The Notion of Presence

By Suzanne Révy

There are certain photographs that resonate with me on a gut level. I sense a kinship with their creators and my response stands as testimony that we have related to one another in a way that is far more profound than, say, a conversation over coffee. Without consciously trying, photographers endow pictures with their own presence, and audiences intuit that spirit. It is this very notion of “presence” that guided juror Alexa Dilworth, publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University,  in making her selections for the Griffin Museum’s 26th Annual Juried Member’s Exhibition that is currently on view by appointment through August 30th, 2020. After a long absence from gallery and museum spaces, it was both a delight and a moving experience to commune with a variety of artists once again. 

Leslie Jean-Bart “The Prayer”2019 courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

The show features the work of sixty photographers plus an additional picture by Sarah Schorr selected as a “Director’s Prize.” Many of them are portraits, some feature the figure while others imply a human or animal presence. Leslie Jean-Bart’s Arthur Griffin Legacy Award winning image, “The Prayer” reveals the particular manner by which photography renders movement with two anonymous figures at the ocean’s edge. One is clad in pink and has almost completely vanished while the other, turbaned and dressed in black, appears to offer some kind of benediction while his robe flutters in the wind. Dilworth notes the tension between reality and imagination in the photograph, and how their presence is tenuous. 

Astrid Reischwitz “Inhertiance Portrait #1” 2019 courtesy of the artist, Griffin Museum of Photography and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Bruce Wilson “For Larry” 2020, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Dilworth bestowed the Griffin Award to Astrid Reischwitz for her touching diptych called “Inheritance: Portrait #1” which features a nighttime view of a prosaic bush next to a house alongside the portrait of an anguished elderly woman whose face is obscured by her hand. The exterior of the structure exudes loneliness while the figure’s gesture implies regret. Is she searching for connection to a past? Winner of the Richard’s Family Trust Award, Bruce Wilson’s “For Larry,” looks squarely at our present circumstance by depicting the contactless take-out option that is barely keeping restaurants afloat. It emphasizes our absence from the ordinary social ritual of dining out. 

Sarah Schorr “Ebb Tide” 2019, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Sally Bousquet “Through it All” 2019, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Cathy Cone “Shroud N.3” 2019 courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Nancy Nichols “Self-Portrait in Hospital Gown” 2019, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Dennis Geller “Mists of Time” 2019 courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

The exhibition opens with Sarah Schorr’s “Ebb Tide,” a refreshing ode to the human figure in water that sets the stage for the show. The swimming figure is obscured through refractions in the water which are reiterated in Sally Bousquet’s “Through it All” with hints of two visages behind frosted plastic sheeting and in Cathy Cone’s “Shroud #3” with its palimpsest view of two frog legs. Dilworth deftly punctuates the idea of presence with images that speak to absence. Nancy Nichols “Self-portrait in Hospital Gown” treads directly into the anonymity of illness with her face obscured by a riot of hydrangeas. Dennis Geller employs a negative film palette in “Mists of Time” to create a palpable sense of loneliness in a nameless metropolis.

Installation view (L-R) Joanne Chaus “Brooklyn” 2018, Sandra Klein “Eternal Dragonfly” 2019 and Karen Olsen “Powered Down” 2019, photographed by Suzanne Révy.

Installation view Nicholas Fedak II “Apparition” 2019 (top) Madge Evers “What Comes Around” 2019 (bottom) photographed by Suzanne Révy.

One of the unspoken pleasures of gallery viewing – and a tribute to this exhibition – is that it fosters dialog. On the back wall of the Griffin’s Main Gallery, images that relate visually or thematically are mounted side-by-side, creating visual cohesion throughout this diverse exhibit— always a challenge with large juried shows. For example, Joanne Chaus’ muted self-portrait titled “Brooklyn, 2018” is presented alongside Sandra Klein’s three-dimensional “Eternal Dragonfly” and Karen Olsen’s “Powered Down,” allowing for gesture, texture and palette to align three disparate images into an enticing repartée. Similarly, Nicholas Fedak II’s elusive “Apparition” shares an affinity with the abstraction of Madge Evers’ “What Comes Around.” 

Dilworth discovered an apt theme for this year. Our absences from public life and from one another have been challenging. The notion that the presence of art can assuage feelings of isolation by creating emotional connections is one of the most profound gifts of creative human endeavor. 

Melanie Walker from the series Songs for my Father: A Daughter’s (W)Reckoning courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Melanie Walker from the series Songs for my Father: A Daughter’s (W)Reckoning courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

In addition to the juried exhibition in the Main Gallery, the Griffin presents three solo shows in their smaller galleries. In the Atelier Gallery is Melanie Walker’s Song for my Father: A Daughter’s (W)Reckoning which she describes as a posthumous collaboration with her late father’s photographic archive. Walker repurposes the poorly cared for commercial negatives that her father made during his career as an advertising photographer. Fifty years later, the distressed and damaged negatives are the basis for Walker’s rich prints that convey the impermanent nature of the medium. In the Griffin Gallery is Lauren Ceike’s Sequin Fix which explores the nature of family memory and trauma through collections of household items gathered into small ziplock “drug bags.” In the Founder’s  and  Under Glass Galleries is Lacus Plasticus, a series of cyanotypes by Ryan Zoghlin who collects plastic pollutants that wash ashore on the beaches of Lake Michigan and uses them to create photograms. Presenting them as traditional prints or mounted into nautical portholes, Zoghlin asks, “has plastic replaced nature?”

Lauren Ceike from the series Sequin Fix courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Lauren Ceike from the series Sequin Fix courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Ryan Zoghlin from the series Lacus Plasticus courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Ryan Zoghlin from the series Lacus Plasticus courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

For more information and to schedule an appointment:
https://griffinmuseum.org