C.R.I.T.: 2012

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Nicole Elkins: The Window Series

“The Window Series” is a continuation in my exploration of suburbia. I find the marriage of natural and artificial light to be spellbinding as they mix in an overlap of the inside and outside view. Windows create a perfect frame for the scene that lies beyond. Changes in the seasons, development of landscape, and the passing of time are all elements of the environment morphing and evolving yet the frame remains the same.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Traverse Day Robinette: Somewhere Between Here and There

I use to find the best way for me to connect with nature was to hike as fast as I could. I had this idea if I travel a great distance I would experience nature better by seeing more. All this rushing proved to be, I was missing out on all the woods had to offer. I now take hours to travel the distance of a mile. I spend more time looking at and appreciating my surrounds. Being still is becoming part of the environment. Slowing myself down even more I journal about each image made. Thinking more about what I’m looking at and what the scene looks like before and after exposure, instead of capturing and moving on. Not only do I record the light and my settings, but also how I feel at that moment with all that is happening around me. It is a time for me to connect with nature and a time to disconnect from everyday life.

Noon Hill Reservation2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

I search for places close to Boston that make you feel miles away. Most of the reservations are quite small. All of the woods I visited are second generation growth. These places were cleared for farming and now new growth has taken over. I think these small parcels of land are just as important as the grandeur of any mountain or ocean. The beauty in this ordinary landscape is overwhelmingly powerful. Every tree, rock, twig, puddle is special and important. A puddle deserves the same attention as an ocean.

Rock Woods Reservation 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

Cooks Canyon 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

Underneath the canopy a complexity of layers unfolds and envelops me. I find my way through these layers by working out the patterns of the trees and undergrowth. Letting my gaze drift through this maze of layers I try to find spaces where there is an opening, looking for a way out at the same time finding enjoyment in being lost.

Cooks Canyon 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

Middlesex Fells 2011 © Traverse Day Robinette

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Hannah Bemelmans: Scotland

These pictures are from Calanais, Isle of Lewis part of the Scottish Hebrides. Calanais has 12 sites of Standing Stones and Ruins. The main site is known as Calanais and it is a stone circle which contains a small chambered tomb and has five rows of massive stones emanating out from it--one for East, South, and West, but two for North, which form an avenue. It is about 5000 years old and, like the rest of the standing stones, people can only speculate as to it’s purpose for being built. As a New Englander, the Land is both familiar for it’s pastoral nature but also starkly foreign and melancholic as it is treeless, rocky, and surrounded by tidal lochs. Together the Land and the Stones elicited in me a profound emotional response, the feeling of connection to those ancient people and, understanding that although they are a mystery, the feeling that the Stones make sense.


Calanais Stones (Site 1), Calanais, Scotland 2011 © Hannah Bemelmans

Cnoc Ceann a' Gharraidh (Site 2), Calanais Scotland 2011 © Hannah Bemelmans

Loch, Calanais, Scotland 2011 © Hannah Bemelmans

Loch Water, Calanais, Scotland 2011 © Hannah Bemelmans

Monday, November 12, 2012

Laura Miner: Pealing

What started as a simple documentation of a leak, became a complicated exploration of disgusting beauty. My bathroom air vent was leaking, and causing water damage to the paint. It was bubbling, pealing, and revealing a gross world above me. The night I took these images was the last straw.

For the past week, every night at 11pm - when my upstairs neighbor would shower - the air vent would drip a tiny drum beat on the foam padded toilet seat. This night the water damaged paint, six inches from the vent that was depositing the drip, was sweating and probably completely soaked.

My first images were purely for my landlord's eyes. I wanted to get closer and really show the horror of water gone rogue. This is what happens when tiny bits of water escape; it corrupts the paint. Standing on the toilet seat after the dripping ceased and the shower turned off upstairs, I got in as close as I could. I saw a tangle of lines and shapes. It was unrecognizable as the thing I knew it to be.

Later looking at the photos, some images play with my perspective, I can't tell at first if the shapes are concave or convex. I can't tell how deep the layers go, or if there is light shining behind them. It's the kind of thing that you see, and then blink, and it's changed; like looking through a chain linked fence and unfocusing your eyes.

I needed to appreciate the paint while it lasted, because I did intend on having it fixed. It went from wishing it was fixed right that second, to taking all the photos I could before I knew it would be gone. Right now it's painted over and smooth again, but I am thankful I have some expressive images to remember it by.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Micheal Powers: From the "Daydream" Series

I feel, as I have often feared, that I am transforming in to a secluded family figure. By exposing this fear, I can attempt to reverse the transformation.

This obsession with my family history brought about an internal struggle that had been previously submerged. The photographs I have made in response to that struggle depict a life of deep isolation from my parents, evoking an uncomfortable nostalgia for hauntingly familiar surroundings. Being inspired by past feelings of isolation led me to create these images where I can attempt a connection to the disconnected character I am so afraid of becoming.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Dina Shaposhnikova: Where Men Lighten The Darkness

This series of photographs was taken in Orlando, Florida. It was only my second night there and things were still looking pretty alien to me compared to the New England landscape that I was used to. Suddenly a quiet evening walk turned into an exploration, a study of celestial orbs and flora.

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