Taking In is a student run project featuring a selection of work created by students attending the Art Institute of Boston. The project focuses on the business of promoting art and culminates each year with a juried exhibition, publication. and website all designed to promote selected works of AIB artists. The selected pieces were chosen anonymously by a jury of distinguished members of the Boston art community to represent the best of AIB Photography in 2011. The book in your hands is the end result of a collective effort by those in the class.https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/taking_in/1004/thumbnail.jp

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Lesley UniversityDigitalCommons@LesleyTaking In Lesley University Student PublicationsSpring 2011Taking In: The Best of AIB Photography 2011AIB StudentsFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/taking_inPart of the Art Education Commons, Art Practice Commons, Book and Paper Commons, FineArts Commons, and the Photography CommonsThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Lesley University Student Publications at DigitalCommons@Lesley. It has been acceptedfor inclusion in Taking In by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Lesley. For more information, please contactdigitalcommons@lesley.edu.Recommended CitationStudents, AIB, "Taking In: The Best of AIB Photography 2011" (2011). Taking In. 5.https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/taking_in/5Taking In is a student run project featuring a selection of work created by students attending the Art Institute of Boston. The project focuses on the business of promoting art and culminates each year with a juried exhibition, publication and a website all designed to promote selected works of AlB artists. The selected pieces were chosen anonymously by a jury of distinguished members of the Boston art community to represent the best of AlB Photography in 2011. The book in your hands is the end result of a collective effort by those in the class. Forward Welcome to the ninth edition of Taking In, a collection of the best photography, and photographically integrated work created by the students of TI1e Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. This year's publication was mentored by Matthew Nash, produced by his Taking In class, and juried by Jim Fitts, former Director of Boston's Photographic Resource Center, and photographic artist, Caleb Cole. As in the previous editions, Matt's students, representing multiple departments within the college, immersed themselves in every facet of this annual publishing event. Their responsibilities included the financial realities of raising the necessary funds to print the book, selecting and hosting the jury, determining budgets and publicity, editing (a subjective experience that is not a simple task when done by an entire class), and collaborating on design, layout, and production. In addition, the Taking In students were charged with arranging, and hosting, an exhibition of the work that will be hung following publication. Taking In is a "real-world" publishing experience that demands an entirely different set of expectations from everyone involved. It is truly a collaboration of the images, ideas, and talents from all departments at AlB. The book has changed over the past decade and the process of selecting work for it represents a few new realities of photography... that it plays a primary role in our culture's day-to-day existence; from social networking, editorial illustration, world-altering documentary, and as a primary tool in every artistic discipline. Photography is no longer a single entity, but is unique among the arts in its ability to successfully integrate new technologies in harmony with traditional and contemporary media and artistic practice. The medium is so exciting now ... and in persistent flux. A look at the Photography degree requirements over the past several years will verify that simply fact. In this constantly evolving medium, and it is the artists, and students of the arts, pursuing their personal visions, who are cognitively defining the future of photography. For the last 182 years, photography has occupied a critical space in our communicative cultural vocabulary that is as vital as the written word. The language of photography is a formidable and compelling creative force, capable of transforming society through the power of its imagery. It is, more than any other form of visual expression, a nexus of art and culture ... and one that requires change in order to remain relevant. The Taking In concept has always been a simple one... to showcase the artistic diversity of all AlB students who incorporate photographic syntax, concepts, vision, and philosophy in their personal artistic expression. Phrased in a simpler manner, it is a publication that requires only the making of marks, and impressions, with light and imagination is all that is required. Having seen the selected work, this year's edition of Taking In promises to be a terrific book and one that thoroughly reflects the eclectic, and creative, visual intelligence of an enormously talented group of young artists. It well represents an equally gifted faculty of artist I teachers whom I have the pleasure of working with throughout the year. I am grateful to those who have generously donated to tl1e production ofTaking In, to those who believe in what this annual collaborative enterprise means to AlB and tl1e University, to Matthew Nash for his mentorship and guidance, and to tl1e students of AlB who love making images. Christopher James Director of MFA in Photography Chair of Photography March 2011 The urors Jim Fitts Jim has been a fine arts photography teacher, lecturer, curator, and photographer for over 30 years. Jim was also a teacher at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University where he taught portfolio development. Jim has curated three photography exhibitions for the PRC/MIT Gallery. He has served as a reviewer for the 2009 Photolucida portfolio reviews and the 2010 FotoFest portfolio reviews. He has also served as portfolio reviewer for the New England Portfolio Reviews and the Savannah College of Art and Design reviews. He has curated the SSAC Photography Now exhibition as well as serving twice as a juror for their member exhibition. In early 2011, he co-curated Instant Connections, an exhibition of photographs by photographers who use Polaroid technology in the creation of their work. His personal work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In 2010 Jim's recent work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Yamawaki Gallery at Lasell College. Caleb Cole Born in Indianapolis (1981) , Caleb Cole is a former altar server, scout, and 4-H Grand Champion in Gift Wrapping. His mother instilled in him a love of garage sales and thrift stores, where he developed a fascination with the junk that people leave behind. Cole is a 2011 Somerville Arts Council Fellowship awardee, 2010 Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Winner, 2009 Artadia Award winner, and a 2009 Photolucida Critical Mass finalist. He has exhibited at a variety of venues, including Gallery Kayafas (Boston), the Danforth Museum of Art, Photo Center Northwest (Seattle) , Good Citizen Gallery (St. Louis), Childs Gallery (Boston), and Farmani Gallery (NY). Cole was also recently featured in Boston Magazine (HOME) as an emerging photographer who is "shaking up New England's visual arts scene:' He is represented by Gallery Kayafas (Boston) where he recently exhibited a solo show of Other People's Clothes. I ~ Essay: Re-Placing Photography Travis Hocutt From the series "The Moon Isn't Far Enough" 6x6 Wet Plate Collodion By Catie Norcott AlB Class of 20 I I The development of photographic technology has undoubtedly shaped modern visual culture. Much like digital technology, it provided access to information across time and space. For the greater part of its early history, the photographic image served as a sort of democratic image, responding to the needs of the public. Despite its role in the reassessment of other media and the expansion of visual practice, photography has only recently developed an inward looking, self-critical focus. George Baker, in his essay "Photography's Expanded Field" pointed to the rise of digital image-making as the primary catalyst behind contemporary photographic practice.' In a world shaped by technological advancements, projections, screens and digitally-available images, the discourses surrounding traditional practice no longer apply. Undoubtedly, technological advancements have drastically changed the photographic landscape. Rather tl1an dismiss these shifts as Inauthentic. Baker called for the reassessm 11t of critical engagement with photography, more appropriate to forms of contemporary art, "... one that will answer to neither teclmological exegesis nor traditional formalist criteria:'2 As newer technology challenges the significance of the singular photographic object, tl1e meaning and place in visual practice must be investigated with renewed interest. Even as the presence of traditional object forms is din1inished in artistic practice, Baker commented that, "sometl1ing like a photographic effect still remains--survives, perhaps in a new, altered form:'3 Only through a critical reassessment of the traditional photographic object and the reconstruction of a new model based on its essential effects, is it possible to fully engage the photographic potential within contemporary production. One of photography's unique characteristics is the role of the photograph as a direct link in time and space between the artist and the viewer. This link yields a visual product that, according to the essay "The Rhetoric of the Image~ by Roland Barthes, becomes both "spatial immediacy and temporal anteriority, the photograph being an illogical conjunction between the here-now and the there-then:'4 From its beginnings, analog photography laid claim to "having-been-there: As a result of digital technology, neither spatial immediacy nor temporal anteriority bear a clear relationship with images any longer. Indeed, digital is almost synonymous with distance, in the sense that it allows contact across time and space while simultaneously denying the physical expression of that contact. Not only have individuals become increasingly alienated from their environments, but code has subsumed the physical photograph, creating distance between it and the artist Within a digital reality, the relationship of an image to its site becomes more tenuous than ever. Though contradiction and changes in production might signal the end of a medium, Baker cited these theoretical oppositions as opportunities for the expansion of visual practice.5 Therefore, out of the opposition between the distance of the digital and the proximity of the analog we can begin to reconstruct photography within an expanded field Once situated within a specific discourse, it becomes essential to locate and map, within contemporary photographic practice, the distance/proximity binary. One trend, related to an increasingly democratic realm of photographic production, is the use of found images. Much like digital technology, the act of using found images immediately creates distance between the photographer and the image. Here the photograph takes on an ambiguous position between the two oppositional forces, continuing to suggest a definite past but at the same time operating with considerable distance from the artist and consequently the viewer. When compared to traditionalist photography, found image work seems revolutionary not only in the sense that it creates distance, but also that it subverts the idea of the photographer's unique vision, the decisive moment. In some cases the artist employs sequencing, text, or other techniques to re-establish a connection to the work. Gerhard Richter's '1\tlas" seems a prime example of this ambiguous engagement with external content. The project is a collection of over 5,000 photographs, newspaper clippings and sketches all from the artist's personal collection. Here Richter integrates distant images, notably newspaper clippings, with more personal images, such as those of his family and his own drawings to create a critical examination of his own practice. Meant to contextualize his work, it also extends to critically approach a visual culture in which images are simultaneously relatable and distant. Tacita Dean also engaged this tradition with "Floh': a series of images discovered at flea markets across Europe and America. It could be said that Dean submits completely to the notion of distance, as the collection holds neither personal images nor works of her hand. Additionally, the work has been described as simply mourning the obsolescence of analog image-making with the rise of the digital.6 At the same time though, the act of selecting and arranging found images could arguably be a re-conceptualization of the decisive moment. Poring over discarded photographs in the post-digital world assumes the same level of investment as scanning the environment and framing the shot. Additionally, Dean structures a higher level of meaning and artistic investment by sequencing the images to create visual rhythms. Dean and Richter, by re-envisioning the place of photography, have become part of an important precedent in contemporary art. A similar engagement with the boundaries of photography can be seen in recent work by Art Institute of Boston graduate, Travis Hocutt. In the project, "The Moon Isn't Far Enough': Hocutt re-interprets traditional formalist criteria in a post-analog reality. The work, printed in various historical processes, appears at first to be little more than desolate landscapes and microscopic views. The images, however, collie from NASAS digital collection on the Mars Rover. By using digital originals and re-contextualizing them within a conceptual narrative of exploration, Hocutt engages both distance and proximity. The images present a world that is completely removed from the artist and the viewer; an utterly foreign landscape. By printing them using historical photographic processes, Hocutt adds a layer of temporal distance to the experience of the images. The expectation age, compounded by the immense physical distance between the subject and the site seems to reconcile the project to the side of distance. Yet at the same time, he engages a tactile presence in the physicality of the images, the process pf their making, and in the cultural associations attached to exploration. Unlike their digital predecessors, the photographic object has weight and particular visual features. These artists become markers, defining the contemporary field of photographic practice. For quite some time, however, critical discourse has been stuck between, as Baker stated, technological exegesis and traditional formalist criteria.7 The work already exists; Dean, Richter, Hocutt and others are re-envisioning photographic meaning. It is time now for critical discourse to become more fully engaged in the oppositions between traditional photography and contemporary practice. As photography enters into a digital reality, it calls for a critical practice willing to place the photographic effect within an ever-changing visual culture. The opposition between distance and proximity, is one among paths in photography's expanded field. 1. Baker, George. "Photography's Expanded Field Octobervol. 114 (2005). pp. 120-140. 4. Barthes, Roland. "The Rhetoric of the Image. Classic Essays on Photography. ed. Alan Trachtenberg. 6. Godfrey, Mark. "Photography Found and Lost: On Tacita Dean's Floh:' October vol. 114 (2005). 2. Ibid. p.123 3. Ibid. New Haven, CT: Leete's Island Books, 1980. p. 278. 5. Baker, George. "Photography's Expanded Field" p. 124 pp. 90-119. 7. Baker George. "Photography's Expanded Field" p.123. Jared Kuzia 9 Sam in Walden Pond 20x24 C-print Anthony Foraging 20x24 C-print www.jaredkuzia.com Charisma 12x16 Silver Gelatin Twins 12x16 Silver Gelatin Matthew los rc; Adam Brochstein Untitled llx14 C-print Untitled llx14 C-print www.adambrochstein.com 'I Buck Squibb I \\--Chez Vous #5 16x20 C-print Chez Vous #2 16x20 C-print www.bucksquibb.com \ ~ Nikki Segarra Untitled (from the Modem Bohemian Series) 6.5x9.5 Platinum Print Untitled (from the Modern Bohemian Series) 6.5x9.5 Platinum Print www.nikkisegarra.com Natalie Kennedy Satellite Lot llx14 Digital C-print Fir llx14 Digital C-print Untitled 20x24 Silver Gelatin Untitled 20x24 Silver Gelatin Untitled 20x24 Silver Gelatin www.danielbleckley.com Dan leckley Liana Mestas Zarzour Swordfish 15x15 C-print Owen & Gaines 15x15 C-print Untitled 20x24 Digital C-print Untitled 20x24 Digital C-print Dan Aguirre r j / Michela Finnegan Disconnected llxl4 Digital C-print Head of the Table llxl4 Digital C-print www.flickr.com I photos I mkatheen Untitled 8x10 Archival Inkjet Untitled 8x10 Archival Inkjet Guinevere F reccia ~\.\ Bryan Donovan Slide to Nineveh llxl4 Silver Gelatin Spiritual Wmfare llxl4 Silver Gelatin Annie Brignolo #3 20x24 Mixed Media #5 20x24 Mixed Media Chris Mcintosh Untitled llx14 Digital C-print Untitled llx14 Digital C-print www.cmcintoshphoto.com Erik Gullard Parking Structure 16.5x10 Digital C-print Diner 16.5x10 Digital C-print www.erikgullard.com .Ji SHS-5 16x20 Archival Inkjet SHS-4 16x20 Archival Inkjet www.kylemullane.com Kyle Mullane Jake Biernat Rough llx17 Digital C-print Deciding llx17 Digital C-print www.jakebiernat.com aolo Morales ~' ' ,"-, / Untitled 20x16 C-print Untitled 20x16 C-print Blau Sein llx14 Archival Inkjet Picture Glare llx14 Archival Inkjet Rachel Hatch Katie Searles Jon llx14 C-print Untitled llx14 C-print Peter Baryshnikov Untitled llx14 Silver Gelatin Untitled llx14 Silver Gelatin www. peterbaryshnikov.com 'f'fte .\rl lr1"'1i111U' (~/l3o~IOII 

Taking In: The Best of AIB Photography 2011

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Taking In: The Best of AIB Photography 2011

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