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continued D I V I S I O N O F C O N T I N U I N G E D U C AT I O N · S C H O O L O F V I S U A L A R T S

C R E AT E / C O N N E C T/ C O M M U N I T Y

Photoville Reveals These Years of Change by Keren Moscovitch

What’s Inside

NE WS Faculty member Esteban Toro leads a sunset photo walk.

y first visit to Photoville was in the summer of 2012, when this innovative shipping container “village” first hit Pier 3, and Brooklyn Bridge Park was still an industrial zone devoid of the picturesque greenery that defines it today. In typical Brooklyn style, the place was full of people, dogs, art and beer. The mood was festive and the atmosphere balmy, and there was a feeling of something special emerging from the hot asphalt. Each gleaming metal continued on page 4 v

BEHIND THE SCENES Get to know the Photoville co-founders.

SPECIAL PROGR AMS Go behind the lens with Tiffany Smith and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow.

EXHIBITION Forty-three photographers share their visual notes on the changing times.

SVA Continuing Education News

Empire

POSTER ART by Leslie Tucker

Empire, 2011, photo-composite printed on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Photo Paper, 57"x40"

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FROM THE E X E C U T I V E D I R E C TO R C O N TINUED PRO JECT SPACE EX HIBITIONS

After nearly 22 years with the Division of Continuing Education (SVACE), Keren Moscovitch will be leaving her administrative position to pursue new directions. While saddened by her departure, I am excited that she will be publishing her doctoral dissertation as a book and moving forward in her career as a teacher, visual artist and scholar. Keren joined SVACE in the summer of 2000 as a course advisor. Four years later, her position expanded to overseeing the summer residency programs in painting, sculpture and photography. Under Keren’s tutelage, we now offer 15 residency programs in many disciplines. In addition, over the last two decades, Keren has introduced an array of new courses and specialized areas to SVACE, with offerings that include global arts, performance and art as activism. Keren’s dedication and efforts, coupled with her innovative pedagogical methods and knowledge of Canvas, enabled SVACE to quickly pivot its curriculum online during the pandemic. We are very grateful for her leadership and accomplishments.

Catalina Aranguren Confetti, 2019, New York City The idea of the “perceived” and the “actual” are rapidly shifting cultural concepts, though their ability to elicit reactions of fondness and fear remains a constant. As an artist, Catalina Aranguren has the unique opportunity to exemplify, subvert and redefine these concepts, adding her voice to a dialogue between the viewer and their history. THESE YEARS FALL ’21 PHOTOVILLE FESTIVAL ARTIST FOLLOW OUR STUDENT EXHIBITIONS #SVACESTUDENT

CON T I N U E D Summer 2022 edito ri a l sta ff Joseph Cipri, editorial director

SVACE wishes Keren continued success. — JOSEPH CIPRI , on behalf of the Division of Continuing Education

Sunset Photo Walk with a Traveler by Nivia Hernandez

Nika Lopez, managing editor Stephanie McGovern, editor vi sual arts pr ess, lt d . Anthony P. Rhodes, executive creative director Gail Anderson, creative director Brian E. Smith, design director Mark Maltais, art director Anthony Carhuayo, senior designer co n tri butor s Rachel Gisela Cohen Nivia Hernandez Viktor Koen Stephanie McGovern Keren Moscovitch Valerie Smaldone © 2022 Visual Arts Press, Ltd. ContinuEd is published by the Division of Continuing Education sch ool of vi sua l a rts David Rhodes President Anthony P. Rhodes Executive Vice President

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VOLUME XC I X • N UMBER 2 ContinuEd (USPS-004171), Copyright © 2022 by the Visual Arts Press, Ltd., is published quarterly by the School of Visual Arts, 209 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010. Call 212.592.2050 to subscribe. Periodicals postage is paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ContinuEd, 209 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010-3994.

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I spotted a group on the corner a few blocks away from the Brooklyn Bridge. Since all of them were holding cameras, I knew right then that I had found my people. As we gathered around in a circle, waiting to begin our adventure with travel photographer and new SVACE photography faculty member Esteban Toro, we were met with a kind introduction. Esteban asked us to individually introduce ourselves to the group, to share our interests and what we hoped to learn on our sunset photo walk. The students and I were eager to walk with Esteban, who has been to more than 50 countries around the world, passionately capturing his travels with his camera. There were students joining us from different boroughs of New York, and attendees visiting from Colombia. As we all walked alongside Esteban—clinging to his every word about light, composition and patience when photographing in the street or in busy public spaces, such as on the Brooklyn Bridge—we were able to ask him questions while photographing cityscapes of Manhattan and waiting for the right moment to take our shots of the city view and our model.

On our journey across the Brooklyn Bridge, he shared many of his composition tips, the process of planning a captivating photograph and how to take advantage of the available light. We had the opportunity to watch Esteban and his process while photographing in the magic of golden light and the “blue hour,” as well as take photographs of our own and receive some feedback from Esteban. We were able to be travelers and explorers with our cameras on our photo walk that day, and as some of us expressed to each other, we left feeling inspired and driven to continue our own adventures and expeditions around the city with our cameras in hand.

From top: SVACE photography faculty member Esteban Toro and SVACE advisor Stephanie McGovern on the Brooklyn Bridge during the 2021 sunset photo walk; Stephanie models for Esteban and the students near the Manhattan-side entrance to the bridge. Images by Nivia Hernandez.

Keren Moscovitch: Photoville Reveals These Years of Change

“The mood was festive and the atmosphere balmy, and there was a feeling of something special emerging from the hot asphalt.”

box was filled with the curated vision of a gallery, a publication, a school program or an independent curator. Photo prints tacked with magnets to the gray serrated walls nodded to the immediacy of the photographic medium—and to the memories so many of us share of ad hoc critique spaces decorated with work prints and enlivened with conversation. As an artist with a heavy background in photography, this environment is like home to me. I first arrived at SVA as a 21-year-old recent graduate of a liberal arts university, pining for the art school experience. I was excited to land a job in the Division of Continuing Education, which allowed me to fill my time taking in the smells of the painting studios and the fumes of the darkrooms, and a newfound appreciation for the thriving industry of art and design. The intervening years have taken me through an MFA from SVA’s Photography, Video and Related Media program (a dream come true), 15 years of teaching at a top-tier art institution (another dream), a PhD in philosophy and art theory, and various special projects encompassing curating, curriculum development, activism, event production, writing, and more. Since that hot summer along the East River, Photoville has come a long way, as has the world, and it was my

honor and pleasure to find my way back to Brooklyn with an exhibition of my own in the fall of 2021. The festival had expanded and moved up the river toward DUMBO as Brooklyn Bridge Park blossomed to life, and the COVID-19 pandemic forced the shipping containers to be replaced by open-air banners. Now, these visions could unfold to the public eye, creating a communal space for wandering through the stories unveiled along the

“I will continue to teach at SVA and be a part of this thriving creative community.” park’s green walkways. SVACE’s exhibition These Years featured 43 photographers from our community sharing their visual notes on the changing times. Through an open call, we invited students, faculty, staff and friends to respond to the last five years of events, starting with the presidential election of 2016 and moving through protests, pandemic, celebrations of identity, the grief of the climate catastrophe, and the process of healing from the collective wounds suffered by our global society. The

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team and I were floored by the results of our search and embarked on curating the collection of images you see within this publication. In surveying the submissions, I noticed certain themes emerging. Of course, there was Loss. In the midst of a tragic loss of global life, both human and environmental, how could there not be? And there was Power— in the abusive hands of authorities, as well as wielded by the uprising masses and by the quietest of individuals going about their daily work. I saw so much Honor—for the health-care workers risking their lives, and in the form of self-love and demonstrations of respect for one’s fellow citizens. And heapfuls of Love everywhere: in the family, on the streets and through charitable acts. Finally, and most obviously, perhaps, was the omnipresence of Change. Change may be the most distilled message of this exhibition and of this moment in history. As I wrap up my role as associate director of the Division of Continuing Education and embark upon the next chapter of my life as an artist and a scholar, I will continue to teach at SVA and be a part of this thriving creative community. As change continues to embrace us, we may experience loss—but we know we will never lose sight of what we love and honor, or of our own power.

1. Former course advisor Georgette Maniatis and SVACE faculty member Stacy Mehrfar at SVACE’s table at Photoville 2018; photo by Keren Moscovitch. 2. SVACE faculty member Barbara Nitke and student Erika Kapin at Photoville 2018; photo by Keren Moscovitch. 3. Visitors to Brooklyn Bridge Park viewing These Years, the SVACE banner exhibition at Photoville 2021; photo by Keren Moscovitch.

4. Keren Moscovitch with her partner, SVA faculty member Tom Benton; tintype by Penumbra Foundation emerging in a developing tray at Photoville 2018; photo by Keren Moscovitch. 5. Keren Moscovitch with Nika Lopez at Photoville 2021; photo by Ali Motamedi. 6. SVACE faculty members Jade Doskow and Keren Moscovitch at Photoville 2018; photo provided by Keren Moscovitch. Cover image: Visitor viewing installation of These Years, the SVACE banner exhibition at Photoville 2021; photo by Nika Lopez.

SVACE Community Highlight

WELCOME TO PHOTOVILLE by Valerie Smaldone

hotoville—the non-profit organization producing the popular photography festival launched 10 years ago by co-founders Sam Barzilay, Laura Roumanos and Dave Shelley— went from an idea to transform Brooklyn Bridge Park, displaying artwork in shipping containers, to a citywide festival celebrating the art of photography and photojournalism. In 2021, 600,000 people throughout New York City attended the festival. We asked Barzilay and Shelley how Photoville evolved through the years.

Did the pandemic accelerate the evolution of Photoville? For close to a decade, a large part of our identity was tied up in the utilization of shipping containers to exhibit photography. With Covid keeping us from gathering tightly together, we spread our geographic reach and were able to produce more than 80 exhibitions last year in outdoor settings for New Yorkers to enjoy in the neighborhoods where they live.

Why is it important for you to produce this free exhibition? There is so much incredible art out there, but there is no infrastructure to help anyone. You have to become a fully formed artist before people will support you. I don’t want to imagine a world where this doesn’t exist. And it should exist beyond us.

How did SVACE get involved? SVA has been involved from almost the very beginning. Viktor Koen, one of our board members and a person who came up with our whole brand identity, is now chair of SVA’s BFA Illustration and BFA Cartooning departments. It’s been so wonderful having SVA, as this is where the next generation is coming from.

How do you envision the future of Photoville? When we began, we had containers in our logo. Now, we can no longer use containers. The key to success is evolving. You must be unafraid to throw everything out the window and change because the world will change. Fifty years from now, I would like Photoville to be something I cannot recognize.

Shipping containers used to exhibit work under the Brooklyn Bridge; photo by Jessica Bal, Photoville 2019

What is it about the art of photography that has made it your life’s mission? Photography allows you to put yourself in the shoes of another person and understand how similar we are. If we understood each other, there would be less hatred, less racism and less fear. You can look at a photo and it doesn’t matter what language you are speaking. If I’ve done my job well, you’ll know what I’m trying to say.

Dave Shelley

Co-Founder, Creative Producer

by Viktor Koen

All artwork by Viktor Koen. Chair of BFA Illustration, BFA Cartooning and Coordinator of the Illustration Summer Residency

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Co-Founder, Executive Director

Sam Barzilay

Co-Founder, Creative Director

Learn more about the co-founders and the rest of the Photoville team at photoville.com.

PHOTOVILLE LOGO CREATION

Laura Roumanos

ig ideas need good names and this was our first challenge. To find it, extensive lists of verbal ingredients, brainstorming sessions and endless amounts of caffeine was the recipe. And a process that was more mathematical than anything else, in going through word combination after word combination until hitting the right hybrid to describe that grand yet humble photo destination, free and open to all. As inspiring as all of this was, working with such a passionate and motivated group of people can be a nightmare. And this was not. Sam, Laura and Dave were clear about defining and branding this new kind of welcoming world-

class photography festival. Reflecting a dynamic mix of award-winning series, socially conscious work and challenging subject matters required simplicity, attitude, consistency, balance and lots of shipping containers. Photoville’s identity is deployed (and tested) to a wide variety of application formats online and off— from bus shelters to temporary tattoos—and while this comes with many limitations, it also presents exciting opportunities for out-of-the-box thinking. Other than our core logo system, the yearly festival campaigns are based on new key art, giving each edition its own unique character. Attaching a shipping container icon to the logo directly referenced the festival origins but also provided a visual anchor to it, giving the type treatment a base. How protective the team was of the brand and the event’s reputation, gave the festival and its visual identity an instant air of legacy that often functioned as a seal of approval for work that had to be seen. The festival evolves, expands, adapts– as does the brand. After all, Photoville is a flexible, living organism, rigid only when it comes to its strong sense of purpose— showcasing images that matter in an ocean of visual static.

1. A video still from Ziyao’s episodic project Ms. Meta Meta, featuring at home beauty tutorials and skin care routines, single channel video, 2021

Image Making with Annie Chen Ziyao by Stephanie McGovern

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2.–5. Ziyao explores ideas centered on social environments and our relationship to the spaces we move in and out of.

he Division of Continuing Education is proud to highlight SVA MFA Photo, Video and Related Media alumnus and SVACE student Annie Chen Ziyao, an interdisciplinary artist showcased during the fall 2021 Photoville banner exhibition. Ziyao’s work combines new media to explore ideas centered on social environments and our relationship to the spaces we move in and out of—independently and as a whole. Aesthetically and conceptually, her images are glitch in nature—from their high color contrasts to their critical exploration on the merging of beauty and social media platforms. Not only is Ziyao an imagemaking pioneer, but she is also an active participant in the collaborative digital platform called :iidrr, a networked site designed to showcase artists and build creative communities. We took some time with Ziyao to learn more about her process and projects post-graduation as a New York City-based artist.

Can you explain your latest project Ms. Meta Meta and what motivated its formation? Ms. Meta Meta is a series of satirical videos including three episodes paired with an interactive installation and the use of augmented reality (AR). Ms. Meta Meta is a sassy social media influencer who leads viewers through her surreal beauty tutorials that accentuate rather than hide her visible flaws. The experience is a cyberfeminist, dream-like world where beauty standards have been upended and are replaced by new, irreverent and playful ideas.

I started working on this project because of my own personal experience dealing with social appearance anxiety. I want my work to encourage people to embrace their visible flaws, to be confident in how they look and raise awareness of social appearance anxiety.

Can you explain what the platform :iidrr is and how it came into being? My friend Shuwan and I founded the platform in the summer of 2020. :iidrr is a platform, an art hub and, more important, a community where creatives share their works, ideas and experiences. This past year, we had two online exhibitions and more than 25 discussion panels with artists at different points in their career. Overall, our mission is to bring people together and connect interesting ideas to find more possibilities in raising our voices.

What have you taken with you into the art world from SVA that has felt expansive to your practice? Living and working as an artist in NYC is not easy at all. Of course, I have to work multiple jobs to support my expenses—yet, at the same time,—I have to find the balance between working and making art. Being productive is very, very important, and I’m working on it. My experience at SVA made me jump out of my comfort zone and make art without limits. I started using different mediums after I got into the MFA Photo, Video and Related Media program. I took a lot of classes in new media art and post-production, and it made me think about how to use cyberspace as a medium to create work. 7

Artist Residency Programs 1

BEHIND THE LENS

WITH TIFFANY SMITH

AND JODIE LYN-KEE-CHOW

by Rachel Gisela Cohen

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Artist Residency Programs Coordinator Rachel Gisela Cohen sat down with Photoville artist Tiffany Smith and Artist Residency faculty member Jodie LynKee-Chow to learn more about the story behind Smith’s Photoville portrait.

RGC: Where was the featured Photoville picture taken? TS: In Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, New York, on Juneteenth 2021, the first federally recognized Juneteenth holiday. We were commissioned by the Blacksmiths—a coalition of artist-activists—to create activations for the Brooklyn Juneteenth Jubilee 2021. I presented a pop-up photo booth as part of my ongoing series Throned. Jodie was also a featured artist, and her costume was too perfect not to invite her to sit for a portrait, especially on this Juneteenth. JLKC: I remember seeing your throne and what came to my mind was that it looked so Caribbean! It took me back, seeing that aesthetic—the palm fronds, wicker chair, fauna. I remember inviting myself, and you also inviting me. TS: Yeah, and that’s a part of the reason I use the metaphor for the throne and the wicker chair. It’s a familiar fixture throughout the diaspora and in a lot of black and brown communities. I find it very interesting the ways it shows up differently in various spaces and the ways traditions have been built around it, and how it is a cultural fixture for family events and gatherings. What I try to draw out of the work I make is by connecting to the ways those practices tie us together and the importance of that, and how those connections happen outside of an art gallery. Connections to your family, your culture and where you come from. And that’s the interest for me 8 • CONTINUED

in using the metaphor of the chair because, for one side, it’s like a throne—so it’s kind of hard not to feel empowered when you sit in it—but then the other side is the familiarity of it. It’s a familiar fixture, and it breaks down a level of intimidation some people may feel when being photographed. It’s important to me to make those images, for them to function as family memories and a part of family history. I don’t sell the photographs. My motivation is not to profit off of this exchange—the power of it for me is in that it shows up in people’s homes.

RGC: Jodie, can you tell us about what you were doing there that day? JLKC: I’ve been working on this project Junkanooacome since 2018, and it is influenced by the Jamaican Jonkonnu, a pre-abolition satirical masquerade and decolonization satirical ceremony confronting slave masters, typically practiced during the Christmas holidays. I also just finished a coloring book and I wanted to showcase it and invite people of all ages to sit in this intervention space. I dressed up in my character, the lead character, who traditionally wears a house on their head. In traditional format, it would be the plantation house or house of parliament. I basically reinterpreted it as someone wearing a White House, and kind of made myself into a cartoon character. I asked participants to color pages from my book while I judged their drawings and collaborators paraded around. It was a way for me to engage with the audience, primarily Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Americans and other people who were there that day to support.

RGC: Does the lead character have a name? JLKC: Yeah, “Househead.”

1. Junkanooacome, Mixed media

with performance. 2018-ongoing. Presented by Para//ell Performance Space for “Chain Curation” in Brooklyn, NY May 2019. Photo credit Maria Fernanda Hubeaut 2. Throned activation in Fort Greene Park featuring artist Tiffany Smith, Juneteenth 2021. 3. Throned activation in Fort

Greene Park featuring Lauraberth Lima and Ariela Rothstein, Juneteenth 2021. 4. Throned activation in Fort

Greene Park featuring The Blacksmiths We Insist band, led by Candice Hoyes and Mimi Jones, Juneteenth 2021. 5. Junkanooacome, 2018–ongoing, mixed media with performance. Performed during “MADE in Queens’’ at Plaxall Gallery, June 2019. Photo by M. Charlene Stevens.

“I don’t sell the photographs. My motivation is not to profit off of this exchange—the power of it for me is in that it shows up in people’s homes.”

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

CHANGE

At Photoville 2021, SVACE presented These Years, an exhibition of images from our community that address the global events that have taken place since November 2016. Five themes were explored. The first and maybe the most distilled message of this collection, and of this moment in history, is how much is changing.

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3. Lothar Troeller

1. Claudia Schellenberg No prom this year “My images document the early days of coping with the pandemic. Here, a young woman is missing her senior prom but dressed up and posing for photos.”

2. Andrea Klausner Lady Liberty: Standing Strong “This photo was taken on the last tour of the abandoned immigrant hospital at Ellis Island, before the city shut down for COVID-19. Little did we know at that moment what was in store for us, just as the immigrants did not know what lay ahead for them.” 1

Rural New Jersey Houses #463 “This series shows facades —the outside structure, old, from around the middle of the last century—that defined rural Southern New Jersey. Now we are in a time of massproduced condominiums and prefab housing developments overtaking the state’s landscape.”

4. Andrew Ackerman Inter-Planetary Facial Coherence (Light), video still, From the Dark to the Light: An Immersive Video Experience “This rock-and-roll spiritual hybrid combines painting, performance, video and sound. Four spoken-word pieces describe the psychological and emotional planes reached during quarantine, the process of hiding and revealing oneself, a race’s last hope for survival, and our spiritual oneness and interconnected nature.”

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

5. Richard Rothman Town of C “Town of C is a photographic meditation on what lies beneath the unsettling surface of American culture, as seen through the lens of a small town along the Front Range of Southern Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The increasingly dystopian American experience is placed within the larger context of our disturbed presence in the world.”

6. Lisa di Donato Ontic Glow #8 “Ontic Glow combines two disparate technologies: the old mass medium of tintypes with new mass media imagery found in Google Earth’s 3D ground view. Photographs collected on ‘walks’ as a digital tourist through peripheral terrains and ‘no man’s lands’ generated by algorithms are reproduced in the tangible materiality of the wet plate collodion process.”

7. Leslie Tucker Empire “Plastics are in our homes to stay, and our oceans. Empire captures the regal dazzle of the multitude of polyethylene terephthalate water bottles found swimming in our oceans and basking on our shores.” 10

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“It is now at the point where it is despairing, the amount of interactions we have through computers.”

9. Claudia Hernandez

8. Pierre-Yves Linot Immigrant Song #129 Maria from El Salvador “The inhumanity of a policy against immigrants aroused my anger. As an immigrant to this country myself, I was inspired to invite other individuals with the same background to question what it means to be uprooted and learn what they left behind, what they faced when they arrived in this new country and how they feel about that.”

Zoom Fatigue “I began to take pictures of myself during special moments in the pandemic, expressing the emotions I was feeling during a specific time, like Zoom meetings as a consequence of social distancing. It is now at the point where it is despairing, the amount of interactions we have through computers.”

10. Saneun Hwang 4 Years of Waiting “This street photography series showcases two defining moments in the States that summarize the unprecedented year in two key words: Election and Pandemic. This image captures the moment when the result of the 2020 U.S. election was announced.”

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

HONOR

“I saw so much Honor—for the health-care workers risking their lives, and in the form of self-love and demonstrations of respect for one’s fellow citizens.” 1. Bianca Dunn Self Portrait “Experimenting in collage gave me a sense of freedom and looseness that I needed during such an isolating time. I found certain themes coming up in my work: the impact of humans’ overpopulation and overconsumption on Earth; the dichotomy of fragility and strength in nature; my identity as a Chinese American during the spread of COVID-19 and during the surge in white supremacist attacks; and my identity as a Chicana experiencing the disproportionate number of deaths of Black and brown people during the pandemic.”

2. Stacey Tyrell Columbia, from Pour La Victoire “The female allegories used to represent the colonizing countries of the Western world can be seen as one for the ideal of white womanhood during the

19th and early 20th centuries. Her magnanimous demeanor is permeated with her assumed cultural superiority, progress and civilization. There is a paradox that is embedded within the relationship of any colonial power and its former and current subjects. The figures in this series are an attempt to try to reconcile what really lies beneath these symbols of nationhood and for whom they are intended.”

3. Catalina Aranguren Confetti “I am a Latinx woman, mother, wife, immigrant, artist, curator, community organizer and social justice warrior. I was raised in two worlds at once, constantly fluctuating between two languages, two cultures and multiple points of view. My work explores the relationship between perception and cognition because of the diversity of cultures in which I grew up.”

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6. Sarah Paller

4. Katie Cercone Victory to the Mother! “Victory to the Mother! was an evening-length, participatory hip-hop yoga puja. Honoring five living goddesses, female embodiments of the divine delivered their origin story and, fed by hours of mantra, flew into spiritual ecstasy.”

5. Claudia Paul Trish, Emergency Nursing “Through my work in the hospital system during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, I witnessed the selfless and courageous actions of countless doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals. I will be forever grateful for their courage, unity and pure compassion for others.”

Then and Now “The politics of nostalgia are powerful and have a tight grip on so many in this country. ‘Make America Great Again’ resonated so deeply with so much of the U.S. population, and Marine Park was one of the few Brooklyn neighborhoods with a large population of Trump supporters. I try to understand and balance feelings of contempt and criticism while holding space for the nostalgic warmth that I experienced growing up there and taking these images.”

7. Steve Hoffman Untitled digital #6 “I spent more than a year traveling with and photographing the youth football team the Coney Island Sharks. I interviewed coaches and parents, mostly single mothers. I asked if they were afraid of football injuries. They all answered the same way. They felt that their sons needed strong male influences, and that outweighed the possibilities of injuries. There also was a strong sense of accomplishment for the boys.” 15

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

LOSS

“Of course, there was Loss. In the midst of a tragic loss of global life, both human and environmental, how could there not be?”

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3. Yam Chew Oh #covidexistence “My photographs are effective openings for people to enter and ponder various topics of concern. I aim to move them emotionally. My goal is that they are persuaded to stay, even if for just a little while—to reflect, to question, but also to imagine. I believe we can and ought to be activists for the personal as well as the universal.”

4. Nels Highberg

1. Maria Louceiro 3

Só “This image shows a human looking at the (seemingly infinite) landscape and facing the loneliness with this empty space (previously so full of life) we recently had to learn to maintain around each of us. The arid surroundings in brownish tones remind us that this same space we inhabit together (either we face it alone or not) deserves our individual and collective respect, as, if it dies, we will certainly die with it.”

2. Georgia Lale, documentation by Petros Lales

A Public Cleansing “A Public Cleansing is a threehour-long public performance that addresses the challenges of the American health-care system. During the piece, I was cleansing hospital gowns; some I collected during my cancer treatment and others were donated to me by health-care professionals and recovered COVID-19 patients. While the work challenges the government’s response, it also honors first responders and essential workers that are fighting against all odds on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Husband “In 2016, my husband died, instantly and unexpectedly. I went into shock. Then the election happened. My shock deepened, and everyone around me entered their own. Five years later, on the anniversary of his death, I do not recognize anything around me. I can no longer imagine him alive in this world. The month before he died, we went to Japan, a trip we had been planning for eight years. Five years later, I created this collage. It consists of ephemera from our trip. All the handwriting is his. Placed on top is the Japanese word for ‘husband’. Japan bans queer marriage, though a Japanese court ruled the ban is unconstitutional only months ago. Still, he was my legal husband in the United States, something we never imagined when we met in Ohio in 1994.”

5. Martin Abrahams Scared I Will Get the Virus “As an artist and visionary, it’s my responsibility to speak up for justice, indifference and human rights. I am a voice to speak out! A visual voice to be heard! Change comes with awareness, education and the calling out for truth. I’m only reflecting on what I feel is wrong. I am the mirror and the reflection.”

6. Robert Helman Taps “A ‘die-in’ to highlight how U.S. health insurance is killing people with holes in their coverage. The past five years have been ‘unprecedented’ to the point that the words ‘new normal,’ ‘this is not normal,’ ‘uncharted ground’ and any other group of adjectives that try to capture the weirdness of it all lost their meaning through overuse. These are pictures of ordinary people reacting to the time they are living in.”

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

7. Gabrielle Russomagno

Twenty Five Days in May “These photographs were taken during daily walks in my village graveyard, where in those handful of days more burials took place than in the preceding 500—proof that the pandemic was real, a protest against politicized news coverage and failures of the State. The images, seen together, recognize individual loss subsumed by collective grief.”

8. Julia Knoll Making It “I silently wandered the empty city—ripe with empty buildings with their windows into bygone times—with my camera and my introspective thoughts, reflecting on the state of our world and environment. Swimming alongside these reflective themes, in waters less than ideal, is our dear Mother Earth. The juxtaposition of our cities crowding out nature. Our planet, trying to pretend that everything is fine. My yearning for greenery that increased exponentially during COVID.”

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9. Leah Russell

10. Ali Motamedi

“Burning Bread” Passover Tradition “These images tell the story of a community coping with harrowing numbers of deaths from the pandemic. As in many cultures, these Orthodox Jewish groups triumph because they honor and celebrate their way of life and believe in a power greater than themselves.”

Untitled, the Oyster Bar ramps, Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan, New York “It was winter of 2020 when I moved into a new apartment in Manhattan. One month later, news from overseas brought word of an unknown virus: COVID-19 was spreading everywhere. Soon the stores, restaurants and museums were closed. The shadows of fear and loneliness were all over. The city that never sleeps was finally asleep.”

LOVE

“And heapfuls of Love, everywhere—in the family, on the streets and through charitable acts.” 1. Dioni Rodriguez Ccccaarly “It was enchanting to walk through Washington Square Park this past Pride. To be in the midst of Free people, celebrating their authentic selves to the fullest, in broad daylight with thousands of others across the spectrum after four long years of an intolerant government that dehumanized them and challenged their rights as citizens. As the full vibrancy of humanity flowed throughout the park, moments of individual beauty shined through.”

2. Jeanette Spicer S and Me from What it Means to Be Here “In this series, I capture the intimacy between non-heterosexual women with a sense of ordinariness and reverence for sex, pleasure and desire, with agency, honesty and spontaneity. Through this work, I call into question the historic photographic erasure of lesbian representation.”

3. Accra Shepp Cody with Onions - Fishmarket Restaurant, Astoria “This image comes from my ongoing project, The Covid Journals. It shows Cody, a volunteer at a local restaurant in Astoria, Queens, that donated food from its stores as well as the use of its refrigerated storage to hold donated items, like the sack of onions Cody holds. He and other volunteers were loading the food into trucks for distribution to food banks throughout Queens.”

“At this time in our collective lives, we need to notice and give compassion more than ever before.”

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

4. Stacy Mehrfar Untitled (Fire) “Stuck inside our Manhattan two-bedroom apartment, pandemic raging, our detachment from the outside had become extreme, unbearable, as if we were decomposing. After eight weeks of isolation, we finally got out for a hike at a city park. The open air was invigorating. Weekend treks quickly became a family ritual, as we recognized a kinship with nature as a necessity for renewal. We were in awe of what we saw: our vulnerability and interdependence reflected in the wonders of the forest. We found the cycles of growth, decay and rebirth manifested as formal and fluid. Sometimes we were confronted with loss. Mostly, we found life.”

5. Eniko Imre Watch the Queen “Depression is an epidemic in old age, especially in nursing homes and in the lonely households of the elderly. The Covid-19 pandemic has made the isolation of most elderly people even more severe. My friend Imre Berczeller turned 101 in May. It was a great joy to see him after more than a year, now that we are all vaccinated. Imre has a great time with my energetic seven-year-old son, in spite of the proliferating risk of my son breaking an artifact in his apartment. They had some vicious chess games and conversations. We can all make a difference.”

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“Photography makes us visible to each other in a way other mediums do not.”

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7. Elinor Carucci 6. Erika Kapin Keira and Kevin at Kevin’s Home “Polyamory is often defined as having intimate relationships with multiple people, with the full awareness and consent of those involved. Adults who love outside of the monogamous ideal often face negative repercussions. Because of the threat of social, familial and legal ramifications, many people in these relationships are forced to remain closeted. The stories in The Open Photo Project strive to destigmatize consensually nonmonogamous relationships by bringing awareness and cultivating empathy.”

“As the full vibrancy of humanity flowed throughout the park, moments of individual beauty shined through.”

Love and soap, Corona days “These days are days of fear, anxiety, sadness and tears, and days of financial and mental challenges. The coronavirus is a global threat, and so many aspects of our lives, some of which we took for granted, are gone. Yet some days, I feel grateful for these forced, intense quality times, how profoundly it bonds us, the opportunity for long, deep conversations, and revelations we would have never otherwise experienced. The necessity to profoundly know, love and protect each other. We must love and protect each other now. And we do.”

8. Mollye Miller 1066 Quarantine, Girl with Flowers “Seeing ourselves gives us a glimpse of our present and our past. Photography makes us visible to each other in a way other mediums do not. I know everyone says this about how they live, but I’ll say it too: at this moment in our collective lives, we need to notice and give compassion more than ever before. Maybe this time it will stick.”

2021 Photoville Exhibition | These Years

POWER

“And there was Power—in the abusive hands of authorities, as well as wielded by the uprising masses and by the quietest of individuals going about their daily work.”

1. Shweta Bist Plastic Couture “This photograph is inspired by conversations with my younger daughter about the dangers of plastic pollution. She had watched a video about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which stirred her curiosity and caused her much distress. There is plastic in what we wear, what we eat, how we shop and in our water. The imagery is a painful look at this reality from the perspective of a child, the one who will inherit the consequences of the degradation being caused by the present generation of adults.”

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2. Robert Stribley Respect “Some question the efficacy of protests and marches, but I cannot ignore the powerful feelings of solidarity and encouragement an individual takes away from these events. In a tumultuous time, when people may feel tempted to feel alone in their beliefs and feelings, they are reminded that they are, in fact, not alone.”

3. Annie Chen Ziyao City Vacation Stop 3 Local Market “In many Asian countries, society expects women to take care of the family– the priority of a woman is to be a good mother and a good wife. In recent years, many feminist groups started to fight for gender equity, but many mass media continue to reinforce the stereotype of women. In my work, the woman wears the bikini without any emotions on her face. She represents the people who start to fight for their rights but still face judgment from those surrounding them.”

4. Esteban Kuriel Freedom “As a Latino immigrant in the United States, the political environment reduced hope for my future in this country, especially during the previous presidency. This image reflects my psychological and emotional state regarding racial and immigration challenges and the many microaggressions that immigrants must overcome to integrate ourselves into a new society.”

6. Albert Abdul-Barr Wang Visions of Yeezus “This photo collage examines the self-reflexive navel-gazing of celebrity couples. In this case, Kanye and Kim, as well as their concomitant mythology, become the centerpiece of postmodern reflection. One questions whether their relationship is sincere or a simulation of their own reality as created via late- stage capitalism.”

5. Wrolf Courtney Cops vs. BLM By Moonlight “I was just finishing a meal with a friend on Bleecker Street, regaling my friend with tales of my protest photography, when squadrons of police in vans rushed past us, clearly on their way to an event in Washington Square Park. I followed. In the park was a BLM art protest–easels were set up, and rap music played with dancers. At 7:30, after I had been in the park for only five minutes, the police swooped in. They formed an armored line around the DJ as they confiscated the equipment, pushing everyone aside, pushing me to the ground.”

7. Tiffany Smith

Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow performing ‘Junkanooacome,’ Juneteenth 2021 “‘Throned’ is an ongoing interactive photographic project that creates empowered representations of subjects through staged portraits. The installation features a wicker throne chair/peacock chair as a central photo prop (a familiar fixture in Black and Caribbean celebrations). Participants are invited to create portraits within the set. This image was created on Juneteenth, days after it was declared a federal holiday.”

8. Jason Torres

Catalan Protest for Independence “My wife and I were on vacation in Barcelona in October 2019. When we got to the hotel, the lady at the front desk explained to us that this coming Monday there would be some protests around the city. We found out that it was the reaction to the sentencing of nine Catalan Independence leaders who were charged with sedition because the Catalan people want to be independent from Spain. That Monday, while we were at the Plaça de Catalunya, we saw a group of protesters coming down the street. Chanting, singing, and showing that they believe in the cause. What really amazed me were the amount of young people there understanding what is at stake. That the Catalan people do not feel equal in their own country, and making their voices heard in the hopes change will come.”

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Photoville Special Issue | SVA ContinuEd Newsletter Summer 2022