YOLA MONAKHOV STOCKTON: Fields of Inquiry opens at Alice Austen House Museum

  Blue China, 2011

Northern Cardinal, Manomet, Massachusetts 

Photograph © Yola Monakhov Stockton

Tapestry, 2013

Tufted Titmouse, Manomet, Massachusetts 

Photograph © Yola Monakhov Stockton

 Ivory Gate, 2013

Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Manomet, Massachusetts

Photograph © Yola Monakhov Stockton

"By collaborating with scientists, ecologists, and naturalists, I gain access to wild birds captured for banding or captive birds in a research lab, and bring them into conversation with motifs common in religious iconography, ideas of the sublime, and transcendentalism, including horticulture, wilderness, Renaissance depictions of landscape in frescoes and tapestries, and Modernist painting and sculpture."– Yola Monakhov, "Field Guide To Bird Songs" (Schilt Publishing, 2015)

  Young Man in Quarry, 2009. Westchester, New York

Photograph © Yola Monakhov Stockton

Sing Sing Prison with Bird and Fawn, 2011.

Ossining, New York

Photograph © Yola Monakhov Stockton

"For years, New York based photographer Yola Monakhov honed her craft documenting the conflict in the Middle East and with personal projects in Russia. But after completing her MFA in photography at Columbia in 2007 and accepting a position teaching introduction to photography there, Monakhov realized that she longed for the complete control that the black and white medium allows. In Empire Pictures, she approaches her subject matter much in the same way as she did when shooting news stories abroad but chooses instead to slow down the process." read more, "Yola Monakhov's Empire State" by Natalie Matutschovsky, TIME LightBox

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Join the Alice Austen House for the opening of their newest exhibition, "Fields of Inquiry: Photographs by Yola Monakhov Stockton." The show features work from two series Field Guide to Bird Songs and Empire Picture of the Hudson. Stockton's work provides commentary on the photographic process through traditional documentary photography and constructed compositions. Curated by Natalie Matutschovsky, senior photo editor, TIME

"Fields of Inquiry"
Photographs by Yola Monakhov Stockton

09/21/14– 12/28/14

Exhibition Opening 

Sunday, September 21, 11am-5pm

Alice Austen House  

2 Hylan Blvd at Edgewater Street

Staten Island, New York

Austen lived in “Clear Comfort,” a Victorian Gothic cottage that dates back to a 1690. The house, which is one of the oldest in New York and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973, overlooks the New York Narrows and has a stunning panoramic view of lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Verrazano Bridge.

Directions from Manhattan by Staten Island Ferry: Subway to South Ferry (1), Whitehall Street (N/R), or Bowling Green Station (4/5) or bus or taxi to: Staten Island Ferry (25 minute ride). At the ferry terminal in Staten Island #S51 Bus to Hylan Boulevard (15 minute ride). Walk one block east to water and Alice Austen House.

Alice Austen House keeps alive the daring spirit of early American photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952) with exhibits and programs in her historic home. Austen was one of America's earliest and most prolific female photographers, and over the course of her life she captured about 8,000 images. Though she is best known for her documentary work, Austen was an artist with a strong aesthetic sensibility. Furthermore, she was a landscape designer, a master tennis player, and the first woman on Staten Island to own a car. She never married, and instead spent fifty years with Gertrude Tate. A rebel who broke away from the ties of her Victorian environment, Alice Austen created her own independent life.

STREET TYPES OF NEW YORK: Paul Moakley and Anthony LaSala Curators

 "The Street Types of New York" 

Alice Austen House Museum Exhibition Reception

View It Here

 Photographs by Richard Renaldi

  Photograph by An Rong Xu

 Photograph by Ruddy Roye

A powerful exhibition co-curated by Paul Moakley and Anthony LaSala, opened at the Alice Austen House Museum in Staten Island. Alice Austen (1866-1952) was one of America's earliest female photographers and “Street Types of New York” was her groundbreaking portfolio of the city’s working class just before the turn of the century. Today a new generation of photographers continues her legacy of documenting the ever-changing city in an exhibition that includes work by Chris Arnade, Alice Attie, Dmitry Gudkov, Peter Funch, Wayne Lawrence, Erica McDonald, Greg Miller, Christina Paige, Susannah Ray, Richard Renaldi, Ruddy Roye, Andy Vernon-Jones, Geordie Wood, and An Rong Xu.

"The New Street Types draws connections from early street portraiture like that of Alice Austen (1866-1952) to contemporary image-makers. The artists selected for the exhibition work in a similar style to Austen, often employing large format photography to create portraits of New York City’s diverse communities and subcultures – including the outer fringes of the expanding city like the Rockaways and Orchard Beach. Some of the artists conceptualize themes in portrait typologies and use social media to communicate online, while artists like Peter Funch take the traditional street portrait a step further, creating digital tableaus to capture life on the streets and see it anew. Photographer Ruddy Roye utilizes Instagram to create his images - sharing them in a spontaneous and wide-reaching way Austen could have never imagined.

In addition to the contemporary images, Alice Austen’s rare and fascinating “Street Types” portfolio, produced c.1896 by the Albertype Company, will be on display.  The show examines Austen’s intentions behind the portfolio of portraits and leaves the viewer to ponder her reasoning for the project – a question that was left unanswered at the time of her death in 1952." (Text: Alice Austen House Museum)

The New Street Types

July 17 - September 28

Alice Austen House Museum

FORECLOSED: Exhibition and Talk

Photograph by Lauren Greenfield

"A home for sale with a dead lawn stands out next to it's green neighbor in the Rosetta Canyon development in Lake Elsinore, Calif."

Carl Rutberg, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House Museum (left) and Paul Moakley (right), Deputy Photo Editor for TIME and Curator of Foreclosed: Documents from the American Housing Crisis

A special presentation by (l) Paul Moakley, Deputy Photo Editor TIME, and John Moore (r), Photographer for Getty, about his World Press Photo winning series documenting the American foreclosure crisis.

Foreclosed: Documents from the American Housing Crisis
to June 14, 2012

"This exhibition examines how artists are using photography to record the aftermath of the housing bubble; from its’ beginning in 2006 to the dramatic effects it still has on the American Landscape today. The artists and photographers in the exhibition depict the ruins of rich and poor neighborhoods, as well as the families affected by the economic downturn. As a result, the exhibition aims to explore the disintegration of the American dream and how it effects a culture where home ownership is no longer a reality."– The Alice Austen House Museum

Photographer Susan May Tell and I took the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty to the Alice Austen Museum for the Opening Reception of Foreclosed: Documents from the American Housing Crisis.

Alice Austen (1866-1952)
One of America's earliest female Photographers

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$100,000 Grant Opportunity
Alice Austen Museum Grant

VINTAGE CAMERA DAY

May 20 1:00 – 4:00

1PM - Bring and share your vintage cameras or come see Alice's! 2PM - Alice Austen's Cameras: A Demonstration and Talk with Imara Moore, speaking about the two cameras in the Parlor and how they are similar to what Alice used as well as highlighting the glass plate shooting process of the late 1800's and early 1900's. 3PM - FREE with a $3.00 suggested donation. Call to reserve at 718 816-4508 ex13

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