Critical Eye

By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy

With the advent of smart phones, everyone has become a photographer – and by extension, a collector of pictures. Both the pictures we make and the ones we collect speak volumes about us. It is this premise that enticed Andrew Epstein, President of the Griffin Museum of Photography – and a veteran collector himself – to curate “Critical Eye.” This exceptional exhibit brings together a compelling assortment of photographs made before the digital age, self-selected by eleven New England individuals and families.

Solo exhibits in the Griffin’s smaller galleries by Aline Smithson, Justin Michael Emmanuel and Becky Behar also address photographic and family legacies, in disparate and affecting ways. All four shows will be on view through December 4th 2022.

Critical Eye features photographs created before the digital age. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Critical Eye features a tasty and eclectic gathering of photographs created utilizing analog techniques such as albumen, platinum palladium, tintype and gelatin silver. The selection of prints by eleven collectors (including Epstein) offers an engaging look into their philosophies about acquiring photographs, embellished by brief, enlightening statements.

Painted tintypes from the collection of John & Olivia Parker. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Some collectors favored displays of process-themed imagery, like John & Olivia Parker, whose quirky painted tintypes feature a “strange combination of light reflected from (usually) a person and the dressing up with paint..(that)..can range from clumsy to gorgeous and from sad to hilarious.” Alan Katz’s collection of cabinet cards is a dive into another century, when traveling photographers rode into towns across America on a documentary wave, picturing proud vendors posing before their tidy shops.

Cabinet cards from the collection of Allan Katz. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Portraits from the collection of exhibit curator Andrew Epstein. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Other collectors have chosen to share prints based on broad genres. Andrew Epstein’s selection focuses on candid environmental portraits while Jim Fitts’ display highlights dynamic human interactions and Gary Leopold’s medley incorporates elements of humor and double meaning.

From the collection of Jim Fitts. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

From the collection of Gary Leopold, which includes our Featured Image. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Eric & Nanny Almquist display landscape photographs spanning American history from prints of the early western frontier to those of the “New Topographics” in the 1970’s, while Jennifer & Ryck Lent present compelling interpretive landscapes incorporating the built environment.

From the collection of Eric & Nanny Almquist. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

From the collection of Ryck & Jennifer Lent. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Collectors like Joan & Robert Stein, Sandy & Les Nanberg, and Michael & Elizabeth Marcus selected photographs that emphasize mesmerizing compositional features, while Ronit & Bill Berkman gravitated to moody and emotionally complex prints. The collector’s choices are a thought-provoking lens on their enthusiasms, but it will come as no surprise that the real showstoppers here are the stunning photographs themselves, casting spells throughout the gallery.

Please note: The Griffin Museum is hosting an Online Discussion with renowned collector WM Hunt TONIGHT! Wednesday November 16, 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific

For more information about the talk and/or exhibit, go to:  https://griffinmuseum.org/show/criticaleye/#more-show-text

From the collection of Ronit & Bill Berkman. Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Feature Image: “Anamika Bhatnagar & Dennis Willette, BBC World News/ Access Hollywood, Thursday, October 2, 2003, 7-8 pm” from the Screen Lives series by Matthew Pillsbury, courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, NY. From the collection of Gary Leopold.

From the series Fugue States by Aline Smithson, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

In Fugue States, Aline Smithson grapples with the potential extinction of photographs in two parts. In the first part of this visually alluring and provocative series, she has wounded the emulsions of color negatives from her archive, then translated the negative image to print, emphasizing the very fragility of photography. In the roughly one hundred and seventy years of the medium’s existence, photographic materials have been constantly in flux and improvements in the ease of use often traded on the quality or permanence of an image. Smithson’s manipulations mourn the end of the photographic print, highlighting her fear that legacies will be lost when prints fade or disappear.

“Fugue State Revisited #24” by Aline Smithson, from the series Fugue States, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

In the second part of the Smithson’s series, she bemoans the failures of digital archives. After the crash of her own hard drive and the loss of some twenty year’s worth of film scans, she worked to recover the lost digital files. In the process, she discovered that many were corrupted. Incorporating these digital anomalies, she created new negatives, then translated the files into cyanotypes to confer a more permanent form to the digital detritus. Smithson’s mash up of methodologies is an apt expression of her layered questioning about the future of photography.

“Fugue States Redux #13” by Aline Smithson from the series Fugue States, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Allen” by Justin Michael Emmanuel from the series A Facefull of Mangoes, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Darien and Granny Joan” by Justin Michael Emmanuel from the series A Facefull of Mangoes, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Smithson notes that younger generations make a thousand times more pictures of their lives than previous generations, but rarely print them. Justin Michael Emmanuel, however, employs the stability and eternal quality of carefully crafted black and white prints to probe familial relationships in his series A Facefull of Mangoes. His family pictures are filled with a reverence for those he loves, and for the moments of tension or tenderness they share. His striking portrait of “Allen” shows a man who is by turns drained and determined by life and work, while “Darien and Granny Joan” speak to generational legacy or the sheer pleasure of a kiss between “Alex and Keekee (The Kiss).”  Emmanuel’s empathetic pictures reveal how family unity provides the strength to flourish in the face of systemic impediments that prevent so many Black families from prospering. His choice of traditional B&W photographs adds strength to his generational message of love, connection and legacy.

“Alex and Keekee (The Kiss)” by Justin Michael Emmanuel from the series A Facefull of Mangoes, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Illuminating the Archive: Call and Response” featuring Becky Behar (top) from the series The 50th Hour and Arthur Griffin. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

The legacy of Arthur Griffin is alive and well in a series of small gems made by Becky Behar in the Founders Gallery. Organized as a “call and response,” Behar selected several of Griffin’s photographs to pair with work from her ongoing series The 50th Hour. Behar’s staged photographs revel in motherhood and connection. In conversation with Griffin’s documentary pictures, they bring fresh meaning into the work of both photographers. For example, Griffin’s beach-goers digging sand into pails resonates humorously with Behar’s image of her daughter sitting in a painted tub.

“Illuminating the Archive: Call and Response” featuring Becky Behar (top) from the series The 50th Hour and Arthur Griffin. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

All four of the Griffin’s current exhibits address the idea of legacy from a variety of viewpoints. Taken together, they are a probing consideration of the state of photography.

For more information about the exhibits and associated programming, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org