EXPOSURE 2023

By Elin Spring

Enter an oasis of subdued ambience and palette at the Photographic Resource Center’s “EXPOSURE 2023” exhibition, a medley of ten photographic portfolios selected by juror Shana Lopes, Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Despite being an un-themed competition, the images displayed invoke a delicate tension between absence and presence. Whether in B&W or color, and regardless of subject matter, the artists strike a contemplative mood through tonality and texture that imbues their work with absorbing layers of meaning. The work of Jimmie Allen, Amy Broderick, Nicholas Gaffney, Lei Han, Denise Laurinaitis, Yuang Li, Joetta Maue, Bruce Myren, Anh-Thuy Nguyen, and Kathryn Rodrigues will be on view in the VanDernoot Gallery inside Lesley’s University Hall (Cambridge, MA) every Friday to Sunday through September 17^th, 2023.

“What Moves” 2023, photographs, drawings & embroidery by Joetta Maue, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

Upon entering the gallery, Joetta Maue’s wall-sized, multi-media installation “What Moves” sets the tenor for the exhibition with a soothing ensemble of earth-toned photographs, drawings, and embroidery devoted to tracking the sun as it moves through everyday landscapes. Absent of people, their presence is felt everywhere. An emphasis on textures, from fine hair to crumpled bedding, creates a sense of comfort and nostalgia. Maue’s images simulate the oscillations of light and time, inviting viewers to slow their pace and be present in the moment. Likewise, Bruce Myren’s images are absent people but strongly infer personae. His stunning B&W photographs of American Elm trees reveal personalities with the same compassion that distinguishes the most moving portraits. Myren’s meticulous attention to environmental context enhances each character, concurrently drawing attention to geologic scale and our relationship with these stewards of the natural world.

“American Elm (view from the back porch)” 2023 by Bruce Myren, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“In the MET” 2023 by Yuang Li, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

Yuang Li pictures vacant but ordinarily busy spaces, such as airports and museums, utilizing the cool formality of architectural elements and wily signage to heighten a sense social presence. His images are weighted with a ubiquitous and sometimes alarming feeling of human urgency, need and longing. Longing is expressed through the lens of a personal migration story by Juror’s Award winner Anh-Thuy Nguyen.  A Vietnamese immigrant to America, Nguyen’s “Taste of a Memory” series, rendered in delicate, gold-toned salt prints on Bergger cot, materially tie her images to memories of a lost past. While “Nha Trang #31” solemnizes a woman performing traditional Vietnamese customs, poignant cameos of her native landscape expand on Nguyen’s deep yearning.

“Taste of a Memory: Nha Trang #31” 2022, gold-toned salt print on Bergger cot 320, by Anh-Thuy Nguyen, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

Feature Image: “Summer (Hammock)” 2021, by Nicholas Gaffney, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

PRC Choice Award winners Nicholas Gaffney (above and feature image) and Denise Laurinaitis wrestle with absence and presence utilizing the rich tonal qualities of B&W imagery. In his resonant “Summer” series, Gaffney finds surprises in outdoor scenes that seem poised between the memory and anticipation of human presence. An abandoned hammock he happened upon in the woods is suspended in mystery, beautifully echoing the shapes of surrounding trees. In her series “The Missing Photographs,” Denise Laurinaitis sensitively portrays a special period in her children’s lives. They are at the age of absent photographs from her own youth, the time following her father’s premature death. In commemorating the mundane and cacophonous moments of her children’s world with candor and empathy, Laurinaitis validates their and her own presence.

“In Flight” 2020, from The Missing Photographs series by Denise Laurinaitis, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

“Mangroves” 2020 by Amy Broderick, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

Amy Broderick, too, addresses the fleeting nature of childhood in her gem-like, intimate images from moments of family life. “Mangroves” is an apt analogy, as her young children clamor over old mangrove trees whose twisted roots offer a base for shelter and exploration. In her “Homesick” series, Kathryn Rodrigues juggles nostalgia and ambivalence. With a grounding in analog B&W methodologies, she explores the idea of boundaries, finding connections between internal and exterior spaces and struggling with feelings of intimacy and separation as a mother confined to her home during the Covid pandemic.

“I Could Feel Myself Growing” 2022, by Kathryn Rodrigues, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

“shanghai.2022.quarantine” 2022 by Lei Han, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

With a masterful interplay of light and shadow, Lei Han builds mood and atmosphere. The silky, subtle, color palette in his “Shanghai” series is quietly mesmerizing, evoking the dream-like impression of being present and absent at the same time. Documentary photographer Jimmie Allen turns his keen eye on the residents of small-town Missouri communities. At first glance, his images may invoke a feeling of nostalgia for an America lost to the past. However, by focusing on residents’ challenges and signifiers of their cultural values, he reveals a distinctive, current sense of place that puts a fine point on attributes that create cohesion or widen the polarizing gulf between Americans. Possessing both understanding and pointed honesty, Allen’s images place ideas of absence and presence into socioeconomic and political contexts.

“Charlie Getting a Haircut at John’s Barbershop, Republic, Missouri” 2022 by Jimmie Allen, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.

EXPOSURE 2023 encompasses way more than the contrasts between absence and presence. In fact, I think the strength of this exhibit’s ten portfolios is that they are photographically and psychologically layered, inviting viewers to ponder them on many levels. Compose your own narratives in this rich and rewarding exhibit. The work of artists Jimmie Allen, Amy Broderick, Nicholas Gaffney, Lei Han, Denise Laurinaitis, Yuang Li, Joetta Maue, Bruce Myren, Anh-Thuy Nguyen, and Kathryn Rodrigues will be on view in the VanDernoot Gallery inside Lesley’s University Hall (Cambridge, MA) every Friday to Sunday through September 17^th, 2023.

For more information, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/exposure-2023-the-27th-annual-prc-juried-members-exhibition/