Update from the Director…
March 2023…
Women’s History Month… has come early with the sixth edition of our annual Behind the Lens series. This year’s exhibition is on view through March 10th and brings together six unrelated projects, from Emily Belz, Brooke Hammerle, Fruma Markowitz, Shelby Meyerhoff, Laurie Peek & Jean Schnell. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the artist talk on Zoom, we will be adding the video links to the exhibition webpage shortly. As we start 2023, we encourage you come to Providence to view this diverse presentation of ideas, with the hope everyone will find something in at least one of the projects to connect with.
for our 9th international Call for Entries are being prepared and will be posted on or before March 4th.
Workshop starting April 12th… with a focus on project development & strategies for success, this hybrid workshop is presented via Zoom with additional prerecorded content to be explored between sessions. This workshop serves as the entry point for our ongoing peer mentorship programs and runs April 12th through July 12th on Zoom. Details and registration is available on our website at Storytelling, Photo Essays and the Personal Project 2023 with David H. Wells
Join us in a Scavenger Hunt… In the run up to the exhibitions opening on March 16th we are launching a special Call for Entries in the form of a Scavenger Hunt to find Payphones… working or not. We are looking to draw on the talents of our Community to participate in this unique crowd sourced project to document and catalog, with your photographs, the remaining Payphones, or former sites of Payphones in the United States. The project is an initiative started by Eric Kunsman as an extension of his personal project, Felicific Calculus: Technology as a Social Marker of Race, Class, & Economics that will be opening here at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts on March 16th. Eric will be on hand to speak about his work and provide more details on the scavenger hunt.
A Call for Entry, Words Matter… is open to street photography, conceptual work and everything in-between with words found, created or imagined. Images submitted to this call for entry do not need to include words but should explore the idea of how words change how we feel, or how we perceive the world around us. We have launched this call early to give everyone time to to explore how the inclusion of words changes your photographs. Details below or on our website at Words Matter: Found, Created or Imagined
Members Wanted… We are a member supported, volunteer organization and your Membership comes with many benefits, including the opportunity to participate in our three annual member exhibitions. Don’t miss out… Included among the other member benefits is our monthly Print Share & Peer Review series. The next session is scheduled for March 8th, bring some prints to share and feel free to bring a friend or two…
Join us… as a Visitor or Member, visits to the gallery are free and new exhibitions open on the third Thursday of each month and I look forward to seeing you on March 16th as we launch our first crowd sourced exhibition project alongside a pair of very special solo exhibitions.
The gallery is open Thursdays – Saturdays Noon – 6:00pm or by appointment
Currently in the Gallery: through March 10th
Behind the Lens 2023: Everything is Different, or Six Degrees
For this sixth annual celebration of Women’s History month at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, we have selected six women artists, primarily from work viewed at portfolio reviews or entered in previous calls for entries, to present in this curated exhibition. Selections of work from Emily Belz, Brooke Hammerle, Fruma Markowitz, Shelby Meyerhoff, Laurie Peek & Jean Schnell present a diverse selection of ideas and approaches to photography. At first glance the work selected and the artists who made it appear to have little in common… on closer inspection, there are many points of connection..
Workshop – Starting April 12th
Storytelling, Photo Essays and the Personal Project 2023 with David H. Wells
A few seats are still available for our most popular workshop series… with a focus on project development & strategies for success, starting on March 8th. This hybrid workshop is the introduction to our mentorship program and is presented via Zoom with additional prerecorded content assigned to be explored independently between sessions. This primer on project development and visual storytelling leverages the power of the group, both in developing your own work and to learn how to critique work presented, in a positive and supportive environment. The schedule provides ample time to complete assignments and develop your work between the monthly sessions running through May on Zoom.
Next in the Galleries – Opening March 16th
Abandoned… two solo exhibitions focused on Payphones
For this unique presentation to explore the world we live in, we are bringing two together two solo exhibitions, one shot in color with an iPhone and the other shot on 120 film and presented in large scale Black & White prints. Collectively the exhibitions explore the same subject matter, public payphones, but they have different starting points, employ different approaches and arrive at different results
Amy Becker: Dead Ringers: Portraits of abandoned payphones
Amy explores and documents the remains of public payphones, a once vital technology as it fades into history, having been for the most part made obsolete by the rise of the cellphone.
Eric Kunsman: Felicific Calculus: Technology as a Social Marker of Race, Class, & Economics
Eric brings an ongoing project, started as a documentary project as it growing into a call for social activism to the gallery.“Felicific Calculus: a method of determining the rightness of an action by balancing the probable pleasures and pains that it would produce.” — Merriam Webster Dictionary
We are also helping Eric launch #Payphonemaps with the goal of creating a national map of Payphones.
#Payphonemaps: Scavenger Hunt
Open to photographs captured with any technology, from pinhole to cellphone cameras, and everything in between, are eligible to be submitted. Participation is free, but to be included in the map and exhibition, each payphone MUST be submitted with either the physical address or cross-streets, city, and zip code and if the Payphone is operational or not. The #Payphonemaps: Scavenger Hunt is an effort to crowd source Eric’s initiative and an invitation for you to enter your photographs into this unique gallery exhibition and online project. Starting in March and running through October, we will be curating a constantly updating exhibition from images submitted in our Streetside Gallery and all images will be added to the map of Payphones throughout the United States on a dedicated website with image credit provided to each photographer.
The #Payphonemaps: Scavenger Hunt
Entry is free, Enter as often as you want, One Payphone location per entry.
Submit your images here: https://tinyurl.com/Payphonemaps
David DeMelim and Eric Kunsman will juror the submissions adding images from #Payphonemap to the walls of RICPA starting in March 2023 and running through October 13th. All selected images will be printed for free utilizing HiTi Dye Sublimation printers and provided free for participating individuals. At the end of the exhibition, prints will be available for pick up in the gallery, or participants can pay to have their prints shipped. Otherwise, the prints will be archived as portfolio available for viewing, but not for sale at RICPA in Providence, RI.
#NewEnglandPayphones will also curate a separate collection for us to feature the Payphones in New England. This will also be presented at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts and will be published by BookSmart Studios, as limited addition Artist Book.
Full Details and Entry form for this free exhibition can be found at #Payphonemaps: Scavenger Hunt
Print Share:
Our next Print Share & Peer Review session is scheduled for March 8th.
These peer review sessions are open to anyone fully vaccinated, to share and comment on work with fellow members and enthusiasts. Bring your prints to this monthly event which is scheduled for the Second Wednesday of each month and starts at 6:30pm. Check the events section on our website for more information and updates.
Individual Portfolio/Project Reviews:
Individual feedback opportunities are available on an ongoing basis in four different formats for 2023. These review sessions can be used to preview new work, share ideas and explore future directions or projects in development. Appointments can be scheduled online for Zoom or in person sessions at www.riphotocenter.org/portfolio-reviews-and-consultations
Registration is open for our annual 20 minute individual Member review sessions.
We are also offering 45 minute one on one sessions open to the public via zoom or in person at the Gallery
New for 2022 we will also be offering “Lunch with the Director” for those interested in a more immersive conversations about your work and your goals. Lunch is included with these two hour more casual sessions. Questions can be directed to gallery@riphotocenter.org
Currently Available Online:
All of our exhibitions are available on the RICPA website, past exhibitions can be found here https://www.riphotocenter.org/category/exhibits/past
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