A Murmuration of Artists

By Suzanne Révy and Elin Spring

There is a strength in numbers. By all accounts, Judy Sherrod was a force for creativity. In early 2014 she invited artists to a retreat in Port Aransas, Texas located on Mustang Island near Corpus Cristi. She set the stage for “show and tell” and what she described as “photo labs,” short sessions to learn a variety of alternative techniques. These gatherings became an annual event and she dubbed them shootapalooza. Defined as a structure without shape like a murmuration, it fostered dialog and creative play. The result, Enlighten: a Murmuration of Artists is currently on view at the Griffin Museum of Photography through October 2nd, 2022. 

“Crow at Olson House” by Amanda Smith (upper left) “Palimpsest” by Fran Forman (lower left) and “Key” by Jennifer Shaw (right). Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.

These process-driven pictures are organized loosely around visual themes, and feature work by forty-eight artists. The images revel in otherworldly, whimsical or imaginary ideas that mine the subconscious, and are presented in carefully crafted prints employing a variety of analog or digital techniques. the exhibit opens with Fran Forman’s Palimpsest, a mixed media box featuring a vintage portrait with a lead pendulum, alongside Amanda Smith’s dreamlike Crow at Olson House and Jennifer Shaw’s Key with its heavenly lit wings of a dove. These works preview the rich exchange of ideas that are generated when artists disperse then converge in rhythmic murmuration. 

“Shadow #3” by Diane Fenster from the series Penumbral Epiphanies, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“After the Deluge” by Ky Lewis, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Disappearing Girl” by Ann Connor, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Sweetgrass” by Tami Bone, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Visual distressing with scratches or double exposures heighten a sense of secrecy in layered compositions by Diane Fenster, Ky Lewis and Ann Connor, whose young girl vanishes into an eerie forest. Surrealist dreams haunt the show in works by Tami Bone and Ann George. In others, geometry and abstraction mirror the daily pulse of the natural world, as in Donna Moore’s arc of the sun, Jackie Stoken’s northern lights reaching heavenward or the late Paula Riff’s fanciful shapes that echo either celestial bodies or possibly the virus we all fear.

“Counting Crows” by Ann George, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Solstice to Equinox” by Donna Moore, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Stairway to Heaven” by Jackie Stoken, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Snapped and Crackled” by Paula Riff, courtesy of the Estate of Paula Riff and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Many Moons Compilation” by Jane Fulton Alt, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Two large pieces anchor the show: Jane Fulton Alt’s mesmerizing meditation on the moon made with archival pigment prints and vintage metal music discs with an accompanying video and Ellie Ivanova’s abstracted composition on panty hose fabric that slowly reveals lips, chin and throat adorned with a beaded necklace on a quiet face, apparent as the viewer moves away from the print. It is unsettling and enticing. 

“Hidden Metrics ID 09” by Ellie Ivanova, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Beyond a Shadow, Fragility” by Kimberly Chiaris, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Grasping Some, 1-5” by Shari Trennert, cyanotypes on Hyacinth Watercolor paper. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.)

In 2015, Sherrod started World Cyanotype Day to commemorate one of the earliest and most basic forms of photographic printing, and several cyanotypes are featured throughout the show including Kimberly Chiaris’ Beyond a Shadow, Fragility and Shari Trennert Grasping Some 1-5 on Hyacinth watercolor paper. Most impressive, however, is a quilt comprised of cyanotype squares made by many of the participating artists to honor her creative contributions. Judy Sherrod passed away in 2017 and her legacy is firmly affixed on these gallery walls. I cannot help but think how the most productive and innovative art movements spring from the kinds of conversations, collaborations and discourse that Sherrod so deftly motivated. 

Cyanotype quilt assembled by the participating artists of Shootapalooza to honor Judy Sherrod. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

SX-70 Polaroid from “Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979” by Harvey Stein, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Two solo shows in the museum’s smaller galleries celebrate seeing through analog photography. Rachel Portesi (in the Griffin Atelier Gallery) and Harvey Stein (in the Griffin Gallery) both employ “instant” techniques, but their portrayals of human subjects are wildly and wonderfully different. Both exhibits will be on view through October 30th, 2022.

“Bush Head” 8″x 10″ Polaroid diptych from “Standing Still” by Rachel Portesi, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Rachel Portesi’s “Standing Still” acclaims the symbolic roles that a woman’s hair represents, dating from ancient mythologies to a modern concept of freedom and personal expression. She and her models collaborate in constructing elaborate hair sculptures that capture the many facets of womanhood during youth, motherhood and aging. Portesi first used instant Polaroid technology to make creamy, often saturated images and, when no longer available, started making wet plate collodion tintypes, “an even older, more finicky, time-consuming way of making ‘instant pictures’” that have a gritty, sensual feel. Later, she expanded further into film and 3-D imagery.

“Chandelier Hair” Polaroid grid from “Standing Still” by Rachel Portesi, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum.

Installation view of a wet plate collodion tintype diptych from “Standing Still”, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography. (Photo by Elin Spring)

Samples of all of these art forms, including some of the cameras used in their creation, are on view here, making this a truly engaging and interactive exhibit. In “Standing Still,” Portesi marries unique analog technologies and women’s myriad, sometimes conflicting roles in imaginative, graceful and metaphoric photographs.

Installation view of wet plate collodion tintypes from “Standing Still” by Rachel Portesi, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography. (Photo by Elin Spring)

SX-70 Polaroid from “Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979” by Harvey Stein, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

In “Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979,” veteran street photographer Harvey Stein employed an instant Polaroid SX-70 camera to document costumed Mardi Gras revelers. His interactions with subjects capitalized on their exultation in a role of their choosing, one that allowed them to unleash “a layered and hidden personal identity.” Mardi Gras continues to give the entire city of New Orleans an annual license to act out individual and collective fantasies. In 1979, the Polaroid SX-70 camera was recognizable and popular during a pre-digital era when people were not yet suspicious of being photographed.

SX-70 Polaroid from “Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979” by Harvey Stein, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Each of Stein’s portraits was made a few feet from his subject and his camera flash creates colorful, sharply defined visages that fill the frame like raucous cameo performances. Taken together, the collection forms a festive typology of transformations “into another reality of being.” In our dark times of political polarization, Stein’s joyous “Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979” provides a nostalgic reminder of our capacity for sharing in cultural celebrations.

SX-70 Polaroid from “Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979” by Harvey Stein, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

For more information: https://griffinmuseum.org