Review by Curator Jane Szabo:
"Mara Zaslove’s Return to Nature is a wonderful photo montage that beautifully illustrates the final cycle of life, returning to earth, becoming one with the soil, and being poised to sprout again as flowers in a meadow."

Mara Zaslove says, "My photographs are entries to my soul, connecting the intangible to the tangible through light, time and memory. Using natural light to capture what I feel in my heart and my eyes, taking photographs has become as essential to me as breathing air, and in some ways, has evolved into my sixth sense. I thrive on creating visual conversations that embrace the universality of aging, childhood, life on the street and how “human beings” impact the natural world.

Growing up with a father who was a fine artist, I was surrounded by his work and sensibilities. His influence made a profound imprint on me and I often find myself mirroring his visual style. I innately respond to form, patterns, shapes and composition and find that this early exposure permeates my sense of balance and style.

As my photography has progressed, I have been drawn to capture the human stories set in natural environments. Either candid or anticipated, I seek to convey a uniqueness particular to each individual that invites the viewer to explore their own life's path with that of the subject documented."

Born in Burbank, CA, Mara Zaslove received a BA in Dance and Sociology at U.C. Berkeley and later, received a Teaching Credential at U.C.L.A. After teaching Elementary School, she completed her M.A. in Counseling and Guidance from Cal. State, Northridge and became a licensed M.F.T., most recently working with emotionally disturbed children.

Her lifelong interest in photography allowed her to teach special needs children at a variety of institutions and was a volunteer photographer for the Inner City Arts program. In addition, she was the Staff Photographer for Diavolo: an internationally renowned dance company based in Los Angeles.

Mara's photographs have been featured in numerous exhibitions. Most recently, her work has been included in “15 Personal Projects” at LACP; 2017 exhibition: “Photo Shoot” at Black Box Gallery: 2017 International Nude Art Exhibition through Fusion Art; SE Center for Photography 2017 Open Exhibition; 2017 California Open at the TAG Gallery; 1st Annual Photographic Competition and Exhibition 2017 at L.A. Art Core; 2017 exhibit “Water and Sky” at bGGallery/ Bleicher Gorman Gallery at Bergamot Station, as well as a Finalist in the 8th Julia Margaret Cameron Award held in Berlin in 2016. She is an active member of the Los Angeles Art Association and LACP. She lives and works in Santa Monica. 

2018 Exhibitions/Group Shows:

My photo(s) were selected to be in the online February: Beauty/Beautiful issue of F-Stop Magazine.
“Circle of Life,” my hand-made circular weaving, was accepted for “Trappings:” an all media exploration of textiles in contemporary art. Juried by Robert Benitez, MOAH:CEDAR curator. The exhibition opens at Gallery 825 in Los Angeles on Saturday, February 10, 2018 and runs through March 9, 2018.
Mara Zaslove was chosen as an “Artist Spotlight Solo Art Exhibition winner.” She will receive a one month solo exhibition on the Fusion Art website for her series “Aging Gracefully.” The gallery will promote Mara and her work for the entire month of her exhibition. In addition, one of her images will be invited to be included in the annual group show that is held each year in the 2018 show in Palm Springs, CA.
My series “Don't Bring Me No Rocking Chair” (Aging Gracefully/Life-cycle) was a finalist in the 2018 Gala Awards: Women Seen By Women part 3.
My image, “Self-Help” was selected by jurors: Jane Szabo and Greg Cobarr for the 2018 2nd Annual LA Artcore Photography Exhibition.
Out of 922 works, the juror: Fabian Debora selected 110 pieces for the 2018 LA Open Exhibition. My images, “Demi Plie” and “Self Help” were both included.
My image, “A Joyful Vision” received 3rd Place in the Chromatic Awards International Photo Contest: Nude Category.
My photo, “Hanging Out” was selected by the juror: Alix Sloan for the all group media show “Bunk” at Gallery 825.
My photo, “I See You” was selected to be exhibited in “Wonderland Grayscale” at BG Gallery shown at the FM Gallery.
My image, “Sand Shoal” was on the media cover and selected to support CASA of Los Angeles.

More information on her photography can be seen on her website at www.marazaslove.com

Review by Curator Jane Szabo: "Shāna Einhorn’s piece Aunt Violet #7 allowed me to enter the mind and eyes of this elderly woman. With aging often comes memory loss and dementia, and the sense of confusion and trepidation in her face and gesture and she faces the world is palpable."

Shāna Einhorn says, "This image was made in the courtyard of the nursing home my Aunt was living in. Between conversation and hugs I sat quietly observing her deep in thought. I didn’t set out to create a series based on my Aunt Violet. I simply wanted to capture her image, to add another dimension to the memories she created for me.

Aunt Violet was amongst many things, an artist. She created art in the form of sculptures and paintings, and in the way she lived her life. She painted with Rivera and was Orozco’s only assistant, and she treated the world around her with tremendous kindness and love. We talked often of living in a cottage in the woods, each of us making art. But life, as it so often does, got in the way.

I became an artist many years after she’d been forced, by finances and age, to give up her Soho studio and then eventually move to a nursing home.  Our visits there tended to be short; my energy was low due to both a serious physical illness and the emotional toll of seeing Aunt Violet in a nursing home. Often I lacked the physical strength to bring my camera with me on these visits. It pained me desperately that not only could I not provide for her, in my own home, the practical support she needed; but moreover hadn’t the means to provide her with life affirming surroundings, filled with music, art, poetry and love except for fleeting moments – where I believe she would have thrived longer.

There was never enough time. But we did have one visit, one gorgeous hour, during which she painted while I photographed her. I was able to bring my camera with me, and she was able to use the materials I’d brought for her. In complete silence, we worked together, utterly in sync.

Aunt Violet was in the nursing home for six years. She died in 2008, at the age of 100.
And so, what began as a group of photos captured for my personal archives became, unexpectedly, my homage to a woman who inspired me, loved me, encouraged me, provided a blueprint for living. My tribute to Aunt Violet.

I am a fine art photographer from Huntington, NY. My art is not about image, it's about essence and as such I think of my work as a spiritual photography.
The images explore one’s connection to self, each other and the natural world, using mostly old manual cameras with black & white film and lately mobile photography.

I came to photography two years after a cancer diagnosis back in 2003 when a friend loaned me a camera. While struggling with questions regarding despair vs. life the camera became my lifeline. It soon became apparent that photography was to become my life’s endeavor as a connection to the medium quickly deepened.

One can say that I used this new opportunity as a way to re-shape my world. My intention was to connect and make good pictures; not to theorize about them – that came much later. The constraints and ramifications of living with chronic illness inform much of my art, as themes of connection and isolation permeate much of the work. Ultimately it is an inquiry about belonging and significance. My work has been in 31 group exhibitions both juried and otherwise, and currently is in 3 private collections."

CV HIGHLIGHTS

Shāna’s  fine art work has been exhibited across the U.S and Europe in galleries and print including The Center for Fine Art Photography, PhotoPlace Gallery, Lightbox Photographic Gallery, PH21 Gallery, Feature Shoot, The Griffin Museum, The Curated Fridge and photoludica.

Selected Group Exhibitions:
The Curated Fridge – Somerville, MA August 2018
“Under The Sun” Exhibition – Ann M. Jastrab, Juror
foto foto Gallery - Huntington, NY  January 2018
13th National Photography Competition – Ann M. Jastrab, Juror
“Honoring Trees” Exhibition – Laura Valenti, Juror
“Plastic Fantastic VII” Exhibition - Susan Burnstine, Juror
“The Elevated Selfie” Exhibition - Laura Valenti & Laura Moya, Jurors
Photo Independent - The International Exposition of Contemporary

Awards:
Honorable Mention, PH21 Gallery, Intimacy, 2016, Budapest, Hungary

Published:
PhotoPlace Gallery - Open Call 2018 - Douglas Beasley, Juror September 2018
Hamptons Art Hub –  “View From Home” Exhibition – Anita Rogers, Juror November 2017
https://hamptonsarthub.com/slideshow/online-exhibition-view-from-home/Feature Shoot – featureshoot.com November 2016
“The Secrets of Nighttime”
LA Photo Curator: International Photography Awards 
The Human Relationship to Water - www.laphotocurator.com May 2017
LA Photo Curator: International Photography Awards 
Comic Relief - www.laphotocurator.com May 2016
LA Photo Curator: International Photography Awards 
The Figure In The Landscape - www.laphotocurator.com April 2016

https://shanaphotography.com
shana@shanaphotography.com
http://instagram.com/shanaphotography

​Review by Curator Jane Szabo:
"Traci Marie Lee’s That lumbered all the way... leaves much room for the imagination. The original B&W photo of a rope tied off on the dock makes me think of departure, but the rope is taught, so perhaps the boat has not yet set sail. The contemporary layering of the old photograph, with the evidence that this photo is a remnant in a photo album, where other, perhaps more precious family photos have already been removed, only heightens the sense of absence."


MY OWN JOURNEY FOLLOWS NO SUCH LINEAR NARRATIVE. IT STARTED THE MOMENT I FOUND THE PHOTOGRAPH BUT HAS MEANDERED EVER SINCE, THROUGH UNCHARTED RESEARCH AND TO NO OBVIOUS DESTINATION.

-TACITA DEAN, Girl Stowaway, 1994

Traci Marie Lee says, " In this body of work I am appropriating slivers of images, text, and artifacts from the familial archive.

There is an obstructed rationale of what a photograph is and does, as well as a displacement of the contexts of photographic processes. Incorporating multiple image-making properties and practices, the process of how we contextualize a photograph's objectness and our associations in relationship to photographic material is exposed.

The original content, the index, becomes secondary - taking its unaccustomed place on the peripheral of significance. Distinct passageways emerge and are found within the distillation of expectations and longings attached to any familial or institutional space.

Each individual work incorporates alternative processes, such as the kallitype and collodion, as well as various methods of collage. These mediums string together disparate images and artifacts to create an entirely new, complex image.

The success of the Archive represents only half of the material – the half that has survived. The matter lays somewhere in between what is present and what is missing. Perhaps these instances are the keys – the markers connecting bodies and identities, generations and histories; the physical indication of an unidentified connection."

BIO - 

Traci Marie Lee is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C., with a BFA in Fine Art Photography, as well as a Master in Fine Arts graduate with an MFA in Photography and Integrated Media from Lesley University College of Art & Design in Cambridge, MA.

In her work she is interested in the implications and consequences of the Snapshot and the Constructed Image on memory construction and preservation. The compulsion to excavate and curate leads to finding new methods of holding onto brief, constantly changing realities, as well as confronting her own tendencies and obsessive drive to collect, as a process of examining loss.

ARTIST CAREER HIGHLIGHTS - 

2017 -EXHIBITION OF ALTERNATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, The Far Eastern Museum of Fine Art, Curated Group Exhibition, Khabarovsk, Russia

2016 -WITCHING HOUR: IMAGERY FROM DARKNESS, Photosynthesis, LLC, Juried Group Exhibition, Manchester, CT

2016 -BORDERLANDS, Lunder Arts Center, Group Exhibition, Cambridge, MA

2016 -PORTRAITS AND PORTRAYALS, Photosynthesis, LLC, Juried Group Exhibition, Manchester, CT

2014 - THE MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE Burren College of Art 20th Anniversary Alumni Exhibition, Burren College of Art, Juried Group Exhibition, Ireland.

2013 - PETTY THIEVES THREE Projection Party Presented by Empty Stretch + Furthermore, Petworth Citizen & Reading Room, Washington, D.C.

2013 - ENTROPY, Metropolitan Art Project, Fairfax, VA

2013 - NEXT at the Corcoran: BFA Class of 2013, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 

tracimarielee.virb.com 
traci@thread-photography.com
thread-photography.com 




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