A different kind of juried member exhibition…
Featuring work from Members:
Diane Bennett, Richard Cohen, Linda Hammett Ory, Joni Lohr, Gail Samuelson and Kaya Sanan
One of three annual member exhibitions here at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, this Spotlight series was conceived as a way to present ideas that carry across a group of images and to shine a light on our members. This juried exhibition provides the selected members the opportunity to present a larger selection of images than a typical juried show. As a viewer I hope you enjoy this expanded look at the members featured and the different ways they assembled a selection of images to present an idea beyond a single frame.
This annual exhibition series provides an opportunity and a challenge to our members, to explore how photographs can work together… for some it is a new concept, for others it is an incentive to finish projects already in progress or share something new. I’m happy to provide this opportunity to present the work of our members and celebrate their ability, commitment and the time invested to realize these ongoing projects. For gallery visitors and members alike, I would encourage you to consider how each series of images alters your perception of the single image… Sequence, editing and storytelling across a series of images are all elements beyond the capture process that I encourage you all to explore and constantly re-examine.
A special thank you to all the members who submitted projects for consideration and to all our members for their ongoing support.
– David DeMelim,
Managing Director,
RI Center for Photographic Arts
Opening Reception: October 16th, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Exhibition: Thursday, October 16th thru Friday, November 14th
This exhibition features a selection of work from Members:
Diane Bennett, Richard Cohen, Linda Hammett Ory, Joni Lohr, Gail Samuelson and Kaya Sanan
From the Juror: Karen Haas
I am honored to have been invited to jury this year’s Spotlight Member Exhibition and thank director David DeMelim and all those RICPA members who submitted work on this occasion. Usually I am very strict about only choosing a single photograph by each artist in an exhibition, so this felt like a real luxury to know that all five pieces by each finalist would ultimately go on view in the gallery. It was remarkable to see the range of projects represented and to read the accompanying statements, the best of which greatly enhanced my experience of the images and understanding of the motivation behind them.
Much of this material was new to me and I am very glad to have been introduced to a number of photographers for the first time. In several cases, when the artist was known to me, their submission here had a very different look or approach than I expected—a good reminder of why a selection process like this can be beneficial to the juror, as well as the maker. As a curator, I try to never get complacent in thinking that I fully understand an individual’s work or can predict the direction their career will take in the future. I always appreciate having my eyes opened in new ways and being kept on my toes trying to identify not just what seems the strongest vision, but also highlighting those images that best represent the breadth and variety of the works submitted overall.
About the Juror: Karen Haas
Karen has been the Lane Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 2001, where she is responsible for a large collection of photographs by American modernists, Charles Sheeler, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Imogen Cunningham. The Lane Collection numbers more than 6,000 prints and ranges across the entire history of western photography. Her MFA activities include exhibitions, Faces in the Crowd: Street Photography; Ansel Adams in Our Time; Make Believe; (un)expected families; Charles Sheeler from Doylestown to Detroit; Imogen Cunningham: In Focus; Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott; Edward Weston: Leaves of Grass; and Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street.
She has recently co-authored a book, Reframing Photography: Multiple Histories; and her other publications include Edward Weston: The Early Years; An Enduring Vision: Photographs from the Lane Collection; Ansel Adams; and The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American Modernist.
Join us for an Opening Reception: October 16th, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
With work from Members:
Diane Bennett, Richard Cohen, Linda Hammett Ory, Joni Lohr, Gail Samuelson and Kaya Sanan
Diane Bennett
Artist Statement: Elastic Sidewalk
Street photography reminds me that ordinary life holds the promise of art and meaning. There are times when geometry, light and gesture converge, when street-level reality collides with some broader myth, and the public space stretches into something more. I try to record these moments. Although my style is more subconscious gestalt than documentary photography, I follow the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) guidelines – my images are not staged or materially manipulated beyond their in-camera capture.
– Diane Bennett
Biographical:
With or without a camera, Diane Bennett asks herself: Where is the emotion in these surroundings? This long-standing focus informs her B&W street photography.
Website: dianebennettphotography.com
Richard Cohen
Artist Statement: Silver Light
I’ve been fascinated by beaver bogs for a long time, in part because they are far off the beaten path. The surrounding forests were clear cut for fuel and farming almost 200 years ago, but because they are waterlogged, these bogs have changed little since they were first dammed up by beavers, hundreds or even thousands of years ago, but are now in danger of drying up. These creatures are responsible for a continuous turnover of trees and plants in a uniquely rich environment that supports themselves and other animals. Beavers have notoriously poor eyesight, and are thought to perceive only blue and yellow. My muted, duo-toned images imitate the beaver’s unique vision and are printed on the thinnest translucent Japanese gampi tissue to reflect the fragile, precious, and threatened bog environment. The prints are backed with metallic leaf, so that the light diffuses through the delicate paper, mirroring the silver light that I experienced in beaver bogs on many early mornings.
– Richard Cohen
Biographical:
Richard Alan Cohen is a New England-based conceptual landscape photographer who transitioned from a career in medical research. He finds that the thrill of discovery as well as the imagination and creativity involved in developing a concept, are very similar in the two careers, with many of the same rewards. Richard has exhibited his photographs in many solo and group shows at venues including the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Photographic Gallery San Miguel de Allende, Kingman Gallery, and Five Points Gallery. He is represented by Kingman Gallery (Deer Isle, ME), and Zonagrafica (San Miguel Allende, MX).
Website: www.richardalancohen.com
Linda Hammett Ory
Artist Statement:
With her photos, Linda aims to create a sense of place and maybe inspire a longing to be somewhere that you, too, can find if you set out for a meander. Sometimes the single image is enough. At others, multiple panels create a more expanded view of place. An occasional figure in the frame invites you to imagine yourself there.
In all her work about nature, Linda’s intention is to share those moments of peace she finds in the quiet beauty of New England’s landscape, offering respite from our anxious times.
Biographical:
Linda Hammett Ory grew up primarily in the deep South where her favorite pastimes took her into the woods, the local waters, or vacant lots where she imagined herself an explorer. Linda has now lived in New England for over 30 years, and her childhood love of the natural world is her strongest photographic inspiration today.
Instagram: @LindaHammettOry
Joni Lohr
Artist Statement: Abandoned Mill, Bellows Falls, Vermont
I am a visual storyteller who is deeply compassionate about the people and places in my world. My photographs are a legacy, my way to document and preserve moments that will never happen again, to bear witness to what has existed and will, ultimately, disappear forever. I am always observing, always searching for a strong statement of the changing human experience that I can capture and share.
Stepping into an abandoned structure brings a sense of adventure tinged with melancholy…
I sense the spirit of these places, magic totems that resist the rust and rot of their circumstances, and I am moved to document their stories. I look beyond the inevitable ruin of these buildings to honor the memory and legacy of those who went before, to reflect upon our fleeting presence in the universe, and, hopefully, to create meaning out of that experience.
– Joni Lohr
Biographical:
Joni Lohr is an award-winning photographer and visual storyteller whose work captures the quiet poetry of abandoned spaces and urban landscapes. With a deep sense of place and emotion, her images invite viewers into abandoned and forgotten worlds, evoking a sense of presence and wonder. Joni’s photography goes beyond what is seen—it tells stories that resonate. Her goal is to share this lost world in a way that draws others in, making them feel as though they are truly there.
My love of photography came from my dad who always recorded our major family events and trips. When I was little, Dad had a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, a square, black Bakelite camera, and because it was indestructible, he let me use it. I snapped pictures of my friends in my Detroit neighborhood and recorded my adventures at camp; in high school and college, I took pictures with my trusty Kodak Instamatic. The photos weren’t technically advanced, but they were in focus (mostly), and I loved having a visual record of the people and events in my life. Even then, I loved telling stories visually.
Lohr’s work has been exhibited at the Morini Gallery, the Charles Fine Arts Gallery, Menino Art Center, TIL Wave Gallery, Gallery 160, UForge Gallery, Amazing Things Art Center, Fusco & Four Modern, the South Short Art Center, the Beacon Gallery, Galatea Fine Art Gallery, Bromfield Gallery, Cambridge Art Association, Plymouth Artists Association, Hopkinton Center for the Arts, the Artists Group of Charlestown, Plymouth Center for the Arts, Attleboro Art Museum, Photographic Resource Center, the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Art, and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Website: jonilohr.com
Gail Samuelson
Artist Statement: Jude
My grandson Jude was born with congenital midline defects that made breathing difficult and eventually impossible. He died after living and being loved for 109 days in the NICU at Boston Children’s Hospital. These photographs belong to my visual journal from that time. Observing light, shadows, patterns in nature, and traces left behind, I made photographs that combined my feelings of longing with the beauty I noticed while walking. I printed in Black and White to emphasize form. The photographer Robert Adams, writes how form brings hope: “Form helps us confront our worst fear: the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning.” Jude’s brief life taught me to appreciate and take better care of my own.
– Gail Samuelson
Biographical:
Gail Samuelson lives and photographs in a small rural town southwest of Boston and on Cape Cod. Surrounded by protected forest and wetlands, she is drawn to the changing light and how it affects her sense of home, the landscape, and family life. Trained to make photographs through a microscope, she now uses a camera to examine and capture details of everyday moments. Often closing in tight on her subjects, she distills and intensifies their form and meaning to unveil underlying emotional qualities. Gail’s photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries, including the Danforth Museum, the Griffin Museum of Photography, Cassilhaus, PhotoPlace Gallery, the Davis Orton Gallery, and in The Yellow Rose Project. Her work is held in the permanent collections of Analysis Group, the Danforth Museum, and Cassilhaus in North Carolina. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Website: gailsamuelson.com
Kaya Sanan
Artist Statement: Momentum
Most of my subjects are ordinary humans with ordinary features that have tremendous momentum as they go from point A to point B. I am interested in exploring what they are feeling and who they are as they flow between those points. Although all have their public faces, it is the tiny insignificant details that reveal the person in front of and behind the lens. In a way, I think of this series, Momentum, as self-portraits. I try abstracting the rest of the world flowing in the opposite direction, purely with the motion of the camera. Sometimes it works
Biographical:
Kaya Sanan photographs to discover what a photograph might reveal about a human being that is hard to see when life is flowing without abstraction. He has studied with John Lueders-Booth, Barbara Norfleet, Ann Wilkes Tucker and Arno Minkkinen in college as he majored in Biochemistry and almost minored in Visual & Environmental Studies. Later, chemistry of humans was more interesting to him than molecules. Often piggybacking with his multimedia projects, he likes photographing as he explores new countries, or observes life slowly unfold in New York City, where he lives.
Website: kayasanan.com
The RI Center for Photographic Arts, RICPA 118 N. Main St. Providence, RI 02903
Located in the heart of Providence, RICPA was founded to inspire creative development and provide opportunities to engage with the community through exhibitions, education, publication, and mutual support.
RICPA exists to create a diverse and supportive community for individuals interested in learning or working in the Photographic Arts. We strive to provide an environment conducive to the free exchange of ideas in an open and cooperative space. Members should share a passion for creating, appreciating, or learning about all forms of photo-based media. We work to provide a platform for artistic expression, that fosters dialogue and drives innovation in the photographic arts.
We are member supported, the first step to membership is registration – https://www.riphotocenter.org/registration Details on membership options can be found at https://www.riphotocenter.org/membership-info
The Gallery at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts is a member of Gallery Night Providence https://www.gallerynight.org
Questions: Contact gallery@riphotocenter.org To learn about other RICPA exhibits and programs, visit https://www.riphotocenter.org
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