• Book Publication: PAIRINGS, 2013

GROUP EXHIBITIONS


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.

• UPCOMING:

     -Social Documentary Project: Guerrero, Mexico, August, 2013, Details to follow.

Child Vendors, Mexico

Esther and Her Turkey, Cuetzálan, Mexico

Irresistible Water I, Mexico

Irresistible Water II, Mexico

Raking the Old Burial Ground, Newton

Jewish Cape-Verdean Seder, 2013

Lexington, Revolutionary Reenactment, 2013 on Boston Marathon Day

Old Schwamb Mill, 2013

Karen, Bob and Jocie

Costa Rica Home Hostel

Walking the New England Woods

Antakya Home: Stairs

Antakya Home: Tables and Chairs

Cuetzálan, Mexico

Morocco

Empty Workshop on a Sunday, Vence, France

Berber Home, Middle Atlas, Morocco

Preparing for Seder, Cuetzálan, Mexico

Cantina, Mexico

Day of the Seder, Cuetzálan

Trophy of a Friendship, Mexico

Church, Puebla, Mexico

Jose, After His Childhood

UPCOMING IN 2013

• DANFORTH MUSEUM Group Show: Friday, June 9—Sunday, August 4, 2013.

   -OFF THE WALL/COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS: Curated by Dina Deitsch, Curator of Contemporary Art at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA and previously curator at Williams College Museum of Art and the MFA, Boston, AND Katherine French, Director of the Danforth Museum, recognized by the New England Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) for curatorial excellence and named Best Curator of Locally Made Art at the New England Art Awards.

• Invited Group Show: "Old Structures"—Old Schwamb Mill, Arlington, Massachusetts

      June 1-September 11, 2013. Details to follow.

JURIED SHOWS: 2012-2013


• April, 2013: Jewish-Cape Verdean Seder, Juror, Karen Haas of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The 2013 YWCA Stand Against Racism.

• RE CYCLE: "Totem to a Marathon" Cambridge Art Association: Opening Reception, Thursday, April 11, 5:30-7:30.

•"Brothers, Morocco," accepted into the 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," Curated by 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, Juried by 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," Curated by 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

 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: PAIRINGS, 2013
• Book: VILLAGE FAMILIES AND NEIGHBORS, 2012
• Shalom Magazine, December, 2012
• Book: FABRIC FRANCE, 2011

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVENTS

• June, 2013, PHOTOS and POEMS: Big Sister Association; Workshop with urban girls and their "big sisters": writing poetry based on their own photographs.
• April 20, 2013, Photographic Resource Center: PinUp Night

• April, 2013, New England Women in Photography: Simmons College

• June, 2012, Newton Open Studios: New Work from Mexico and Morocco.

• 2012, March: JEWISH-CAPE VERDEAN SEDER, Photographs, Boston, MA.

• 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

MEMBERSHIPS

• Danforth Art Museum
• NewArtCenter
• Griffin Photographic Museum
• Photographic Resource Center
• Newton Open Studios
• Boston Camera Club
• Cambridge Art Association
• Concord Art Association
• Fountain Street Art Association

• November 9th, 2012-January 10th, 2013, Cambridge Art Association: BLUE,  Juried by Joseph Thompson, Director, Mass MoCA.

• 2012, November, Newton Open Studios: New Photographs from Mexico, Morocco

• 2012, September, Concord Art Association, FRANCES RODDY 13th Open Competition, 2012, Curated by Jen Mergel, Beal Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

• 2012, August, BOSTON CITY HALL, GROUP SHOW, Scollay Square Gallery: Art and Poetry.

• 2012, March: JEWISH-CAPE VERDEAN SEDER, Photographs, Boston, MA.

• 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 Kathryn 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."

VOLUNTEERING

• Big Sister Organization: Boston, MA 2013, Poems and Photos Workshop.
• The Workmen's Circle of Boston: Great Boston Interfaith Organization for Social Justice

Please contact Barbara Trachtenberg for custom family portraits, fine quality digital prints and special orders—including requests for matted and framed prints and discount pricing.
BTrachtenberg7@gmail.com; 617-527-1630