ARTIST'S STATEMENT
As a self-taught street photographer, I explore the relationships between people and their neighborhoods. I photograph a story I see in a person’s face. I imagine the interiors of people and am drawn to the vulnerabilities I see in strangers. Greys and ambiguity attract me—people alone in a crowd, a slice of life. In 40s and 50s Camden, NJ, my parents sent us out to play until dinner. There were niches to hide and experiment in, family-owned stores, my father’s drugstore and alleyways, neighbors raking who were willing to lend an egg. I look for those settings today—in the US and abroad. I was 14 when my grandfather died and relatives were just arriving from the 1956 Hungarian uprising. An older cousin sat in our kitchenette shelling walnuts with my mother for the family celebration. When I asked her about the blue numbers on his arm, she asked me to polish the silver. They told me of the relatives who hadn’t come and I decided to hitchhike in Europe: I learned to be comfortable with strangers. Keeping a travel journal led me to writing seriously and, as a young mother on a writing fellowship to MacDowell Colony, I met Ruth Orkin. We shared our love of visual poetry in ordinary, workaday worlds of people alone and together—spontaneous street scenes, melodramas, funny, moody and intimate moments. I lived in Mexico in 1988 and began photographing and returned a year later to train as an ethnographer. This was my evolution as a narrative photographer attracted to ordinary people in daily lives and to scenes that raise questions.
JURIED GROUP, ONE-PERSON and INVITED SHOWS
UPCOMING
• One-Woman Show: Trident Booksellers and Cafe: First and Second Floors (http://tridentbookscafe.com), September 2, 2013—November 30, 2013.
• NEWTV Summer Selective, Newton, MA: 5 juried pieces, Juror, Kathleen Smith, Director of Exhibits at New Art Center
• July, 2013, Newton Mayor’s Office Summer Show, “Stay Cool”
• Invited Group Show: "Old Structures," Old Schwamb Mill, Arlington, MA. Curator, Emily Passman—through September 11, 2013. REVIEW: http://news.acmi.tv/2013/schwamb-mill/
PAST
• DANFORTH MUSEUM's Community of Artists: Through August 4, 2013: Juror, Katherine French, Danforth Museum Director, New England Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) for curatorial excellence.
• YWCA Stand Against Racism, Juror, Karen Haas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Jewish-Cape Verdean Seder.
• RE CYCLE: "Totem to a Marathon" Cambridge Art Association: Opening Reception, Thursday, April 11, 5:30-7:30
•"Brothers, Morocco," Greater Lynn 2013 International Photographic Competition
• FACE TO FACE: Painting, "Face to Face," Juror, Arlette Kayafas of Gallery Kayafas, March 2-30, 2013
• SECRETS: Group Show, January 19-February 25, 2013, "In the Kitchen," Juror, Jane Young of Chase Young Gallery, Boston
The Cambridge Art Association's Kathryn Schultz Gallery, 25 Lowell Street, Cambridge
• January, 2012, Boston Camera Club: Latimer Competition: Third Place, "Souq"
• November 9th, 2012-January 10th, 2013, Cambridge Art Association: BLUE, "Mother, Muted," Group show, Juror, Joseph Thompson, Director, Mass MoCA
• 2012, November, Newton Open Studios: NEW PHOTOGRAPHS Mexico, Morocco
• 2012, September, Concord Art Association, FRANCES RODDY 13th Open Competition, 2012, "Lubavitcher I," Juror, Jen Mergel, Beal Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• 2012, August, Scollay Square Gallery, "Friends: Morocco," "Brothers: Morocco,""Woman Baking Bread": Morocco," BOSTON CITY HALL, GROUP SHOW: Art and Poetry
2011: Newton Open Studios Top Ten: Juror, Katherine French, Director, Danforth Museum. NewTV Gallery
UPCOMING PROJECT: Narrative Photography Project: GUERRERO, MEXICO, FALL, 2013
PUBLICATIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHS
• Anthology: RE CYCLED, Cambridge Art Association, 2013
• Anthology: SECRETS, Cambridge Art Association, February, 2013
• YWCA "Stand Against Racism": http://www.bu.edu/prc/StandAgainstRacism/index.html
Photograph: "Jewish-Cape Verdean Seder," 2013
• Book: PAIRS, 2013
• Book: VILLAGE FAMILIES AND NEIGHBORS, 2012
• Shalom Magazine, December, 2012
• Book: FABRIC FRANCE, 2011
PHOTOGRAPHIC EVENTS
• April 20, 2013, Photographic Resource Center: PinUp Night
• April, 2013, New England Women in Photography: Simmons College
VOLUNTEER WORK
• June, 2013, Big Sister Association; PHOTOS and POEMS Workshop with urban girls and their "big sisters": writing poetry based on their own photographs
• JEWISH-CAPE VERDEAN SEDER, Photographer, Boston, MA
• Photographic Resource Center at Boston University: Accessibility Committee
SELECTED PAST ACTIVITIES
• 2011-2012: NewTV GALLERY, Newton, MA: Winners of Juried Newton Open Studios, Group Show, Curated by Katherine French, Director, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA
• 2011, Fall, Newton Public Library, Preview Show for Winners of Juried Exhibit; Curated by Katherine French of the Danforth Museum
• 2012, March, Presentation:"Women in Photography Night": Photographic Resource Center, Boston University, with Lisa Kessler; http://www.flickr.com/photos/prcboston/sets/72157629270275528/
• 2011, Fall, NEWTON OPEN STUDIOS
• 2010, Spring, NEWTON OPEN STUDIOS
• 1989: CHELSEA PUBLIC LIBRARY, Photography, "Cuetzálan, Mexican Village Life"
STUDIED WITH:
• Roz Ablow: Monoprint
• Tim Harney: Collage
• Bonnie Mineo: Encaustic
• John Murray: Mixed Media, Painting
• Joanne Mattera, Mixed Media/Collage
MEMBERSHIPS
Danforth Art Museum
NewArtCenter
Griffin Photographic Museum
Photographic Resource Center
Newton Open Studios
Boston Camera Club
Cambridge Art Association
Concord Art Association
• August, 2013 Photodocumentary Collaboration: Mexico
• BOOK PUBLICATION: PAIRINGS, 2013
PAST EVENTS 2011-2012
• June, 2013: Community Project: Big Sister Association: Working with urban girls on poetry-photography project; details to be announced
• Juried Group Accepted Entry, Frances N. Roddy 13th Open Competition, 2012, Concord Art Association, September 13–October 14, 2012 Thursday, September 13; Curator: Jen Mergel, Beal Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• GROUP SHOW Art and Poetry: "Impressions of Boston"
Scollay Square Gallery, Boston City Hall
•"Impressions of Boston": Group Show of Photography and Poems, Scollay Square Gallery, Boston City Hall
• April: Jewish Cape-Verdean Seder, Photographs, Boston, MA
• April: Making a Seder in a Mexican mountain village
• Fall to Winter, GROUP SHOW: NewTV GALLERY, Newton, MA: of Juried Newton Open Studios
• Fall, 2011, Newton Public Library, 2011, Preview Show for Winners of Juried Exhibit; Curator: Kathryn French of the Danforth Museum
• Presentation: Women in Photography Night: March 15, 2012, Photographic Resource Center, Boston University, with Lisa Kessler; http://www.flickr.com/photos/prcboston/sets/72157629270275528/
• Newton Open Studios, Fall, 2011, Newton, MA
• Lexington Open Studios, Fall, 2011
• Newton Open Studios, Spring, 2010
• Chelsea Public Library, 1989, Photographic Exhibit, "Cuetzálan, Mexican Village Life"
I am a narrative photographer and photoessayist who sees in ordinary people their everyday feelings and wishes. My training in ethnographic research and life stories has focused on immigrant mothers and their families. As a young writing fellow at MacDowell Colony in the late 1970s, I was lucky to have met Ruth Orkin and share—even as we were a generation apart—our early adventures and love of visual poetry in ordinary, workaday worlds of people alone and together—spontaneous street scenes, melodramas, funny, moody and intimate moments. I photograph in many parts of the world and in Mexico, where I lived and worked and often return. I combine my poems with my photographs and have publications in both fields. I live and work mostly in the Boston area.
Please contact Barbara Trachtenberg for archival, digital silver gelatin prints and special orders including requests for matted and framed prints and discount pricing.
For examples of Barbara Trachtenberg's photographs, paintings and mixed media
http://BarbaraTrachtenbergPhoto.com.
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