TRIX ROSEN PHOTOGRAPHY – TRIXSPIX

documentary

Endangered Historic Houses – Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, New Jersey

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My friend, Robert Williams, the Verona NJ town historian, took me on a tour of these National Park Service houses, located within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Built between the 18th and 19th century, many of these sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were in live-in condition a couple of years ago when the Park took ownership. We saw doors wide open or missing, window glass smashed and some of these historically important houses sadly vandalized and trashed.

“The Shoemaker-Houck Farm was one of the premier structures in the Park,” Bob told me. “The front portion of the house was built in 1822 while the rear portion was built in the eighteenth century. Look what has happened to this house in only one year’s time!” We saw that the back door was wide open. “This is a National Register Building that was in excellent condition. How could this have happened?” Bob asked sadly.

Bob explains the history of each house we visit and recounts how the Smith-Lennington House had been in the same family since it was built. “The Smiths built the initial house in 1820 and then remodeled and added to it in 1902. When the Park Service took title of this a few years ago, it was completely intact and in live-in condition. Shortly after their stewardship began, someone took the columns off the porch and it was down-hill from there.” [Read more…] about Endangered Historic Houses – Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, New Jersey

‘MOMENTUM: Contemporary Women’s Art’

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I just received my beautifully illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition, ‘MOMENTUM: Contemporary Women’s Art,’ on view at the Los Angeles Art Association, February 17- March 2 2012. Three of my photographs are in MOMENTUM, curated by Rita Gonzalez, Associate Curator at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

“Multiple generations of women’s art are represented and within the selection are myriad formations of feminist thought and aesthetics,” writes Rita Gonzalez in her introduction to the catalogue. “Many of the artists engage with legacies of activism that go back to civil rights movements of the 20th century while clearly engaging with the present day.”

“Momentum is defined as the impetus or driving force gained by a course of events,” explains Janice Nesser Chu, WCA President in the catalogue. “The exhibition not only investigates the diverse voices of women artists, and looks at the depth and breadth of work being created but also is a testament to the drive that got them to this point, to the things that propelled them and their work forward… their experiences, their history.” I included art work that was created between 1985 – 2010 and the descriptions are quoted on pages 113,114,115 and accompanied by the following images:

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“Enter into Faust’s Study, a trompe l’oeil painted room, and be confronted by a fearless man who is empowered and transformed by the duality of his sexuality. His starkly lit, painted face and figure emerging from the shadows are a provocative contrast to the painted Adam and Eve on the rear wall. Faust’s Study directs the viewer’s attention to the relationship between the interior details and the narrative, as the gender performance artist, Frédéric Koenig, unselfconsciously dares the viewer to cross over boundaries of imagination and desire.”

Faust’s Study, 1997, Edition of 9, Archival Pigment Print.  13.3 inches x 16 inches.
Framed  24.5  x 26.5 inches  – $1300.00

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“This  image is part of an ongoing series of portraits that document my fifteen-year collaboration with Frédéric Koenig, who can so naturally appear both handsome and beautiful, both masculine and feminine. Wearing nothing more than spike heels, he provocatively poses in an abandoned brewery, a gritty, industrial environment that reinforces a traditional male landscape. While his upper body exudes a masculine power, his raw and curvaceous physicality and his archetypal pin-up girl shoes challenge the viewer to explore how we perceive masculinity, sexuality and gender identity.”

Beyond XY: Inside the Abandoned Falstaff Brewery. No.2,  2010, Edition of 15, Archival Pigment Print.  11.5 inches x 17.5 inches, Framed  19 inches  x 25 inches – $1300.00

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“I’ve explored feminist, LGBTQ and social justice issues over four decades by producing images that depict gender ambiguity and transformation. In the seventies, my studio in downtown New York City was a haven for my female friends to pose dressed up and naked, in leather outfits and swathed in boas, with hand-painted mustaches and masks, amidst barbed wire and tulle. I’ve photographed women’s erotic pleasure, role-playing and butch/femme identity. Objects of Special Devotion depicts a muscular, androgynous bodybuilder who defies conventional female beauty and challenges the sexual, cultural and erotic representation of women.”

Objects of Special Devotion, 1985, Edition of 9, Archival Pigment Print. 13.3 inches x 16 inches. Framed 24.5 x 26.5 inches -$1300.00

‘The Built Environment’

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Opening Dec 27th 2011 – January 21 2011
Reception –  Jan 8th 2012
Dark Room Gallery
12 Main Street, Essex Junction, VT 05452
Included in the ‘The Built Environment’ Exhibition is my print from the
Essex County Penitentiary series:

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Title: Essex County Penitentiary, New Wing Corridor. North Caldwell, New Jersey.
Medium: Fine Art Digital Inkjet Paper with Archival Pigmented Inks
Size:  10 inches x 15 inches
Framed: $700.00 – 16 inches x 20 inches

As both a historic-preservation and fine-art photographer, I am drawn to the timeless nature of a historic site; it is a repository of collective memories like those etched and concealed within the interior walls of this rusting prison ruin.

It was a cold December day in 2007 when I first walked through the Essex County Penitentiary. My assignment was to photograph the 32-acre jail complex as part of a required HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) documentation before the institutional structures and outbuildings, built between 1872 and 1929, could be demolished to make way for luxury condominiums. Photographing the “New Wing Corridor” was not part of the job, but the gritty prison hallway pulled me into an evocative still life of decaying iron bars and unhinged doors that allowed the silent voices of those once incarcerated to escape.

‘Becoming Who We Are’ Artist Talk

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‘BECOMING WHO WE ARE’
TRIX ROSEN, Project Director and INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Workshop Participants
ARTIST TALK, Friday December 2, 2011
6 pm – 9 PM, Gallery 32

With a Special Performance by LADY JOI-ELLE
Hudson Pride Connections Center
32 Jones St., Jersey City, NJ 07306

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Please join me, and the participants of the INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Digital Storytelling Workshop for an Artist Talk and Panel Discussion about our photographs currently on view in “BECOMING WHO WE ARE,” a photo/video group exhibition curated by Ricardo Francis at Gallery 32, in Jersey City NJ.

The show features the work of Jasmin Brown, V. Michael Lazar, Natasha Phoenix Russell, Joi-Elle White, and Esteets Wright, students of the INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Workshop along with guest international artists, Nadine Hutton (South Africa), and Fréd Koenig (France).

I will also present a short, historic retrospective of images that represent my GLBTQ social advocacy photography work from the ‘70’s and images depicting gender ambiguity and transformation. This visual memoir includes studio portraits of my female friends exploring erotic pleasure, role-playing and butch/femme identity.

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Included will be pictures from recent photography exhibitions documenting my artistic collaboration with gender performance artist and videographer, Frédéric Koenig.

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The INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Digital Storytelling Workshop recently completed an eight-week pilot program at Hudson Pride Connections Center. The workshop is tailored to LGBTQ participants, and gives a visual voice to participants affected by growing up in environments of uncertainty, discrimination, fear and violence, and guides them to explore their creative vision. Each artist poignantly depicts images that mirror their personal views about masculinity, femininity and their LGBTQ identity. As they learn to document their own lives through photography, they grow in confidence and leadership skills, empower themselves and heal.

The workshops at the The Hudson Pride Connections Center were developed and adapted from my experiences as senior trainer, editor and advisor to the international InSIGHT Out! Photography and Creative Exchange Project, based in Bangkok, Thailand.

“Becoming Who We Are” Exhibition

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“BECOMING WHO WE ARE”
November 17 – December 19 2011
Opening Thursday November 17, 2011
6 PM – 9 PM, Gallery 32
Hudson Pride Connections Center
32 Jones St., Jersey City, NJ 07306
Gallery hours by appointment only

Trix Rosen, Project Director and Insight Out! Pride Workshop Participants
ARTIST TALK, Friday December 2, 2011
6 pm – 9 PM, Gallery 32
Hudson Pride Connections Center
32 Jones St., Jersey City, NJ 07306

You are cordially invited to “BECOMING WHO WE ARE,” a photo/video group exhibition featuring the work of Jasmin Brown, V. Michael Lazar, Nastasha Phoenix Russell, Joi-Elle White and Esteets Wright, participants in the InSIGHT OUT! Pride Digital Storytelling Workshop based at the Hudson Pride Connections Center. Their work is exhibited along with my own photos and those of my colleagues, international guest photography instructors Nadine Hutton (South Africa), and Frédéric Koenig (France).

The InSIGHT OUT! Digital Storytelling Workshops give a visual voice to participants growing up in environments of uncertainty, discrimination, fear and violence, and guide them to explore their creative vision. As they learn to document their own lives through photography, they grow in confidence and leadership skills, empower themselves and heal. This pilot workshop was tailored to LGBTQ participants and also designed to be a visual advocacy project.

The workshops at the Next Generation Center, Bronx, NY and NJ were developed and adapted from my experiences as senior trainer, editor and advisor to the international InSIGHT Out! Photography and Creative Exchange Project, based in Bangkok, Thailand.

9-11 Revisited – Embodied Light Memory Block

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Jewish Art Salon Exhibit “9-11”
The Educational Alliance in New York will feature the Jewish Art Salon’s 9-11 Window Installation at the Ernest Rubinstein Gallery, in concert with Tobi Kahn’s exhibit Embodied Light, 9-11 in 2011.

Exhibit dates: September 14 – November 23, 2011
Hours: Best viewed in daylight.
Location: Ernest Rubenstein Gallery Windows
Jefferson Street near East Broadway, New York, NY 10002. F-train to East Broadway; MTA buses: M9, M15, M22

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Jewish Art Salon members have created “memory blocks”, with drawings, paintings or inscriptions that evoke their memory of the day.

On September 13th, 6pm these blocks will be brought to the gallery, where Tobi Kahn is exhibiting “Embodied Light: 9-11 in 2011”. Artists and writers will share their block and/or their memories of 9-11 and Kahn will discuss his exhibit. After the session, at 8pm, the blocks will be gathered and the next day they will be installed as “towers” in the windows.

Kahn’s exhibit will feature 220 memory blocks, handed out by him to various New Yorkers and returned to him with markings that commemorate the day. These blocks will be continually rearranged over the length of the exhibition. The Jewish Art Salon’s blocks will be displayed as a separate exhibit.