CHILDHOOD-Curator Meredith McGrane > Honorable Mentions:
Honorable Mentions:
SAFE PLACE by Romina Mandrini
(click on image for larger view)
(click on image for larger view)
Curator Meredith McGrane: "Mandrini’s image, Safe Place, is a dream! Technically speaking, the high key lighting and intense highlights participate in the story in a way that hints to me she broke the rules on purpose — and I like that! I love the texture, I love the framing, and I love the mystery of what lies on the other side of the tangled branches and brambles. Like any quality image, Safe Place also left me asking questions — is this journey to a safer place metaphorical? Perhaps. But I also see a dream like space. And don’t we all want our childhood dreams to come true?"
Romina Mandrini says of her work, "I have been photographing my children since 2012, when photography took a hold of me. At first I was simply documenting our family life and striving to make beautiful portraits. With time, however, I found the images went on to reveal my children’s vulnerabilities, their strength and their fears, and the secrets of growing and changing that even they themselves were not always aware of.
And then came another discovery: in my children’s innocent gestures and in the awkward, in-between moments, I began to see glimpses of my own childhood and the pivotal experiences that I had not understood then, but could see with new eyes now – the uncomfortable unfolding of my growing up.
Minor White once said that “all photographs are self-portraits”. In this way my images have been playing a healing role, helping me to process the long-forgotten “stuff” of childhood, the mysteries I didn’t know I knew, which, for better or for worse, have shaped who I am today."
Romina Mandrini was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and immigrated to Sydney, Australia at the age of nine, where she currently resides with her husband and four children. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Linguistics from the University of New South Wales, she went on to work in publishing as a children’s book editor. In 2012, following the birth of her fourth child, she discovered photography and has been gripped by it ever since. She is proud to have had her work exhibited at PhotoPlace Gallery in the US and PH21 Gallery in Hungary.
For more info about Mandrini go to:
www.facebook.com/rominamandriniphotographer
www.instagram.com/rominamandrini
Romina Mandrini says of her work, "I have been photographing my children since 2012, when photography took a hold of me. At first I was simply documenting our family life and striving to make beautiful portraits. With time, however, I found the images went on to reveal my children’s vulnerabilities, their strength and their fears, and the secrets of growing and changing that even they themselves were not always aware of.
And then came another discovery: in my children’s innocent gestures and in the awkward, in-between moments, I began to see glimpses of my own childhood and the pivotal experiences that I had not understood then, but could see with new eyes now – the uncomfortable unfolding of my growing up.
Minor White once said that “all photographs are self-portraits”. In this way my images have been playing a healing role, helping me to process the long-forgotten “stuff” of childhood, the mysteries I didn’t know I knew, which, for better or for worse, have shaped who I am today."
Romina Mandrini was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and immigrated to Sydney, Australia at the age of nine, where she currently resides with her husband and four children. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Linguistics from the University of New South Wales, she went on to work in publishing as a children’s book editor. In 2012, following the birth of her fourth child, she discovered photography and has been gripped by it ever since. She is proud to have had her work exhibited at PhotoPlace Gallery in the US and PH21 Gallery in Hungary.
For more info about Mandrini go to:
www.facebook.com/rominamandriniphotographer
www.instagram.com/rominamandrini
MI FAMIGLIA TIGHTS by Megan Jacobs
(click image for larger view)
(click image for larger view)
Curator Meredith McGrane: "Megan Jacob’s image, Mi Famiglia Tights, is another stellar example of a timeless and universal moment of childhood — holes in the tights of a little ballerina! I recall the same memories from my own childhood and have observed my daughter wear her tights bare as well. And isn’t it always the big toes to go first? I appreciate the photographer’s choice to present this image in color. The palette is harmonious and girly, fitting for her tiny dancer. The quilt also looks like it could be an heirloom,which speaks to the timelessness."
Megan Jacobs says of her work, "The series, Mi Familia, explores the vulnerability, intimacy and joy of motherhood and childhood. The work uses personal and universal perspectives to convey the complexities of these pivotal experiences. Joyous, and at times melancholic, the photographs explore fleeting and momentous moments as well as the detritus of childhood: a forgotten half-eaten ice cream cone or the weightless feeling of being outside on a summer day. The work at times explores “off moments” those that normally wouldn’t be included in a family photo album such as images that explore how we translate and remember pain. The work explores kinesthetic experiences that tie us to place experiences that are rooted in childhood and yet often dormant in adulthood: the feeling of fresh snow on one’s tongue or the dancing shadows on new powdered snow. The work hopes to pay tribute to the astute ways that children observe and see the world and investigates various stages of childhood as framed by family rituals and seasonal changes such as saving a locket of hair or observing the elongated shadows of summer.
The work seeks to create empathy, illicit nostalgia and honor the sanctity of childhood through the creation of moments filled with the magic of play, the captivating aspects of nature, yet overlaid with the inevitable fleetingness of it all. Aesthetically, the work seeks to create an ethereal beauty that rests on “love’s wings”."
Megan Jacobs is an artist based in New Mexico. She is an Honors College Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico and is the Vice-Chair of the Society for Photographic Education-Southwest Region. She earned an MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico and a BA from Smith College. Her work explores delicate relationships--our existence as material and concept, the interweaving of two partners in love and the bond of parent and child. The materials that she works with: photographs, video projections, time-based media, glass, and ice, function metaphorically to illustrate the ambiguity of the body and the mutability of memory and identity. Jacobs' lectures and exhibitions have been included at Saatchi Gallery [online], Photo Eye Gallery, Museum of New Art (MONA), Chinese International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, GoEun Museum of Photography, Busan, Korea, and Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
For more info about Jacobs go to:
www.meganjacobs.com
Megan Jacobs says of her work, "The series, Mi Familia, explores the vulnerability, intimacy and joy of motherhood and childhood. The work uses personal and universal perspectives to convey the complexities of these pivotal experiences. Joyous, and at times melancholic, the photographs explore fleeting and momentous moments as well as the detritus of childhood: a forgotten half-eaten ice cream cone or the weightless feeling of being outside on a summer day. The work at times explores “off moments” those that normally wouldn’t be included in a family photo album such as images that explore how we translate and remember pain. The work explores kinesthetic experiences that tie us to place experiences that are rooted in childhood and yet often dormant in adulthood: the feeling of fresh snow on one’s tongue or the dancing shadows on new powdered snow. The work hopes to pay tribute to the astute ways that children observe and see the world and investigates various stages of childhood as framed by family rituals and seasonal changes such as saving a locket of hair or observing the elongated shadows of summer.
The work seeks to create empathy, illicit nostalgia and honor the sanctity of childhood through the creation of moments filled with the magic of play, the captivating aspects of nature, yet overlaid with the inevitable fleetingness of it all. Aesthetically, the work seeks to create an ethereal beauty that rests on “love’s wings”."
Megan Jacobs is an artist based in New Mexico. She is an Honors College Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico and is the Vice-Chair of the Society for Photographic Education-Southwest Region. She earned an MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico and a BA from Smith College. Her work explores delicate relationships--our existence as material and concept, the interweaving of two partners in love and the bond of parent and child. The materials that she works with: photographs, video projections, time-based media, glass, and ice, function metaphorically to illustrate the ambiguity of the body and the mutability of memory and identity. Jacobs' lectures and exhibitions have been included at Saatchi Gallery [online], Photo Eye Gallery, Museum of New Art (MONA), Chinese International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, GoEun Museum of Photography, Busan, Korea, and Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
For more info about Jacobs go to:
www.meganjacobs.com
SEMELE BLUE WITH MAMA by Kim Gottlieb-Walker
(click on image for larger view)
(click on image for larger view)
Curator Meredith McGrane: "The intense and direct eye contact from the child, coupled with the tender motherly embrace, made this image, titled Semele Blue with Mama, for me to pass up. The figures in the background hint at a family event and this, a stolen moment captured in a photograph. I loved the grip of her little hands and the skin to skin contact, reminiscent of child birth itself. Portraiture is one thing, but emotive portraiture is quite another and Kim Gottlieb-Walker’s image nails it! "
Kim Gottlieb-Walker (b. 1947 Philadelphia, PA) is an American photographer living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 45 years, she has built a distinctive portfolio that includes some of the most notable musicians and personalities of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her mother, an assistant to a portrait photographer, gave Kim her first 35mm camera and taught Kim the basics of light and photography from early on.
A graduate of UCLA with honors in Motion Picture Production, Kim worked as a teaching assistant in the film department and began photographing at concerts while her professor, Bill Kerby, conducted interviews. This led to her classic portrait of Jimi Hendrix during Kerby’s 1967 interview with him, a photo Kim took when she was only twenty years old.
Kim worked as a photo editor in the LA underground scene of the early ‘70s, accompanying journalists on assignments and often shooting at the Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge where she photographed Andy Warhol and author Howard Fast.
She moved to London for a year, perfecting her skill of shooting live performances on stage during the early1970’s including Joni Mitchell at the Isle of Wight music festival and Pink Floyd in the recording studio. She shot the last photos of Gram Parsons jamming with his new discovery, Emmylou Harris, before his untimely death in 1973.
Kim’s ability to photograph candidly in natural light has produced some of her most iconic photographs in Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae, her first book which documents many never-before-seen photographs of reggae legends including Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Peter Tosh with commentary from Cameron Crowe, Roger Steffens and former Island Records head of Publicity, Jeff Walker. She went on to shoot film stills for John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Fog, Christine and Escape from New York and also worked at Paramount as unit photographer for Cheers and Family Ties.
In 1980, Kim was one of the first women admitted to the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600 and has served as an elected representative for still photographers on their National Executive Board for nearly three decades.
Currently, she devotes much of her time to assisting photographers in the Guild by organizing seminars in new digital technologies.
Kim Gottlieb Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Jamaican Consulate in New York, Proud Gallery in Camden and The Cinematographers’ Guild exhibit at PHOTO LA.
Her first USA solo show based on her book "Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae" was entitled I and Eye: The Photos of Kim Gottlieb-Walker, 1975-1976 was at KM Fine Arts in Los Angeles, CA. in 2014. She has been published in MOJO, Rolling Stone, Time, People, The Free Press, LA Weekly, Time Out, Feature Magazine, Music World and Crawdaddy. Her photos have appeared in several books including "Classic Hendrix" published by Genesis Press. Kim’s High Times cover photo of Bob Marley remains the magazine’s most popular cover to date. Her latest book "On Set with John Carpenter" has generated rave reviews
For more info about Gottlieb-Walker go to:
www.Lenswoman.com
Kim Gottlieb-Walker (b. 1947 Philadelphia, PA) is an American photographer living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 45 years, she has built a distinctive portfolio that includes some of the most notable musicians and personalities of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her mother, an assistant to a portrait photographer, gave Kim her first 35mm camera and taught Kim the basics of light and photography from early on.
A graduate of UCLA with honors in Motion Picture Production, Kim worked as a teaching assistant in the film department and began photographing at concerts while her professor, Bill Kerby, conducted interviews. This led to her classic portrait of Jimi Hendrix during Kerby’s 1967 interview with him, a photo Kim took when she was only twenty years old.
Kim worked as a photo editor in the LA underground scene of the early ‘70s, accompanying journalists on assignments and often shooting at the Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge where she photographed Andy Warhol and author Howard Fast.
She moved to London for a year, perfecting her skill of shooting live performances on stage during the early1970’s including Joni Mitchell at the Isle of Wight music festival and Pink Floyd in the recording studio. She shot the last photos of Gram Parsons jamming with his new discovery, Emmylou Harris, before his untimely death in 1973.
Kim’s ability to photograph candidly in natural light has produced some of her most iconic photographs in Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae, her first book which documents many never-before-seen photographs of reggae legends including Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Peter Tosh with commentary from Cameron Crowe, Roger Steffens and former Island Records head of Publicity, Jeff Walker. She went on to shoot film stills for John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Fog, Christine and Escape from New York and also worked at Paramount as unit photographer for Cheers and Family Ties.
In 1980, Kim was one of the first women admitted to the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600 and has served as an elected representative for still photographers on their National Executive Board for nearly three decades.
Currently, she devotes much of her time to assisting photographers in the Guild by organizing seminars in new digital technologies.
Kim Gottlieb Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Jamaican Consulate in New York, Proud Gallery in Camden and The Cinematographers’ Guild exhibit at PHOTO LA.
Her first USA solo show based on her book "Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae" was entitled I and Eye: The Photos of Kim Gottlieb-Walker, 1975-1976 was at KM Fine Arts in Los Angeles, CA. in 2014. She has been published in MOJO, Rolling Stone, Time, People, The Free Press, LA Weekly, Time Out, Feature Magazine, Music World and Crawdaddy. Her photos have appeared in several books including "Classic Hendrix" published by Genesis Press. Kim’s High Times cover photo of Bob Marley remains the magazine’s most popular cover to date. Her latest book "On Set with John Carpenter" has generated rave reviews
For more info about Gottlieb-Walker go to:
www.Lenswoman.com
