© Andrea Rosenthal
© Andrew M.K. Warren
As part of the Griffin Museum's 16th Juried Exhibition, two photographers have been chosen to showcase their work in a joint show in the Atelier Gallery June 30 through August 29.
Andrea Rosenthal was chosen for her Stations of the Scale, a photographic memoir about her problem with overeating that uses text, family materials, and self-portraits to present a visual expression of her inner state.
Andrew M.K. Warren was selected for Car Pictures, a series of images of outmoded or damaged automobiles and unusual forms of transportation.
More than 2,000 images were submitted by 300 photographers for the juried show.
"Stations of the Scale is the most honest and painful work I've ever done, taking seven and one-half years to complete," says Rosenthal. "It started with an assignment in a photography class to do a self-portrait about the most important aspect on oneself, and I made an image about struggling to button a too-tight dress."
Rosenthal says she was socialized at an early age about the importance of being thin, pretty, and nice. "From the time our pediatrician told my mother I was fat and prescribed a diet, I had a problem with distorted body image and secret eating," she says. "My life became a long struggle with diet after diet, and I experienced supersized helpings of shame and frustration."
Using text and images of herself as a model, Rosenthal says, "I've tried to take an honest but ironic and wryly humorous approach to my lifelong problem that makes visual what I feel and experience and goes public with my personal narrative in a way both specific and universal."
Warren says as he rides around in his car or on his bicycle he is "constantly seeking and finding examples of the automobile in varying states of repose. Wandering neighborhoods and peering into driveways, I look for evidence of automotive entropy."
He says he wants the viewer "to speculate about the owner and history of the vehicle, with a specific emphasis on the humorous possibilities inherent in the ironies of automotive culture.
"These pictures represent intersections of potential freedom and the very real responsibility specific to car ownership," Warren says. "Just as cars promise the lure of the open road, the potential of a new life and lovely view just over the next horizon, they can also be gas-hungry beasts that demand large amounts of time and larger amounts of money to keep running."
The Griffin Museum of Photography is open Tuesday through Thursday, 11 am - 5 pm; Friday 11 am - 4
pm; and Saturday and Sunday, noon - 4 pm. The Museum is closed on Monday. Admission is $5 for
adults; $2 for seniors. Members and children under 12 are admitted free. Admission is free to all
every Thursday. For more information, call 781-729-1158. |
