Themed Post: Dress Up

In order to tell a story with a single image, some photographers take the route of theatrics; an artist might dress up his or her subject in a certain outfit to propagate the story being told. Clothing can have the power to define its wearer, revealing our personalities, symbolizing our employment or projecting our ambitions. Since some of the earliest forms of portrait art, a sitter could be categorized by their attire, and the strategically placed props in the frame. In a photograph, such considerations—whether purposeful or captured from everyday life—can define the subject.

A handful of Panopticon Gallery photographers use the power of costume and portrayal to illustrate a meaningful story within an image. For his often labor-intensive self-portraits, Stephen Sheffield dons a plain suit and tie that has become a symbol of anonymity for the mysterious man that he has invented in his photographs. The artist team known as Atelieri O. Haapala transports us back to the 19th century with their Neo-Victorian cabinet cards, featuring sitters dressed in elaborate costumes and makeup. William Wegman has long been ushering his obliging Weimaraners into human clothes, wigs, and other props. The dedicated Japanese stage actors in Hiroshi Watanabe's Kabuki series are shielded under heavy make-up and lavish costumes, blurring the distinction between actor and character. Keiko Hiromi shows us the layers of transformation and devotion involved in creating an often entirely new character in her revealing portraits of professional drag queens. The subjects of these photographs wear an array of costumes that speak just as much of the subjects themselves as they do about to the meaning of the image.

Stephen Sheffield, Gasoline Can, 2008

Atelieri O. Haapala, Toni, 2011
4.25 x 6.5 inch Cabinet Card

William Wegman, Farmer and Son

Keiko Hiromi, Wigs, from the series Jacques, 2012

Hiroshi Watanabe, Marina Ema & Kazusa Ito, Matsuo Kabuki

Eastern Standard on Marathon Monday

Last week I was asked by the proprietor of Eastern Standard restaurant to find a few local photographers who could document 24 hours in the life of Eastern Standard.  He suggested Marathon Monday would be the best day to do it since so many people visit the restaurant during the race and before and after the Boston Red Sox game.

Eastern Standard is a restaurant in the Kenmore Square neighborhood of Boston and it happens to be connected to the Hotel Commonwealth––this is where you'd also find Panopticon Gallery.

I reached out to one of my artists Stephen Sheffield who was able to wrangle up four students from the New England School of Photography to document the day.  Each student was assigned a different shift.  Things were all going as planned until late in the afternoon when the bombs went off.  What was originally meant to be a photographic document of a joyous occasion in Boston, turned into something else entirely.

Garret Harker, owner of Eastern Standard wrote this piece for Bon Appétit recounting his version of the day. Click on this link to read about it.

View from inside Eastern Standard looking out on Marathon Monday.
Photograph by Timothy Bartlett

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Neal Rantoul - Amber Waves of Grain

Panopticon Gallery photographer Neal Rantoul was interviewed recently by Greg Cook for The Artery on WBUR 90.9.  The interview comes within days of two exhibitions that Rantoul will be in, the first here at Panopticon Gallery opening on April 3rd, and the second opening at the Danforth Museum of Art on April 6th.

Here's a link to the INTERVIEW.

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Martin Schreiber | Cowboys and Nudes

Photographer Martin Schreiber is currently in an exhibition at the 

Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography in Moscow through April 18, 2013.  

Check out this recent interview with him on YouTube.

Schreiber's well-known images of Madonna and nudes are available through 

Panopticon Gallery in Boston.

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Themed Post: Word Play

"A picture is worth a thousand words." 

We have all heard some form of this time-old phrase. Word and image are arguably the most prominent forms of communication and storytelling. Today's focus is the intersection of these two forms of art through the use of text itself in photography. What is the purpose of including a word, letter, or symbol in a photograph? Photography and writing each hold the power to illustrate, mislead, conjure imagery, and incite memory—one typically serves the purpose of describing or supplementing the other. But when not used as merely describers, words can undoubtedly give power to the images that re-purpose them, especially depending on their original use. Written word, however, fluctuates across culture, language and era, posing a challenge for the potential universality of a photograph. A handful of our artists have accepted this challenge and created images that are heavily weighted with the words they portray.

From Eva Timothy's photograph of the initials "T.J." in Thomas Jefferson's copy of Plato's The Republic in the Library of Congress—offering insight to the unique methods of bookmaking and marking of Jefferson's time—, to Rachel Phillips' photo-transfers using antique envelopes—which often display symbols foreign to an English-speaker but remain heavy with tactility and nostalgia of the letters they once carried—see how these Panopticon Gallery artists play with words.

Eva Timothy, T.J.

Rachel Phillips, Asia Calling

Frank Armstrong, Kentucky

Bill Franson, Work.

Heidi Kirkpatrick, Time To Play

Jesseca Ferguson, Feather/Star Map/Book

Nikki Segarra, Namesake

Glen Scheffer, Sound Effects, 2008

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Conversations with Lisa

There is something more significant about this set of photographs that goes way beyond what the objects represent.  A Rolleiflex camera, hydrangea's in a vase, a poncho, a hat, some letterpress blocks, and eight sets of glasses.  They are the reminders of love and loss.

On March 25th, 2008 Lisa passed away.  Lisa was a photographer and the wife of Ron Cowie.  As Ron explained, "Lisa had the flu and went into the hospital a few days later when her doctor said that she had Pneumonia.  In the hospital she went into septic shock, went into a coma and within 24 hours she was gone."  Prior to this she was a healthy wife and mother––an unexpected loss for all that knew her.

These were Lisa's objects. Ron created Inventory a series of her personal objects in 2009 as a way to honor her life.  As he told me recently, "this wasn't about grief: it was about a celebration of life and love."

"You do what you do, right?  You make pictures.  It was a perfect way that I could honor the memory of Lisa––the person who taught me how to love––the mother of my daughter."

One day, after going through his master closet, Ron realized that he needed to do something with her stuff: he needed to make room.  "I basically reached out to Lisa and asked her permission, and the answer that I got back was to photograph her stuff in the most labor-intensive way."



"Using the wet plate process then printing them in platinum forced me to slow down and contemplate every single piece.  Like her poncho for instance––she would wear it all the time when she was pregnant.  These objects had life-force in them."

In preparing this post, I read Ron's original artist statement about this series.  He wrote that by looking at these objects..."it reminds me that beauty was in reach."

Reminders will always be there. Comfort is having your loved ones close by––if not them, than an object that was theirs that you can mentally project a sense of presence through can sometimes act as your sanctuary of serenity.

Ron Cowie's images are on view through April 1, 2013 in the Panopticon Gallery exhibition, The Things That Seem and Those That Are: Reshaping Photography through Alternative Processes.

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From Camera Obscura to Camera Phone

We are very excited to share with you this TEDed video by Panopticon Gallery photographer Eva Timothy and her history lesson about Photography.  It's brilliant!

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