Feature Articles


December Issue 2001

Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Features Photography of Susan Page

Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, NC, continues its series of solo photography exhibitions in the Photography Room with Susan Page's Nanyori Series. The exhibition opens on Dec. 7 and continues through Jan. 26, 2002. The artist will discuss her work in an informal gallery talk at 7pm on Dec. 7.

North Carolina photographer, Susan Page developed this body of work, entitled Nanyori, from her journal that she kept during a recent trip to Africa with Global Partners for Development. Global Partners, a nonprofit organization, builds partnerships between US citizens and African communities by supporting child survival and development, enabling women to improve family health and working for the end of hunger.

The title, Nanyori, comes from the Maasai name for one who is beloved. The photographer's selection of details explores the physicality of women's labor and endurance as well as the strength and spirituality of women in the Maasai culture. The series of ten Epson prints is derived from a combination of plant material and small Polaroid proofs. Page created these images in her journal as she traveled.

Upon her return, Page showed the journal to several curators who appreciated the feel of the book as it was. The photographer decided the best tool to recreate the feel of the journal was to use computer scan. Once the images were scanned the artist worked with the images in the computer, making changes to create stronger images. The journal has its own life with the flowers drying and changing color; the Epson prints are a way of freezing the journal in time, a record of the initial moment of creation when the ideas and elements are fresh. This is the artist's first project to be executed completely digitally.

An innovator with different photographic surfaces, Page often prints on cloth, relating the works to the veiled figures of women in some of her photographs. In other works, she distresses the negatives to create the mood she is after. Many of her images are printed in warm sepia-tones. Often, Page uses the format of the diptych to juxtapose disparate images and enhance their meaning in the new context. The "Nanyori" pieces carry Page's trademark of quiet monumental strength of forms with the use of color and combination of materials.

Page has investigated women as subject matter over the course of her career. Several years ago, she took photos of women in the mills around Belmont, NC, as well as nuns in the south of Italy followed by a series of Arab women in Israel. A recent body of work deals with the artist's own experience of breast cancer by taking self-portraits throughout the process of surgery and chemotherapy. Throughout this exploration, Page's themes of spirit and spirituality of women, the seen and unseen, remain consistent.

Also, on display during the month of Dec. is the second in Hodges Taylor Gallery's new series of fine print publications, monotypes by Raymond Chorneau, entitled Return to Paris Mountain. Phillip Garrett, master printer at King Snake Press, assisted Chorneau in the production of the second series of monotypes this fall. Other fine print publications are in the works and will be announced in the coming months.

An installation of work by renowned glass artist, William Morris, is now in the gallery in conjunction with his exhibition at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte. His mastery of the medium is well demonstrated by these works in the intimate setting of the gallery.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 704/334-3799.

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