I open the double glass doors to a building that was built in the 900s AD that now housed an artist studio. The interior was decorated with low oblong brick arches and cobble stone floors. The camera oscura was situated just across the double glass doors and darkened with two very thick red velvet curtains. The feeling you got in this space was as if you were a 15th century alchemist studying notes from their book in the dim light. The camera oscura was lined with shelving to the ceiling full of esoteric and miscellaneous photographic equipment left by it’s previous users. To my left a shelf was stocked with brown chemical bottles and miscellaneous equipment to mix photographic chemicals. To my right was a wood board that was created as a makeshift table to do your developing in. To the far right of that was an enlarger for photographic prints. The table space was just enough for my device as well as the photo chemicals trays. I almost felt like a time traveler – bringing a device and a photographic process that was relatively futuristic into a space that was there since the 900s AD.
Last Wednesday my parents and I left Wellesley, MA and drove the 4.5 hours or so to NYC for my reception in Brookly, NY. This reception was one of the more humbling experiences. It mirrored the experience I felt when I exhibited my work in Provincetown, MA for the first time. NYC, has had a prominent place in my childhood. I started to come to NYC as a scout and continued throughout high school and ended up going to a college that placed an emphasis on going into NYC. By the time I had graduated college I had been to NYC 8 times. As an art major I had always admired the artists I saw exhibiting their work in Soho or Chelsea and kind of dreamed that that would happen to me!
