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The Photo Center is committed to providing a home and resources for photographers. We are pleased to announce the three Artist Printing Fellowship Recipients for 2013: Andy Mattern, Josh Poehlein/Dan Boardman and Andrew Waits. The Photo Center’s Artist Printing Fellowship supports artists’ projects, which are works in progress. Over the next six months these artists will be be focusing on further developing their projects including, shooting, printing, and receiving editing advice.  Upon finalizing their bodies of work they will have a formal portfolio review and prepare for showcasing a portion of the work in the Photo Center’s galleries.

Andy Mattern

Andy Mattern’s first project consists of two related series, Driven Snow and Melt, which depict road ice and grit that accumulates in the wheel wells of cars and their melted residue. These incidents represent unconscious production and the limits of human control over technology and the built environment. Old photographic trays are used as containers to collect and document the result of the melting process, an abstract self-portrait of the snow.

The second project, Cable Management, consists of formal compositions of electronic cables in fabricated domestic sets. Cable Management is inspired by a kind of Zen activity of managing electronic cables under desks and behind electronic equipment after moving numerous times over the years. This project reflects Mattern’s obsession with this task and the idea of the customization of space as formal problems in the studio.

Josh Poehlein and Dan Boardman Collaborative

First Contact is a collaborative project using photography, video, and sculpture, between Josh Poehlein and Dan Boardman based on the possibility of first contact with extraterrestrial beings. This project reflects their interests in envisioning fictional future events and their place in human history. Their cameras are used to record communication attempts and ‘found’ artifacts. They are interested in what objects and codes may emanate from an unearthly life form, and the potential for interpreting and/or recreating them. Can communication be single sided? What is communication without translation? How might this historic moment be depicted, memorialized, or mythologized? These questions are addressed with the idea of First Contact.

Andrew Waits

Andrew Waits traveled the western United States exploring different concepts of home and survival with a specific focus on mobile homes and communities. Dispersed is a photographic investigation into a population for whom a vehicle represents not just a mode of transportation, but a means of shelter and sustainability. It seeks to reveal a subculture whose existence isn’t carved into the landscape of America, but a mirage upon it. Surveying both urban and remote locations, Waits hopes to provide a unique juxtaposition of vehicle and owner and explore ways in which survival dictates a fluidity of environment and the concept of home. Rather than attempt to define an archetype, Waits hopes to embrace the diversity of this disparate community and present a compelling vision of existence outside the current narratives of domesticity dominating American life.

Artist Printing Fellowship
Honorable Mentions
Ella Ordona, Ashley Pierce, Seth Thompson and David Walega

We received many outstanding submissions this year and encourage everyone to take a look at the Honorable Mentioned artists’ work on their websites by clicking on their names above.

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