Current MFA Photography Candidate Hannah Harley Featured in ‘Same Light, New Exposure’
Current MFA Photography Student Hannah Harley has recently been featured in the ‘Same Light, New Exposure’ exhibition in Brooklyn. The exhibition is curated by SVA MA Curatorial Practice fellow Birdie Piccininni and includes the artists: Claire Beckett, Zach Blas, Endia Beal, Rae Clarke Hendel, Amanda Elam. The exhibition began April 19 and runs until May 4, 2018. You can read the SVA press release below.
Location: Pfizer Building, 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Birdie Piccininni at epiccininni@sva.edu
“SVA MA Curatorial Practice is pleased to present Same Light, New Exposure, curated by SVA MA Curatorial Practice fellow Birdie Piccininni. Same Light, New Exposure will provide a concentrated look at a handful of contemporary photographers who use various styles and techniques to unfold the lives of their subjects. As a society, we are inundated with enormous amounts of images with fake news, hoax photos, data mining, surveillance, and selfies, which run amok in the press and social media. Same Light, New Exposure will allow for imagery involving identity, social reform, and craftsmanship to uncover the brutality of proposed perceptions. The dialogue between artist and subject that was necessary in creating these images is a prime example of how we can and should approach the “others” in our perceived societies. This exhibition will be a reminder and space for the audience to question what is told to them, what they know, and continue the conversation of equality and inclusivity.
“Same Light, New Exposure will include works from Claire Beckett, Hannah Harley, Rae Clarke Hendel, Endia Beal, Zach Blas, and Amanda Elam. This group of artists pushes back against complacency by slowing down their artistic process and utilizing technologies available to them to establish a profound exchange with their subjects. Beckett’s journey with her project The Converts (2013-present) fuels her remarkable compilations of intimacy, which exudes from these portraits and grew from the relationships Beckett has built with the community, religion, and individuals of her work. Harley will have an interactive installation of her portrait project Statecraft (2017), which explores the politicization of the self to dissect how individual’s presentation is a political act. Hendel’s mixture of photography, painting, embroidery, and cloth in her ongoing series, Women Identified Work, approaches portraiture as a way to express the layers and textures of individuals, quite literally. Beal’s Am I What You’re Looking For? (2016) features young women of color who are transitioning from academia to the corporate world; capturing their struggles and fears of being themselves in corporate America. As an examination of the dehumanization behind biometrics, this exhibition will feature Blas’ video portraits from Face Cages (2013-16) through metal face cages that the individuals wear in endurance performance. Elam will be performing live studio sessions with the audience as a continuance of her project I remember it, but I can’t be sure it happened (2015) which is a reminder to us reassess what we believe to be true and how we should question constructed realities.
“The artists represented in Same Light, New Exposure address a range of subject matter but all share a similar message through collaboration and work with their subjects to reclaim power. Same Light, New Exposure will bring together artists who conquer a relationship between a subtle sweetness and depth of the face. Light may be necessary to expose a negative or digital capture, but within the genre of portraiture, these artists also use light to expose stories that would otherwise go unnoticed. Employing the history of photographic portraiture, these contemporary artists, working with the powerful techniques and tools available to them today, are creating works with the same light, resulting in a new exposure.”