Nowadays, it is not recommended to visit public places, and many people prefer to stay home and find other ways to enjoy their free time. However, many persons may notice that engaging with various art forms heals and helps relieve anxiety and depression. Therefore, in this century of technology, it is possible to visit an online museum exhibition and take a virtual tour. The Photography Atelier 21 exhibition in the Griffin Museum of Photography may be of particular interest.
The Griffin Museum is a nice building that reminds its visitors of a fairytale house. Especially when illuminated in the dark, and thanks to the surrounding trees and a Judkins Pond in front of the building, the museum looks fantastic (Griffin Museum of Photography, n.d.). It is solely dedicated to the exhibition of photographic arts, and the main gallery is a room with white walls and a white ceiling with wood beams that make the gallery look special.
This particular exhibition was held in March 2015, so now it can only be seen on the online tour. Photography Atelier is a course offered by the museum for advanced and intermediate photographers, so the Atelier 21 exhibition presents the artwork of the students (Griffin Museum of Photography, 2015). This is actually a perfect idea and opportunity for young photographers to demonstrate their skills, enjoy the glory, and present and market their work to industry professionals. The idea behind this exhibition is to show that even emerging photographers can find their own style, see the beauty and symbolism in ordinary things and processes, capture this idea, and make sure that all other people can see it in their artwork.
The pictures presented at Atelier 21 are truly outstanding, and the mixed styles and types add to the uniqueness of the exhibition. There are documentary, color, black and white, portrait, abstract, landscape, architecture, and other photography genres (Griffin Museum of Photography, n.d.). At first, it may be difficult to find the unique idea behind some of the pictures, especially because of the great variety of artwork presented at the exhibition. However, the title of each photo can help in interpreting the meaning behind it. For example, a picture by Trelawney Goodell is visually divided into two parts: a beautiful patterned door and a relief depicting a warrior fighting a serpent (Griffin Museum of Photography, 2015). At first, the audience may be confused, but the title of the photo, “A Celebration of Norway,” clarifies the meaning behind the picture and directs to the mythology of Norway.
All the photographs presented at the exhibition are brilliant, but one particular photo catches my eye the most. It is a picture by Carol Van Loon titled “Barns” (Griffin Museum of Photography, 2015). It is a black and white photo of a barn with two doors and a window, and even before reading the note to it, the audience can feel the sadness and hopelessness in this artwork. The note says: “a journey back to the landscape of her youth after the death of her mother” (Griffin Museum of Photography, 2015, para. 3). The photographer managed to capture not a real barn but a memory, and it seems that Van Loon’s deceased mother entered one of these doors, leaving the world behind in black and white.
Overall, I enjoyed the Atelier 21 exhibition and found many interesting ideas behind the pictures. It reminded me of the greatness of the art of photography, and while looking at the presented photos, I was carried away by a stream of thoughts and inspiration. Although the exhibition is already outstanding, I would add photos hanging from the ceiling beams to make the atmosphere even more special.
References
Griffin Museum of Photography. (2015). Photography Atelier 21. Web.
Griffin Museum of Photography. (n.d.). Virtual tour. Web.