On ReStaging... Photoville 2015

An exhibition of 14 photo-based projects by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Department of Photography & Imaging faculty, alumni and students.  The works re-stage birth, death, war, beauty, the land, identity, family, and history. Memory is central to the practice of making images that create tension between conceptualizing past moments through the photographer’s lens. Rebecca Arthur’s self-portraits titled “Primitive Humans” is a reflection on humanity, by looking at the past, she is attempting to reconfigure ideas about evolution.  Mike Berlin’s search for joy in his photographic work acts as a balance to the mundane of a 9-5 work schedule. Myles Golden’s “Black Americana” series forces us to look closely at the idea of stereotyping of African Americans and public perception. As a photojournalism Bryan Denton shares his photographs of his experience in Afghanistan.  Rose DeSiano’s “War Tapestries" series reconstructs historical moments through contemporary photographs reframing of events. Lindsay He’s photographs revisits her childhood fantasies which reveal a micro-world to her audience. As she began the process of recapturing her fantasies, she came to the realization that her project unconsciously reflected on the commercial influences that have shaped her life for the past ten years.  Seoung Woo Kim’s “Korean War Veterans Project” seeks to raise awareness about the Korean War. The portraits, which were initially taken as Jangsoo photos, meaning funeral photos in Korean, serve to honor the soldiers who fought in the war, and promote people’s awareness of the war’s long-lasting consequences.

Diane Meyer’s embroidered images are from a series of photographs initially made at Berlin Wall--sections of the photographs have been obscured by embroidered stitching sewn directly into the photograph.  Nicole Motta’s “Dislocated” explores the idea of the viewer as a digital voyeur who lives in both the digital and physical world. Each image has been re-appropriated from a screen capture via Google street maps and is set within a real home to emulate the reality of its space. Lorie Novak’s  “Above the Fold” looks at the afterlife of images. She began by saving the front-page section of the New York Times in March 1999. In analyzing the front-page images over the years, Novak noticed history repeating itself in the form of recurring image tropes. Karl Peterson’s photographs are horizonless landscapes of textures and colors often incorporating both natural and manmade elements.  Alice Proujansky’s project looks at motherhood and identity. Having photographed women in labor, Proujansky photographs women and labor, documenting the ways in which women integrate their identities as workers and mothers. Hank Willis Thomas’s “Sometimes I See Myself in You” is a collaborative self-portrait with his mother Deborah Willis, artist and curator. They often use images to relive family tales and phrases from the “oral archive” of folk culture and transform them into contemporary images exploring the nuances of memory. Deborah Willis’s project focuses on framing beauty as a concept and how both the photographer and the subject POSED concepts of beauty.

Photo: Excerpt from 'Microland' by Lindsay He, Class of 2015