Aaron R. Turner: Moves from the Archive
On July 11, 2023, Aurora hosted an in-person talk with artist Aaron R. Turner, who discussed his new book, Moves from The Archive, which was published by Sleeper Studio in May 2023. Moves From The Archive is a richly layered book that pulls from a wide array of ideas, influences, and traditions. The photographs, which are a part of Turner’s larger and ongoing project Black Alchemy, re-present cultural and familial images, exploring them as both subject matter and material. Using the studio as a space for construction, Turner employs cut paper, projected and natural light, black cloth, mirrors, paint, oil sticks, cellophane and packaging materials for analog photography as building blocks for his images. The result is a formal language that exists in dialogue with legacies of nonrepresentational art in both photography and painting.
Workshop Arts: A Photobook case study
On June 22, 2023, Aurora PhotoCenter hosted a conversation with Caleb Cain Marcus, designer and head of publishing for Workshop Arts, as well as the artists whose books Workshop Arts published in its first program, including Elizabeth Clark Libert (Boy Crazy), Rita Nannini (First Stop Last Stop), and David Bernstein (Walker’s Vein). We talked about each book project, book design, and starting a new publishing company.
Eli craven Artist Talk
On February 2, 2023, Aurora PhotoCenter and the Herron School of Art + Design hosted an artist talk with Eli Craven, who was the August 2022 Aurora + Herron Artist in Residence. Craven spent two weeks in the amazing Herron School of Art darkrooms experimenting with found negatives using physical collage, double/multiple exposure, and assemblage. In this talk, the artist discusses his practice leading up to the residency, the work he produced during his time at Herron, and how the residency continues to influence his practice.
Remember Me: A Photobook case study
On December 1, 2022, Aurora hosted an online conversation about the making of Remember Me, by Preston Gannaway, to be published 2023 by GOST Books. 17 years in the making, Remember Me documents the family of Carolynne and Rich St. Pierre before and after Carolynne’s death from cancer. Depicting quiet and profound moments of an intimate family history, Gannaway was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2008 for Remember Me. In the years since Carolynne’s death, Gannaway has continued to photograph the youngest child, EJ, as he and his father live their lives without Carolynne. Gannaway writes about Remember Me, “While the first two years of the project chronicled what happened to a family facing terminal cancer, the work in the years since is more a meditation on ambiguous loss. . . . I’ve worked to make the project looser, more lyrical and more open to interpretation. I want the photos to belong to anyone’s experience.”
During our conversation with Preston Gannaway, we discussed the challenges and rewards of working on long-form projects, how the experience of making Remember Me differs from her first book, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and design and production decisions made specifically for the book, Remember Me, among other topics.
Belleville: A Photobook case study
On September 22, 2022, Aurora hosted an online conversation about the making of Belleville, by Thomas Boivin. Published by Stanley/Barker in April 2022, Belleville quickly gained a reputation for Boivin’s immediate and thoughtful street portraits and scenes, and for the elegance of the book’s text-free, quiet design. Published in an edition of 1,000 copies, Belleville is currently out of print. This conversation with Boivin and photographer Matthew Carroll explores the creative narrative of Belleville and other lessons learned over the course of Boivin’s career.
The Golden City: A Photobook case study
On June 23, 2022, Aurora hosted an online discussion about the making of The Golden City, by Mimi Plumb, published by Stanley/Barker. Made between 1984 and 2020, the images in The Golden City depict the people and places on the edges of San Francisco as the city experiences a widening divide between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. Plumb’s images investigate the relationship between wealth, power, and the landscape, with the incremental effects of climate change made visible in the city’s streets and people. The Golden City is Plumb’s third book, in addition to Landfall (2018, TBW Books) and The White Sky (2020, Stanley/Barker). Mimi Plumb discusses her experiences working with designers and publishers and other lessons learned over the course of her career in photobook publishing.
Wilderness of Mirrors: A Photobook case study
On March 24, 2022, Aurora hosted an online discussion with Chase Barnes and Jennifer Yoffy about the making of Wilderness of Mirrors, published June 2022 by Yoffy Press. Wilderness of Mirrors is a photographic survey of an emergent cybernetic landscape. Shot in a variety of locations—ranging from the political spectacle of Washington D.C. to the National Radio Quiet Zone in rural West Virginia—the project visualizes contemporary mechanisms of control that employ technology, anxiety, and images as a means to destabilize and restructure belief. Through diverse modes of image-making, the sequence unveils discrete social and technological systems which are embedded into the fabric of everyday life and serve to reinforce and advance dominant structures of capital and power.
The series presents these conditions as a veritable wilderness—a landscape of images and devices that infinitely deflects, replicates, and distorts any information within its borders. These devices fuel a hyper-partisan fervor and virulent strains of misinformation, all against a backdrop of psychographic advertising and domestic mass-surveillance. By guiding the viewer through these absurd surfaces and circumstances, the images allude to the ways our perception is quietly directed and managed via algorithm to the benefit of corporate interests and intelligence organizations.
This Is Bliss: A Photobook case study
On December 9, 2021, Aurora hosted an online discussion about the making of This Is Bliss, by Jon Horvath, co-published March 2022 by Yoffy Press and Fw: Books. From creative choices to economic necessities, Jon Horvath and Jennifer Yoffy discussed all stages of the project’s development, starting with the initial book concept to final (co)publication and distribution.
This Is Bliss is a transmedia narrative project investigating the vanishing roadside geography and culture of a rural Idaho town named Bliss. The project considers how mythologies of place and happiness collide, and are frequently confounded, in a location with a complex narrative of booms and busts that reflects the complicated history of American Idealism and Manifest Destiny. All that remains in Bliss is two gas stations, a school, a church, a diner, and two saloons to service its 300 current residents. Through a thorough look at the contemporary landscape and its residents, This Is Bliss contrasts romantic visions of the American West with its contemporary reality and considers how the heights of idealism are envisioned on both a personal and cultural level.
Residencies: Creative Potential & Practical Strategies
On October 21, 2021, Aurora, in conjunction with Herron School of Art + Design, hosted an online conversation with artist and August 2021 Aurora + Herron Resident Tarrah Krajnak; Hannah Frieser, Executive Director of the Center of Photography at Woodstock; Charles Guice, art advisor, curator, writer, and mentor; and Mary Goodwin, director at Aurora PhotoCenter, as they discussed the creative potential of residencies, both for artists and the institutions that sponsor them, as well as practical strategies for when, where, and how to engage a residency. Topics covered include the following, among others:
Matching your project needs to residencies
Tips, tricks, and the power of persistence when applying
Maximizing your time and asking for what you need at a residency
Plus, the best Q + A on residencies you’ve ever heard
Past paper // present marks: Responding to Rauschenberg
A Photobook case study
On September 30, 2021, Aurora hosted an online discussion about the making of Past Paper // Present Marks: Responding to Rauschenberg, by Jennifer Garza-Cuen and Odette England, published Summer 2021 by Radius Books. The artists discussed the creative possibilities of collaboration, both in image and book making, collaborating during a residency, and all the stages of the project’s development from initial idea to final publication.
Radius Books describes Past Paper // Present Marks:
“In 2018, Jennifer Garza-Cuen and Odette England spent a week at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency in Captiva, Florida, collaborating on a series of nearly 200 photograms. The images were made in Rauschenberg’s swimming pool, using expired 1970s gelatin silver paper found in his darkroom. The two artists ‘activated’ the paper by piercing or slashing the bags and envelopes using pens, scissors, or knives; folding the silver paper at odd angles; or layering them inside the bags. Some sank to the bottom of the pool, while others floated on top or by the filtration units. Exposures were made overnight and throughout the day, allowing different levels and intensities of sunlight, moonlight, and water to penetrate the paper.”
MorningStar: A Photobook case study
On July 22, 2021, Aurora hosted an online discussion about the making of MorningStar by Marshall Scheuttle, published July 2021 by Kris Graves Projects | Monolith. From creative choices to economic necessities and pandemic delays, Scheuttle, Graves, and Marcus discussed all stages of the project’s development from initial idea to final publication.
+ KGP | Monolith describes MorningStar:
“MorningStar shows us a Las Vegas in which the sky and the city, both blinkered with stars, stare back at each other impassively. The space between flashes which loom on the edge of an impending storm, or stillness in the wake of violent transgression. Caught in the crossfire, the people in Scheuttle’s photographs are alike in one undeniable regard: each, in his and her own way, is shot through with light. For some, that’s Las Vegas’s inescapable and smothering neon. For some, that’s the ominous and ageless light of the desert. And for some it’s the light that comes with the promise of a brand new day—the crisp sunlight that appears in the east once the morningstar has faded from the sky.”
Passing Place: A Photobook case study
On January 28, 2021, Aurora PhotoCenter moderated an online discussion about the making of Passing Place, by Sandy Carson, published November 2020 by Yoffy Press, and Jennifer Yoffy, publisher. From creative choices to economic necessities, Carson and Yoffy spoke about all stages of the project’s development from initial idea to final publication. Following I’ve Always Been a Cowboy in My Heart, Passing Place is their second publishing collaboration.
Passing Place is an intimate portrait of both Sandy Carson’s mother and the ex-mining village he grew up in the West of Scotland after emigrating to America at a young age. This photographic memoir deals with separation, space, and the invisible family bonds that exist despite physical distance incurred by geographical displacement. These photographs and memories, made on annual visits home since 2001, are a testimony to Carson’s upbringing and a gentle reminder that absence creates longing and nostalgia across the miles. Carson was drawn to make a record of everyday domestic rituals and routines during the rare times he and his mother spent together, to distill time with her portending passing in 2016.
Colonial Echo: A Photobook case study
On October 22, 2020, Aurora PhotoCenter moderated an online discussion about the making of Colonial Echo, by Rachelle Mozman Solano, published September 2020 by Kris Graves Projects. From creative choices to economic necessities, Mozman Solano and Graves spoke about about all stages of the project’s development, from initial idea to final publication, plus all the extra challenges inherent in publishing a book during a global pandemic.
The monograph Colonial Echo brings together two of Mozman’s related bodies of work, Casa de Mujeres and La Negra, as well as interviews. The work is based on her family biography, with Casa de Mujeres focusing on the experience and impact of colonialism in Panama, and La Negra addressing the time when her family migrated first to the American south, and then to New York City in the mid 1960s. Starting often from her biography and family history, Mozman explores how culture shapes individuals and how environment conditions behavior. Her work is concerned with the intersection of mythology, history, economics, and the psyche through photographs and films that confound fact and fictional narrative.
EXTINCTION PARTY: A Photobook case study
On June 25, 2020, Aurora hosted a conversation with the creative team behind Extinction Party, published by Yoffy Press in March 2020. This timely book offers an incisive look at our culture of mass consumption in a globalized world. Led by Aurora’s Mary Goodwin, the talk features photographer Jonathan Blaustein, designer Caleb Cain Marcus, and publisher Jennifer Yoffy for an evening of anecdotal stories, lessons, and experiences as Extinction Party went from idea to reality.
Absence Presence / An Interview with Chris Hill
Chris Hill is a photographer, writer, and educator living and working in Indianapolis, Indiana. We sat down with Chris in late January 2020 to discuss his career in images, influences on his work, and a closer look at selected series, including A Distraction on My Way to the Bus Stop, a multi-part projection that was featured in Aurora PhotoCenter’s exhibition, Is Everyday Extraordinary?, in 2019.
