“You don’t take pictures with your camera. You take pictures with your mind and your heart.”
-Arnold Newman
By Elin Spring
What could photographs addressing climate change, gender identity, gun violence and memory loss possibly have in common? In a word, portraiture. In an exhibit now at the Griffin Museum of Photography, the winner and three finalists for the 2019 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture are on view, just through October 20th, 2019. There will be a free, public Awards Reception at the Griffin Museum with some of the artists and jurors Elizabeth Avedon and Paula Tognarelli on Thursday, October 10th, 2019 from 7:00 – 8:30pm.
“Leonard Bernstein, New York City, 1968” © Arnold Newman/ Getty Images
Arnold Newman (1918-2006) became famous for developing the “environmental portrait,” a blend of formal photographic portraiture and a documentary style that expands our idea of a subject beyond personal traits to include interests and/or occupation. In honor of Newman’s legacy as both a photographer and mentor, The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture recognizes excellence in a new generation of photographers by awarding $20,000 to a winning photographer and elevating the work of the winner and three finalists in press and through an exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography. This year, Louie Palu won for his project “Artic Passage.” His work is exhibited along with finalists Jess T. Dugan’s “Every Breath We Drew,” Cherlye St. Onge’s “Calling the Birds Home” and Bryan Thomas’ “Sunrise/Sunset.”
On Left: Print in ice block photo showing the first large format 20”x24” ice block test for the 2019 SXSW Art Installation Program. Images are of a Canadian Ranger and Arctic Operations Advisor on King William Island and Resolute Bay in Nunavut, Canada at temperatures below -30 and -50 degrees (-22 to -58 F) with the wind chill.
On Right: Portraits of Inuit Rangers in Nunavut, 2016-2019 (top) and Portraits of Inuit Rangers in Nunavut and Canadian Airman, 2016-2019 (bottom), ice block tests 8.5”x12 ¾”x2” seen before melting, inkjet print size 20”x24”. These ice blocks melted over the course of several hours in Toronto and no longer exist.
All images © Louie Palu for National Geographic
Ice Block Ranger
Print in ice block detail photo showing cracking ice at SXSW Art Installation.
A Canadian Ranger seen during a patrol on King William Island in the Arctic near Gjoa Haven in Nunavut, Canada at temperatures below -30 degrees (-22 F) with the wind chill.
20”x24” Inkjet print, this ice block melted in Austin, Texas over the course of 6-7 hours and no longer exists. © Louie Palu for National Geographic
The Arctic is the region of the world where the planet is warming the most rapidly. In “Arctic Passage,” Louie Palu makes portraits of individuals in Inuit communities, freezes the photographs in ice blocks, and then puts them outdoors to melt in a symbolic and graphic enactment of how the Inuit identity is slowly vanishing. His project also explores the changing geopolitics of the Polar region, especially its growing militarization as countries seek to capitalize on natural resources uncovered by melting Arctic ice.
Canadian soldiers on the Arctic Operations Advisors course build an igloo as an improvised survival shelter at the Crystal City training facility near Resolute Bay, Nunavut, in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 F). All Canadian soldiers from the south who will operate in the Arctic must learn Inuit traditional survival techniques. © Louie Palu for National Geographic
“Larry and Laron, Miami, 2019” © Bryan Thomas
“Lanette, Miami, 2019” © Bryan Thomas
Bryan Thomas explores the devastation of gun violence in his series “Sunrise/Sunset.” This euphemism for dates of birth and death is imprinted on memorial T-shirts, a tragically thriving cottage industry that has sprung up in African-American communities who continue to lose a disproportionate number of their youth to shootings. Thomas highlights the national shame of these premature deaths in moving portraits of the survivors who wear their rage, pride and despair on their clothing and in their telling expressions.
Tesia Hunter has lost two of her sons, Ralph “Lil Man” Hemingway III, 16, and his half-brother, Delquan “Biggie” Pigatt, 21, to gun violence. She had shirts made for both at Lavish Printing, which she wears here with her husband, Caya. © Bryan Thomas
“Dallas lying on the bed, 2012” © Jess T. Dugan (courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago)
“Self-portrait (muscle shirt), 2013” © Jess T. Dugan (courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago)
In contrast, the portraits by Jess T. Dugan and Cheryle St. Onge spring from their own deeply personal experiences. In “Every Breath We Drew,” Dugan makes sensitive portraits of herself and others whose gender identity and sexual orientation varies. Her unflinching directness and empathy recognize a universal yearning for connectedness. In so adeptly expressing our shared humanity, Dugan invites viewers “to ask larger questions about how identity is formed, desire is expressed, and intimate connection is sought.”
“Ryan and Josh, 2013” © Jess T. Dugan (courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago)
“Untitled” © Cheryle St. Onge
“Untitled” © Cheryle St. Onge
In “Calling the Birds Home”, Cheryle St. Onge uses portraiture to create an ongoing, non-verbal relationship with her mother who is undergoing vast physical and emotional changes from vascular dementia. St. Onge reflects on these monumental changes in diminutive, quiet moments, captured with the timeless quality of B&W photographs. As St. Onge traces her mother’s drift from reality and reversion to childlike longings, she sheds light on a mostly hidden but growing population with dignity and obvious, profound love.
“Untitled” © Cheryle St. Onge
In illuminating the experiences of largely unseen or marginalized individuals, Palu, Dugan, St. Onge and Thomas give troubling and often controversial topics a relatable, human face. Their compassion elicits empathy and summons new ways of understanding. Such moving portraits have the power to instill that cultural shift in attitude which must precede real change.
For information about this exhibit, award and upcoming reception, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/2019-arnold-newman-prize-new-directions-photographic-portraiture-exhibition/
Feature Image: “Igor Stravinsky, composer and conductor, New York, 1946” ©Arnold Newman/ Getty Images
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