WOMEN SHOOTING WOMEN

This popular exhibition of Contemporary Women Photographers shooting women as subject matter has been extended through to July 31rst, 2008. Viewing Hours are seven days a week, 24 hours each day at The Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave (at 47th Street) in New York City. (212) 755-1400.

Please visit all pages of this blog, including Older Posts, or click on the Table of Contents to the right. Every photographer is represented and links to websites are accessible by clicking on the artist's name immediately following the Title. A catalogue is available.

Marisa Portolese

Belle de Jour, Amelie by Marisa Portolese

The human body, contemporary portraiture, and the figure in landscape are the direct base to my artistic practice. Belle de Jour is a series of 30 large-scale photographs depicting women in various states of undress, masquerading different roles. The portraits are carefully orchestrated to present the viewer to present the viewer a world of girls who tease the line of the voyeur. These images expose a budding female sexuality,and call into question an idealized vision of femininity.

Joanne Kim

Self Portrait In Bed by Joanne Kim

My work in self portraiture is driven by an interest in feminist issues and their representation in art. I study the body in relationship to its environment and to power structures. How we respond to these relationships is integral to the imagery as well.

Wendy Marvel

Through The Looking Glass by Wendy Marvel

In my most current body of work, I use self-portraiture and the female figure to explore image consciousness in Western culture. Working with video, photography, digital and traditional media I explore both the commercial use of the female form and the idealization of women. My favorite themes are mixing fantasy and mortality...imagery that bridges the surreal associations of waking and dream life.

Cheryl Himmelstein

Monica At School by Cheryl Himmelstein

No matter how similar or different our backgrounds may be, no matter how much we vary in our beliefs, fears and dreams,there is that common thread of human experience that connects us all. The most compelling images come together when an environment and the natural light found in it say something about where a particular subject is in their life at that moment. My wish is to stop time with photography to provide an opportunity for my viewers to think about where my subject had been and where they are headed.

Opening Reception April 4,2008

Top Photo (from left to right): David Solo (collector), James Knowles (owner, Roger Smith Hotel), Molly Barnes (art dealer), Brian Clamp (ClampArt), Paul Amador (Cohen Amador Gallery), Karen Florek (curator) and Norine Perreault (photographer).

2nd from Top: Lydia Panas (photographer), Molly Barnes, Karen Florek and Aline Smithson (photographer).

3rd from Top: Marisa Portolese (photographer) and Karen Florek.

Bottome Photo: Aline Smithson and her daughter, Charlotte in front of Aline's portrait of Charlotte entitled, "Fur".

Also in attendance, but not pictured: Diana Edkins (Aperture Foundation), John Bennett (collector), MaryAnn Fahey and Margaret Bodell (Umbrella Arts), Dominique Paul (photographer)

Rachael Dunville

Il Poggio by Rachael Dunville

The gaze of the artist at his female muse has been ingrained in us, socially, from very early on. My subjects likely feel the same intense affection and attraction pointed in their direction as all other modes throughout history have, and I realize that as a young woman doing the gazing, I am upending the relationship as it has traditionally stood. Everyone responds to that energy differently. When someone takes his or her clothes off it is almost never a predetermined factor, but is more an evolution of desire. All of this is very interesting to me and, again, I allow that to unfold naturally.

Dominique Paul

Lucie, degeneration6 by Dominique Paul

"Where are we going as a species?" is the question at the core of my work as I turn to the past to foresee where we are going in the future. I use paintings from the humanist period to create works in an era that has been identified as post-humanist. My work consists in projecting a portrait onto a live model and then photographing this encounter.  In an alchemic process, the model and the iconic figure transubstantiate for a moment to become the other. Both the model and the figure painted become are being transformed, such that they both lose some aspect of their identity in the process. This work is at the crossroads of painting and photography, where the images are multi-layered both in the processes and in their interpretations.

Ranee Palone Flynn

Untitled by Ranee Palone Flynn

Ranee embraces life on Boston's North Shore. She photographs strangers in their own clothes in their personal environments, finding the majority of her subjects by placing ads in Cape Ann newspapers. Drawn to the natural light of each specific setting, she eschews the use of studio lighting. During the brief sitting (60 to 90 minutes) Ranee is able to capture an intimacy, the comfort and freedom that a stranger can sometimes afford.

Diane Meyer

Me And Prince by Diane Meyer

Diane uses photography to investigate American popular culture by focusing on contemporary myths and cliches, especially as they are expressed through the entertainment industry. Her interest in "restaging the staged" documents our shared obsession with celebrity and our collective desire to make celebrity banal. This series uses the aesthetics of the snapshot to create scenes in which the artist participates in everyday friendly recreation with people we recognize as celebrities. She hired a series of impersonators to create each quiet moment and captures our desire to project ourselves into the world of the famous.

Melisa Sharpe

Dysthemia by Melisa Sharpe

"Dysthemia" is part of an experiment in portraits painted with light-a technique that involves leaving the film's camera shutter open in a darkened room and selectively illuminating still subjects with flashlights. There's only me-the photographer-and the models, in a creative relationship. It's a bit of light therapy in which the couch is a stage for characters to emerge, raising questions as to whether the portraits are real or imaginary. Does some part of the model's essence shine though or is it all fantasy?

Polly Chandler

Judy's Shoes by Polly Chandler

My images are not portraits, but narratives of my inner self. In searching for my life's purpose, my work documents the exploration of my own identity. By combining figures with backgrounds, costumes and props, I create works that are spiritual and allegorical. Seeking insight into who I will eventually become, I look for resolutions to unanswerable questions.

Jessica Todd Harper

Meggan by Jessica Todd Harper

I grew up copying paintings. When I went to college I became an art history major and fell in love with Vermeer, Memling, Pieter de Hooch and other Northern European artists who at first glance seemed to make paintings about nothing everyday-ness, but whose charged, quiet domestic scenes haunted me afterwards. My photographs reflect all these influences. I strive to make pictures that rely on their intimacy and intensity to touch on the grander narratives of consciousness and what it means to be alive.

Lydia Panas

Invincible by Lydia Panas

I am interested in how people show us who they are. Throughout the series, families, friends and individuals I know, pose for my camera. In many instances they are together, yet so alone. I want my photographs to resonate long after this decade to remind us of that tenuous place which is the human condition.

Aline Smithson

Arrangement in Green & Black #8, 

Portrait of The Photographer's Mother

by Aline Smithson

The series incorporates traditional techniques, yet becomes richer with the treatment of hand painting. My patient 80 year old mother posed in over 20 ensembles, but unfortunately passed away before seeing the finished series.  I am grateful for her sense of humor and the time this series allowed us to be together.

From The Curator

The assumption still exists that portraits of women that are provocative or sexually charged must have been photographed by a man. Why else would a woman clad only in lingerie gaze so directly into the lens? Photographer Rachael Dunville confides that this happens to her all the time. "Oh you are the photographer?" surprised viewers ask. And why not a woman? The female artists in this exhibition, by boldly asking their subjects to show who they are, expose the desire, defiance, mystery and humor that run just below the surface of our lives.

Karen Florek, Curator

From Molly Barnes

This is the year of the woman and we've worked hard to get here. In the early days of the 20th Century women couldn't go to art schools, they couldn't rent studios or get included in shows unless they changed their names or "married well" to quote Elaine DeKooning. In this present photography show curated by Los Angeles photographer Karen Florek we see just how far women have come. These 13 photographers photographing other women, with both lust and passion, show we've come a long way.

Molly Barnes, art dealer and radio host

About The Roger Smith Hotel

"Unique for combining a sincere hospitality experience in the presence of thought provoking art, the Roger Smith Hotel is a boutique hotel nestled among the skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan. Roger Smith's accommodations evoke the warmth, mood and comfort of a guest room in a special friend's home. Artwork, potted plants and book collections are distinct touches uncommonly seen in a New York City hotel. In fact, each of our spacious 135 rooms and suites are individually decorated in classical New England designs."

The Roger Smith Hotel

501 Lexington Ave

New York, NY 10017

(212) 755-1400

(800) 445-0277