Outside In!

By Elin Spring

As any northerner can attest, winter is a long season. We yearn for light and warmth during the seemingly endless winter months. It was this entirely understandable quest that led Esther Pullman into a decade-long project photographing greenhouses and other places that plants are cultivated. Now her entrancing and immersive photographic panoramas are on view in a solo exhibit, “Green Places/ Green Spaces/ Greenhouses” at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, MA through June 16^th, 2019.

“Marshall’s Farm Stand Greenhouse: Storm, Fan, Cat, West Gloucester, MA, 2006” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

“Spring Growth, Horse Topiary, Commercial Grower, Pistoia, Italy, May 2000” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

“Shade House, Commercial Grower, Pistoia, Italy, 2000” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

Visiting greenhouses from Cape Ann to Italy, Pullman confirms the communal desire to draw the outside in, to sustain ourselves with natural surroundings. But her viewpoint is anything but natural. Rather than merely documenting, Pullman creates sweeping panoramic views of these nurturing oases with intentionally distorted wide angles, infinite focus, and the segmenting of scenes into (mostly) triptychs. We are invited to ponder an unusual perspective, a world of vast detail and expanded range.

“Former Estate Greenhouse, Red Shed, Glen Urquhart School, Beverly, MA, April 2000” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

“Seasonal Display House, Wellesley College Greenhouses, Wellesley, MA, 2002” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

“Private Estate, Doors, Wellesley, MA, June 2006” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

The exhibit features fourteen triptychs, along with pieces of five and six frames each. Pullman’s intriguing constructions draw attention to spatial arrangements, accentuating repeating patterns from the arching geometries of doors and windows to designs of light and shadow dancing within. Frames of black or white interact with her photographs accordingly, toggling our attention from individual image to the entirety in a delightful game that enlarges both viewpoint and appreciation. Because they are shot with film, the variation from sparkling sun to bleak overcast produces an exaggerated range of hues and emotions.

“Ceiling, Reynolda House Greenhouse, Winston-Salem, NC, 2007” AND “Entrance, Reynolda House Greenhouse, Winston-Salem, NC, 2007” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

“Allandale Farm Stand Greenhouse, Brookline, MA, October 2003” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA). Installation photo by Elin Spring

Pullman’s photographs are luscious, but not all describe fertile cocoons. In addition to shooting both locally and internationally, Pullman extends her vistas into different times of day and a variety of growth periods from quiescent to seedling to flowering and back again to empty spaces. This span of seasons echoes the repetition of natural cycles: day and night, renewal and decay, life and death. Although the project began intuitively, over time Pullman came to regard the greenhouse as “a metaphor for our ecologically imperiled planet as we contemplate an uncertain future.”

For hours, directions and more information about this exhibit, go to: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/exhibitions/green-placesgreen-spacesgreenhouses/

Feature Image: “Nasturtium Arch, Wellesley College Greenhouses, April 2000” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA).