Imagined Destinations
Curated by Beatrice ThorntonImage by Jenya ChernoffIn late April of 2020, the East Bay Photo Collective put out a call to ask how photographers are re-interpreting their spaces. We had a wonderful response, and it was a real delight select images for the show and the create a visual thread. The photographers also provided a short narrative for each image, describing their experience in reframing the familiar of their lives.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMSON: TRAVEL DREAM Rolleiflex on expired Panatomic-X film The image of the suitcase on the path was something I had a dream about (literally) and had to find a way to set up. It's a vintage suitcase that belonged to my mother. It takes on new meaning now as I am unable to travel to visit family in New York, much less any more exotic places. It is a melancholy image but has kernel of hope within it.
NICOLE WHITE: GRAND JUNCTION STATION Archival inkjet print Few people take long-distance trains today; the time needed to traverse the country via train is measured in days, not hours, and for most, that is too long. These images were made on the California Zephyr and the Lake Shore Limited from Emeryville, CA to Boston, MA multiple times.
NICK GAYLORD: PREVAILING WINDS Scanned 35mm negative, Bergger Pancro 400 developed in Rodinal This was taken in the park by my house, but on one of my first visits to a new corner of it. There's a theme here of finding new experiences in the familiar, but Bob Dylan might have something to say about which way the wind blows too. This tree, which never really stood a chance in that wind, survives nonetheless thanks to support someone provided, and grows into the shape of a sail.
PHILIP KRAYNA: ROAD TRIP Digital Photo This is a matchbox car I had on my bookshelf next to my desk. It's been sitting there for years. I am not sure where it came from. Bored, I taped the car to a piece of black paper, and placed in front of my laptop screen and shot with with a macro lens. Looking at the image, I imagine a road trip in a cool old car, winding down the California coast on a summer day.
GENE DOMINIQUE: SKYLINE Nuts, bolts, ball bearings, washers and screws. Pigment inks on archival paper. Skyline is a mash-up of cityscapes: New York, Singapore or San Francisco. It is metropolis re-imagined as anywhere yet it is nowhere. Skyline responds to the creative challenge, “can small construction supplies be transformed into a metaphorical city that reminds us of places we've visited, but that do not exist?”
SHIRA BEZALEL: LAUREL DISTRICT Digital Photo These unusually quiet days during the pandemic present a chance to observe elements of our neighborhoods that normally blend into the background. Unobstructed by the typical flow of people and cars in the Laurel District, this colorful row of shops and Oakland-looking tree shadow take center stage.
SONIA MELNIKOVA-RAICH: WE'LL FLY AGAIN ONE DAY Wistfully looking up at the sky, watching the symphony of clouds and contrails defying the banality of blue sky, marveling at their ephemeral beauty, longing for better times, for flying away to the faraway places...
J.M. GOLDING: (UNTITLED) Archival pigment print from film negative This photograph, made in a park a short walk from my home, incorporates a new perspective on where I live. It reflects both a world in which there is little clarity, and small signs of hope discovered through attention to the ordinary, often tiny, forms of nature in my immediate surroundings.
ROLFE HORN: SHELTER IN PLACE Selenium Toned Gelatin Silver As a landscape photographer, the shelter in place order inspired me to bring a part of the landscape inside to create a series of unique oak leaf portraits. I used the sabbatier effect while developing the film as an homage to Man Ray.
LAURA GIESDORF: SPIRALE C-print, 35 mm photograph Spirale alludes to my understanding of beauty in our world. It portrays a hollyhock which blossoms from below and continues to do so as it grows, reaching for the sky. Beauty is always present and continuously reborn, awaiting to be discovered.
RICHARD DWECK: HOUSE WALL VISITORS Digital Image Looking at my photographs you may see figures and faces of humans, animals or creatures. You might see the dance of light and shadow. But whatever you see, I hope you can sense the earth communicating with us- showing its mood, its personality and even its sense of humor.
MAX GARCIA: SUNBATHING BELOW PALM TREES Polaroid B&W SX-70 Film I take a trip to L.A. every spring; with the exception of this year. So, I started to look for fragments of L.A. at home. We passed by some deep shadows being cast by low hanging palm tree branches. My dog and I stopped to take in the moment.
MATT OSBORNE: OCEAN GLASS P30 film, scanned Abstracted lighthouse Fresnel lens
MICHAEL TERESKO: SOFA 4x5 view camera on film A black and white study of draped fabric and cat hair seen at home while sheltering in place.
MATTHEW BROWN: QUARANTINE FRIDGE Shot on HP5 120mm with Mamiya RB67 "Reflected kitchen light transports me back, Afternoons with Grandma, gluing popsicle sticks and learning how to write my name."
SHANNON CASSIDY: LONDON BRIDGE Nikon D90; Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G My son built these Lego architecture sets last year as a 9-year old. I stare at them often these days — the more time I spend at home during shelter-in-place, the less real the larger world feels, including the places these figures represent. The afternoon shadows help emphasize the inside/outside divide.
MILES STEUDING: NOMAD Scanned 120 color film The flashbulb briefly warms the palm of my hand, on a cold April morning, while sheltering in place.
JENYA CHERNOFF: EXTRA Digital Photograph A home is a container for the emotional states of its inhabitants. This image uses a dollhouse interior with found and constructed miniature objects to suggest an imagined dreamlike interior space. In a time of uncertainty and isolation, how do we respond to scarcity, vulnerability and the dissolution of structure?
SUSAN BURTON: ODDBALL Digital Photograph I've always felt a dance between my desire for connection and my need for solitude. As I navigate these strange times, the dance is becoming more fluid. The familiar appears strange, and the strange is becoming familiar.
ABBY WRIGHT: PLEASURE Digital Camcorder image I was thinking about jouissance from Jacques Lacan’s “Encore” however, in a post-structuralist sense of the term. I was studying this to denote a more excessive kind of pleasure and constant need to transgress the limits imposed on enjoyment and the pleasure principle through daydreaming.
ABBY WRIGHT: SECOND ORIGIN Digital Camcorder Image I was inspired by the title of the exhibition, "Imagined Destinations: Reframing the Familiar” in the making of these images. I was jarring multiple kitchen items and eggs to become one with my body. I have been self-isolating in my flat for a month and a half, most days mesh into the next and my thoughts seem to exist with my body, not separately. I have come to wonder how we will start anew, so I decided to experiment through a photograph.
HANNAH MACDONALD: CYCLE Shot on my iPhone 6s, edited on VSCO When riding my bicycle I don't feel trapped. I feel the rush of going down steep San Francisco hills and the smell of grass in Golden Gate park. Sometimes it’s hard to feel free. We’ll get moving again, but for now, one pedal at a time.
SAMANTHA ISADORA: SONOMA #7 "Color Negative 35mm Canon AE-1" "Having been in a creative slump this old image reignites my passion to capture. At a time where I was emotionally isolated in comparison to physically isolated I kept creating"
JASON FOSTER: SUNGLASSES Panasonic GH3 with Vintage 50mm f1.4 I was walking around the neighborhood, and found these sunglasses hanging from a tree. A warm breeze blew, and I was reminded of a beach in Mexico. I had a vintage Pentax lens on my Lumix GH3. I went for shallow depth of field on the interesting jute knot. I converted it to BNW to complete the mood when I got home.
JESSICA GREAUX: PLANTATION STROLL Digital Photo What I miss most since the shelter has been placed is structure and order. This image is an in-camera multiple exposure with intentional camera movement, creating an abstract sense of chaos with the lone figure giving one the feeling of being rooted and grounded.
JEFF GRIFFITHS: EARTH ANGEL Digital Montage Ancient Greeks believed mythological nymphs to be beautiful female nature spirits that watched over and nurtured earth’s resources and its inhabitants. Earth Angel is a digital montage depicting one such nymph watching over my neighborhood as another night of the COVID-lockdown drags on.
ANDI BENET: AGORA FOREST 8"x8" color print on resin coated paper. 120 format film (Lomography Lady Grey 400). “Imagined Destinations: Reframing the Familiar” evokes our sense of place warped by perception; photography allows scale, depth, and cropping to force a flattened immobile view. Agora Forest leans on the spirit photography tradition, using cut paper and multiple exposure to create a place that does not exist.
ATSUKO MORITA: TRANSITORY HOMETOWN Photogravure Nothing stays forever just like moving clouds, ocean waves, blooming flowers. I want to capture the time spans of a particular place. Pinhole photography gives a picture a dreamy look and feel even slightly surreal. Life itself can often seem like a dream. If the life span of a person could be captured in one shot it would be the ultimate pinhole photo. Hometown is where I was born and all the journeys start from there.
BRIAN Z SHAPIRO: FOUND 68 #1 Scanned found negatives I came across a couple hundred 4x5 negatives from the AP from early 1968. Looking through them I noticed the sense of optimism and hope the pictures showed. Seeing them now one can sense the dread and foreboding in them, knowing that the rest of the year was going to be one of assassinations, political turmoil, and riots.
BRIAN Z SHAPIRO: FOUND 68 #2 Scanned found negatives I came across a couple hundred 4x5 negatives from the AP from early 1968. Looking through them I noticed the sense of optimism and hope the pictures showed. Seeing them now one can sense the dread and foreboding in them, knowing that the rest of the year was going to be one of assassinations, political turmoil, and riots.
YELENA ZHAVORONKOVA: SF SKY "Lomography Action SamplerFilm/Scan/Digital Print" Missing my favorite Foggy San Francisco Sky, while sheltering in place at another California location. Stay safe, everybody.