Be It Ever So Humble

By Elin Spring

Snippets of other people’s lives flash through my backseat window as the family car glides toward home under the cloak of night. Illuminated spaces emit staccato clues as we pass by. Each dwelling seems to be calling for my eager animation, baiting me with that eerie blue television light, a funky lamp or the whisper of movement within. This childhood pastime has never left me and I know I am not alone. Two recently published books catapult this fascination with our inhabited spaces into absorbing inquests: Personal History by Sarah Malakoff (Kehrer Verlag, 2023) and Dune Shacks of Provincetown by Jane Paradise (Schiffer Publishing, 2022). In distinctive ways, each photographer expresses that enigmatic, powerful allure of places that say “home.”

“The Patriots” 2021, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Sarah Malakoff’s Personal History is an expedition into interior domestic spaces, a scavenger hunt that divulges the personal proclivities of its unseen inhabitants. Although each scene is staged, Malakoff populates her pictures only with items found within the home, honestly coming by peculiar associations of objects and décor. Her tightly framed, formal compositions are uniformly sharp, leaving the entire field open to scrutiny. Rather than employing selective focus to direct the gaze, Malakoff uses selective lighting, sculpting color, contrast and illumination to attract our attention to intriguing visual elements.

“Heads and Globes” 2020, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

This is also where curiosity and confusion collide. Malakoff’s considered placement of the comfortably familiar with the patently bizarre instigates a host of questions, from the psychology of collecting to the intent of both photographer and homeowner to larger questions of cultural identity and collective history. She invites viewers into a world bearing obvious emblems of privilege, itself a comment on the socioeconomics of consumerism. Highlighting individualism, she carefully cloaks signs of individual identity, effectively using highly specific material to guide our consideration of underlying meaning.

“Native American Chief” 2016, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Although her scenes seem deserted, the assembly of antiques, knick-knacks and souvenirs can set the mind reeling. Amateur paintings of a modest modern homestead and befeathered Native American Chief are mounted on wallpaper with cowboys taming horses on a western ranch. A carved wooden Arts & Crafts-style fireplace is encircled by imitation Egyptian sculptures and a sarcophagus that opens to reveal storage for CDs, the ceiling above ringed by modern string lighting. You cannot make this stuff up.

Ancient Egypt” 2021, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

“Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan” 2020, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Malakoff’s off-kilter, homey juxtaposition of articles is heightened by a clash of old and new, with story-telling wallpapers, laden draperies and frumpy upholstery sharing space with modern furniture, lighting and appliances. She injects both a reprieve and added insight with “Detail” pictures lifted from wallpaper, upholstery, rugs and even a kitschy souvenir plate of the New Jersey Turnpike. Ensnared by her vibrant and impeccable compositions, Malakoff’s Personal History can feel dystopic, like wandering into a funhouse and losing your bearings. To figure your way out, pay close attention to what you think you see.

“Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Detail” 2020, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

“Path to the Beach Backshore” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

Jane Paradise’s The Dune Shacks of Provincetown expounds on the meaning of a very specific, storied place on the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The National Register of Historic Places dryly proclaims, “The Peaked Hill Bars Historic District meets designation criteria…for its historical significance as a scenic destination sought by intellectuals, writers painters and other artists who found its dramatic landscape and solitary experience with nature inspirational to their work.” In exhilarating contrast, Paradise’s photographs are infused with the magical ambience of Cape light and buoyed by the musings of its shack inhabitants through the ages.

“Frenchies in Winter” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

Yes shacks, no exaggeration. Embodying the treasured qualities of endurance and impermanence, some of the nineteen remaining shacks were originally lifesaving huts in the late 1800’s but most were assembled out of shipwreck ruins and debris from 1920 – 1950. Since then, each has been restored, repaired and uniquely imprinted by the dwellers of these makeshift summer homes. And therein lies the accumulated significance of this remote site.

“Interior Margo Gelb” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

Many a photographer, painter and writer has committed the radiant light and sweeping landscapes of the Outer Cape to paper, from Thoreau to Hopper to Meyerowitz. They all seek the intangible. And like them, Paradise suffuses her images with honeyed light, untamed grandeur, and close communion with nature.

“Breaking Surf Backshore” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

Like the shack dwellers themselves, Paradise’s images always seek outdoor space. With a gratifying variety of viewpoints, she composes shining dunes, sea and sky, their shimmering echoes in shack windows, and the unimposing structures in their natural surroundings. She mirrors the ambient sense of balance in her images of intimate spaces – a waiting desk and chair bathed in light that breathes with possibility, windswept patterns in the sand, and humble countertops that disclose the rustic reality of no running water or electricity.

“The Desk at Rays” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

“Late Noon Sun CScape” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

Throughout the decade that she has devoted to photographing the dune shacks, Paradise has contemplated every angle, each hour, all seasons, and her imagery breathes with the profound spirituality of this place. Her pairing of evocative photographs and the stirring attributions of dune shack dwellers across time is a love letter that glows with the peace and inspiration that all visitors seem to realize here.

“Margo Gelb Moon” from The Dune Shacks of Provincetown (Schiffer Publishing, 2022) by Jane Paradise, courtesy of the artist, Alden Gallery, Provincetown and Galatea Fine Art, Boston.

In exceptional and diverse ways, Sarah Malakoff and Jane Paradise demonstrate how photorealism can bring to light who we are through the things and places we choose to surround us, be it ever so humble.

NOTE: Sarah Malakoff with be exhibiting work from Personal History at Anderson Yezerski Gallery in Boston from March 31st – May 6th, 2023. There will be a free, public Opening Reception with the artist on Friday, March 31st, 2023 from 5:00 – 8:00pm. For more information, go to:

https://andersonyezerski.com/upcoming/2023/3/31/rkkv6z7t5wtrdxrdji15dfvcgplcik

“Personal History”

Photographs by Sarah Malakoff

Essays by: Lisa Crossman and Jessica Roscio

Published by: Kehrer Verlag, 2023

PERSONAL HISTORY by Sarah Malakoff

“Dune Shacks of Provincetown”

Photographs by Jane Paradise

Essays by: Michael Mailer, Jane Paradise and Mildred Champlin

Published by: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2022

THE DUNE SHACKS OF PROVINCETOWN by Jane Paradise

Feature Image: “Archbishop” 2019, from the book Personal History (Kehrer Verlag, 2022) by Sarah Malakoff, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.