THE ENVIRONMENT & SOCIAL ACTIVISM - Morgan Post > EXHIBITION #2
EXHIBITION #2
HEATWAVE by Sandy Hill
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Sandy Hill says, "This body of work was created from two bases. The first was inspiration upon looking down on our earth home from a seemingly suspended moment in time while hurtling along in a cylinder far above any drama occurring below. I found myself engrossed with questions as to what unfathomable forces created the various landforms that slid by. The beauty unrolling
beneath us never grows old for me, as I am given an opportunity to appreciate the amazing diversity of the land, and nature’s as well as man’s impact on it.
The second moment of creation occurred during the summer of 2017 as I paused to look at the weather report on television, marveling at the brightly hued maps
displaying many high temperatures across the country. The beauty of the colors belied the discomfiting facts they represented as our globe grows even hotter. I
found myself in front of the computer editing photographs and in a moment of frustration pushing the limits of the aerial images with color, contrast and saturation.
These images pulse with the emotion of my realization of how very much we have to lose if our kind does not wake up from this delirium and make a change.
Treading the line between what is and what may be, my work attempts to illustrate the very real sense of surreality that I experience while considering the forecast
for our planet."
Sandy Hill received a Bachelor’s Degree in Narrative Documentary Editorial Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Since then she has successfully worked as an award-winning news photographer for daily papers and a news wire service in the greater Boston area. More recently, she has has begun to explore creating images free from the constraints of documenting reality that are required by photojournalism and delving into digital manipulation. The change unleashed new creativity and allowed her to emphasize the visual manipulation of her subject matter while at the same time inviting the viewer to consider what it represents.
Her work has appeared in several juried exhibitions including the galleries South x Southeast (2018), The Curated Fridge and The Griffin Museum (2019).
She also has had work appear in juried exhibits at Rochester Institute of Technology and has several pieces included the College Photographer of the Year collection at the University of Missouri.
www.sandyhillphoto.com
beneath us never grows old for me, as I am given an opportunity to appreciate the amazing diversity of the land, and nature’s as well as man’s impact on it.
The second moment of creation occurred during the summer of 2017 as I paused to look at the weather report on television, marveling at the brightly hued maps
displaying many high temperatures across the country. The beauty of the colors belied the discomfiting facts they represented as our globe grows even hotter. I
found myself in front of the computer editing photographs and in a moment of frustration pushing the limits of the aerial images with color, contrast and saturation.
These images pulse with the emotion of my realization of how very much we have to lose if our kind does not wake up from this delirium and make a change.
Treading the line between what is and what may be, my work attempts to illustrate the very real sense of surreality that I experience while considering the forecast
for our planet."
Sandy Hill received a Bachelor’s Degree in Narrative Documentary Editorial Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Since then she has successfully worked as an award-winning news photographer for daily papers and a news wire service in the greater Boston area. More recently, she has has begun to explore creating images free from the constraints of documenting reality that are required by photojournalism and delving into digital manipulation. The change unleashed new creativity and allowed her to emphasize the visual manipulation of her subject matter while at the same time inviting the viewer to consider what it represents.
Her work has appeared in several juried exhibitions including the galleries South x Southeast (2018), The Curated Fridge and The Griffin Museum (2019).
She also has had work appear in juried exhibits at Rochester Institute of Technology and has several pieces included the College Photographer of the Year collection at the University of Missouri.
www.sandyhillphoto.com
LINE DRAWINGS by Sandy Hill
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PINK PLANET by Sandy Hill
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CEDAR MOUNTAIN TROUGH 1 UTAH by Scott Durka
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Scott Durka says, "Modernism along with many other ideologies have created a separation between humans and nature. My work is concerned with the mentality that has formed from this imposed separation. Recently, I have been focusing on human’s interactions and relationships to their immediate landscapes, specifically in the state of Utah. Through the use of various image making processes and bookmaking, I aim to challenge ecological thought by examining contemporary western perspectives of land use. Where does the contemporary human fit into nature, morally, physically, and emotionally? What are the new ecologies that are being created by this mentality of the past?
Artist statement for photo series:
It Runs Here and There, is a photographic series concerned with the disconnect people have with their immediate landscapes, specifically systems of water control in Utah. About 85% of the water supply goes to the agricultural industry. Being the second driest, and one of the fastest growing states, the demand for water is only increasing, so how will the mentality of the past affect the contemporary?
This series was motivated by my move to Salt Lake City from Cleveland, Ohio. I couldn’t ignore my neighbors’ obsession with green grass in the desert. Growing up Northeastern Ohio, I’m conditioned to expect overcast days and the sight of countless shades of green. It took my eyes some time to adjust to the sun and new palette of ochre and umber, but never to the contrast of endless green lawns. The concept of residential sprinkler systems was foreign to me, so I began researching water to try to understand the mentality of all my new neighbors.
“Use it or lose it,” is the mentality of water use in the American West. This is the foundation of many of the problems. For this series, I captured images of remote alterations to the landscape that have been created to control water, or are affected by the control of water. These landscapes are disconnected from most of the residents. It’s this disconnection that I find most important. We have been severed from the landscape, somehow removing ourselves from the management of a vital component of life."
Born in 1985, in Cleveland, Ohio. His work explores land use and the human motive. Through the use of the photographic image and bookmaking, his work challenges ecological thought, examining contemporary western perspectives of land use.
He received a BSS in filmmaking and creative writing from Ohio University, and an MFA from New Hampshire Institute of Art. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and teaches art in the Tooele Valley.
His work has been shown both nationally and internationally, and has been in various publications. For his recent work, he has been creating short artist’s books exploring the new ecologies of the state of Utah, focusing on the topics of overdevelopment, ecological grief, and environmental degradation.
Recent group shows:
Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Zukunftsvisionen, Gorlitz, Germany
The Face of Climate Change, Cottonwood Gallery, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Water, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, Vermont
Framed: Landscape Photography, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Water, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
Recent publications:
7th International Photography Annual, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
www.scottdurka.com
Artist statement for photo series:
It Runs Here and There, is a photographic series concerned with the disconnect people have with their immediate landscapes, specifically systems of water control in Utah. About 85% of the water supply goes to the agricultural industry. Being the second driest, and one of the fastest growing states, the demand for water is only increasing, so how will the mentality of the past affect the contemporary?
This series was motivated by my move to Salt Lake City from Cleveland, Ohio. I couldn’t ignore my neighbors’ obsession with green grass in the desert. Growing up Northeastern Ohio, I’m conditioned to expect overcast days and the sight of countless shades of green. It took my eyes some time to adjust to the sun and new palette of ochre and umber, but never to the contrast of endless green lawns. The concept of residential sprinkler systems was foreign to me, so I began researching water to try to understand the mentality of all my new neighbors.
“Use it or lose it,” is the mentality of water use in the American West. This is the foundation of many of the problems. For this series, I captured images of remote alterations to the landscape that have been created to control water, or are affected by the control of water. These landscapes are disconnected from most of the residents. It’s this disconnection that I find most important. We have been severed from the landscape, somehow removing ourselves from the management of a vital component of life."
Born in 1985, in Cleveland, Ohio. His work explores land use and the human motive. Through the use of the photographic image and bookmaking, his work challenges ecological thought, examining contemporary western perspectives of land use.
He received a BSS in filmmaking and creative writing from Ohio University, and an MFA from New Hampshire Institute of Art. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and teaches art in the Tooele Valley.
His work has been shown both nationally and internationally, and has been in various publications. For his recent work, he has been creating short artist’s books exploring the new ecologies of the state of Utah, focusing on the topics of overdevelopment, ecological grief, and environmental degradation.
Recent group shows:
Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Zukunftsvisionen, Gorlitz, Germany
The Face of Climate Change, Cottonwood Gallery, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Water, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, Vermont
Framed: Landscape Photography, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Water, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
Recent publications:
7th International Photography Annual, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
www.scottdurka.com
GUNNISON BEND DAM UTAH by Scott Durka
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WEST CANYON TROUGH 1 UTAH by Scott Durka
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BENZENE (C6H6) by Shanna Merola
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Shanna Merola says, "The images in We All Live Downwind are culled from daily headlines – inspired by both global and grassroots struggles against the forces of privatization in the face of disaster capitalism. In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein writes about the free market driven exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries saying, “the original disaster—the coup, the terrorist attack, the market meltdown, the war, the tsunami, the hurricane — puts the entire population into a state of collective shock”. The scenes in We All Live Downwind, have been carved out of dystopian landscapes in the aftermath of these events.
On the surface, rubble hints at layers of oil and shale, cracked and bubbling from the earth below. Rising from another mound, rows of empty mobile homes bake beneath the summer sun. The bust of small towns left dry in the aftermath of supply and demand. In this place, only fragments of people remain, their mechanical gestures left tending to the chaos on auto. Reduced to survival, their struggle against an increasingly hostile environment goes unnoticed. Beyond the upheaval of production a bending highway promises never ending expansion - and that low rumble you hear to the west is getting louder."
Shanna Merola is a visual artist, photojournalist and legal worker. In addition to her studio practice, she has been a human rights observer during political uprisings across the country - from the struggle for water rights in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, to the frontlines of Ferguson, MO and Standing Rock, ND. Her collages and constructed landscapes are informed by these events. Merola lives in Detroit, MI where she facilitates Know-Your-Rights workshops and coordinates legal support for grassroots organizations through the National Lawyers Guild. She is the 2019 – 2020 Interim Artist In Residence in the Photography Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Merola has been awarded studio residencies and fellowships through the MacDowell Colony, Kala Institute of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and the Midwest Environmental Justice Network. Her collaborative projects include Detroit Resists - a digital occupation of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2016), and Oil + Water (2017). She is the recent recipient of a 2019 Society for Photographic Education’s Image Maker Award, and a 2019 Puffin Foundation Project Grant. Merola holds an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Photo and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been published and exhibited both nationally and abroad.
Career Highlights:
Residencies: MacDowell Colony + Kala Art Institute
Awards: Puffin Foundation Project Grant + Society for Photographic Education Imagemaker Award
Press + Publications: Art 21 Magazine, Dear Dave, Photo Emphasis, Aint Bad, Hyperallergic, Interview Magazine, Nat.Brut
Collaborative Projects: Detroit Resists is Occupying the U.S. Pavilion, Detroit Resists, Venice, Italy
Selected Solo + 2 Person Exhibitions:
We All Live Downwind, The Photography Gallery at Riley Hall, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN
Another Country, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
Piece it Together; Art and Protest, University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts, Toledo, OH
Selected Juried Group Exhibitions:
Artist Statement #2, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gimpo-si, Korea
Futures | Intersections, International Photography Symposium, Nida, Lithuania
ICONIC Black Panther, Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, IL
Oh Maker, Heaven Gallery, Chicago IL
Coagulants, AC Institute, New York, NY
Radical Resistance to Xenophobia, Grady Alexis Gallery, New York, NY
Call and Response: Art as Resistance, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA
Lectures + Symposiums:
Oil and Water: Photography in the Age of Disaster Economies, SPE National Conference, Cleveland, OH
Can I Get A Witness?, Open Engagement National Conference 2017 – Justice, Chicago, IL
Expect Resistance, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
Testify: Stay Woke Lecture Series, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Bearing Witness: Art as Activism, Fall Lecture Series, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
http://shannamerola.virb.com
On the surface, rubble hints at layers of oil and shale, cracked and bubbling from the earth below. Rising from another mound, rows of empty mobile homes bake beneath the summer sun. The bust of small towns left dry in the aftermath of supply and demand. In this place, only fragments of people remain, their mechanical gestures left tending to the chaos on auto. Reduced to survival, their struggle against an increasingly hostile environment goes unnoticed. Beyond the upheaval of production a bending highway promises never ending expansion - and that low rumble you hear to the west is getting louder."
Shanna Merola is a visual artist, photojournalist and legal worker. In addition to her studio practice, she has been a human rights observer during political uprisings across the country - from the struggle for water rights in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, to the frontlines of Ferguson, MO and Standing Rock, ND. Her collages and constructed landscapes are informed by these events. Merola lives in Detroit, MI where she facilitates Know-Your-Rights workshops and coordinates legal support for grassroots organizations through the National Lawyers Guild. She is the 2019 – 2020 Interim Artist In Residence in the Photography Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Merola has been awarded studio residencies and fellowships through the MacDowell Colony, Kala Institute of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and the Midwest Environmental Justice Network. Her collaborative projects include Detroit Resists - a digital occupation of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2016), and Oil + Water (2017). She is the recent recipient of a 2019 Society for Photographic Education’s Image Maker Award, and a 2019 Puffin Foundation Project Grant. Merola holds an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA in Photo and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been published and exhibited both nationally and abroad.
Career Highlights:
Residencies: MacDowell Colony + Kala Art Institute
Awards: Puffin Foundation Project Grant + Society for Photographic Education Imagemaker Award
Press + Publications: Art 21 Magazine, Dear Dave, Photo Emphasis, Aint Bad, Hyperallergic, Interview Magazine, Nat.Brut
Collaborative Projects: Detroit Resists is Occupying the U.S. Pavilion, Detroit Resists, Venice, Italy
Selected Solo + 2 Person Exhibitions:
We All Live Downwind, The Photography Gallery at Riley Hall, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN
Another Country, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
Piece it Together; Art and Protest, University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts, Toledo, OH
Selected Juried Group Exhibitions:
Artist Statement #2, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gimpo-si, Korea
Futures | Intersections, International Photography Symposium, Nida, Lithuania
ICONIC Black Panther, Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, IL
Oh Maker, Heaven Gallery, Chicago IL
Coagulants, AC Institute, New York, NY
Radical Resistance to Xenophobia, Grady Alexis Gallery, New York, NY
Call and Response: Art as Resistance, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA
Lectures + Symposiums:
Oil and Water: Photography in the Age of Disaster Economies, SPE National Conference, Cleveland, OH
Can I Get A Witness?, Open Engagement National Conference 2017 – Justice, Chicago, IL
Expect Resistance, University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
Testify: Stay Woke Lecture Series, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Bearing Witness: Art as Activism, Fall Lecture Series, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
http://shannamerola.virb.com
IONIZING RADIATION 2 by Shanna Merola
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URANIUM by Shanna Merola
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SUNLINES II by Stephanie Paine
HONORABLE MENTION
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HONORABLE MENTION
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Stephanie Paine says, "Landscape is the one subject that I’m constantly drawn to. I am fascinated by the properties of the earth, its topographical formations, and the psychological pull of the natural environment. This body of work is about the sun: the light to which everything is connected. The sun affects our planet’s climate, weather, and currents. It provides us with heat and life-giving light. With greater UV exposure and rising surface temperatures on earth, the sun seems stronger than ever. These changes serve as a reminder of the interconnectedness between modern human life and our environment. My approach involved an exploration of photography’s traditional materials through use of long exposures, motion, and the pinhole camera.
I was born and raised along Lake Huron in northern Michigan, which has been highly influential in my photographic work. Year round, I’ve found it to be a unique landscape: The state, surrounded by massive bodies of water and coasts of legendary dunes, transforms every winter with natural sculptures made of sand, ice, and wind. My interest in the natural environment began while photographing the transient qualities of my home.
I received an MFA degree in photography and related media from Purdue University. I relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, and taught photography and video courses for six years. I spent much of that time traveling and experiencing Europe and parts of the Middle East. I was an artist in residence at: The Tsarino Foundation in Bulgaria, Arteles in Finland, and Listhus in Iceland. Since 2016, I have been the head of the photography concentration at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Stemming from a traditional photographic approach, my work spans the expanded field of photography and includes darkroom and alternative processes, hand-built cameras, and digital techniques. Landscape is a recurring foundation for me in which to address the connection of land to history, memory, and perceptual experience while bringing awareness to the impermanence of our environment.
Most recently, I exhibited at the SoHo Photo Gallery and Amos Eno Gallery in New York. I placed second in juror’s prize at the Contemporary Southern Art exhibition at the VAE in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was featured in Art Maze Magazine’s summer issue. This September, I will be showing work at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado."
I was born and raised along Lake Huron in northern Michigan, which has been highly influential in my photographic work. Year round, I’ve found it to be a unique landscape: The state, surrounded by massive bodies of water and coasts of legendary dunes, transforms every winter with natural sculptures made of sand, ice, and wind. My interest in the natural environment began while photographing the transient qualities of my home.
I received an MFA degree in photography and related media from Purdue University. I relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, and taught photography and video courses for six years. I spent much of that time traveling and experiencing Europe and parts of the Middle East. I was an artist in residence at: The Tsarino Foundation in Bulgaria, Arteles in Finland, and Listhus in Iceland. Since 2016, I have been the head of the photography concentration at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Stemming from a traditional photographic approach, my work spans the expanded field of photography and includes darkroom and alternative processes, hand-built cameras, and digital techniques. Landscape is a recurring foundation for me in which to address the connection of land to history, memory, and perceptual experience while bringing awareness to the impermanence of our environment.
Most recently, I exhibited at the SoHo Photo Gallery and Amos Eno Gallery in New York. I placed second in juror’s prize at the Contemporary Southern Art exhibition at the VAE in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was featured in Art Maze Magazine’s summer issue. This September, I will be showing work at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado."
SUNLINES by Stephanie Paine
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SUNLINES III by Stephanie Paine
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UNTITLED by Steve Davis
HONORABLE MENTION
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HONORABLE MENTION
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Steve Davis says ,"Beauty can lurk in strange places, and I find myself drawn to landscapes which suggest ambiguity, emptiness, and the spiritually untidy. To me, they resonate as backdrops to stories and dreams—vague suggestions of the earth as a temporary gesture. They are as close to nowhere as I can get."
Steve Davis is a documentary portrait and landscape photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. His work has appeared in American Photo, Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, Russian Esquire, and is in many collections, including the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the George Eastman House. He is a former 1st place recipient of the Santa Fe CENTER Project Competition, and two time winner of the Washington Arts Commission/Artist Trust Fellowship .
Davis is the Head of Instructional Photography and adjunct faculty member of The Evergreen State College. He is represented by the James Harris Gallery, Seattle.
Steve Davis is a documentary portrait and landscape photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. His work has appeared in American Photo, Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, Russian Esquire, and is in many collections, including the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Seattle Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the George Eastman House. He is a former 1st place recipient of the Santa Fe CENTER Project Competition, and two time winner of the Washington Arts Commission/Artist Trust Fellowship .
Davis is the Head of Instructional Photography and adjunct faculty member of The Evergreen State College. He is represented by the James Harris Gallery, Seattle.
ALDER LAKE, WASHINGTON by Steve Davis
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SUMMER ON THE SKOKOMISH by Steve Davis
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THE ENVIRONMENT & SOCIAL ACTIVISM HOME PAGE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post
FIRST PLACE:
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SECOND PLACE:
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HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/honorable-mentions-michael-zuhorski-marquette-iron-tailings-march-13-stephanie-paine-sunlines-ii-steve-davis-untitled-daniel-kariko-grand-isle-coastal-erosion-laziza-rakhimova-dried-aral-sea----/1
EXHIBITION #1
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/exhibition-2/1
THE ENVIRONMENT & SOCIAL ACTIVISM HOME PAGE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post
FIRST PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/first-place-debra-small-canis-latrans-coyote----/1
SECOND PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/second-place-christopher-gauthier-untitled-12----/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/honorable-mentions-michael-zuhorski-marquette-iron-tailings-march-13-stephanie-paine-sunlines-ii-steve-davis-untitled-daniel-kariko-grand-isle-coastal-erosion-laziza-rakhimova-dried-aral-sea----/1
EXHIBITION #1
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/exhibition-2/1
