Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Show Announcement
Seeing Portland – 1970 to 1984
Photographs of a pre-technological, pre-gentrified place
Initiated by photographer Andy Graham's rediscovery of a set of transparencies from 1975 taken in the Kennedy Park housing development, the show brings together the work of Tom Brennan, C.C. Church, Andy Graham, Rose Marasco, Joe Muir, Mark Rockwood, Jeff Stevensen, Jay York and Todd Webb. Co-curated by Andy Graham, Anne Riesenberg and Keith Fitzgerald of Zero Station, the show opens on April 10 and runs through May 1 at Zero Station. Opening reception 5 – 8PM April 10th.
Curator's Statements
Seeing Portland – 1970 to 1984
Portland in the 1970s was a city on the brink of being reborn. Nestled between the misguided urban renewal of the 1960s and the boom years of the later 1980s it was a time of gestation and redefinition. A surprising number of young and talented photographers came of age using the city as subject matter for their creative explorations; documenting and making art. Gathered together for the first time this group of photographs expresses a pre-technological, pre-gentrified Portland in both aesthetic and architectural terms. More than mere nostalgic references, they deepen our awareness of time and place.
I remember years ago in the midst of winnowing my belongings before a move, coming across a favorite old flannel shirt that had belonged to an almost boyfriend. I was aware as I considered whether to toss or keep, that by throwing it away I was losing that link between the present and the past. Without the shirt it would be harder to remember, easier to forget, all of what it had meant to me to know that person - what it felt like to be me, holding his hand, walking a street in springtime, being 19, a bubble of hope in my chest pushing up from the inside, an impulse towards experience, towards discovery in every step, a lingering innocence. Looking at these photographs is like holding that shirt in my hands. So much floods in that is intangible, inaccessible without a sensory cue. Because they document Portland as it was, these images take us back to who we were when we saw it that way, and the fabric of our history is revealed, opens up like a box of treasures. Savor them and you savor what has come before, catching a glimpse of the mechanisms of memory as they build up and become the past.
If this is not the Portland of your past hopefully these images will help you get to know her more intimately, like hearing stories from a grandparent about what it was like to be young. Perhaps you can't quite grasp what they mean, but deep in your bones you know it has something to do with you.
Anne Riesenberg
Andy Graham’s Curator Statement
Greil Marcus’ phrase “the old weird America” was on my mind as I gathered images for this show, originally titled Portland in the Seventies. Portland, when people shopped on Congress St and the Old Port was derelict, had little culture and few aspirations. Urban renewal had knocked some buildings down and built highways through the city, but few people thought about what was being lost to the pressure of development and the unstoppable plan to push Portland into a new, prosperous future. Portland Landmarks focused on the integrity of West End mansions, not downtown or Munjoy Hill.
Part of the fun of this show is seeing the old buildings and the old places, seeing what remains, how it has changed and how it has remained the same. Please comment, append, reminisce, and enjoy. And be encouraged to record the commonplace in our city along with the unusual. None of us photographers expected the role that these images now have in recording the story of Portland.
Thomas Brennan's Statement, Technical Info, and Bio
I came down from Presque Isle in 1975 to attend the University of Maine at Portland Gorham. My teacher at what would be re-named USM was Richard Procopio, the model for my own teaching over the past 30 years. At the time that I took the three black and white photographs in this show I had been working with Juris Ubans on the third of his Library of Congress shows, a 50 print survey of Walker Evans' photographs from the 1930's. It is clear that Evans' approach to pictorial space was a principal preoccupation when I made these three photographs. To walk through the same spaces today it is striking to realize how the content (and documentary value) of the three images continues to change, as they become less of the present and more of the past.
The color photograph is dated 1978, taken with a Diana camera using Kodacolor film, scanned and printed on Crane paper.
C.C. Church's Bio, Titles and Technical Info, and Exhibit Lists
C.C. Church Bio
C.C. Church's photographs have long been admired for their aesthetic beauty and spiritual content. Berenice Abbott recognized his talent when she judged a group of several hundred photographs for an exhibit, "Photographing Maine." One of the few she selected was C.C.'s "Boy with Bird," a sensitive portrait of his young son gently holding a homing pigeon. Later, she asked him to live at her home in Blanchard, Maine, as her photographic assistant. While there he helped print her iconic images of New York, and the negatives for the Eugene Atget Portfolio. He became familiar with the artist and her life as they lingered over breakfast while the upstairs studio warmed on cold winter mornings.
Church is a native of Portland, Maine. His unique and personal vision is evident in all his works. His body of work captures his views of Portland, the vanishing rural Maine landscape and warm and personal nudes. His subjects, while easily identifiable, are merely familiar touchstones for the viewer. Church's vision transcends the obvious and ordinary and infuses his subject with mystery. Underneath lies the abstraction and technical ability that is never contrived or pretentious. They are exquisite works because of the artist's skill and wide-ranging knowledge of his craft. His art is enriched by his deep interest and familiarity with classic art, mythology, and culture. As a longtime devotee and reader of the books by James Joyce, he finds inspiration in the richness of Joyce’s language and imagery. Church's vision cannot be explained in words. He translates his feelings about life to his work. If the viewers linger, over time, they will see a world that he reveals to us.
Titles and Technical Information
322 Commercial Street, Spring 1974 (4x5 camera)
345 Cumberland Avenue, 1977 (8x10 camera)
Bartlett Radio, 181 Bracket Street, ca. 1970 (4x5 camera)
Century Tire Company, back of garage, Kennebec Street, 1978 (4x5 camera)
H. H. Hay Building, Congress Square, 1979 (8x10 camera)
Pawn shop (corner of Temple Street and Middle Street), 1973 (4x5 camera)
414 Fore Street, ca. 1970 (4x5 camera)
Maine Furniture & Storage Company, corner of Danforth Street and Maple Street, 1978 (4x5 Polaroid P/N film)
Lower Hay Building, Free and Middle Streets, 1977 (8x10 camera)
Left two: Zeitman brothers, center: unknown person, right: Bob the Barber
A. R. Wright Coal & Oil, Forest Avenue, ca. 1970 (4x5 camera)
Union Lunch sign on building on Temple Street or Union Street, 1973 (4x5 camera)
Looking up Silver Street toward Middle Street from Milk Street, 1978 (8x10 camera)
Building on lower Free Street, (“? ? Shack” on sign) 1977 (8x10 camera)
Monument Square, (Looking out the window of my 16 Monument Square studio.) 1978 (8x10 camera)
I use a tripod mounted 4x5 or 8x10 inch camera; although, the Longfellow Barber Shop may have been taken with a Speed Graphic hand-held 4x5 camera.
All photographs were taken with a small aperture - f 32. For photographs with people, the exposure was adjusted for faster shutter speed, at least 1/60 second.
Most of the photographs were taken using medium speed film, Kodak Plus-X, developed in Kodak D-76 or later with HC-110. For two photographs I used Polaroid 4x5 Positive/Negative film.
C. C. CHURCH
EXHIBITS:
1969 One-man: Gorham Art Gallery, Gorham College, Gorham, Maine
University of Maine, Orono, Maine
1970 One-man: Walker Art Museum, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H.
Wesleyan Hills Art Association, Middletown, Conn.
University of Maine at Portland, Portland, Maine
Westbrook College, Portland, Maine
Included in: Temple Beth El Art Festival, Portland, Maine
1971 One-man: State Street Church, Portland, Maine
Ten Oak Gallery, Springvale, Maine
Roberts Union Gallery, Colby College, Waterville, Maine
1972 One-man: Frost Gully Gallery, Freeport, Maine
Included in: Temple Beth El Art Festival, Portland, Maine
1973 Included in: “Photography Maine ‘73,” Maine State Museum, Augusta, Maine
1974 One-man: Ten Oak Gallery, Springvale, Maine
1975 Included in: “Photography Maine ‘75,” Colby College Museum, Maine
“Photovision ‘75 - New England Photographers”
Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Mass.
1978 One-man: “Photographers in Maine” series, Westbrook College, Portland
– other photographers in series: Todd Webb, Berenice Abbott.
“36 Polaroid Images,” Portland Public Library, Maine
1979 Included in: “25 Maine Photographers,” University of Maine, Orono, Maine
“Photo as Document,” California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
“Polaroid SX-70,” University of Southern Maine, Gorham, Maine
1980 One-man: Lewis Gallery, Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine
Included in: “Maine Photographers” Westbrook College, Portland, Maine
“Never Fail Image” The School of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, Mass.
1981 One-man: University of Maine, Orono, Maine
Included in: “All Maine Biennial,” Art Gallery, USM, Gorham, Maine
Portland School of Art Alumni Show –Best of Show Award
1982 One-man: Governor’s Exhibit - Hall of Flags, State House, Augusta, Maine
Three-man: with Andy Ford and Michael Rowell, “Photographs of Portland,”
Gorham Art Gallery, USM, Gorham, Maine
Included in: Juried show at the Walt Kuhn Gallery, Cape Neddick Park, Maine
“Some People Say We Look Like Sisters,” School of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
“Maine Festival of the Arts,” Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Selected and printed 125 photographs from the negative files (1935-1955) of Guy Gannet Publishing Co. for an exhibit: “People and Places of Portland” at the Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine
1983 One-man: Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, Maine
Included in: Portland School of Art Juried Alumni Show, Portland, Maine
Juried show at the Walt Kuhn Gallery, Cape Neddick Park, Maine
–First Prize - Color and B&W.
Two-man: with J. Thomas Higgins-painter, University of Maine at Farmington
1984 - 2004 On staff of Portland Press Herald, photo department
2000 Included in: “Photographing Maine 1840 –2000,” Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport
2004 Group Show: “Diversity,” Galeyrie Framing, Falmouth, Maine
2006 Included in: The Maine Photography Show, Boothbay Harbor, Maine
2008 Included in: “The Sands of Time,” L/A Arts Gallery 5, Lewiston, Maine.
The Maine Photography Show, Boothbay Harbor, Maine
First Prize: Photography, Bridgton Art in the Park, Bridgton, Maine
2009 Included in: “Figures and Portraits,” Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, Vermont
2010 Included in: “The Landscape,” Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, Vermont
COLLECTIONS:
Polaroid International Collection, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
University of Southern Maine, Gorham, Maine
Westbrook College, Portland, Maine
Various private collections
Andy Graham's Statement
Artist Statement
These images were all made one afternoon in early Spring, 1975. Influenced by my artist brother, Dan Graham, I went to Kennedy Park and Munjoy South, low-income housing complexes on Munjoy Hill, to make minimalist photographs with my Bronica S2A 2 ¼ camera on a tripod. Color photography was unaccepted in the art world, and the first significant color photography exhibit, William Eggleston at MOMA, was highly controversial in 1976. When I tried to make my ‘arty’ photos of the architecture, the kids hanging around kept saying “hey – take MY picture”. So I did. Rediscovering and finally printing these dusty images is enormously satisfying. I am transported back to my early days in Portland, and the innocence that was me at 23 and Portland in 1975.
Technical Info: Ektachrome, Bronica S2A, 60mm lens.
Andy Graham
Rose Marasco Artist Statement, Titles, Bio, and CV
Rose Marasco Photo Collages/Photomontages, 1981
In 1981, I was living on Pine Street in Portland (having moved here in 1979) about a block away from my current home. Then, everything was new to my eyes and by extension, my camera.
When I wasn’t teaching, I walked the streets photographing – first on the Western Prom, and then into the West End neighborhoods. I came home to my make shift darkroom and went to work. One night looking at 2 photos, (what became montage #1 Carleton Street), I remember thinking “they look like they would go together if I cut them.” I literally did just that, right then. I posted up on my studio wall, stared at it for a little bit, whoever came over checked it out, and within a few days I committed to making more. It was great fun. I didn’t plan, just shot intuitively. I made 2 sets of contact sheets (of these medium format negatives), cut one up and composed the pieces.
Here is what I wrote in 1982 when the work was exhibited at the Portland School of Art, Photo Gallery:
The perception of reality is more about what one brings to it than what is there. The making of photographs is more about what one takes from it than what is there.
What strikes me today and what is still of interest to me, is the notion of perception in a photography, and the way memory is linked and informs our perceptions. This, and what I call “ photo space ” have continued throughout my bodies of work and are very present in my current photographs.
For Seeing Portland: 1972-1984, I am exhibiting six of the twelve original one of a kind collages. Previously I exhibited the montages, though I have never had a favorite, and still do not. I am delighted to be included in this significant exhibition; and to bring this work back out into the dialogue, post-Photoshop.
Rose Marasco –Titles/Captions
2. Rose Marasco, Western Promenade /Eastern Promenade – Photo College, unique print from the Photomontage series, 1981-82
3. Rose Marasco, 87 Pine Street (front)– Photo College, unique print from the Photomontage series, 1981-82
4. Rose Marasco, 87 Pine Street (rear )– Photo College, unique print from the Photomontage series, 1981-82
5. Rose Marasco,Pine Street Row Houses Backyard – Photo College, unique print from the Photomontage series, 1981-82
6. Rose Marasco, Carroll and Brackett Street – Photo College, unique print from the Photomontage series, 1981-82
ROSE MARASCO - Biography
Rose Marasco’s photographs have been exhibited in significant solo and group exhibitions, most notably– at The Sarah Morthland Gallery, NYC; The Davis Museum, Wellesley College; The Farnsworth Museum of Art; The Portland Museum of Art; Bowdoin College Museum of Art; and, Smith College Museum of Art .
Public collections include: The Fogg Museum; The Davis Museum at Wellesley College; New York Public Library; and, National Museum of American History. Marasco’s work has been reviewed in, the New Yorker, New York, and, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, Art New England, and numerous times in The Portland Phoenix, and Maine Sunday Telegram.
ROSE MARASCO www.rosemarasco.com info@rosemarasco.com
selected: SOLO EXHIBITIONS
upcoming: 2010-11 Projections, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas
2010 New England Diary, Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, New York
2008 The Invented Photograph, Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France
2004-05 Domestic Objects: Past and Presence, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, Maine;
Southwest Harbor Public Library; University of Maine Museum of Art; University of Maine at Farmington
2003 Circles, Sarah Morthland Gallery, New York
2002 Open House: Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
2000 Leafing, Sarah Morthland Gallery, New York, New York
1998 New England Diary, Sarah Morthland Gallery, New York, New York
1995 Tender Buttons: Women’s Domestic Objects, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, MA
1992-93 Ritual and Community: The Maine Grange, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine; University of Maine
Presque Isle; University of Maine Farmington; University of Maine Machias: University of Southern Maine,
Gorham, Maine; University of Maine, Orono, Maine
1989 Perspectives: Religious Imagery, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
selected: GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 Seeing Portland: 1972-1984, Zero Station, Portland, Maine
2009 Photography In Maine, University of New England, Portland, Maine
2008 The New Recyclists, Whitney Art Works, Portland, Maine
2006 The Way Life Is, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
2005 The Long View: Selections from the Norma B. Marin Collection, University of Maine Museum of Art
2003 Photographing Undomesticated Interiors, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
2002 Past- Present-Future, 50 Year Anniversary Exhibit, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine
2001 Domestic Culture: Home in Visual Culture, Institute of Contemporary Art at MeCA, Portland, Maine
2000 Marasco & Underhill, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, New York
1999 Snapshot, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
1998 Still Lifes / Prints & Photographs, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York
1998 Memorable Histories And Historic Memories, Bowdoin College Museum, Brunswick, Maine
1993 Process and Product, Bromfield Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1992 Polaroid Exhibition, Level 3 Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1992 Exhibition of Photography, The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1989 Selections 4: Photokina ‘88, Polaroid International Exhibition, Cologne, Germany; Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, England: Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland; Kunstalle-Hamburg, Germany;
the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela
selected: FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS
2005 Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award, Santa Fe Center for Photography
2001-02 Open House Grant, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
1992 Exhibition of the Year, New England Historical Association, Worcester, Massachusetts
1990-92 Major Grant, Maine Humanities Council, Portland, Maine, for Ritual and Community:The Maine Grange
1990 Individual Artists Fellowship, Maine Arts Commission, Maine
1985 MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, New Hampshire
selected: CRITICAL RESPONSE
Maine Home + Design magazine, Portland, Maine, featured photographer, August, 2008
Photo District News magazine, New York, NY, “ The Portfolio Review Diaries: The Reviewer’s
Reflections” by Debra Klomp Ching, highlighted photographer, July, 2008
Quest France, “An American Photographer at The University- Brest ” May 3, 2008
Art New England, featured artist/interview by Lauren Fensterstock, Dec./Jan., 2005-06
Maine Sunday Telegram, “Marasco’s Photos Speak to Intimacy”, review by Philip Isaacson, February 22, 2004
The Portland Phoenix, “ A Colored Place,” cover story, exhibition review, by Chris Thompson, February 6, 2004
Maine Sunday Telegram, “Photographer Evokes Complexity from Everyday,” by Bob Keyes, February 1, 2004
Undomesticated Interiors, essays by Aprile Gallant and Mimi Hellman, Smith College Museum of Art, 2003
Dear Print Fan: A Festschrift for Marjorie B. Cohn, essay by Deborah Martin Kao, Not Unordered: Rose
Marasco’s Tender Buttons, Harvard University Art Museums, 2001
New York Resident, “West Side Story”, exhibition review by Chris MacLeod, November 6, 2000
Antique and The Arts Weekly, “Leafing”, exhibition review, Nov. 3, 2000
New York magazine, March 2, 1998, text and photograph
The New Yorker, “Goings On About Town,” Feb. 23, 1998, extended text
The New York Times, exhibition review by Margarett Loke, February 20, 1998
The Village Voice, exhibition review by Vince Aletti, February 4 -10, 1998
The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, by Lucy R. Lippard, 1997
The New Press, New York, New York
The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Endpaper,” May 26,1995, text and image
The Boston Sunday Globe, Exhibition review by Christine Temin, May 14,1995
Views: The Journal of Photography in New England, “Ritual and Community”, Vol. 13-4/14-1, Winter 1993
Art New England, “Ritual and Community” review by Shirley Jacks, June/July 1992
Maine Sunday Telegram, “Ritual and Community,” by Greg Gadberry, March 1, 1992
Maine Times, “Ritual and Community,” review by Edgar Allen Beem, Vol. 24, No. 23, March 13, 1992
Maine Sunday Telegram, “Featured Artists: Maine’s Year in the Arts,” December 31, 1989
Maine Times, “Exhibitions of the Year,” by Edgar Allen Beem, Vol. 22, No. 11, Dec. 15, 1989
Art New England, “Perspectives,” review by William David Barry, June 1989
selected: PUBLIC LECTURES
2009 University of New England “Photography in Maine” exhibition Gallery talk, Portland, Maine
2008 The Invented Photograph, Gallery talk, Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France
2008 École Supérieure d’Arts de Brest – ESAB Brest, France “The Photographs of Rose Marasco”
2005 Women in Photography: A Symposium, Portland Museum of Art
2004 Domestic Objects Symposium, in conjunction with exhibition, University of Southern Maine
Organized symposium with historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, poet Charles Simic, and art historian Kim Grant
2001 Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York, “Multiplicity and Simplicity”
2000 Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, Maine, Artists’ Gathering: Rose Marasco
1999 Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Light Conversations: Seminars with Contemporary Photographers
1999 Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, “Rose Marasco, Personal Work”
1998 Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, New York, “Rose Marasco, Personal Work”
1997 Mytilene Photographic Society, Lesvos, Greece, “Rose Marasco, Personal Work”
1997 Parsons School of Design, New York, New York, “Rose Marasco, Personal Work”
1996 Westbrook College, Portland, Maine, Todd Webb, Photographer in Context: A Symposium
1995 SALT Conference on Documentary Photography, Portland Museum of Art, “Rose Marasco, Personal Work”
1995 Davis Museum and Cultural Center, “Tender Buttons: Women’s Domestic Objects”
1992 New England Museum Association and Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, Albany, New York
Annual conference: Artists and the Community
1992 Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine, Gallery talk, Ritual and Community
1989 Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, Gallery talk, Religious Imagery
selected: PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, Maine
Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, Boston, Massachusetts
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Polaroid International Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The New York Public Library Photography Collection, New York, New York
The Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta, Maine
Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island
University of New England, Portland, Maine
University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine
current position: PROFESSOR OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE