A few Saturdays ago, Green Chalk Contemporary opened Independent Presence, an art show grounded in real-to-life photography while mixing in elements of the fanciful and mysterious.
Its modest but substantial array contains pieces that range from poignant black-and-white landscapes to fragmented images sewn with thread (the work of Susan Hyde Greene, also present in the gallery’s other show, Waterstories) to sepia-toned, soft-edged birds that seem to flutter even when captured on the page.
Among several other goals, the six women artists of Independent Presence aspire to “express [their] relationship with...the natural world and photographic history” in their own artwork, according to . But this Saturday, they go one step further and invite the public to learn about and experience the history.
On July 18, from 6-8pm, Independent Presence artist Martha Casanave gives a talk about Julia Margaret Cameron, a distinguished female photographer whose work—despite having been created a century and a half ago—still inspires modern styles.
Cameron received her first camera at age 48, the beginning of a short (11-year) career. Her portraits, mainly soft-edged face shots, attempted to capture the personalities of her famous subjects—Charles Darwin, Robert Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson and others. She is also recognized for her illustrations, which featured historical scenes or literary characters. Her pieces have gained her several modern admirers: Imogen Cunningham, a modern female photographer, says of Cameron’s work, “I'd like to see portrait photography go right back to Julia Margaret Cameron. I don't think there's anyone better.”
Martha Casanave showed interest in photography at a much younger age than Cameron. Casanave went in a different direction during college, however, graduating from Monterey Institute of International Studies with a degree in Russian language and literature. But like any person with two passions, she managed to combine them by traveling to the Soviet Union to focus on her own projects and introduce her American colleagues to photographers from Russia.
Her interest in pinhole photography bloomed as a result of one of these trips, and never faded: the images displayed in Independent Presence come from her third photo compilation book, Explorations Along an Imaginary Coastline, which exclusively features pinhole work.
Waterstories and Independent Presence are open from 2-6pm Tuesday-Saturday and by appointment: greenchalkcontemporary@gmail.com or 831-718-3232.