Crawlspace: YALE '24 Photography
Crawlspace, a group exhibition featuring the Yale MFA Photography class of 2024 鈥 Torry Brown, Pat Garcia, Tanner Pendleton, Andina Marie Osario, Whitney Klare, Patricia Voulgaris, Avion Pearce, Shelli Weiler, Darby Routtenberg, & Jarod Lew. Curated by Elle P茅rez
Nearly a quarter century after the seminal photography exhibit 鈥楶leasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort鈥欌 the domestic space, and its rituals, have re-emerged as an essential character in the works exhibited, both as a vehicle for personal narrative and a culprit in dissecting photographic truth. The show鈥檚 title, 鈥楥rawlspace鈥 pays homage to this particular area of influence, while celebrating areas of divergence, as the images presented reimagine the domestic space, offer new perspectives, and explore the voids within.
"Begin with the entangled threads of solitary ambitions, economic concerns, institutional values and ever present political realities that resulted in ten artists spending two years together as students within The Yale School of Art鈥檚 Graduate Photography Program. Curatorial efforts usually don鈥檛 include chance operations but every thesis exhibition represents equal parts cosmic coincidence, shared experience and an array of individual and communal origin stories. A thesis exhibition isn鈥檛 obligated to display connective tissue but somehow they always do; the best themes emerge and sometimes, as in this group鈥檚 efforts, the state of a particular medium and the discourse that has surrounded it can appear re-mythologized. This Summer suggests Hollywood has taken a related memo: 鈥淭he Bikeriders鈥, 鈥淐ivil War鈥, the upcoming Lee Miller biopic all revisit the foundational role that the popular imagination has always played in defining photography鈥檚 mythic virtues and potential for trespass.
They share what looks, to my eyes, like a serene confidence in photography鈥檚 unique syntax and potential for unplanned eloquence and, if not entirely skeptical, ready to displace aging photo polemics such as: analogue/digital, fiction/documentary, commerce and art, authorship and collaboration.
Eschewing diagnostic, photo-materialist object-lessons they鈥檝e responded in varieties of good faith to the daunting ecosystem of a medium that wears infinite hats, appearing in more guises than ever: fashion editorials, fashion campaigns, amateur porn, professional porn, classical journalism, citizen journalism, Instagram鈩 narcissism, sophisticated advertising and even more sophisticated digital propaganda. There is no secret knowledge in or out of school..but if there was it would be this: Ambitious photographers are the beneficiaries of the notion (and where did it come from exactly?) that their medium has some special relationship to truth while, in practice, the medium presents all the characteristics and requirements of fiction. Now, meet the authors."
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Crawlspace, a group exhibition featuring the Yale MFA Photography class of 2024 鈥 Torry Brown, Pat Garcia, Tanner Pendleton, Andina Marie Osario, Whitney Klare, Patricia Voulgaris, Avion Pearce, Shelli Weiler, Darby Routtenberg, & Jarod Lew. Curated by Elle P茅rez
Nearly a quarter century after the seminal photography exhibit 鈥楶leasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort鈥欌 the domestic space, and its rituals, have re-emerged as an essential character in the works exhibited, both as a vehicle for personal narrative and a culprit in dissecting photographic truth. The show鈥檚 title, 鈥楥rawlspace鈥 pays homage to this particular area of influence, while celebrating areas of divergence, as the images presented reimagine the domestic space, offer new perspectives, and explore the voids within.
"Begin with the entangled threads of solitary ambitions, economic concerns, institutional values and ever present political realities that resulted in ten artists spending two years together as students within The Yale School of Art鈥檚 Graduate Photography Program. Curatorial efforts usually don鈥檛 include chance operations but every thesis exhibition represents equal parts cosmic coincidence, shared experience and an array of individual and communal origin stories. A thesis exhibition isn鈥檛 obligated to display connective tissue but somehow they always do; the best themes emerge and sometimes, as in this group鈥檚 efforts, the state of a particular medium and the discourse that has surrounded it can appear re-mythologized. This Summer suggests Hollywood has taken a related memo: 鈥淭he Bikeriders鈥, 鈥淐ivil War鈥, the upcoming Lee Miller biopic all revisit the foundational role that the popular imagination has always played in defining photography鈥檚 mythic virtues and potential for trespass.
They share what looks, to my eyes, like a serene confidence in photography鈥檚 unique syntax and potential for unplanned eloquence and, if not entirely skeptical, ready to displace aging photo polemics such as: analogue/digital, fiction/documentary, commerce and art, authorship and collaboration.
Eschewing diagnostic, photo-materialist object-lessons they鈥檝e responded in varieties of good faith to the daunting ecosystem of a medium that wears infinite hats, appearing in more guises than ever: fashion editorials, fashion campaigns, amateur porn, professional porn, classical journalism, citizen journalism, Instagram鈩 narcissism, sophisticated advertising and even more sophisticated digital propaganda. There is no secret knowledge in or out of school..but if there was it would be this: Ambitious photographers are the beneficiaries of the notion (and where did it come from exactly?) that their medium has some special relationship to truth while, in practice, the medium presents all the characteristics and requirements of fiction. Now, meet the authors."
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