Documentary Photography

2015 “Who’s Huldah?

July 29, 2024 by trixrosen

WHO’S HULDAH? Biblical Woman Who Shaped our Tradition
Hebrew Union College –JIR Museum
One West Fourth St, New York NY
February 3- June 30 2015

HAGAR. You are the One that Sees Me (2014)
Digital Collage. Fine Art Print on Cotton Rag Paper, Charcoal and Charcoal Pencils, Color Pencils, Gold Leaf, Wire Grill Bristles Brush; 17¾ W x 20½ H Inches (Framed). Laser Artist: Matthew Tanteri

Hagar was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah. Because she was childless, she gave Hagar to Abraham to bear a child. When Hagar became pregnant, Sarah forced her to flee into the desert. At the well of a spring Hagar encountered a Divine Messenger and God spoke directly to her. In this image, ‘You are the One that Sees Me,’ Hagar is looking upwards. She is becoming God’s counterpart. The gold leaf flakes and multi-colored light rays represent God speaking directly to her. God promises Hagar a nation will come from her son, Ishmael.

TAMAR. Claiming Her Rights (2014)
Digital Collage. Fine Art Print on Cotton Rag Paper, Charcoal and Charcoal Pencils, Color Pencils, Wire Grill Bristles Brush, Gold Leaf, Antique Gold Wax Metallic Finish; 21¾ W x 25½ H Inches (Framed). Laser Artist: Matthew Tanteri

Judah does not want to keep his promise to give Tamar his third son after his first two sons, both her husbands, were killed by God for their wickedness. Tamar decides to get justice for herself and secure her rights. In this image she is waiting for Judah at a site where prostitutes are known to gather. Her face is veiled so that she will be unrecognizable. The light rays surrounding and piercing her depict both her link to God and to the twins she will conceive, one of whom will be an ancestor of King David. The fire represents Judah’s initial command that she be burned to death when he discovers that he had slept with his daughter-in-law. The deeply etched scratches on the print mirror Tamar’s willingness to face adversity so that she could secure her own future and place in posterity.

DON’T TAKE PICTURES: Instamatic
This gallery is on view through May 26.

Patti’s Preternatural Portrait, NYC
Polapan Sepia 56 ISO 400 (Polaroid)
Image 3½ x 4½ inches

The photographs in this on-line exhibition were all made with instant films and show a diverse array of genres, subject matter and styles. My fading and aging polaroid print embraces the flaws inherent in the medium and becomes a continually evolving new reality.

VOICES: AN ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE
NAWA Gallery (National Association of Women Artists)
80 Fifth Avenue (at Union Square), New York, NY
April 2nd – 30th 2015
Opening Reception April 2 2015 5:00 – 7:00pm

CHANGED LANDSCAPES. New York, NY (1998)
72H x 48W inches, Floating museum wood box frame with aluminum brace; Silver Gelatin Print

My images contribute new definitions to feminist iconography by depicting gender ambiguity and authenticity, and challenging the sexual, cultural and erotic representation of women. They suggest the creative ability of women to break taboos and shape their own image and identity.

CHANGED LANDSCAPES depicts a woman who bravely explores the physical and emotional contours of her new form after a double mastectomy. This biographical portrait can be viewed as a narrative about her life and as a defining moment of transfiguring change. Bald, breast-less and scarred, she is fearless and beautiful, essentially and eternally female.

Celebrating January 2014 -ART Connections 10

July 29, 2024 by trixrosen

I can thank Mom and Dad for January being the month of my birth, and Curator, Marilyn Symmes, for choosing two of my images, Peeling Back the Layers and Endangered Oakley Stoll House for the ‘ART Connections 10’ exhibition, opening January 26

Vera's Wedding Day-trix rosen wedding photograpghy

at the George Segal Gallery, Montclair State University, in Montclair NJ. This marks the first gallery exhibition representing my gender work along with my architectural series of endangered houses.

What is true about both is they record historical moments, measured not as isolated fragments of time, but as a tangible and intangible exposures, revealing the narrative arc of my subject’s life/capturing past, recording present and projecting into the future.

‘Thoughtful Eyes, Fanciful Dreams’ records a moment, measured not as an isolated fragment of time, but suggesting the narrative arc of childhood/ capturing past, recording present and projecting into the future. Jaimie, cocoon-wrapped in a feathered cape, appears like a chrysalis emerging in the moment of becoming. Her wide-eye gaze draws the viewer into the enigma of childhood dreams.

The presentation of the printed image on cotton voile adds to the fluidity of the work. It can appear as a tangible portrait of a young girl, or depending on where one is standing in relationship to the piece, the image can become intangible, and disappear into the back light. ‘Thoughtful Eyes, Fanciful Dreams’ reflects not just the fleetingness of memory, but the evanescence of childhood itself.

My brother, Al and his children, Sean and Amanda came to the reception. The Rosen Clan also included my brother, Michael, his wife Roberta and my nephew Scott with his wife, Laura, and their baby Nico, attending his first art exhibition.

My second art work, ‘Syd and Jacki at Summer Camp’ was included in the exhibition, ‘EARLY WORKS’ at the RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco, California that opened on October 17th. The entire gallery of early photos can be viewed online .

This photograph dates back to 1961 when I was 14-years old at Cejwin, a summer camp in Port Jervis, New York. ‘EARLY WORKS’ is an exhibition that examines the naive imagery made by contemporary photographers when they were children.

The curators asked for “early images that often reveal surprising talent, visual intuition, and honesty. Kept for many decades in shoeboxes and faded albums, the images are often cherished belongings that play a key role in defining the self as artist. This exhibition,” they said “will be a close look at photographers’ earliest works, paired with personal narratives about the images and their role in each photographers’ development as an artist.”

The photograph of Syd and Jacki, my two best friends that summer, was taken with a plastic Brownie Starmite camera. I had been in the same bunk with these girls for five summers. I was lucky to have had a camera, and took pictures of my bunk mates during our days and nights together. This was the summer when I began to realize that while some of them were showing a big interest in boys, I was thinking more about girls. I was also very serious about my drawing and dreamed about living in NYC and becoming an ‘artist.’

In the photo ‘Syd and Jacki,’ I can see how aware I was of Syd’s gesture in her body language as she is lying down and looking at me, and how I also captured Jacki in the background obliviously looking into a mirror and doing her hair. This picture depicts a naïve eroticism and reveals what was both hidden and suggestive in our first bloom of teenage sexuality. I also remember how much I didn’t understand about myself and what I was feeling, other than I seemed different than the other girls in my interests and desires.

This picture reminds me how scary it was to not have the support of family and friends, or the vocabulary to be able to speak the words that became one of the defining elements of my life, my fine-art photography and my future career as a socially concerned photo-journalist.

On the night ‘EARLY WORKS‘ opened, I decided to try to locate the girls in this cherished photograph. Thanks to FB, I found Syd within 30 minutes and we were soon excitedly chatting and recollecting our adventures as old friends do. In the next week, Sydell located Jacki and the rest of our 1961 summer bunkmates. We are planning a reunion in NYC.

So, find some of your own old photographic images and perhaps rediscover what they mean to you now!

“PAINT BY NUMBERS” Exhibition

August 29, 2016 by trixrosen

PLEASE JOIN ME at the OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, September 8, 2016, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

PAINT BY NUMBERS
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum
One West Fourth St, New York NY
September 8, 2016- June 30, 2017

Numbers are integral to Jewish rituals, belief, significant historical dates, and daily life. Numbers and numerology have been at the core of Biblical understanding since the Bible was codified and possibly before. Inescapable, numbers are the global language of humanity. More than fifty contemporary artists illuminate the meaning of numbers and their symbolism through a broad range of artistic media.

“Two Generations x Seven Emotions”

Dimensions: 13.25H x 17.5W inches
Framed: 20H x 24W inches
Year Completed: 2016
Medium: Hot Press Bright Fine Art Paper with Archival Pigmented Inks

I photographed my friends, Joanmarie and Faith, as they were teaching themselves to wrap their arms with the tefillin seven times. It is the mother’s hand that is the foundation for her daughter as they learn to follow the commandment to bind oneself to a higher power and channel the divine energies of the seven emotions.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Teach these words to your children. Recite them at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them on your arm and on your head and inscribe them on the door-posts of your house.”

“Eternal Flame of the Shin”
Medzhybizh, Ukraine c.1800

Dimensions: 12H x 18W inches
Framed 18H x 24W inches
Year Completed: 2008
Medium: Hot Press Bright Fine Art Paper with Archival Pigmented Inks

“Eternal Flame of the Shin,” was photographed in the cemetery near the ohel protecting the Baal Shem Tov’s tomb. Outstretched hands, joined in a gesture of blessing, were symbolically carved onto the headstones of Kohanim, descendants of the Biblical priests.

In Medzhybizh, the birth place of Hassidism and the Baal Shem Tov, I found the ritualistic gesture in the whitewashed hands inviting me to dig deeper into its meaning.

The four fingers on each hand are customarily split into two sets of two fingers each, forming the letter Shin (שׁ), the 21^st letter in the Hebrew alphabet that also designates Shaddai, the Almighty Creator.

The four stones poignantly placed on top of the gravestone serve to commemorate the life and enduring presence of the deceased. This image depicts my own mitzvot, uniting past and present, and the love and respect I have for learning from my ancestors.

Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 9am-5pm, Friday, 9am-3pm

2015 FALL to WINTER – 3 Exhibitions

October 19, 2015 by trixrosen

PLEASE JOIN ME at the
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, Oct 21, 2015, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
EVIL: A MATTER OF INTENT
Hebrew Union College –JIR Museum
One West Fourth St, New York NY
September 1, 2015- June 30, 2016

My Femme Fatale Portfolio has its roots in the shadows and violence depicted on pulp fiction book covers and film noir movie posters. At the core of these stories is an edgy morality tale. ‘Bad girl’ characters live in a place and time where good is not always rewarded or evil inevitably punished. Central to this story is the predatory femme fatale, sometimes portrayed as a character that is not all bad.

Within the mysterious mise-en-scène, gender performance artist, Fred Koenig, appropriates the dark haired, noir-heroine dripping in furs and jewels as a character of multiple and hidden identities. For SIN STREET (2013), the inner surface and the outer show are as interchangeable as the intimately linked masculine and feminine roles. Sex is the femme fatale’s weapon. She uses her attractiveness to manipulate the male protagonist. Better not to be too pretty, too aggressive or too sexual or you might be killed as the film noir heroine usually dies. The warning is well learned by generations of young girls. The film noir moral lesson is that we are all connected; that the lure of transgression makes us closer than we think.

The exhibition EVIL: A MATTER OF INTENT addresses the faces of inhumanity and explores the struggle between the acts of evil, (yetzer hara) and the acts of good (yetzer hatov).

“The artists in this exhibition as do many of us, have a vision of how to proceed. Less rhetoric. More action. It is up to each and every one of us to wage war on evil.” Laura Kruger, Curator

Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 9am-5pm, Friday, 9am-3pm, Select Saturdays, 10am-2pm (call for Saturday openings)
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PLEASE JOIN ME at the Opening Reception: Thursday, October 29th, 2015, 7-9 PM

ART IN THE PUBLIC EYE: What’s All the Fuss? This exhibition examines the work of artists who investigate the controversial subjects that spark public discussions today.

Pierro Gallery of South Orange
5 Mead Street, South Orange, NJ
October 29 – November 25th 2015
ART IN THE PUBLIC EYE – Panel Discussion
Thursday Oct 22 2015, 7pm, Montclair Art Museum – to discuss the issues and concerns that arise in the creation of public art installations and how they engage communities in dialogue.

From the earliest days of my career in art and photography I have photographed strong and defiant people who bravely break taboos and re-define their cultural and sexual representation. Many of my images embrace the fluidity of gender identity and explore the possibility that we each hold a myriad of alternative selves within us.

SACRED CORSET (1997)
In the eighteen years that I have been photographing the French performance artist, Fred Koenig, we have collaborated on producing images that explore a gender-fluid queer identity. My HE/SHE Portfolio reveals the spectrum of Fred’s transformations into self-affirming portraits of his myriad personas and alternative selves.

For SACRED CORSET, Koenig dares the viewer to cross over boundaries of imagination and desires. Here is a fearless man who is empowered and transformed by the ambiguity and fluidity of his sexuality.

AUTHENTIC GENDER QUEER (2013)

Dean, the photojournalist and visual artist depicted in the portrait, AUTHENTIC GENDER QUEER, self-identifies with the pronoun “they,” and says: “There is nothing more courageous than being yourself in a world that tries to render you invisible in mundane and violent ways.”

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VISAURAL
NAVE Gallery Annex
53 Chester St., Somerville, MA 02144
October 8^th – 31^st 2015

WHO DO YOU BELIEVE IN
Pigment print on aluminum with hand-filed edges, 12 x 18 inches

I photographed the graffiti drawing, WHO DO YOU BELIEVE IN, on a cell wall of the Women’s Wing at the abandoned Essex County State Penitentiary, in North Caldwell, NJ. Both the text and the inmate’s haunting, hand-drawn portrait poignantly illustrate one of the fundamental questions we ask about life.

For the exhibition, VISAURAL, I paired it with “Hallelujah,” written by Leonard Cohen and performed here by K.D. Lang, because the prayer-like music affirms a faith in life and love amidst doubts. Cohen has said the iconic song represents “absolute surrender in a situation you cannot fix or dominate.”

Alone, within the steel bars of her cage-like cell, I can imagine the figure in the drawing listening to the repeated one-word chorus coming through the open ceiling above her. According to the song, even those of us for whom “it all went wrong” can experience transcendence. As Cohen writes: we “stand before the Lord of Song/ with nothing on [our] lips but a cold and broken Hallelujah.”

https://trixrosen.com/divine-light/Hallelujah.html

“IDENT-ALTER-ITY- But Still In One Piece”

June 16, 2015 by trixrosen

WONDERFUL NEWS!

Eight photos from my HE/SHE Portfolio, representing an 18-year collaboration with performance artist Fred Koenig, have been invited to the
5th THESSALONIKI BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART

“IDENT-ALTER-ITY-BUT STILL IN ONE PIECE”
June 17 – July 31 2015
Opening Wednesday, June 17th at Thessaloniki City Hall, Thessaloniki, Greece

Investigating gender, the right of gender self-determination, and other crucial identity-related issues as seen through the eyes of modern art practice constitute the themes of the multifaceted action “Ident-alter-ity” that will take place within the framework of the main program of the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art.

My photographs in “BUT STILL IN ONE PIECE” embrace the fluidity of gender identity and explore the possibility that we each hold a myriad of alternative selves within us.

Among the artists included in “IDENTALTERITY” are David Hockney and Lynda Benglis. Hockney converses with the homo-erotic poetry of C.P. Cavafy through a series of engravings that illustrate a new, 1967 English translation of the Alexandrian Greek poet by Stephen Spender and Nikos Stangos. In “Female Sensibility” (video 1972), Benglis presents two heavily made-up women kissing and caressing each other. The action is read against the feminist film theory of the “male gaze.”

An exhibition, a symposium, and a performance are at the core of the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Action Field Kodra, Thessaloniki Pride, and the Municipality of Thessaloniki. The exhibition gives the opportunity to both established artists and emerging artists to engage in an open dialogue through their work.

2015 WINTER to SPRING EXHIBITIONS

March 11, 2015 by trixrosen

WHO’S HULDAH? Biblical Woman Who Shaped Our Tradition
Hebrew Union College –JIR Museum
One West Fourth St, New York NY
February 3- June 30, 2015

DON’T TAKE PICTURES: Instamatic
This gallery is on view through May 26.

Patti’s Preternatural Portrait, NYC
Polapan Sepia 56 ISO 400 (Polaroid)
Image 3½ x 4½ inches

CHANGED LANDSCAPES. New York, NY (1998)
72H x 48W inches, floating museum wood box frame with aluminum brace; Silver Gelatin Print

My images contribute new definitions to feminist iconography by depicting gender ambiguity and authenticity, and challenging the sexual, cultural, and erotic representation of women. They suggest the creative ability of women to break taboos and shape their own image and identity.

CHANGED LANDSCAPES depicts a woman who bravely explores the physical and emotional contours of her new form after a double mastectomy. This biographical portrait can be viewed as a narrative about her life and as a defining moment of transfiguring change. Bald, breast-less, and scarred, she is fearless and beautiful, essentially and eternally female.

AUTUMN EXHIBITIONS 2014

September 29, 2014 by trixrosen

HOME
Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery at the College of Saint Elizabeth
Morristown, NJ
September 25 – December 14, 2014
Opening Reception: October 9th, 4:30 to 7:00.

The word, “home” resonates with each of us in a particular way, depending on our upbringing, country of origin, and our sociological, psychological and/or physical experience of “home,” wrote curator Dr. Ginny Butera about the exhibition, HOME.

‘Kalinga Vernacular Houses’ is an image from my documentary series‘ A Kalinga Journey through Time.’ For over a quarter of a century I have been photographing the dramatic transformation of an indigenous community set deep into the rice terraces of the northern Philippines. My work as a photojournalist initially brought me to the region. It was at the 1986 ‘peace talks’ between the new Aquino Government, the rebel soldiers and the tribal people where I first met a tribal woman who invited me to visit her village, Luplupa in Kalinga Province. It could only be reached by walking a narrow bridge stretched high over the Chico River.

When I returned again in 2013, I saw that the last of these original one-room octagonal huts perched high on wooden posts have all been replaced by two-story concrete, multi-room houses.

I am drawn to photographing the timeless nature of historic architecture because the sites and structures are a repository of collective memories – a record of the builders and the people who once inhabited the spaces they held dear.

IRONBOUND UNBOUND #5 – BRIDGING the VOID
Sumei Art Center Gallery at the Prospect Street Fire Station
56 Prospect St. Newark, NJ 07105
Gallery Hours: 12 to 5 pm Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and by appointment
Opening reception: October 10, 5 pm to 10 pm

The curators for this show asked for the best work documenting the existing Pulaski Skyway structure and the best imaginative work using the Pulaski Skyway as inspiration or a point of departure.

This view of the Pulaski Skyway was observed during my daily walks with my dog in Leonard Gordon Park, Jersey City Heights. While standing on the highest hill in the park, I have been drawn to record the fleeting last rays of the summer sun as it isolates the Pulaski Skyway and lights it with a magical golden sheen. Five of my ‘Pulaski Skyway’ photographs that contrast the man-made landscape with the natural environment are represented in this exhibit.

SAME DIFFERENCE
September 12 – October 17, 2014

William V Musto Cultural Center
420 15th St. Union City, NJ
September 12 – October 17, 2014
Opening Reception: September 12, 2014 from 7:00 pm until 10:00 pm

dean paris bold fatty ladies photography by trix rosen

My images record a biographical or historical moment, measured not as an isolated fragment of time, but revealing the narrative arc of my subject’s life, capturing past, recording present and projecting into the future. Whether an architectural site or a portrait, what haunts me is finding the essence of the visible and invisible timeline.

The portraits exhibited in SAME DIFFERENCE empower the viewer to question and challenge conventional definitions of gender and beauty.

Breaking Through Tradition

March 12, 2014 by trixrosen

“Photographer Trix Rosen’s work about gender ambiguity empowers the viewer to question conventional definitions of beauty and remind us it is more important to define our own personal beauty rather than being defined by others.”
Maureen Harrison and Alexsandra Simakowicz, Curators, BREAKING THROUGH TRADITION

BREAKING THROUGH TRADITION
April 3 – May 3, 2014
Opening Reception: April 3, 2014, 7 pm-9 pm
Pierro Gallery, Baird Center, 5 Mead Street, South Orange, NJ 07079

Please join me at the Pierro Gallery in South Orange, NJ, for BREAKING THROUGH TRADITION, a group show celebrating the American cultural transition towards inclusivity.

My HE-SHE portfolio presents an ongoing series of portraits documenting my seventeen-year collaboration with French artist Fred Koenig, who unselfconsciously dares the viewer to cross over boundaries of imagination and desires. Observe him in ‘The Sea Change’ and be confronted by a fearless man who is empowered and transformed by the ambiguity of his sexuality.

‘Ravaged’ presents Fred within the decaying landscape of a New Jersey historic farmhouse. Perhaps this intimate pose and an abandoned structure lay bare a similar beauty and vulnerability.

Fred and I collaborate not just in our art but in our political activism. Talking about his HIV/AIDS status, Fred told me that it is part of what he shows me by exposing his soul to my camera.

‘Changed Landscapes’ also reveals a figure who has dared me to look deeper because she wasn’t afraid. Here is a woman who bravely explores the physical and emotional contours of her new form after a double mastectomy.

This portrait can be viewed as a narrative about her life and as a defining moment of transfiguring change. Bald, breast-less, and scarred, she is fearless and beautiful, essentially and eternally female.

These images record biographical moments, measured not as isolated fragments of time, but revealing the narrative arc of both Fred and Takami’s life. They are capturing the past, recording the present and projecting into the future. How courageous and optimistic to look inward and become stronger through the experience.

I hope to see you at the opening of BREAKING THROUGH TRADITION on April 3, 7 pm-9 pm
Pierro Gallery, Baird Center, 5 Mead Street, South Orange, NJ 07079

2015 “Who’s Huldah?

Celebrating January 2014 -ART Connections 10

“PAINT BY NUMBERS” Exhibition

2015 FALL to WINTER – 3 Exhibitions

“IDENT-ALTER-ITY- But Still In One Piece”

2015 WINTER to SPRING EXHIBITIONS

AUTUMN EXHIBITIONS 2014

Breaking Through Tradition

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About Trix Rosen

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