“I have often wondered WHERE the studio is for me. Is it an actual location? A state of mind or attitude? An atmosphere? A home? A safe spot or a stressful, challenging one?
All of the above, at different times.” ~Jesseca Ferguson
By Elin Spring
It is nearly impossible to unlock any artist’s creative process. But it never stops us from trying. Whether we crave windows into motivation or interpretation, we seem endlessly fascinated by the mysterious components of ingenuity. Undoubtedly, it is a unique alchemy for each creator but how can we gain a deeper understanding? A clever approach in its own right, Creative Spaces: The Photographer’s Studio as Inspiration at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston investigates the spaces employed by artists in the process of expressing their visions. The exhibit draws work from the museum’s archives of 20th and 21st century photographers and will be on view through April 28th, 2024.
Jesseca Ferguson “In My Father’s House,” from the series In My Studio, 1992. Photograph, cyanotype, pinhole. Gift of Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund for Photography, 2001. Courtesy of MFA, Boston. Installation view, with apologies for reflections.
Olivia Parker “Blackbird Aviary” from the New Works by 10 Massachusetts Photographers portfolio, 1981. Photograph, gelatin silver print, selenium toned. Gift of the Photographic Resource Center, 1983. Courtesy of MFA, Boston.
Creative energy is irrepressible. What this exhibit demonstrates is the myriad manifestations of inventiveness in the ways that photographers use their spaces. The longest exhibit wall displays a delightful narrative arc of visual relationships, each playing off shapes and patterns in images on either side of it. Every photograph describes a type of “studio.” Jesseca Ferguson, Olivia Parker, and John O’Reilly’s fantastical still-life compositions recall the prop-filled boxes of Joseph Cornell.
Robert Cumming “Theatre for Two-Easy Analogies” 1978. Photograph, gelatin silver print. Museum purchase with funds donated by the National Endowment for the Arts and Richard L. Menschel, Béla T. Kalman, Judge & Mrs. Matthew Brown, Mildred S. Lee and Barbara M. Marshall, 1990. Courtesy of MFA, Boston. Installation view by Elin Spring, with apologies for reflections.
Others like Robert Cumming, Florence Henri, and Roger Ballen craft makeshift indoor and outdoor spaces. Utilizing analog cameras from pinhole to large format Polaroid, these artists’ studio arrangements highlight the tension between the real and the imagined by integrating objects that seem incongruous in scale or meaning. Their visual ploys offer clues into each photographer’s musings, whether somber or playful. Exhibit curator Karen Haas, Lane Senior Curator of Photographs, has provided lively wall texts – often including quotes from the photographers themselves – that further embellish insight.
Vik Muniz “Action Photo IV(after Hans Namuth” 1997. Photograph, chromogenic print. Museum purchase with funds donated by Barbara L. & Theodore B. Alfond, 2009. Courtesy of MFA, Boston. Installation view by Elin Spring, with apologies for reflections.
Duane Michals “René Magritte” 1965. Photograph, gelatin silver print. Polaroid Foundation Purchase Fund, 1975. Courtesy MFA, Boston.
Certain works in the exhibit riff on inspirations from earlier artists and eras. Vik Muniz, for example, employs chocolate syrup to interpret Hans Namuth’s 1950 photograph of painter Jackson Pollock at work, while Duane Michals pays a mirrored homage to René Magritte. Tara Sellios’ sumptuous still life of octopi is a disquieting rumination on mortality in the style of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish still-life painting. In disparate ways, each of these artist’s photographs questions the influence of former artistic expressions in shaping contemporary thought.
Feature Image: Tara Sellios “Untitled #3” from the Impulses series, 2012. Photographs, inkjet prints. Edwin E. Jack Fund and Ellen Kelleran Gardner Fund, 2020. Courtesy of MFA, Boston.
Abelardo Morell “Light Bulb” 1991, printed 1992. Photograph, gelatin silver print. Gift of the artist in memory of Bill Beckler, 1993. Courtesy Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC and MFA, Boston.
Delving into the mechanics of photography’s magical effects, some photographers use their studios to explore technique. Abelardo Morell’s photograph of a lightbulb describes the way a pinhole camera operates, while Constantin Brancusi experiments with the way a studio skylight ignites his famous bronze sculpture “Bird in Space.”
Nancy Lee Katz “Elliott Erwitt” 1993. Photograph, gelatin silver print. Gift of Michael S. Sachs, 2020. Courtesy of MFA, Boston. Installation view by Elin Spring, with apologies for reflections.
Tessa Frootko Gordon “The Modern Photo Studio, Grenada, West Indies, Christmas Eve” 2000. Photograph, dye destruction print (Cibachrome). Museum purchase with funds donated by Jeannette Kruger and Betty Morningstar, 2008. Courtesy of MFA, Boston. Installation view by Elin Spring, with apologies for reflections.
Creative Spaces offers many entrancing photographs, but some of my favorites have to be the ones of photographers. Nancy Lee Katz captures the joie de vivre of recently deceased master photographer Elliot Erwitt in her studio portrait of him holding a camera, surrounded by fanciful props. Tessa Frootko Gordon catches a Grenadian photographer in action as he weaves his Christmas magic during a color-saturated studio session with an infant.
Elsa Dorfman “Calibrating my studio floor for the camera. This is bellows extension 31. With Eric Harrington on May 27, 1987” 1987. Photograph, dye diffusion print (Polaroid). Gift of Elsa Dorfman, 2019. Courtesy of MFA, Boston. Installation view by Elin Spring, with apologies for reflections.
Rachel Perry “Lost in My Life (Fruit Stickers)” 2010. Photograph, pigment‑based inkjet print on paper mounted to Dibond. James N. Krebs Purchase Fund for 21st Century Photography. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Famous for her 20’x 24” Polaroid portraits, we peek behind the curtain as Elsa Dorfman calculates exposure settings, simultaneously exposing her inimitable buoyancy and passion for props. Rachel Perry’s ingenious self-portrait from her “Lost in My Life” series is an intricately detailed, immersive, tongue-in-cheek assessment of our culture of consumerism. Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s subtle trompe-l’oeil, “Darkroom Mirror Study,” puzzles and enchants in a brilliant trifecta: a studio self-portrait of an artist at work.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya “Darkroom Mirror Study” 2017. Photograph, digital inkjet print. Gift of Roberta R. and David M. Weinstein. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
A rare treat, Creative Spaces presents photographs that both define and transcend place, exploring a spectrum of artistic practices that help elucidate the creative process.
For more information about this exhibit, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/creative-spaces-the-photographers-studio-as-inspiration
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