Atlanta's Hagedorn Foundation Gallery is opening a group show of work by photographers who are women and who are all based in the South, and they are calling it Women's Work. Or so says the ACP blog. This show opens on March 2nd, 2011, with a reception from 6-9 pm, and will be up through April 18th, 2011.
UPDATED: Turns out the name of the show is HOME: Spring Group Show according to the Hagehorn Gallery website. Is that helpful? Is photography Women's Work at Home? Is women's place at home doing photography?
If I were a woman, I'm not sure I'd want to be in a show with either of these titles. Maybe the shooters in this show who work in Atlanta ought to check with the Gallery and the ACP folks about these titles. In any case, the title of the show has nothing to do with the work or with the photographers, who are first-class shooters and who would be, under any circumstances, at home or away.
This show includes work by photographers with whom I am familiar -- Susan Harbage Page, Laura Noel, and Stephanie Dowda -- and some new folks, at least to me, including Beth Lilly, Tobia Makover, and Meryl Truett. The work chosen -- most of which is available on the Hagedorn Foundation's website for our contemplation -- looks exceptionally strong, providing a survey of what a number of Southern photographers who are women are up to these days.
Susan Harbage Page is based in Chapel Hill, where she is a member of the studio art faculty at the University of North Carolina. We have seen her work lately engaging in deep social issues like race and immigration. Good to see in the work she has on offer here that she has found time to contemplate some quieter, gentler subject matter.
Laura Noel, who lives and shoots in Atlanta, has work here from her ongoing project with diptychs, with bringing together two images that establish intriguing conversations with each other. Some of these images are familiar to followers of Laura's blog Alls Fair, but not in the combinations she has made here.
Stephanie Dowda is also based in Atlanta, and has been making work in what looks like an older neighborhood of that city, but the enigmatic figures she has found in this neighborhood suggest I'm about to follow them into a Flannery O'Conner short story, with unpredictable outcomes.
Beth Lilly is also based in Atlanta: she is engaged in a long-term project with cell phones and triptychs, but her work in this show is about dreams of a red elephant.
Tobia Makover is also based in Savannah, and works extensively in alternative processes, including the encaustic work shown here and at the top of this blog entry.
This looks like a fascinating show, well worth the trip to Atlanta in March to see it.