I’ve just returned from the 2015 Filter Photo Festival in Chicago, an experience I highly recommend, no matter which side of the review table you’re on. I was lucky enough to review portfolios with Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director and Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography just outside of Boston. Although the work we saw was just the tip of the iceberg, there was much to arouse our enthusiasm. In yesterday’s blogpost, I highlighted some of that work and, again today, I am happy to present several more of the photographers who impressed me with their remarkable talent.
“A Great Strange Dream” from the series Wild Garden of Childhood by Kathryn Oliver (courtesy of the artist).
Growing up may be hard to do, but it’s even harder to capture its fleeting and often imaginary essence in still imagery. Several photographers showed up at Filter Festival having done just that. Kathryn Oliver’s richly toned, haunting B&W imagery mines a fertile imaginary world with a measure of melancholy, a relishing of “the sweetness of sorrow” in her series “Wild Garden of Childhood” (above and feature image).
“Don’t Look at Me” from the series This Is Boy by Tytia Habing (courtesy of the artist).
In her series This Is Boy, Tytia Habing taps the vast emotional terrain of her young son as she celebrates mother nature. Her reverence for both is obvious as she tracks the universal ups and downs of childhood, watching her son taming his wild, pastural world in sensually lit, velvety B&W images.
“Bean Jumper” from the series This Is Boy by Tytia Habing (courtesy of the artist).
Heather Evans Smith explores the complex intertwinings of mothers and daughters in her autobiographical, sensitively staged self-portraits. Plumbing the depths of the evolution of identity, her series Seen Not Heard quietly alludes to the social and psychological expectations that daughters face growing up.
“Possession” from the series Seen Not Heard by Heather Evans Smith (courtesy of the artist).
“Cycle” from the series Seen Not Heard by Heather Evans Smith (courtesy of the artist).
In her series Allusions, Carol Erb’s meditative images focus on “the singular beauty of well-worn objects”, recalling token memories from her personal past in deliciously tactile, visually evocative language. Below is a composite of her images from this series.
From the series Allusions by Carol Erb (courtesy of the artist).
I saw several artists addressing existential questions through fantasy and abstraction. In her series Homesick: for the just out of reach, Danielle Voirin has converted landscapes into beautiful dystopias, invoking a feeling of disjointed longing.
From the series Homesick for the just out of reach, by Danielle Voirin (courtesy of the artist).
Justine Bianco’s large-scale, fabricated landscapes blur the lines between photography and painting, as well as science and art, as she constructs intricate artificial sets and utilizes selective focus to create expansive fantasy worlds.
Constructed landscape by Justine Bianco (courtesy of the artist).
In her series One Exposure, Karen Hanley Colbert grapples with both the deep questioning and fleeting thoughts around our “one (lifetime) chance to get things right” in abstract landscapes suggesting this universal but personal journey in her dreamlike, fluid imagery.
From the series One Exposure by Karen Hanley Colbert (courtesy of the artist).
Thank you again to all the artists who shared their work with me. You are an inspiration! I look forward to following your photographic careers and to seeing you at a future Filter Photo Festivals in Chicago. For more information on the Festival, go to: http://www.filterfestival.com/
Feature Image: “Vera and the pigs” from the series Wild Garden of Childhood by Kathryn Oliver (courtesy of the artist).
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