Main Gallery: 6.20.12 – 6.15.12
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 20th, 6-8p
My White Friends
My White Friends extends Myra Greene’s 10-year exploration into photography’s description of race. Images initially read as benign portraits of a cross section of white American life, yet the impetus for their creation lies in an undercurrent of racial description. By photographing friends, peers, and mentors, Greene visually ponders if photography can capture and describe the nuances of whiteness. Do gesture and environment allude to a lived truth, a performance by the sitter, or stereotype implored by the photographer herself? These photographs offer descriptions instead of resolutions. Readers charged with dissecting coded information, are confronted with their own notions of race.
Support provided by Columbia College Chicago
Personal Space
Leon Alesi is a portrait photographer interested in exploring connection, vulnerability and intimacy with his subjects. “”Personal Space”" is a series in which Alesi interacts with people in their private environments. Shooting his subjects in their homes, Alesi becomes witness to the subtle ways one inhabits a space. The portraits are rich in information and narrative, each with a unique honesty. Inner details are revealed, enhanced by the intimate nature of the individual’s home and the clues within. The images act as quiet escapes, voyeuristic avenues leading to a myriad of personalities, environments, space and time. Alesi manages to unveil what is not readily available to the outside world; sometimes exposing things that even the subjects themselves are unaware of. What results is a process of discovery, shared by photographer, subject, and finally viewer.
The final work is presented as large-scale color photographs. The size and intimacy of the pieces allow the viewer to gaze freely and construct their own fictional account of the scene, creating one where self-discovery, perception, individuality, and connection supply the context.
