Five Myles Gallery
Photographs by Ann Rosen
Curated by Charlotta
July 8 - August 13, 2023
In Part I of Ann Rosen’s portraiture project, Being Seen, the photographs were taken during art and photography workshops she conducted with women living in shelters in various cities in the United States. The women collaborated with Rosen on their portraits which reflect the way they wanted to be seen—with strength and grace—but also reveal the instability, uncertainty and complexity connected with shelter living.
As the Being Seen project expanded, Rosen conducted similar workshops with women who were formerly homeless, veterans, or formerly incarcerated. These women are currently part of a program facilitated by a Brooklyn non-profit, HousingPlus. The images embody a personal power they work to achieve on a daily basis. In Rochester, NY, through the assistance of Catholic Charities, an organization that helps refugees around the world find safe haven, Rosen captured images of Afghan women who fled to the United States in 2021 when the Taliban swept into Kabul. Her subjects portray a personal authority as they wrestle with the hardships of holding onto their traditions while living in a new country.
The resulting images from the Being Seen project are accompanied by personal histories. Combined with the photographs, these stories foster compassion, thus aiding these women to reach renewed agency.
When the quarantine hit, my initial response as an artist, was to pull out my 1969 Rolleiflex camera and start shooting with black and white film. It was many years since I’d used that camera and developed my own film. I photographed my backyard; the roses and cherry blossoms in this spring awakening. My husband and I walked all over my hometown, Asbury Park, photographing the neighborhood lakes and Canadian geese. After fifteen years, I returned to using double exposures. Grand Avenue and Sunset Lake is an example of this pandemic work.
NOVEMBER 1, 2020 - JANUARY 7, 2021
FOOTPRINTS ON MONTAGUE
CURATED BY FIVEMYLES & KODA
ON THE FENCE SURROUNDING ST ANN AND THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH
157 MONTAGUE ST, BROOKLYN, NY 11201
With work by Jess Frederick, Madi Dangerously, Ann Rosen, Nina Meledandri, Tatiana Arocha, Hidemi Takagi
SEPTEMBER 5 - OCTOBER 4, 2020
BEING SEEN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANN ROSEN
OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, SEPT. 12, 4-8PM.
with Social Distancing guidelines:
For the opening reception 12 people will be allowed in the space at a time. To reserve a time slot please contact hanne@fivemyles.org
Invoking intimacy is at the heart of Ann Rosen's artistic process. Her book In the Presence of Family, published in 2018, shows the countless ways families are created. The warm bond between the sitters and the photographer leaves a trace in each photograph.
The photographs in Being Seen came out of an art and photography workshop the artist conducted with women who lived in a shelter in Brooklyn. The women collaborated with the artist on these portraits; the photographs reflect the way the participants wanted to be seen. Several women decided to share their life stories with the public through texts and other media, also included in the exhibition. As in each photograph taken by Rosen, these subjects look into the camera and pose, sometimes with humor, and always with pride.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My photographs of women were inspired by a concern for the growing crisis of homelessness and its relationship to mental illness. These portraits capture the instability, uncertainty and complexity connected with shelter living and the struggle to recreate a life. These women are subjects calling on us—the observers—to consider our relationship with them and to ponder the dichotomy between subject and viewer—a mutuality that cuts through race, gender, class and diversity. These are women, who despite their circumstances are proud of whoever and whatever they are; pushing aside the status quo values and judgments that attempt to prescribe who they can be.