858 speech Abraham Lincoln delivered in Clinton, Illinois

By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy

Welcome to the seesaw that is November, 2020! At the dawn of a new era of hope for the United States, the corona virus pandemic has come roaring back, disrupting our swelling desire to gather with family and friends during the upcoming holidays. Whether you crave respite, inspiration or just a reason to leave the confines of your room, the photography shows in and around Boston this month are bright beacons along a foggy shore. We have listed our picks geographically for your convenience and strongly advise you to use the links before planning any visits, as hours and policies can change at any time.

SOWA – Boston’s South End Arts District

“Cushman Brook” 2012 from the series Fort Juniper by Bruce Myren, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Gallery Kayafas – Personal and cultural histories echo through three solo exhibits focusing on place: Bruce Myren’s Fort Juniper explores the solitude and lyric beauty expressed in the land leading from his childhood home in Amherst, MA, along the Mill River to poet Robert Francis’ home, Fort Juniper; Bill Franson’s Mason Dixon: American Fictions re-visits the contemporary farmlands, coal country, factory towns and suburban communities that border the line that once defined the separation between freedom and slavery for Black Americans; carried over in the Alcove Gallery, Vanessa Leroy’s there’s a place i want to take you presents her diptych prints and handcrafted book of cyanotypes printed on cloth, an inviting, sensual synergy that transforms a personal scrapbook of childhood memories into a flowing and remarkable narrative. On view through November 28th, 2020, Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11:00 am – 5:30pm.

To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/bruce-myren-fort-juniper-bill-franson-mason-dixon-vanessa-leroy-at-gallery-kayafas-boston/

For more information, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/

“Peachbottom, PA” 2019 from the series Mason-Dixon: American Fictions by Bill Franson, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

From the series and handmade cyanotype cloth book there’s a place I want to take you, 2019, by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

BOSTON PROPER

Elsa Dorfman, Me and My Camera, 1986. Dye diffusion photograph (Polaroid print). Gift of Elsa Dorfman in Honor of Harvey A. Silverglate. © Elsa Dorfman, 2013, all rights reserved (courtesy of MFA, Boston).

MFA, Boston – Elsa Dorfman: Me and My Camera highlights a selection of 20″x 24″ Polaroid self-portraits by the famed Cambridge portrait photographer, as well as a group of smaller B&W images from her landmark 1974 photobook Elsa’s Housebook: A Woman’s Photojournal. This autobiographical chronicle of Dorfman’s ebullient, fascinating life will be on view from November 11th, 2020 – January 9th, 2021. For more information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/elsa-dorfman-me-and-my-camera

Feature Image: “Wellfleet Spectral” 2018 by Fran Forman, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston.

Pucker Gallery – Fran Forman’s alchemy of influences, from the stirring light in Dutch paintings to the spare, reflective moods of Edward Hopper, echo the unsettling effects of Covid-19 cloaked in alluring stillness in the solo show Self-Illumination, on view from November 21st, 2020 – January 10th, 2021. For information about visiting the gallery and the virtual gatherings and events accompanying the exhibit, go to: https://www.puckergallery.com/upcoming

Edward Boches “Pandemic Day 49: A commuter outbound on the Red Line” from the series Somewhere along the Curve courtesy of the artist and Panopticon Gallery.

Panopticon Gallery – Initially launched as a website, Pandemic Boston: One Moment in Time, Six Photographers, collectively explored the empty streets and social isolation in Boston brought on by pandemic lockdown last spring. The conversation between the six photographers Edward Boches, Lou Jones, Margaret Lampert, Jeff Larason, Coco McCabe and Juan Murray moves offline to a physical venue at the Panopticon Gallery in Kenmore Square from November 24th through January 25th, 2021. For more information go to https://www.panopticongallery.com

Debi Cornwall “Dara Lam Village” 2017 from the series “Necessary Fictions” courtesy of the artist and Leica Gallery Boston

Leica Gallery, Boston – The Leica Women Foto Project was launched last year to promote “the expansion and diversity of inclusion in photography.” In their first year, they have chosen three women for a grant and the loan of a camera to further projects that address topical issues around identity and culture: Yana Paskova, Debi Cornwall (above) and Eva Woolridge. The exhibit has been extended, due to the pandemic-induced closure earlier this year. To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/leica-women-foto-project-yana-paskova-debi-cornwall-eva-woolridge/

For gallery/store hours and information, go to: https://leicagalleryboston.com/exhibitions/

CAMBRIDGE

From Unmasked: A Daily Search for Normal Life in Abnormal Times, the Pandemic Portrait Project by Mark Ostow, courtesy of the artist.

Bridge Gallery – Mark Ostow’s expansive and compelling Unmasked: A Daily Search for Normal Life in Abnormal Times is being displayed in a rotation of grids, viewable from the street at 5 Pemberton Street, Cambridge, through November 14th, 2020. A slide show is also viewable from the street Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. For more information, go to: https://www.bridge.photos/shows

THE BURBS

© Binh Danh from the series One Week’s Dead, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – Tours of Duty spans all of the Museum’s galleries, featuring solo shows by eight photographers: Todd Bradley: War Stories I Never Heard; Binh Danh: Military Foliage and One Week’s Dead (above); Susan Opton: Many Wars; David Pace/Stephen Wirtz, WIREPHOTO; William Betcher: War Games; Allison Stewart Bug Out Bag: The Commodification of American Fear; and D. Clarke Evans: Before They Are Gone: Portraits and Stories of World War II Veterans. All exhibits will be on view through December 6th, 2020. For information, including a schedule of virtual artist talks and events accompanying this exhibit, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/tours-of-duty/

The Griffin Museum of Photography is hosting a virtual Picturing The Future Weekend, kicking off on Friday, November 13th, 2020 with their annual FOCUS Awards, this year recognizing Robert Klein and Arnika Dawkins, continuing on Saturday, November 14th with a variety of Lectures and Artist Talks, and culminating on Sunday, November 15th at 3pm with a Live Auction featuring a mouth-watering selection of photographs – all to benefit the Griffin’s educational programs, exhibitions and operations. For information, registration, and tickets, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/event/picturing-the-future-weekend-save-dates/

Roy DeCarava “Graduation Day, 1949” Gelatin silver print, 9 9/16 x13 5/8 inches, Museum Purchase, 1951.29

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA – Recently re-opened to the public, the Addison boasts an embarrassment of riches from its deep photographic archives: an exhibit of Robert Frank’s The Americans through April 11th, 2021, a selection of photographs by Roy DeCarava (above) through January 3rd, 2021, An Incomplete History of Photography: 1860’s to 1960’s through February 21st, 2021, and photographs included in the multi-media exhibit To Make Visible: Art and Activism, 1980-2000. For information about these exhibits, the Museum’s restricted public hours and their pandemic rules and precautions, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/Exhibitions/Pages/exhibitions.aspx

Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM), Fitchburg, MA – FAM is showcasing recent acquisitions in a two-part exhibition called The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios featuring large prints in one section and a selection of portfolios in the second. Prints measuring up to six by eight feet offer a visually stimulating antidote to the small screen blues that have dominated our recent views of photography, featuring work by a global list of photographers alongside New England artists Laura McPhee and Brian Ulrich.  In addition, the Museum is presenting a selection of portfolios, from the classic black and whites of André Kertesz to the quirky street pictures of Ruben Natal-San Miguel and Steve Locke’s penetrating portfolio, “Family Pictures” which addresses the history of racism. The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios will be on view through June 6th, 2021.

To read our review of the exhibit, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/the-big-picture-giant-photographs-and-powerful-portfolios-at-fitchburg-art-museum/

For more information go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org

Danforth Art, Framingham State University – To honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment giving (white) women the right to vote, the Danforth presents Catherine Smith: A Cabinet of Curiosities, which includes her collection of nineteenth century photographs that were the basis of her book Women in Pants. The photographs will be presented in conversation with works from the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition will be on view through February 28th, 2021. For more information go to: https://danforth.framingham.edu

ROAD TRIP!

Newport Art Museum, Newport, R. I. – Andy Warhol: Big Shot focuses on the famed conceptual artist’s photography, specifically work made with Polaroid Big Shot and SX-70 cameras. Warhol’s masses of instant photographs served as a diary documenting friends and events, as inspiration for commercial and personal work, and as experiments in self-portraiture that forecast the popularity of today’s ubiquitous “selfies” on social media. Additionally, the exhibit brings together a selection of Warhol’s Polaroids with the final works they generated, along with some photo booth portraits and his rare, stitched photographs. On view in the Museum’s Cushing Building through December 20th, 2020.

To read our review of this show, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/andy-warhol-big-shot-at-newport-art-museum-newport-ri/

For more information, go to: https://newportartmuseum.org/exhibitions/warhol/

Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA), Providence R.I. – Back in 2018, photographers Ellen Feldman and Marky Kauffmann assembled Moved to Act!, a traveling exhibition and eventual book that featured images from the Women’s Marches of 2017, March for Our Lives, Standing Rock and Black Lives Matter protests. Now they have resurrected the show and included images from recent Black Lives Matter/Justice for George Floyd  protests, the Climate Strikes of 2019, and March For Science. Featuring the work of 41 photographers from all over the country, Moved To Act! will be on view in the gallery by appointment (as well as online) through  November 13th, 2020. For information about the exhibit, gallery hours, appointments and programming, go to: https://www.riphotocenter.org/moved-to-act-demonstrations-marches-political-actions/