We are excited to relaunch our Member Spotlight this month, and share our winter quarter Member Spotlight selections with you. A big thank you goes out to Ellen Sollod, Nick Thompson, and Sue Ann Harkey for their submissions. We had a large number of submissions this round, so if you were not selected, please feel free to submit again, especially if you have new work, so that we can consider you for next quarter! This quarter’s spotlights are a reflection of the diversity and range of talent that our members possess.
Interested in sharing your work for our member spotlight? If you are a PCNW member, we encourage you to submit your images here before June 7th, 2024 for our spring quarter spotlight.
Not a member, but interested in this opportunity? You can sign up here. Membership benefits not only include highlights like this one, you also receive discounts on classes, workshops, facilities rentals, and merchandise; as well as perks that include 20% off rentals, 10% off inkjet paper, 10% off darkroom paper & chemicals at Glazer’s Camera and 10% Off Framing Services at Lucky Rabbet Framing.
What are you working on?
I have been working on editing and printing photographs that I took during a two-month sojourn to Lyon, France in the fall of 2023. In this series, I used long-exposure photography to capture myself in the context of historic monuments and gardens. I positioned myself as a translucent figure using in-camera ghosting to imply both the disorienting experience of being in a foreign environment and the strength of a woman claiming public space.
I am hoping to find an exhibition space for this work.
Artist Statement
Popularized in 19th century France, a “flâneur” was depicted as a male figure of urban affluence and modernity representing the ability to wander detached from society with no purpose other than to be a keen observer of contemporary life. “La Flâneuse: Une Femme Parcourt La Ville”, by contrast, follows a woman who wanders in the historic city of Lyon, France. This series turns the traditional notion of “flâneur” on its head as a woman claims her rightful place in the public realm.
A feminist view suggests that women perceive and experience public space differently from men. Some feminist writers see public space as gendered and women being excluded. Others, including Elizabeth Wilson, Linda McDowell, and Lauren Elkins, view the modern city as one that fosters female autonomy. I align myself with these writers. In this series, I assert myself and my place in the city as an independent and self-assured observer of urban life. Casting myself in as the flâneuse, I use my gaze to interrogate public space. Using long exposures and ghosting in-camera, I position myself as a translucent figure that implies impermanence, but in a stance that conveys strength at the same time. As an American woman visiting France, I embrace my enigmatic presence as someone in a foreign city, a place that I have visited often but in which I will always be “other”. This “otherness” gives me the ability to observe deeply.
Website
What are you working on?
I currently have a show up at Caffe Vita Seward Park featuring portraits of people who sing karaoke at Lottie’s Lounge in Seattle. I recently published a book to accompany the show.
Artist Statement
Every Tuesday night for the last two years, hosts DiaboliCOLE, The L Word, and Kevtron have attracted an eclectic blend of folks eager to sing, drink, and hang, many of them now memorialized here in close-up glory on crisp medium-format film.
I shot these portraits over one night in spring 2023 in a makeshift outdoor studio set up across the street from Lottie’s. I handed out disposable cameras for the bar patrons to pass around, the results of which make up the other part of the book. In place of typed captions for each photo are scans of the paper slips on which the singers write their names and chosen track.
Lottie’s first lured me into its cozy corner spot on Rainier Ave back when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper and it was still a cafe. I shot the portraits on a Mamiya C330, an old medium-format film camera, whose frames are much larger than the standard 35mm.
I was particularly inspired by Lee Nye’s portraits of bar patrons at Eddie’s Club in Missoula, MT, as well as the likes of Nan Goldin, Jim Goldberg, Roy Decarava, and local photographer West Smith, among many others.
You can read more at nicktfilms.com or in the interview I did as The Stranger’s Artist of the Week.
Website
Press
What are you working on?
I am working on my archive of 35mm B&W negatives having just purchased a complete darkroom. I’ve always converted my bathtub into the tray sink spending hours hunched over the rim under amber light. I joined the cooperative A/NT Gallery last summer to exhibit my work there monthly.
