| Afterimage Gallery has put together an exhibit featuring five photographers who have produced some very compelling portraits. The show consists of three prints each by Fran Forman of Massachusetts, Annette Elizabeth Fournet of Tennessee, R. J. Kern of Minnesota, Michael Massaia of New Jersey, and Craig Varjabedian of New Mexico. Each brings a unique contemporary vision to the genre, and the artists are profiled below. (Email us if you want to see larger images.) |
| Fran
Forman,
(b. 1945) who lives in Massachusetts, is presently a Resident Scholar
at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. She has
been in
numerous shows and has won several prestigious international awards and
honors
for her art. We are currently exhibiting one print from her inventive
series,
“Noir Portals 2018-2019.” Forman
describes a photograph as “a portal that can take you from one
perception of
reality to another. And the portal becomes a crossroad…and we can only
guess at
which direction they will take.” Also included in our show are two
photographs
from her series “Portraiture Redressed 2011-2018,” in which she
emulates the 17th
century Dutch masters. In the Netherlands during this period, one’s
dress was
determined by their social position. Her purpose is to “rectify and
alter this
arbitrary portrayal of one’s worth. Everyone…deserves the honor of
memorializing and recognition.” Links: other work, her website. |
| The
exceptionally creative photography of Annette
Elizabeth Fournet (b.1953) has been exhibited throughout the world
as well
as in the United States. She teaches photography in Memphis, Tennessee
and in
Prague, Czech Republic. In her work, “The Goddesses and Exceptional
Women
Series,” she uses vintage portraits of women, transforming them,
through the
use of digital collage, into mythological goddesses or women who have
made
important contributions to society. Her work is her way of reacting
against the
repressive attitudes towards women that she sees in the world
today. Link: her website. |
|
R.
J. Kern
(b. 1978) is an artist from Minnesota
who explains that his work “explores ideas of home, ancestry, and a
sense of
place through the interaction of people, animals, and cultural
landscapes.” His
series, “The Unchosen Ones, “is photographed at county-fair animal
contests,
which culminate at the Minnesota State Fair. Kern explains his theme
as, “One
isn’t a winner or loser, but a chooser. As
we look at them, they look back, allowing us to think
about how we
choose winners and the repercussions for the ones not chosen.” Images
from this series were published in the November, 2017 issue of National
Geographic. Link: his website. |
|
Michael
Massaia
(b. 1978) is an innovative photographer from New Jersey. He
uses a large-format view camera and makes his own beautiful split-toned
silver
prints. In reference to his series, “Deep in a Dream-Sheep
Meadow-Verticals,”
Massaia explains, “In 2014, I began capturing individuals and couples
laying in
Central Park’s Sheep Meadow and began printing them vertically and
backwards.
This seemed to heighten the mood of the subject, creating an almost
anti-gravity detachment and surrender from the chaos of the surrounding
city.
My intention with this project was to capture people in what I
considered to be
perfect unassuming poses…and wait for the moment when the subjects
appear to
completely surrender to their environment.”
Links: other
work, his website. |
|
Craig
Varjabedian
was born in Canada in 1957 and has lived in Santa Fe
for decades. He has been awarded various grants, one being from the
National
Endowment for the Arts. He has authored several books, and his work is
in many
private and public collections. He has been in numerous
one-person museum
shows. Rather than merely documenting
Native Americans, Varjabedian’s portraits include “cultural, familial
and
ceremonial regalia and objects, and personal interactions resulting
from such
portrait sessions.” His purpose is to “help them reassert their power
over how
they are represented to the rest of the world.” |
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