I see you.  I hear you.  I love you. A self-portrait, visual ode to a planet in peril taken during the twin pandemics of the California wildfires and Covid19.

Basement thrift store window, Krakow, Poland. 

View from the Law Library in San Francisco, California. 

Ann Prochilo says, "Through self-portraiture, I mine the tension that precedes transition and emergence––that moment before surrendering to sleep, or surfacing from deep waters. I’m drawn to the controlled chaos of it, the uncertainty and revelations. I’m compelled by the images: testaments to resilience and vulnerability, what we share and what we keep hidden.
 
These self-portraits are from the series, Leaving Home. Leaving Home is about belonging, an empty house and the indelible watermark of family. My mother’s favorite adage was, "This too shall pass". Rather than a reminder of impermanence and the wisdom of the long-view, I took it as a clarion call to preserve the temporal. The middle-child of six, I haunted rooms where being alone had never before been possible. I clung to the light and space, the unrevealed stories of generations. The urge to grasp the ephemeral in the face of dissolution is fraught with guilt and reverence. We carry on — a testament to love, loss and the refuge of home."
 
Ann Prochilo (American) is a photographic artist based in Malta. Her narrative-driven photographs explore memory, identity and dissonance as tools for reconciliation and transformation. Prochilo received a BA from Indiana University where she pursued dual interests in fine arts and medicine. She has had a wide-ranging career as midwife, AIDS activist and founder of an advocacy relations agency. As a visual artist, she states, “I see my role as that of midwife and mediator, exploring the “in-between” places and forces that shape them.” Prochilo’s work has been exhibited internationally.
 
2022 JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
January, Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Narrative ~ Figments or Fragments (Honorable Mention)
February, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, Vermont, Traces
March, Midwest Center for Photography, Witchita, Kansas, 2022 Juried Exhibition
March, The Luupe, Women's History Month/ International Women's Day Self-portraiture Feature
April, PH21 Contemporary Photography Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, Silence
15th Annual International Color Awards, Barumbara 2 (Honorable Mention) and Barumbara 1 (Honorable Mention)
Passepartout Photo Prize - Featured online gallery 4th edition
June, PH21 Contemporary Photography Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, Stories: Narrative Photography
 
2022 PUBLICATIONS
March, Dodho Magazine, Issue #20, Series feature, This is Water
 
2022 SPEAKING
March, Artist Talk, The Malta Institute of Professional Photography, Malta
 

https://www.annprochilo.com
https://www.instagram.com/apmaieutic
 
       
 
 

Review by curator Jerry Russo:  "Every picture tells a story and every click of the shutter captures a moment in time that is unique unto itself. Even though Corn Wagon Thunder's headshots feel personal to the photographer we are free to construct our own narratives.

I feel that the photographer encourages our participation that the photographer is the object of someone’s gaze and desire.

This self portrait, selfie however you want to call this challenge the notion of female identity. Feminist theory does revolve around this work. One feels everything from gender identity, rapture, nightmare, to that little girl who plays dress up in front of her mothers mirror. 

This image held my gaze the longest. You made me look.

Do you feel your work participates in a particular mode of performative artistic production?"

Corn Wagon Thunder says, "The type of photography that I engage in is often described in cinematic terminology and as a performative act.

The emphasis on pre-visualization, the imaginative period before the moment of exposure, associated most closely with Ansel Adams, is an important aspect of my work and my practice involves a great deal of pre-planning.

There are many unseen actions that go into creating the final image. I am the writer, actor, set designer, camera woman, producer, and director all wrapped up in one. I start with an idea or theme—I think a lot about symbolism, so I might pick an object and a color scheme and build on that. In the process of doing research, acquiring props, designing the set, getting dressed, setting up the camera, and, finally, running back and forth to press the shutter button a hundred times, my ideas evolve into an image that comes close to capturing my unique vision.

With that said, one of the attributes of photographic self-portraiture that I find appealing is that in the final image, I am removed from being behind the camera and the viewer is placed there instead.

The presence of the camera operator is implicit in photographic image-making, but when the subject is also the camera operator a certain amount of mystery is introduced. The decision of how the photograph is accomplished can be reflected in its meaning.

One might hire a professional photographer to make the photo, or perhaps ask a stranger to take the photo as Nikki S. Lee did in her “Projects” series, or maybe the artist makes it evident that they are in control of the shutter by including the evidence of the apparatus in the photo such as Tseng Kwon Chi did in his “East Meets West” series. 

Since it is important for me to be alone when I am creating my work, I opt for the remote electronic shutter release. I choose not to have that be evident in the work because I want to create a separation between the image and the act – whether that be the performative act or the photographic act."
 
Russo asks, "Was either Cindy Sherman or Ralph Eugene Meatyard an inspiration for your headshots?"

Corn Wagon Thunder says, "I often find inspiration in films. With regard to the Headshots series there are two films from which I have drawn inspiration: George Romero’s 1969 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead and Věra Chytilová’s 1966 Czech New Wave classic, Daisies.

In Romero’s film the dreaded zombies can only be stopped by killing the brain. This is most often accomplished by inflicting a gunshot to the head of a zombie. This got me thinking about the idea of “headshot” in the photographic sense, and the role of photography in defining a professional identity. I purchased an old zombie mask and made a portrait of myself wearing it. The result was somewhat absurd, and I really liked it. Channeling the wacky sensibilities of the two female characters in Daisies, I set out on a new line of work in a series called “Headshots.”

This new series is about the idea of character, as in a theatrical character as well as moral character, envisioned through caricature. The famed theatre practitioner, Konstantin Stanislavski, speaks about characterization as “the mask that hides the actor-individual. Protected by it he can lay bare his soul down to the last intimate detail.” I am getting at the idea that the self and our perceived character attributes are an ambiguous notion.

Sherri Levine talks about being divided into two halves, her original (perhaps authentic) self being the one that maintains distance from the world and the second self being the one that interacts with the world and is prepared for all if its inherent absurdities and cruelties—the one that we crouch behind as though it were a shield. I am thinking about what happens when these two selves cross those self-defined boundaries. I am thinking about how many times I’ve heard it said that as you age you stop caring about what other people think about you and how that alludes to visual perceptions of physical appearance.
In the series, I also capitalize on the abundant thinking about masks resulting from the current global health crisis.

The images that I am creating are self-portraits in which I am costumed in a way that conceals some part of my head, often obstructing sight or in turn highlighting it. I am using gag props or comedic tropes. Some of the portraits are austere and some are ridiculous. Some are pastiche. In his 1972 lecture to the Midwest Society for Photographic Education Ralph Eugene Meatyard said, “The mask is no man. Everybody has a mask on.

A mask is a vehicle for transformation. A masked individual exudes a sense of mystery and presence. The masked individual is a character whose actions are up for interpretation. What revelation comes through unveiling? Is there kinship to be found in the mask itself?"

MORE ABOUT CORN WAGON THUNDER:

Corn Wagon Thunder says, "This body of work investigates my journey to becoming a middle-aged woman. And about the loss of my mother. At the time, I was quite shocked at how little I knew about what to expect from the transitional life phase called perimenopause.

Much like puberty, it is not only a corporeal experience but also an experience of the mind and spirit. I found myself missing my mother’s love more than ever. 

This project was a way to have a conversation with her, to envision her experience and to imagine what guidance she might offer me. It was also a way to reflect on my childhood and my perceptions of the way the women in my life were during that time. To imagine the lives in which they may have felt captive. This was the late 70s and 80s. I was raised in a conservative Christian household in the rural south where there were clear notions of what was and was not proper in and out of the home.

Within this body of work there is a series of photographs that picture me seated at a table. These photographs reference Matryoshkas—Russian nesting dolls—the women we carry within us: the women of our past, our ancestors, as well as all our possible identities, all we are and all we can become. The tablecloth and housecoat are important symbols that speak to a certain type of domesticity and the idea that the home is a stage to be readied for company, for someone else’s viewing.

Everything must appear to be in order. The tablecloth covers, protects, and hides. The tidy housecoat speaks to propriety in the home and buttoned up sexuality."

Bio: Corn Wagon Thunder is a photographer and collage artist residing in the Southwestern United States, where she is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of New Mexico. Corn received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in conjunction with Tufts University, and has also studied at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina.

Career Highlights: Corn was invited to participate in the Asheville Art Museum’s 2019 exhibition Appalachia Now! An Interdisciplinary Survey of Contemporary Art in Southern Appalachia. Her series To Be & Become is currently on view at the Turchin Center for Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Contact: corn@cornwagonthunder.com
Website: www.cornwagonthunder.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/cornwagonthunder



 

“What is a portrait, if not an acknowledgment of a human encounter: an opportunity to imagine the life of another?”

Donna Bassin says, "Following the 2016 presidential election, I initiated portrait collaborations between those who – through race, sexuality, gender identity, age, ethnicity, and/or disability – felt they had been deemed invisible and un-entitled to their place in this American moment. Storytelling through pose, gesture, gaze, and props, they turned themselves "inside out" to visually assert their identity and invite a visceral face-to-face encounter with their humanity. The shared black velvet background and chiaroscuro lighting create an aesthetic unity, joining the individual to the collective.

I responded to the further injuries brought on by the pandemic, ongoing racial and economic inequality, and further erosion of our democracy by ripping the original portraits to create “wounds” of our individual and collective suffering.

Inspired by the Japanese practice of Kintsugi – which mends broken pottery by using gold lacquer to repair damage while highlighting the scars – I restored the torn portraits using golden rice paper and thread. The resulting scars remind us that we must not forget the incidents that create our wounds, but rather use them as a touchstone to move forward and mend our fractured relationships with ourselves and each other."

Donna Bassin, Ph.D., is an award-winning photographer, artist, author, professor, and filmmaker. Influenced by her work as a clinical psychologist and her experiences working with war veterans and at Ground Zero, Donna uses art to explore the creative edge of collective loss, grief, mourning, and transformation.

She is known for her documentaries, Leave No Soldier and The Mourning After, and her series The Afterlife of Dolls – an exhibition that was featured on PBS' State of the Arts and received a Golden Bell and Gradiva Award. She was selected as a recipient for the 2021 New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship in Photography. 
Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions stretching from New York City to Los Angeles. Her photographs have also been commissioned for book covers and private collections.
 
Donna has contributed portraits from her series, My Own Witness, to Smack Mellon Gallery for their exhibition of Bound Up Together: On the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, and to the Her Flag project (www.herflag.com), where she created the stripe for New Jersey, which was displayed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. on Flag Day of 2021.
 
Donna's current projects, My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair and Precious Scars, explore the human desire for reconciliation in the wake of social fractures. The former was recently featured in the Newark Museum for the 2021 New Jersey Arts Annual: ReVision and Respond as well as a solo exhibition at the Soho Photo Gallery in New York City.
 
By Our Own Hand, an installation designed by Donna in collaboration with Frontline Arts, is on display at the Montclair Art Museum until August 2022. Inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, it consists of handmade paper made from military uniforms to serve as a reflective space.

Career Highlights:

Solo Exhibitions:

2021
My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY

2004                          
Playing Around, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ
Memories: Ascending/Descending, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

2003                          
The Afterlife of Dolls, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

Installations:

2022                          
RAW: Reassessment and Wonder, curated by Danielle Ogden, Jamestown Arts Center, Jamestown, RI; March 18 – May 7

2021                          
By Our Own Hand: Frontline Arts in Collaboration with Donna Bassin, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; September 2021 – August 2022
Her Flag, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.2020                Prayers for the Pandemic; Prayers for Progress; Prayers the Planet; Prayers for the Presidency!, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ
Bound Up Together: On the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
Art4Equality x Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness, SaveArtSpace/Art4Equality; Billboard at McGuinness Blvd and Calyer St, Brooklyn, NY
Art Off-Screen, Neumeraki – curated by Eileen Jeng Lynch, D*FIT Studio, Montclair, NJ
2016                          
Cherry Blossoms in Winter, Rutgers – Newark, Branch Brook Park, Newark, NJ

Awards and Grants:

2021                          
New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation – Individual Artist Fellowship in Photography

2020                          
First Place – Los Angeles Center of Photography’s 5th annual juried exhibition: Exploring Humanity
Curator’s Choice – ProArts Jersey City

2018                          
Honorable Mention for Segregation and Human Rights in the 12th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Photography Gala Awards

2017                          
NAAP Gradiva Award for “The Mourning After”

2014                          
Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, Video Grant for “The Mourning After”

2008                          
Leave No Soldier, Director/Producer. Documentary. Official Selection of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, The Big Muddy, New Filmmakers Festival, Best Director at the First Glance Film Festival and Merit award at the Accolade Film Festival

2007                          
The American Psychological Association, Division 39 Section IX Achievement Award

Group Exhibitions:

2022                          
NJSCA Artist Fellowship Showcase, Artworks Visual Arts Center, Trenton, NJ
Healing and Hope, Kente Royal Gallery, Harlem, NY
Expanding the Concept of Photography, Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg, NJ

2021                          
Extinction – Save the Planet, Gallerium, Toronto, Ontario
What Lies Ahead, L.A. Photo Curator, Susan Spiritus Gallery, Irvine, CA
Contemporary Portrait, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC
Transformed: Objects Reimagined by American Artists, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
New Jersey Arts Annual: ReVision and Respond, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
The Empowering, Pro Arts Jersey City, Jersey City, NJ
Privilege, Power and Everyday Life, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ

2020                          
For Which It Stands, Ford Foundation Gallery and Assembly Room, New York, NY
Exploring Humanity, 5th Annual Fine Art Exhibition, Los Angeles Center of Photography, Los Angeles, CA
Artists for Social Justice, Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College, New York, NY
Artists for Social Justice, Arc Gallery & Educational Foundation, Chicago, IL
Portrait 2020, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC
Art4Equality x Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness, SaveArtSpace/Art4Equality; The Untitled Space, New York, NY
Her Flag, Old Barracks Museum, Trenton, NJ

2019                          
Little by Little, Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ
State of the Art 2019, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ
Contemporary Portraiture: To See Each Other, Passaic County Arts Center, Hawthorne, NJ
ViewPoints 2019, Studio Montclair, Montclair, NJ
Titles of Photographs:
Donna_Bassin_My_Own_Witness_Rupture_and_Repair_Aya_1
Donna_Bassin_My_Own_Witness_Rupture_and_Repair_Shontel_11
Donna_Bassin_My_Own_Witness_Rupture_and_Repair_Tacy_5

Images for Sale:

My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair.Aya.1
18"W x 24"H / 13"W x 19"H
Archival pigment print, gold rice paper, sewn with gold thread
$1100 unframed / $650 unframed
Limited edition of 3 unique prints / Limited edition of 8 unique prints
Signed on front


My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair.Shontel.11
18"W x 24"H / 13"W x 19"H
Archival pigment print, gold rice paper, sewn with gold thread
$1100 unframed / $650 unframed
Limited edition of 3 unique prints / Limited edition of 8 unique prints
Signed on front


My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair.Tacy.5
18"W x 24"H / 13"W x 19"H
Archival pigment print, gold rice paper, sewn with gold thread
$1100 unframed / $650 unframed
Limited edition of 3 unique prints / Limited edition of 8 unique prints
Signed on front

Contact: Donna Bassin
dibassin@gmail.com
www.donnabassin.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/p1nhole

Edward Boches says, 'The Strangers I Meet', "I spend most everyday on the streets, talking to strangers, looking for faces, seeking to know what it means and feels like to live, work, play and struggle in these challenging times. The faces and looks and expressions I capture might be random glances, or direct confrontations. They may happen in a restroom at South Station, a protest or rally, a line at a food pantry, or an alleyway. But if you look closely enough, you might learn something. For they reveal not only the subject, but through your reaction, a bit about yourself."

Edward Boches is a Boston and Cape Cod-based documentary and street photographer. He donates much of his work and time to causes and organizations he believes in, including food pantries, community centers, small farms and farmers markets, and local artists. In support of the latter he created postcardsfromallston.com, a project to celebrate a neighborhood's color and creativity and document its change, while also selling postcards to raise money for local arts initiatives.

His work has shown in museums and galleries that include the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester; the Bronx Documentary Center; the Plymouth Center for the Arts; the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont; the Providence Center for the Photographic Arts; and in Boston at both the Bromfield Gallery and Panopticon Gallery. 

Boches’s work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Zeke Magazine and the Provincetown Independent, where he is a regular contributor.  In 2021 and 2022 he received multiple public and private grants for public art installations.

IMAGES FOR SALE -

Archival paper
$275.00 unframed
Limited Edition 10
Signed on back
Contact: Edward Boches
bochesphotography@gmail.com

A Young Protestor
Archival paper
$275.00 unframed
Limited Edition 10
Signed on back
Contact: Edward Boches
bochesphotography@gmail.com


Arrogant
Portrait in an Alley
Archival paper
$275.00 unframed
Limited Edition 10
Signed on back
Contact: Edward Boches
bochesphotography@gmail.com


Restroom at South Station
Archival paper
$275.00 unframed
Limited Edition 10
Signed on back
Contact: Edward Boches
bochesphotography@gmail.com


Waiting for Food
Archival paper
$325.00 unframed
Limited Edition 10 (eight remaining)
Signed on back
Contact: Edward Boches
bochesphotography@gmail.com


Yankee fan at Fenway
Archival paper
$325.00 unframed
Limited Edition 10 (nine remaining)
Signed on back
Contact: Edward Boches
bochesphotography@gmail.com


www.edwardboches.com
www.instagram.com/edwardboches

Ellen Feldman says, "These photos combine my longstanding work in street photography with my love of abstract expressionist painting and film history. In the last few years, I have been making composites of two or more photos.

My image Big Foot was inspired by the paintings of Barnett Newman, known for his “zips”: color field paintings in which the entire canvas is covered with a single color, and then bisected by one or more thin bands—or zips—of another color. In Big Foot, a close-up of an urban surface is bisected by a slice of one of my street photographs, playing on principles of scale and perspective. The “gaze” is represented by the man who looks out at us from the image, and also by our position as the viewer, trying to make sense of this strange unity.

Separation Anxiety (after Bergman’s Persona) reflects my biography (personal and professional). I “borrow” a shot from Persona to dramatize my conflicted relationship with my mother.

Peeping joins together two of my street photos to create a new geographic and fictive reality based on the “gaze.” While the man (in Paris) peers through the peep hole at the woman (in Cambridge, Mass.), she confronts us with her direct gaze."

Ellen Feldman is a fine arts photographer, whose work includes street photography and long-term personal projects, book artist, and Photography Editor of Women’s Review of Books (Wellesley College). She holds a PhD in Cinema Studies from NYU.
Her photographs have appeared in solo exhibits at the French Cultural Center, Boston, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA (satellite galleries), and Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY; and many juried exhibits.

Her book, We Who March: Photographs and Reflections on the Women’s March, January 21, 2017, includes photos by 30 photographers. She also published two books of street photos: "Les Mystères de Paris/Paris Mysteries" and "A Week in Prague: Wall People/Street People.”
Feldman co-curated "Moved to Act: Demonstrations, Marches, Political Actions,” with photos by 41 photographers of the 2017 Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, March for Our Lives, Standing Rock, & others.  Davis-Orton Gallery, 2018, and three additional venues through 2021.

Career Highlights: Recent Juried Exhibits
·      Curated Fridge (online), Somerville, MA, 2022, Juror: Julie Grahame
·      Wandering Curves, NYC4PA, New York, NY, 2021, Curator: Stephen Perloff 
·      StreetWise, Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA, 2021, Juror: Gary Duehr
·      Composed, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2021, Juror: Jeff Curto
·      Seventh Annual Group Show, Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY, 2021, Juror: Paula Tognarelli
·      Memory, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC, 2021, Juror: Fran Forman
·      Self-Conscious, N.Y. Photo Curator, Honorable Mention, 2020, Curator: Frances Jakubek
·      A Yellow Rose Project, ayellowroseproject.com (online project), 2020, Co-founders: Frances Jakubek and Meg Griffiths
 
 

Eric Davidove says, "This collection of photos were taken in the Mission District, one of the oldest and most exuberant neighborhoods in San Francisco.  The Mission is an evolving neighborhood with Latino roots and a hipster vibe, brilliant artwork, and beautiful architecture.

I am a California native street photographer who currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, and started taking street photography seriously in March 2015.  

My time spent as a street mime comes in handy, giving me the ability to anticipate street moments and be there with my camera as they happen, and to take photos without being noticed or upsetting people. 

Oftentimes I stop to shoot photographs because of a strong feeling that something interesting is about to happen.  Sometimes it’s because an interesting moment is already happening.  Other than that, I am triggered by lighting conditions, the presence of intriguing shapes and forms, vibrant colors, and interesting looking people.

Here is a sample of some street photography competitions where I was a finalist:

Istanbul Street Photography Festival  2021

International Photography Awards 2018, 2019, 2021

Street Photographers Foundation 2021

LensCulture Street Photography Awards 2020

Paris Street Photo Awards 2019, 2020 

Feature Shoot Street Photography Awards 2020

Miami Street Photography Festival 2019

Italian Street Photo Festival 2019

Urban Photo Awards 2018, 2019

Website: https://edovephotos.myportfolio.com/

Instagram: @edovephotos


All images for sale:  

14"H x 11" W
Archival Pigment and Archival Matte Fine Art Paper
$150 unframed

Contact: Eric Davidove
edovephotos@gmail.com
 

Harry Longstreet:
Retired writer/director/producer
Now pursuing Humanist Photography
Never posed or staged-only natural light

www.harrylongstreet.com

 

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THE GAZE HOME PAGE:
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