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.

Dina Shaposhnikova ©2012

Dina Shaposhnikova ©2012

Dina Shaposhnikova ©2012

Dina Shaposhnikova ©2012

Kitty Ethridge: Gene's Sister Arrives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gene's Sister Arrives at His Birthday Party ©2012 Kitty Ethridge

 

 

 

Not too long ago I had the pleasure of photographing a very special gentleman, Gene C.  It was his 90th birthday and the room was full of family and friends who had come to celebrate his life.  Clearly they all adored him.  This is a very loving family and a great amount of credit for this is due to Gene. All of them were unafraid to show emotion and affection for each another.  Gene himself led them in this regard. The last person to arrive at the party was his youngest sister.  He wasn't expecting her and so was very surprised to see her come in through the door. 

The Recognition ©2012 Kitty Ethridge

 It was the most poignant moment of the night.  Briefly she recognized him.  As she got closer to him her face lit up.  For a few minutes she was able to leave the yesterdays behind that are currently her realty and be in the present.  At least it seemed that way for the older brother she loved so much.

A Brother's Love ©2012 Kitty Ethridge

Issue 2 Release Party: Another Excellent Night For Photography

Top left to right: Hannah Bemelmans, Beth Gilbert, Kitty Ethridge, Traverse Robinette, Michael Powers, Peter Leavitt, Laura Miner, and Dina Shaposhnikova. Image courtesy of Kathleen Gens

Eddy Pula © 2012

On Saturday September 15th C.R.I.T. launched the second issue of our quarterly publication. It was a fabulous evening at Dowd Properties, the owner of which, Paula Dowd, generously hosted this event and exhibited our photographs.

It was a beautiful late summer evening in Davis Sq. and it is safe to say we had double the turn out from our last rollicking event at Aviary. It was very much a success.

Eddy Pula © 2012

Everyone from CRIT would like to thank our family, friends, and new friends for supporting us once again. Also, a special thanks to Paula Dowd for allowing us to use her business as a venue for this event and for exhibiting our photographs for the month of September.

Eddy Pula © 2012

The Summer 2012 issue of C.R.I.T. is available online for purchase here, in soft and hardcover.  

Cover image by Michael Powers © 2012

Laura Miner: San Francisco

Traveling is an excellent way to change your artistic perspective. Normally my photographic comfort zone is in the studio, but in July I went to San Francisco for the first time. For that week in San Fran I had the challenge of doing lots of street, architecture, and nature photography; generally unplanned photo moments. Though, my advantage was that everything was new and incredibly interesting to me.

Living Roof: California Academy of Science (CAS) 2012 © Laura Miner

It was my second trip to the west coast (my first time being Los Angeles). San Francisco is unique in that it's a west coast city that has held onto an majority of historical buildings; not just government buildings, but homes as well. There is a similar breadth of styles and eras as east coast cities contain, but with a focus on the Victorian era and lot more purple in the color palate.

Sea Lion: Nob Hill / Saturday Afternoon: Dolores Park 2012 © Laura Miner

 It was an incredibly busy week hitting all the landmarks possible. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Mission District, Dolores Park, Nob Hill, Twin Peaks, Alcatraz, China Town, and California Academy of Sciences are some of the areas I photographed. San Francisco didn't just give me excellent vacation photos. Unlike other trips, the images I brought back were inspiring to me artistically. It's September and I still get a buzz looking at these photos. Moving in this different direction recharged me, and I am looking forward to getting back to the studio (and taking more photos on-the-go).

Can't Find That In LA: Golden Gate Bridge 2012 © Laura Miner

Cafeteria Floor: Alcatraz / Buddah: China Town, SF 2012 © Laura Miner

Fence: The Mission 2012 © Laura Miner

Frog Back: CAS / Golden Gate Fog 2012 © Laura Miner

Eddy Pula

A man playing guitar through an AMP he built himself. Learned how at the old VFW in Turners Falls. Its pretty awesome; they are making out-of-work carpenters into luthers and makers of the finest Massachusetts hand built wooden music machines. 

Dude playing guitat through a amp at the old VFW

  © 2012 Eddy Pula

This is what it looks like outside; just dudes sipping beer in plastic chairs on the sidewalk. You see, the VFW closed sometime ago, and no one really knows whats going on inside anymore, but the sons and grand kids and neighborhood kids bike around and talk to the older guys guarding the door to the old bar.

Bo Diddley (one of my like top three personal idols) was a luther, made fiddles and such, then made his own kickass cherry red rectangle guitar (he donated it to the hard rock cafe…. the less said about that the better)

 Tunrers (SIC, its actually Turners) Falls Bike Gang in Silver

 © 2012 Eddy Pula

He used to play through a toilet on its side to get echo before he bough Chuck Berry's personal recording studio - with all the Les Paul designed wizardry that they used to make #1 hit singles back in the day. Did you know Bo Diddley only ever had one, and its like his worst novelty track? But it helped invent hip hop so its ok anyways. I digress.

 John Kurtyka's Tools Are From Outer Space

© 2012 Eddy Pula

One theory on why he called himself Bo Diddley: well back in the wilds of the south they used to run a single wire from the roof of the porch to the wooden floor and they would play bump bump… bump bump bump bump… which is basically exactly the Bo Diddley beat. The whole porch would become an instrument.

They called the string a Bo Diddley. Imagine how awesome it must of sounded back in like 1890, you got fiddles and banjo’s and a maybe a beat-to-shit tuba and the whole porch is rocking to the Bo Diddley beat.

Must of been awesome!

Barn People Choir © 2012 Eddy Pula

C.R.I.T. Quarterly: Issue 2 Release Party

Just in time for the end of summer, C.R.I.T. is releasing the second issue of our quarterly book. This summer issue includes the photographic works of artists Kitty Ethridge, Ben Gebo, Beth A. Gilbert, Peter Leavitt, Laura Miner, and Traverse Day Robinette. Also featured are the works of four new, warmly welcomed additions to C.R.I.T.: Hannah Bemelmans, Michael Powers, Eddy Pula, and Dina Shaposhnikova.  

Cover Image: © Michael Powers

Postcard Images © Eddy Pula and Ben Gebo

Featuring a thoughtful and enlightening introduction by photographer Stephen Tourlentes, C.R.I.T. is very proud to release this book to the public and to keep this new tradition going.

In celebration of the release, please join us on Saturday, September 15th at Dowd Properties in Davis Sq., 407 Highland Ave. Somerville, MA from 7:00pm - 10:00pm, for an exhibition of photographs from the publication along with light refreshments. Copies of Issue 2, along with limited copies of Issue 1, will be on sale at the reception. Issue 2 will also be available online beginning the day of the release; so stay tuned for the link!

C.R.I.T. featured on Photo Nights Boston Blog

We are pleased to share that C.R.I.T. was featured on the Photo Nights Boston blog this past week. As this is the first bit of press that C.R.I.T. has received, we couldn't be more thrilled!

Caitie Moore, PNB blog coordinator and director of Aint-Bad Magazine,  wrote an excellent piece about C.R.I.T.; describing who we are, the aims of our collective, and even promoted our first publication.


If you are not yet familiar, Photo Nights Boston is a non profit organization whose mission is to "celebrate the power of photography" through the public display of large scale projections of photographic work by Boston area artists. PNB plans to hold a Boston public photo festival in 2013. Their goals of "[capturing] the attention of the public" and "[engaging] the greater community in photography and celebrate the power of public art." fall right in line with the goals of C.R.I.T.

In the spirit of promoting local artists, (and those who promote local artists), please visit PNB's blog to see what they're up to and read about the artists they spotlight. You can donate to PNB here, and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks for following C.R.I.T. on our photographic journey and keep making pictures!