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Jean Weisinger: Progress Towards Freedom and Love

Jean Weisinger

Progress Towards Freedom and Love

The Alice Austen House presents one of the first retrospectives of seminal photographer Jean Weisinger.

About the Exhibition

CURATED BY

Victoria Munro

Opening Reception

Saturday June 17, 2023. 2pm.

 

"I take photographs to not only document these times and the lives of those who cross my path, but also to express myself. Photography is a passion born within me, a necessity that is not governed by monetary payment. It has become part of the progress toward freedom and love. Photographing is an act of love."

California-based photographer Jean Weisinger has a deep-rooted passion for capturing the essence of people. Weisinger’s photographs have become a powerful tool in her fight against racism, sexism, classism, and violence towards women, children, and all living beings. Her work is “the way she gives back to her sisters and the universe.” For this exhibition, Weisinger collaborates with AAH Executive Director Victoria Munro to select images that represent decades of photographic work featuring women of color. Though her exceptional work has found its place in esteemed collections, including those of Alice Walker in San Francisco, the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York, Audre Lorde’s Health Center in Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Women’s Building, Weisinger is often not credited for the use of her groundbreaking images and has not had the resources to convert her vast 35mm archive to digital. Munro has worked side by side with the artist in her San Francisco studio to bring forth the best of her vast, largely unpublished canon. This exhibition stands as one of the first retrospectives of Weisinger’s career, showcasing her journey as a lesbian photographer of color documenting the achievements of women and the struggles faced by people of color worldwide.

Jean Weisinger: Progress Towards Freedom and Love is curated by Victoria Munro (Executive Director, Alice Austen House).

This exhibition will be on view June 17th through September 30th 2023 in the contemporary galleries of the Alice Austen House.

An opening reception will be held at the Alice Austen House on Saturday, June 17th 2023 at 2pm. To attend, register online at bit.ly/AAH061723

This exhibition is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York State Council of the Arts, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

A Trove of Rarely Seen Photographs of Revolutionary Black Women

An exhibition at the Alice Austen House in Staten Island showcases Jean Weisinger’s formidable body of portraiture — and finally tells the photographer’s story.

—Read the review on Hyperallergic

View the Exhibition Catalog
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Introducing our Queer Ecologies Garden Project

The Friends of Alice Austen House (AAH) has partnered with the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) to install this new community garden that echoes the LGBTQ+ themes found throughout our historic house museum and fifteen-acre waterfront park.

AAH and its surrounding park and gardens are nationally designated sites of LGBTQ+ significance, having been occupied for 30 years by Alice and her loving partner, Gertrude Tate. With the distinct viewpoint that gardens have long been spaces of acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community, we have created this garden to serve as a gathering place that offers freedom, comfort, and fosters understanding.

The newly installed Queer Ecologies Garden, situated in the park, will soon be ready for planting and maintenance by the AAH staff and Staten Island teen Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSA) groups. AAH, students from the Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, and the NYRP have come together to design the garden with the mission to challenge the notion of heteronormativity through the choice of flora.

E. Alice Austen Self Portrait, 1892

Alice Austen, the founder of the Staten Island Garden Club, took pride and comfort in her garden, using it as a photographic muse and a safe space for her women companions. The garden provided a literal and symbolic escape from the strict Victorian mores imposed on women and LGBTQ+ identifying individuals at the time.

This garden program will provide a museum-based GSA meeting hub, bringing together GSA students from across Staten Island and building upon our existing LGBTQ+ Photographic Storytelling programs. The aim is to create pathways for students to learn about careers in horticulture, parks, and museums. The program will provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ students to meet and spend time with their peers from across Staten Island.

The Alice Austen House has also enlisted the expertise of Marisa Prefer as our queer garden consultant. Marisa brings extensive experience in projects centered around environmental justice and stewardship, utilizing alternative pedagogies, deep observation, and ancestral wisdom to cultivate care among multi-species communities. As a NYC Master Composter, NYC Trees Community Pruner, and NYC Parks Super Steward, Marisa actively tends to the unceded Canarsie and Munsee Lenape lands in Red Hook, Brooklyn in their role as the Manager of Sustainability and Environmental Engagement at Pioneer Works.

Gardens have historically been used as symbols of freedom and escape from oppression. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when homosexuality was illegal in many countries, gardens were often secret meeting places for queer people to socialize and express themselves.

Gardens provide a space for self-expression and creativity, where queer people can explore their identity and freely express themselves through gardening, art, and other forms of creative expression. Gardens have been places where queer people could come together, form communities, share experiences, and offer support to one another.

Gardens have also served as therapeutic spaces for queer individuals who have experienced trauma or discrimination, providing a sense of peace and healing. Overall, gardens have historically provided a refuge for queer people, offering a safe and nurturing environment where they can be themselves and connect with others who share similar experiences.

Photo credit: Christian Rodriguez

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Meet Our Photoville 2023 Artists

The Alice Austen House partnership with The Photoville Festival returns with community storytelling events and photo exhibitions in public spaces throughout New York City.

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Photoville Logo including the word "photoville" and the graphic of a shipping container
New York City’s free premier photography destination is back! Returning for our 12th consecutive year, the annual Photoville Festival is excited to feature the return of our Photoville Village in Brooklyn Bridge Park with some of our classic shipping containers!
The Photoville Festival provides an accessible venue for photographers and audiences from every walk of life to engage with each other, and experience thought-provoking photography from across the globe — with free access for all!

This year the Alice Austen House will present six exhibitions showcasing Staten Island photographers, curated by Victoria Munro:

Jade Doskow

Freshkills

New York-based architectural and landscape photographer Jade Doskow is known for her rigorously composed and eerily poetic images that examine the intersection of people, architecture, nature, and time. Doskow is best-known for her work Lost Utopias, Freshkills, and Red Hook. Doskow holds a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. She is the subject of the 2021 documentary Jade Doskow: Photographer of Lost Utopias. Doskow is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography and the City University of New York / College of Staten Island. Jade Doskow is the Photographer-in-Residence of Freshkills Park, New York City.

During this time of climate catastrophe, Freshkills Park offers a compelling (albeit complicated and imperfect), ultimately optimistic view of how visionary urban planners can take a landscape that has been completely destroyed and resurrect it, literally transforming the garbage of the U.S.ʼs most populous city and creating grasslands replete with rare species of flora and fauna, rolling hills dotted with flowers, and waterways once again attracting marine life. Doskowʼs work asks us as such: if 2,200 acres of New York Cityʼs household waste can be transformed into glorious meadowlands and woodlands, what else is possible?

Gerard Franciosa

Sound of Shadows

Gerard Franciosa (b.Queens, NY 1967) has been photographing for over 30 years. He studied photography and art at Pratt Institute where he developed a love for photographic printing. As the owner of My Own Color Lab, a custom darkroom facility, he works hand in hand with artists, museums, and galleries printing work for exhibition, allowing him to continue to pursue his quest for the perfect print. He lives on Staten Island.

I find myself drawn to particular places, landscapes that reveal a personality and  emit a force that excites me, scares me or gives me solace. These locations, not  necessarily beautiful, often visually banal, become energized by a streak of light,  a dense shadow, a path with no exit, or a view through a spray of branches. My photographs index disturbances, both visual and perceived, caused by light,  form and the geometry of chaos and stillness.

Nathan Kensinger

Hidden Staten Island

Nathan Kensinger is a Brooklyn based artist whose work explores hidden urban landscapes, forgotten waterways, environmental disasters, and coastal communities endangered by sea level rise. His work encompasses photography, film, installation and journalism.

“My work seeks to make visible hidden aspects of the urban landscape, sharing stories of communities and ecologies that have been impacted by environmental pollution, industrial waste, and sea level rise. I have photographed and written about Staten Island’s unique wild spaces, engineered wetlands, and post-industrial landscapes for the past 15 years, as part of my larger body of work exploring New York City’s entire waterfront. These photographs bring viewers to the island’s forgotten waterways and woodlands, to consider the complicated relationship between humans and non-human species, in places that are endangered by development and climate change.”

Jean Marques

Relections on Harbour

Jean Marques (b. 1995) is a Cuban-American visual artist and photographer based in Staten Island, NY. Since 2014, Jean has been creating photographs, prints, and collages from the source material of their lived experience. In 2019 they graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with an MFA in Photography and Related Media. Their work has been featured in group exhibitions in New York, Florida, and Oregon, as well as in online publications and self-published zines.

This work was created between 2020–2023 and consists of images of my partner Zoe. Depicted in this series are intimate moments drawn from our everyday life, with all its gifts and struggles. Interior scenes from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic are interlaced with images of celebrations, travel, and home-building. Zoe’s gaze, at times despondent and at others tenderly hopeful, offers reflections of my own state of mind. The camera, by freezing a moment in time, allows me to build a personal history. The result is a constellation of longing, hope, and desire through the memorialization of small details and gestures. In doing so over the course of several years, a poetic visual map is revealed with which to understand the twists and turns of life. Reflections on Harbour, is named so because of the work’s connection to Staten Island, where Zoe was raised and where we were able to find home. Historically, the functional purpose of a harbor is to provide a space of exchange. The word harbour in terms of this project (with UK English spelling to emphasize the word our within harbour), is intended to imply a metaphorical place of dialogue in a relationship: a place of refuge.

Nguan

All The Dreamers

Nguan was born and raised in Singapore. His photographs contemplate big city yearning, ordinary fantasies and emotional globalization. Nguan has published three photo books: Shibuya (2010), How Loneliness Goes (2013) and Singapore (2017). Singapore was named as one of the ten best photo books of the year by The New York Times Magazine. Nguan’s images have been widely seen and disseminated on social media, where his work has been featured by the Instagram accounts of CNN, The New Yorker, and Instagram. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

All the Dreamers is a collection of candid portraits made on board the Staten Island Ferry between 2014 to 2022. Its images depict ferry riders in moments of repose and respite during an anxious time for the city, nation, and world. The series reimagines the familiar ferry journey as an enchanted setting where everyday peculiarities and the individuality and resilience of New Yorkers can be observed.

Zahra Pars

We Are Too Dull-Eyed To See

Zahara Pars was born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in the United States. Pars has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied photography under Lewis Watts and painting under John Zurier, Katherine Sherwood, and Mary Lovelace O’Neal. I also pursued graduate studies in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

“My artistic practice examines the ephemerality of beauty. The imagery I document in photography – solitary landscapes, discarded objects, and lost balloons chronicle the momentariness of joy, and our presence in a world with an undefined future. Photographs are inherently precise moments in time, but through my photography, I strive to capture images that are more uncertain. Perhaps because I approach photography with a background in abstract painting, I see the imagery that I capture as a metaphor for language, and how it can both convey and conceal meaning.”

Location

The Staten Island Photoville sites are located on the South Beach boardwalk and the Alice Austen Park. More information and exact locations will be provided closer to the date.

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from Sandy by Thomas Giarraffa (2022 exhibitor)

irma bohorquez-geisler
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from Migrant Stories by Irma Bohorquez-Geisler (2021 exhibitor) 

Gale Wisdom
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Nature of Light by Gale Wisdom (2021 Exhibitor)

Photoville – New York’s favorite photo festival – will kick off with an Opening Weekend Community Celebration in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Saturday, June 3rd and Sunday, June 4th, 2023 and will feature over 80 public art exhibitions across all 5 boroughs in NYC for the month of June. The Festival will also feature artist-led walking tours, workshops, and opportunities for educators and students to connect with the Festival’s featured visual storytellers.

Learn more about Photoville 2023 here.

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Picturing the Water

Picturing the Water

The Work of Alice Austen at the Noble Maritime Collection

CURRENT EXHIBITION

The Alice Austen House and the Noble Maritime Collection present a collection of never-before-seen nautical photographs of one of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers.

About the Exhibition

Presented at the
Noble Maritime Collection

CURATORS

VICTORIA MUNRO
with collections assistance by
KRISTINE ALLEGRETTI

 

The Alice Austen House and the Noble Maritime Collection present a collection of never-before-seen nautical photographs of one of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers. Living and working on Staten Island during the Gilded Age, Alice Austen (1866–1952) was one of the first women photographers to work outside the confines of a studio, employing a visionary documentary style that was ahead of its time. Picturing the Water explores Austen’s deep connection to both local and international waterways and the vessels that traverse them. The newly printed photographs, reproduced from Austen’s glass plate and film negatives, will be framed in John Noble’s signature handmade frames, reflecting on parallels between the artists’ visions.

On view May 18th at the Noble Maritime Collection
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, May 18th 2023 from 6–8 PM.

The Noble Maritime Collection is located in Building D at Snug Harbor Cultural Center
Open Thursday through Sunday, 12–5 PM
(718) 447-6490 | noblemaritime.org

This exhibition was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and by a grant from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.

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Ecologies #3

The Third Triennial of Staten Island Photography

PAST EXHIBITION

The Alice Austen House presents its 3rd Triennial of Photography examining the state of contemporary photography on Staten Island (SI), showcasing a diverse NYC borough that is often underrepresented.

About the Exhibition

PRESENTED ARTISTS

Michael Dalton
Dillon DeWaters
Jade Doskow
Gerard Franciosa
Jessica Gianna
Olga Ginzburg
Christine Hackett
Samuel Partal

CURATORS

Victoria Munro
Paul Moakley

JUDGES

Megan Beck
Jessica Dimson
Justine Kurland

Looking through the lens of Staten Island residents and outsiders documenting the borough, this year’s theme examines ecologies, the study of the relationships between living things and their changing environments, in Staten Island. Exploring this idea in work through traditional, digital, and innovative uses of the medium; this juried exhibition examines contemporary themes and narratives that begin to reveal our evolving responses to the rapidly changing social and natural environment in this complex borough.

An expert panel of judges including Megan Beck, curator at the Noble Maritime Museum; Justine Kurland, artist and photography professor; and Jessica Dimson, Deputy Photo Editor, The New York Times Magazine, reviewed and selected entries for inclusion in the exhibition curated by Paul Moakley, Curator and Caretaker, and Victoria Munro, Executive Director. 

Learn more about the Open Call here.

On view March 4th 2023 through May 27th 2023

CURATORS:

Victoria Munro, Executive Director, AAH; Paul Moakley, journalist, photographer, longtime caretaker of AAH

JUDGES:

Megan Beck, Curator, Noble Maritime Museum; Jessica Dimson, Deputy Director of Photography, The New York Times Magazine; Justine Kurland, Artist and Educator

This exhibition is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York State Council of the Arts, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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Valentines of a Gilded Age: Daisy’s Devotion

Valentines of a Gilded Age: Daisy's Devotion

My dearest Love,

In sending you this Valentine, I must apologize for the want of originality in my selection; but I believe you will take it in the spirit in which I send it. Ever since I have had mine, I have felt that you ought to have one too, and naturally I prefer you should have it from me.

You know that I love you darling; there are many things I think of that I would like to do for you, yet there is so little that I really can.

 Whenever there is anything I could do, and don’t, please let me know; because there is nothing that gives me more true pleasure, than doing for all I love, as I do you.

You have brought me so much happiness at a time when I could see nothing but misery, that nothing I can ever do for you will ever equal it.

I would like you to find as much happiness—come time I believe you will, darling.

Always faithfully, Yours, Daisy.

February 1887

1st page of Daisy's Valentine to Alice Austen, February 1887

When we think of Alice Austen and romance we are immediately drawn to her 56 year love affair with Gertrude Tate. 30 years of that incredible relationship were spent living at what we now know as the Alice Austen House Museum, affectionately known by the Austens as Clear Comfort. Sadly, the couple were separated late in life following their 1945 eviction from their beloved home and family fears of their “wrong kind of devotion” to one another.

Something that was left behind in the hurried exit from the home was Alice’s letter collection from the last 2 decades of the 19th century. This collection was discovered in a closet by the Mandia family who lived in the home after Austen. The Mandias donated the archive to the museum in 1985 with much evidence of enthusiastic handling and including childrens’ attempts at the flowery and always difficult to decipher script of the Gilded Age.

Our favorite character of this collection of over 1,500 hundred pages is Daisy Elliott. Elliott was an athlete who managed the women’s Berkley Gymnasium in Manhattan. Elliott would also become Austen’s model for the illustrations in the 1896 book Bicycling for Ladies penned by the always inventive Maria (commonly known as Violet) Ward.

Elliott was a bold world traveler and new woman of the age who would write passionately to Austen from her travels, revealing an intimate relationship and furthering our understanding of Austen’s lesbian identity.

These short excerpts from Elliott’s letters were penned the very year (1897) that Austen would meet her life long partner Gertrude Tate…

Daisy Elliott for Bicycling for Ladies 1896, Alice Austen. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.

 Please imagine my surprise and delight the second day out at receiving your special delivery letter! It went to my throat and knotted it all up—and then—I enjoyed it; thank you dear for sending it—I didn’t expect it, and I like the photos so much and the clover, too.”

How I wish I could write something really worthwhile. Something you would feel glad to get from me—there is a good deal more between the lines than in them. Read as much as you care to, and you will not be mistaken…

Dear, how thankful I am for what you have given me—don’t resist my giving to you—I don’t offer my love and friendship to many as I have to you. Those who have it know how to steadfast it is.
     
 I want yours—what I have had of it shows me that it is worth having—working for….

The letter collection is a precious archive, expanding our knowledge of Austen’s relationships, professional work and travels. During the last two years, Alice Austen House Staff collaborated with Scholar Pamela Bannos to translate the letters. Bannos released her podcast My Dear Alice at the end of 2022 and you hear more from Daisy and many of Alice’s other colorful friends at www.mydearalice.org or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Miss Elliott in Pose 1893. Alice Austen. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.
2nd page from Daisy's Valentine, February 1887
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Open Call: Alice Austen’s 3rd Triennial of Photography

ECOLOGIES #3

Alice Austen House 3rd Triennial of Staten Island Photography

The Alice Austen House presents its 3rd Triennial of Photography examining the state of contemporary photography on Staten Island (SI), showcasing a diverse NYC borough that is often underrepresented. Looking through the lens of Staten Island residents and outsiders documenting the borough, this year’s theme examines ecologies, the study of the relationships between living things and their changing environments, in Staten Island. Exploring this idea in work through traditional, digital, and innovative uses of the medium; this juried exhibition examines contemporary themes and narratives that begin to reveal our evolving responses to the rapidly changing social and natural environment in this complex borough.

An expert panel of judges including Megan Beck, curator at the Noble Maritime Museum; Justine Kurland, artist and photography professor; and Jessica Dimson, Deputy Photo Editor, The New York Times Magazine, reviewed and selected entries for inclusion in the exhibition curated by Paul Moakley, Curator and Caretaker, and Victoria Munro, Executive Director.

Photo from 2019 exhibition by Samuel Partal, Etiolai

MARCH 4 – MAY 27, 2023

OPening Reception:
March 4, 2023 | 1–4pm

FEATURING

Michael Dalton
Dillon DeWaters
Jade Doskow
Gerard Franciosa
Jessica Gianna
Olga Ginzburg
Christine Hackett
Samuel Partal

FAQ

For this juried exhibition, the Alice Austen House Triennial of Photography held an open call seeking photographers either from Staten Island or outsiders looking at the borough.

A shortlist will be honored on our social media and the selected artists will be exhibited in the final exhibition, opening in March in the contemporary galleries of the Alice Austen House museum.

How to Enter

Submissions closed January 1st 2023 at 11:59PM.

Judging Criteria

An expert panel of judges will review and select entries for inclusion in the exhibition to be curated by Paul Moakley and Victoria Munro. Entries should be taken by photographers who are from or reside in Staten Island, or if taken by photographers outside of Staten Island, should be about Staten Island. Entries must aim to explore contemporary themes and narratives in their work through traditional, digital, and innovative uses of the medium.

TIMELINE
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Call for entries open
October 1st 2022
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Submission Deadline
January 1st 2023 at 11:59PM
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Shortlist Announcement
January 2023
|
Winner Announcement
February 2023
|
Opening Gala for Alice Austen Triennial of Photography
March 2023

About the Alice Austen House

The Alice Austen House fosters creative expression, explores personal identity, and educates and inspires the public through the interpretation of the photographs, life and historic home of trailblazing American photographer, Alice Austen (1866-1952). The Alice Austen House is a living breathing photographic resource, providing a platform for contemporary photographers to explore Austen’s legacy and make connections to the place she called home.

Gallery of Previous Winners

FAQ

When do submissions close?

Submissions close on January 1st 2023 at 11:59PM.

What are the restrictions on format and sizes?

Images should be 3000px on the longest side, and saved as a JPEG at 72DPI.

What if I plan to submit a paper application or physical work?

Please contact the museum to schedule a time to drop-off these materials. If arranged before the submission deadline, there will be a grace period for accepting materials.

I have more than one body of work. How do I submit this?

Each person is limited 10 images per submission but can submit multiple applications. Please be sure to address each body of work in your artist statement.

How many images can I submit?

You can submit ten in each project. These may be single images or a series.

Do I have to be a Staten Islander to qualify? Does the work have to be taken on Staten Island?

No, we are looking for work made about Staten Island if you are not a resident. This is a pretty loose interpretation. Any themes relating to contemporary happenings on the Island will qualify.

I live or work on Staten Island — can I submit work on *anything?

Yes, you are looking at the world through the lens of a Staten Islander. This means your work qualifies. 

How many images should I submit?

You should submit what you consider to be your best work. 10 max (for each project).

What is an artist statement?

An artist statement addresses the work that you are submitting. It should address the “how,” “what,” and “why” of your work.  Use clear, concise and simple language.

What is an artist’s biography?

An artist biography tells about us you as a photographer. Please be sure to list any formal or informal training, degrees, awards, and exhibition history.

How do I contact you?

Contact the museum at info@aliceausten.org or at 718-816-4506 if you have any questions about the application process.

If there are technical issues during the submission process, please notify us by phone or email in advance of the deadline. We will work with you to resolve all outstanding concerns in advance of the juror review process.

Ecologies #3: The Alice Austen Triennial of Photography is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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Exhibitions Fine Bright Day

Fine Bright Day

The Photography of Alice Austen

PAST Exhibition

Examining the range of Alice Austen’s photography, this exhibition specifically inserts the trailblazing photographer into a contemporary context as the modern woman she was. 22 newly printed photographs are paired and accompanied by interpretive text by leading scholars, artists and activists from the LGBTQ+ and allied community.

About the Exhibition

Contributors

Donald Moffett
Lillian Faderman
Laura Wexler
Richard Meyer
Liza Cowan
Paul Moakley
Keith Glutting
Victoria Munro
Jeb
Mitchell Grubler
Sarah Kate Gillespie

Curated By

Victoria Munro

ALICE AUSTEN (1866 –1952) was one of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers. Austen was an artist with a strong aesthetic sensibility and a rebel who broke away from the constraints of Victorian life, spending 56 years in a loving relationship with her partner Gertrude Tate. 

This exhibition examines the range of Austen’s photography and specifically inserts her into a contemporary context as the modern woman she was. 22 newly printed photographs are paired, and accompanied by interpretive text by leading scholars, artists and activists from the LGBTQ+ and allied community. In June 2017 the Alice Austen House, where Austen and Tate, lived together for nearly 30 years, marked its national designation as a site of LGBTQ+ history

On view September 21st 2022 through February 15th 2023

This exhibition was made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Institute of Museum and Library Services; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature
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Introducing My Dear Alice

The Alice Austen House and Pamela Bannos are thrilled to announce the release of the new podcast series My Dear Alice in late September 2022.

producer Pamela Bannos

In 2020, artist, researcher and author Pamela Bannos (author of Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife) began sharing her research with Alice Austen House Executive Director Victoria Munro to launch a journey into Austen’s world. Starting with Austen’s photographic cannon, Bannos’ circle of research expanded to uncover new discoveries through leads found in the entirety of Austen’s letter collection and her wide circle of friends. Bannos created an extensive family and friend tree for Austen that crosses the US and continually investigates new leads. Bannos is in the final stages of producing the 10 episode podcast My Dear Alice which will expand our understanding of the rich world of Austen, her friends, her travels, loves and photographs.

Bannos’ podcast series My Dear Alice is based on hundreds of letters that were returned to the Alice Austen House Museum 40 years after they were found in a closet by the family that had moved in after Austen was evicted in 1945. Dating from 1883 to 1898, they chronicle Austen’s life from age 17 through 32, during the time she made the photographic works that she is best known for. The letters taper off as she meets Gertrude Tate, the woman with whom she will spend the rest of her life. Artist and author Pamela Bannos wrote and narrates the series, filling in Austen’s biography and photo practice, tying together the chronology. The project is in collaboration with the Alice Austen House Museum.

In collaboration with the Alice Austen House, Bannos has created a beautiful companion website to the podcast series. The website will provide galleries of images to accompany each episode with additional information and full podcast transcripts.

We will be sending weekly updates on the progress of the podcast release and its weekly episodes.

Learn more about Bannos and her work here.

Read about the podcast in The Art Newspaper here.

LISTEN TO MY DEAR ALICE HERE

This will be a wonderful introduction to the Alice Austen letter collection that we have been working so intensely with over the past few years.

With the support of the New York State Archive Documentary Heritage Program, our Director of Operations and Collections, Kristine Allegretti has been creating a new finding aid for the letters which we are beginning to make available online via our website.

Kristine has also been busy scanning the collection thanks to the National Parks Service Saving America’s Treasures grant and we have provided a glimpse of these beautiful images here.

The podcast will shine a new light on the Alice Austen House letter collection and provide meaningful context to its contents and the fascinating array of authors who feature Austen's lively circle of friends. Pamela's years-long research into Austen's life and work is so critical for the preservation and truthful narration of Austen's life and work.

—Victoria Munro, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House
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Meet our Photoville 2022 Artists

The Alice Austen House partnership with The Photoville Festival returns with online community storytelling events and photo exhibitions in public spaces throughout New York City.

Photoville Logo including the word "photoville" and the graphic of a shipping container

The Photoville Festival provides an accessible venue for photographers and audiences from every walk of life to engage with each other, and experience thought-provoking photography from across the globe — with free access for all! For the first time in 10 years, the Photoville Festival will be celebrating visual storytelling in the summer.

 

This year the Alice Austen House will present six exhibitions showcasing Staten Island photographers, curated by Victoria Munro:

What's It Like

Jahtiek Long

Born and bred on Staten Island, Jahtiek Long is an interdisciplinary artist, emerging curator, photographer, musician, and community organizer. Recently, his work has been predominantly photography-focused and centered around subverting the traditional narrative of Staten Island. The island at times faces a stigma — and a picture is worth a thousand words. With that in mind, Long hopes to provide a shift in the representation of the borough and the people who call it home. Long’s work has been featured by PBS, NY1, the Staten Island Advance, and Inked Magazine.

Over the last few years, I’ve made it a priority to capture the beauty, charm, and story of a city — parts of which can be overlooked. Staten Island itself can be seen through a polarizing lens, by both Staten Islanders themselves and the rest of New York City. This body of work aims to provide another perspective, one with a more nuanced approach — showcasing the places and experiences that may at times be overlooked, but deserving of representation and the opportunity to be a part of the narrative of Staten Island, New York.

David Lê

Maiden Name

David Lê (b. 1985) was born on Staten Island, on Swan Street — where he shot the images that are displayed in this exhibition. He is an alumnus of P.S. 16 and I.S. 61. His photography practice began in earnest when he spent a year cataloging modernist architecture in Hanoi, Vietnam as a Fulbright Scholar in 2008. He went on to study the intersection of public religion and memorialization during his doctoral studies at Brown University. In 2019, he co-founded Maiden Name, a concept store operating at the intersection of art, design, and fashion based in New York City. The work presented here is from the Maiden Name Spring-Summer 2022 lookbook. Lê resides in New York City.

These images are from the Maiden Name Spring-Summer 2022 lookbook. The idea for this shoot was to collage glossy fashion imagery into the urban fabric of Staten Island. This is a New York brand, and we wanted to show a side of New York that’s rarely if ever seen.

Front Porch Project

Christine Kenworthy

Christine Kenworthy is a professional photographer based in Staten Island, New York. She believes the most important thing in life is the relationships you have with the people you love. Her photography represents families across Staten Island.

During the beginning of the pandemic, a photography project across the country was born called the Front Porch Project. In early April 2020, I launched my own Front Porch Project in Staten Island. In exchange for photographing families in front of their home from 8 feet away, I collected a donation to help those on the front lines. Each participating family received five edited digital images and donated at least $20. We were able to feed emergency room staff at both island hospitals, contributed to purchasing hospital supplies, and donated to Maker Space to help fund the making of face shields.

Etiolai

Samual Partal

Samuel Partal makes photographs of the post-natural landscape. He lives and works in Staten Island, New York.

“I view my practice as operating within a tradition of landscape photography — making photographs in the bits of wildness that bleed through the margins of the built environment — spaces in varying degrees of preservation and abandonment, ruin and remediation. I am interested in encountering the many transfigurations of the natural at play, in the uncanny landscapes of the anthropocene, or current geological age. In the studio, I set my film negatives on mounts and paint them with solutions of earth’s metals and mineral salts, sometimes letting them steep in the brine for days or weeks. These materials were central to the earliest photographic processes. They are also substances entangled in the diverse metabolisms of soil and sea, as well as agriculture and heavy industry. The commingling of these chemistries, the accretions and erosions that form their own miniature landscapes on and under the surface of the image, speak to the material and ecological history of photographs, and of the worlds they inhabit.” – Partal, 2022

Thomas Giarraffa

Dynamic Relationships

Thomas Giarraffa tells stories with his photography, creating surreal environments to comment on his past and the world he inhabits.

“My work is focused on isolation and how that affects a being — both the good and the bad. Mental, physical, and emotional abuse are elements within many people’s lives that we don’t seem to talk about enough. Even when the people behind such pain come from a good place, or hold good intentions, it can still result in pain nonetheless.” – Giarraffa, 2022

Island Lens

Lauren Fread, Mai’yah Kau, Elvia Gezlev, Jessica L. Gianna, John Kilcullen, Laura Pannone, Len Rachlin, Gillian Ricci

This group exhibition provides a snapshot of the diverse photographic practices on Staten Island. Ranging from photographic Instagram feeds to traditional B&W photography.

Location

The Staten Island Photoville sites are located on the South Beach boardwalk and the Alice Austen Park. More information and exact locations will be provided closer to the date.

North Shore by Gareth Smit
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from North Shore by Gareth Smit (2019 exhibitor)

irma bohorquez-geisler
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from Migrant Stories by Irma Bohorquez-Geisler (2021 exhibitor) 

Gale Wisdom
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Nature of Light by Gale Wisdom (2021 Exhibitor)

Photoville Festival 2022 kicks off with an Opening Day Community Celebration in glorious Brooklyn Bridge Park on Saturday June 4, 2022 and will feature public art exhibitions in all 5 boroughs for the month of June, in collaboration with local cultural institutions and NYC Parks. Photoville will once again host artist-led walking tours, workshops, and opportunities for educators and students to connect with the Festival’s featured visual storytellers.

Learn more about Photoville 2022 here.