Portfolio: Ruth Lohmann

Northern State was a working hospital from the early 1900's up until its closure in the early 1970's. The patients admitted during that time had various illnesses that were either misunderstood, or where the public didn't know what to do with them. Ever since the hospital's closing, the buildings have slowly been taken back by nature, but still show traces of its history, as well as new life blooming from the wear and tear of the buildings' structure.

This series reflects on how the buildings and surrounding areas of the once functioning hospital will forever be tied with the patients who lived there. All of them were diagnosed, treated, and then left to their own devices.

See the complete body of work here: https://www.ruthlohmann.com/

Panel Discussion: Small Talk Collective

We talk a lot about the importance of networking and collaborating with peers, and Small Talk Collective in Portland discussed that and many other things (the lack of ego and competition when women support women, mutual inspiration and accountability, and whether photographing is, at heart, a solitary activity) in their recent Brown Bag Panel at the Portland Art Museum.

The collective is made up of seven women, all fine art photographers, including AAU graduate professor Marico Fayre. Founded by Kristina Hruska in July, 2015, the group is celebrating one year of mutual support, peer critique, collaborative projects, and having a safe space to share their work and lives, especially in a perilous economic environment where defunding the arts is leading to closures of nonprofits, including that of the Newspace Center for Photography, the non-profit where the women originally met. 

We are happy to share some of their work here!

Briana Cerezo: My work explores the vulnerability of being seen. That comes through a few different threads including self-portraiture (you gain so much perspective being in front of the camera). I am a compassionate witness, recording someone’s vulnerability. It’s a privileged position for me to witness people being seen in portraits and I love sharing what I learned.  

Marico Fayre: I’m a visual thinker, and on my best days, a visual poet. My art explores personal metaphor, notions of home, mental illness, LGBTQ identity, and the search for community and belonging. It’s reflection and meditation and accountability and connection. Creating, for me, is an inherent part of being in the world and understanding myself and others.

Leslie Hickey: I look for symbols, something that explains the whole. Photography is also a compulsion; a desire to collect and keep things - I can’t keep a frescoed wall, a moment, a place - so I photograph it instead.

Kristina Hruska: My projects span many genres and subjects. Photography is church for me. My most current work is about healing through art.

Audra Osborne: My photography typically centers around my anxiety and how it affects the relationships I have with the people around me. It’s therapy; I’ve tried the pharmaceutical path and it didn’t work for me. Anxiety will always be there, but photography is a way of communicating what I’m feeling when I can’t put it into words. I need to work hands on - that’s why I like film and macrame and books and paper crafts. And cats.

Kelli Pennington: My work is an examined life, a way of being aware of how we frame our perception and perspective. I explore interpersonal relationships and the ever-changing dynamic of growing older in relationship to the people around you.

Jennifer Timmer Trail: I’m most interested in what I can communicate in a psychological and emotional level within a photograph. My work is mostly about relationships and also touches on a lot of nostalgia and the process of aging. I explore difficult topics, I break things down, but I’m not looking for healing.

Follow Small Talk on Instagram and check out more of their collaborations and individual project at smalltalkcollective.com

Exhibition & Interview: Jen Frase & Kalyn Hawkins

MFA graduates Jen Frase & Kalyn Hawkins took on a rarely approved subject for their thesis work - their children. Both created thesis portfolios of depth and beauty by opening their lives to critique and showing the strength and vulnerability of motherhood. Now their work is being shown in a Berkeley gallery and we asked them to share some of their process and friendship here. 

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

Where did you meet and why did you decide to work together on an exhibition?

Jen: We’ve never actually met in person but I consider her one of my dear friends! We struck up a friendship in an online class years ago, and kept in touch ever since. It’s amazing how much one person enhanced my graduate school experience. I think it’s so important to find your people!

Kalyn: Jen and I met halfway through the MFA program here at the Academy of Art University. We were both starting to work on our thesis projects and I think having our work share the same themes made us gravitate towards each other. That, and she’s just a wonderful person! She has an incredible balance between melancholy and joy in her images, as well as an unforced, natural feel to her shots that has always inspired me in my own work. She makes it look effortless. 

I began thinking about working with her when it became obvious how different our work looks and feels even though we both work with the same themes of motherhood and childhood. Presenting our work side by side is an amazing way to examine the identity of Mother. There is not one cookie cutter experience that we all share. The societal stereotype is that mothers are smiling and cookie-baking, and that raising children is only a joy. The uncanny truth is that there is pain, guilt, and fear mixed inside a mother as well. Childhood is also about skinned knees, tears, and shows us the transience of life—how quickly they grow up! It’s messy, funny, terrible, and joyful. I love that Jen and I approach the same ideas but in totally different ways. Our images look and feel so different, but both approaches are truthful. 

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

When did you start photographing children and why?

Jen: Honestly, I started photographing children when I had my own. I had a demanding corporate career and stopped working when I gave birth to twins. I stayed home with them and took out my camera and my passion started there. I had always loved photography but never like this. I studied and read and practiced all the time. I soon realized I wanted more than just to photograph my kids. I wanted to say more, to do more, to express more, etc, and that’s when I applied to the Academy of Art University.

Kalyn: I started photographing children once I became a mother. I wanted to capture every moment of childhood, and then I realized how much I loved photography (and how much I needed to learn!) Early on, I photographed my children because they were there and beautiful subjects. Much later, my thesis project was more about photographing my children because I was afraid they wouldn’t be there. The images are about life’s fragility but they are also a visual reassurance that life and my children are incredibly strong in spite of how seemingly delicate they appear.   

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

What format/process are you using for shooting and printing and how does this support your project?

Jen: My process isn’t too complex – I use a Canon 5D Mark III and two prime lenses – a 35mm f1.4 and an 85mm f1.2, simply to record the world around me. I use minimal post processing. My work is about my life, my kids, and unremarkable moments so the images don’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) altered too much. I have printed the work on Fuji Deep Matte paper and also Moab Entrada Bright White paper. Both of those papers are matte and rich and real – no luster and no texture. The papers feel like real life to me, so they support my concept. However, the most appropriate method of presentation for this work is a book. It’s essentially a story, and a book allowed me to present many, many images, interspersed with text to help tell my story, in a deeper, more detailed and more intimate way. I designed the book myself, and printed it through Paper Chase press. It is 158 pages long, 7” x 7” – small and beautiful.

Kalyn: I shoot with a Canon Mark II, and create digital negatives with Photoshop.  I print with the Vandyke Brown process on a very delicate kozo.  The choice to use an alternative process was easy—creating that nostalgic feeling with the brown tones comes across sincerer and even more truthful with the Vandykes.  However, actually printing with this process was a challenge with the dark tones of the images and chosen paper.  In the end, the earthy tones of the print, creating each print by hand, and the delicate yet strong paper creates even more meaning. 

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

Do you offer limited edition prints? If so, how many prints do you limit your editions to and how did you decide on that number? 

Jen: I sell prints but I don’t offer limited edition prints and that is because I see the work primarily as a book and want to focus on selling those. I only had 30 copies of the book printed, so those are technically limited edition. I have submitted the books to some larger publishers in hopes of mass-producing it one day, but even if that happens the original 30 books would still be considered the first run, signed by me, etc. I decided on 30 because it was a good middle ground number – relatively cost-effective, but I still received a significant volume discount. I had enough books to sell but I also didn’t want to have excess inventory. Plus I wanted to have the first run be “limited edition” so I didn’t want to produce too many.

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

Self-published book by Jen Frase

How important was your MFA at the Academy and what did you learn?

Jen: Wow, such a huge question. It was monumental to me. First of all, I learned a ton about photography – the technical side and the visual side. What makes a compelling image, visually, and how do I literally do that with my tools? But then I learned how photography can be so much more – it can be art. It can be my vessel for expressing whatever it is I want to say to the world. The degree was about putting that all together – making technically sound, visually compelling images that also had meaning. I’d also say the program was critical in helping me develop my personal style. With so much access to decent cameras out there, it’s more important than ever to have a personal style and to have something to say. The school encouraged that and taught me how important that will be.

Kalyn: My MFA at the Academy is very important in allowing me to create meaningful images. I began the program creating empty but beautiful shots of my children, and ended the program creating images of my children that hold so much more nuance of emotion and that are actually self-portraits in a way. I learned a lot in the program academically but just as much about myself too.

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

What steps did you take when approaching the gallery and securing a show?

Jen: I have a long-standing relationship with Rob Reiter, the wonderful owner of the Lightroom Gallery in Berkeley. He’s printed work for me for years, and has taught me so much. We had discussed doing a show with my thesis for a year or two. When I finally graduated, I approached Rob and pitched him the idea of doing a joint show with my work and Kalyn’s thesis. He loved her work and was excited to do a show featuring us both. It makes sense because both of us have the same theme in our work– motherhood and childhood, but the interesting part is that the images are quite different. Not only do they look really different visually, but the entire tone of our bodies of work is vastly different. It’s what I love about Kalyn and what I love about this show – we’re similar people with similar interests, but we balance each other out. I admire the things she does in her work that I don’t do (and can’t) and she’s often told me the same about my work.

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

What are you creating now?

Jen: I’ve been so busy! I am now working for a prominent San Francisco family photographer – Nicole Paulson Photography. I specialize in in-home storytelling family photo sessions. It’s very much my style and allows me to continue shooting in a way that I love! As for personal work, I have a couple ideas stewing that are quite different from my thesis that I hope to start on this summer. One is a still life project and one is turning some of my photography into greeting cards. I have always had a love for irreverent, random photographs, so along with my odd sense of humor, I’m hoping to create something different!

Finally, I’m also working on teaching! We’re looking into running workshops through Nicole Paulson Photography and I’m also in some discussions to teach and assist with some large online photo communities that offer classes. I’m just trying to gain experience, while keeping my eyes and ears open for opportunities!

Kalyn: Right now, I am chasing inspiration, shooting self-portraits and more still life, and working on the cyanotype process. I’m also building a children’s portraiture portfolio and will start my own portrait business very soon.

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

Kalyn Hawkins, from Thanatopsis

You can see Jen & Kalyn's exhibit at the LightRoom Gallery (2263 Fifth Street, Berkeley). The gallery is open Monday - Friday from 9-6 and the show will be up from July 17 - August 17. Come meet Jen in person at the opening reception on July 22 from 2-5!

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

Jen Frase, from Bluebirds

Portfolio: Seth Harwood

Night Owl

My work is reflective of the vehicular landscape that the American Midwest was built on. The highways that line the landscape are the livelihood of the small towns that litter rural America, creating a culture that is built around the road. Within every one of those small towns, no matter how small, there is a mechanics shop to keep traffic coming and going. It’s in one of those very shops that I grew up, the son of a mechanic. I would spend my formative days watching with a keen fascination as my father devoted his time to keeping these mechanical creatures alive. I slowly began to notice how each automobile seemed to take on it’s own personality, a nostalgic record of their journey, until they were inevitably deemed obsolete and thrown to the wayside.

This road culture is always shedding the old for the new, and in its wake, leaving these pockets of nostalgia, rust, and unrivaled stillness. It’s those pockets of the old and mundane, that I find my muse. Scenes so beautifully lost to time, that they feel almost cinematic in their presentation. It’s this facet of our rural landscape that I find so exhilarating; a landscape heavily saturated with run down automobiles, and neon lined motels. I am constantly chasing that sensation of mystic solitude and nostalgia that is so delicately littered along the vehicular landscape of the American Midwest.

See the completed body of work at: http://www.sethharwoodphotography.com/nightowl/

Portfolio: Steve Johnson

Connection

As humans, we have an inherent and deep longing to connect with others, those who have come before us, those around us, and those who will come after us.  We connect with them by way of what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious.  This is where our base, primal reality exists.  It is where I wish to share the experience I feel as I create my art.  I seek to explore the connection of being human by using the five sacred symbols expressed within my images.

These symbols, the circle, the square, the triangle, the spiral, and the cross, have a universality of meaning, and are universally recognized.  These symbols are the basis for my project, working in the unconscious mind to link us with the rest of humanity.

These shapes are found in common ways that we often do not notice or recognize, but they still influence and imprint on our psyche. I have photographed these shapes as I have seen them in the world around me.  I have combined them in layers, manipulating the light, contrast, and color of the original images in a variety of ways to create and enhance conscious and unconscious connections via the collective unconscious.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.”  - Marcel Proust

Photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Aaron Siskind, whose works exemplify this concept, inspire me.  I want to encourage this act, the act of seeing with new eyes.  My project, Connection, is truly about seeing anew, by looking within.

See the complete body of work at: https://www.lifedancephotography.com/abstracts

Portfolio: Bronwen Hazlett

Midlife and the Alchemy of my Individuation is a fine art, self-portrait and landscape series reassessing my past and actualizing my future.  This is illustrated through visual representation of the personal transformation phases in Philosophical Alchemy, a process of transforming and perfecting one’s soul.  The intent of this series is to encourage reflective thinking by the observer.

In the Nigredo phase, I deal with the dark matter and negative aspects of myself, illustrated by wearing black in my portraits.  During the Albedo phase, I wear white because I have broken down and banished negativity.  My soul has been perfected, I am self-aware, and not experiencing darkness anymore.  The final phase, Rubedo, is signified by wearing red, a result of becoming stable and aware of myself and surroundings.  I now know the secret and have the elixir for the rest of my life.

With the use of Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and inkjet transfers I build my images to narrate my story.  The blues are symbolic of my hopes, while the browns illustrate reality.  During the process of mixing and painting chemistry, I am freed from the confines of traditional photography and I can coerce chemical reactions, like my reactions between hopes colliding with the real world.  In short, one cannot find the secret to life and visualize it without experimentation.

See the full body of work at: http://www.bronwenphoto.com/

Portfolio: Lis McMahon

“Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners.” –William Shakespeare

Gardens is a Fine Art series that examines the intimate personal stories of women. This project is about the female experience, our struggles, societal expectations and our own ideals of womanhood. This series takes those ideas and beliefs and creates a garden that symbolizes each subject’s own personal story. The subjects are manipulated portraits of women turned into gardens utilizing artificial plants, flowers and makeup. The concept reflects on what this means to identity, our relationship to our own womanhood and the parallels that can be drawn between women and nature. These gardens are crafted using “florigraphy” and the Victorian era “Language of Flowers” so that each piece of the created garden has a specific meaning to each subject’s story. This creates dual layers of meaning through the symbolic use of the flora and fauna weaving the unique stories of each woman.

See the full body of work at: https://www.lismcmahonphotography.com/gardens