Book Store Interview Positive Disintegration Photographs by Tania Franco Klein Interview by Savannah Sakry Savannah Sakry sits down with Tania Franco Klein to discuss her first monograph, Positive Disintegration, comprised of an extended version of her acclaimed series Our Life In The Shadows. The work is influenced by the pursuit of the American Dream lifestyle in the Western world and contemporary practices such as leisure, consumption, media over-stimulation, eternal youth, and the psychological sequels they generate in our everyday private life.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

Positive Disintegration
Photographs by Tania Franco Klein

Éditions Bessard, Paris, France, 2019. Unpaged, 8½x11¼x1"

Positive Disintegration, the first monograph by Mexican artist Tania Franco Klein, comprises an extended version of her acclaimed series Our Life In The Shadows.

The work is influenced by the pursuit of the American Dream lifestyle in the Western world and contemporary practices such as leisure, consumption, media over-stimulation, eternal youth, and the psychological sequels they generate in our everyday private life. The project seeks to evoke a mood of isolation, desperation, vanishing, and anxiety, through fragmented images, that exist both in a fictional way and a real one.

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han says we live in an era of exhaustion and fatigue, caused by an incessant compulsion to perform. We have left behind the immunological era, and now experience the neuronal era characterized by neuropsychiatric diseases such as depression, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, burnout syndrome, and bipolar disorder. Drawing inspiration from his theories, Tania Franco Klein places this contradiction at the center of her autobiographical project.

The constant need to escape, to always look outside. Her characters find themselves almost anonymous, melting in places, vanishing into them, constantly looking for any possibility of escape. They find themselves alone, desperate and exhausted. Constantly in an odd line between trying and feeling defeated.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

Savannah Sakry: Upon first picking up your book, I knew it was special. Something simultaneously enchanting and perilous about it. I had to turn the page, again and again like being sucked into an episode of The Twilight Zone. The images are strong enough to stand alone but sequenced together in this beautiful, velvety object of a book you have produced right out of the gate is just remarkable. Congratulations on your nomination for the 2019 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award!

Let’s start with the title. The Wikipedia definition of "Positive Disintegration" is:

The theory of positive disintegration (TPD) by Kazimierz Dąbrowski is a theory of personality development. Unlike mainstream psychology, Dąbrowski's theoretical framework views psychological tension and anxiety as necessary for growth. These "disintegrative" processes are therefore seen as "positive," whereas people who fail to go through positive disintegration may remain for their entire lives in a state of "primary integration," lacking true individuality.

Please share with me at how you arrived at this fantastic title.

Tania Franco Klein: The title of the book has a very interesting story of its own. When I first started working on this project (2016) I had it under the title Our Life In The Shadows. I already had around ten very strong images when I realized that this is a project that I wanted to get completely sucked into, and right away I thought about making a book with it. The idea of making a book completely changed my way of approaching projects, especially when I realized I wanted to make a book in which each image has a life of its own, but when taken together become a living thing. This new conglomerate being so powerful to the emotional side of the spectator that they couldn't ignore it, through this interaction it would become very personal to them.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

As you can imagine after seeing my book, emotions are at the core of my whole photographic practice and are one of my main interests in life. More specifically, I am very much interested in the emotional response we have to the media-stimulated world we live in; how our ideals of success, etc. create a specific psychological response that molds our experience of life. The project began as a response to my own experience, my curiosity to understand if I was really that responsible for all these "negative emotions." A few months into the project, I decided to broaden the topic and inform the work with the book The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han, which very much resonated with me, as well as all the emotions and ideas I was trying to depict.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

I worked on the images for the first year and a half without actually engaging with the book form. I had no background in bookmaking and, in a naive way, I assumed the images were all I needed. Then I decided to enter a year-long process of photobook making in Mexico City at Hydra. We worked with a with a number of international editors who each brought their own perspective. To be honest, that's where it all got very interesting. Each time a guest would come we would have a completely different perspective into how other people envision your book or see your work. It was extremely nourishing and, at the same time, very confusing because there is no ONE WAY of seeing something. I would make a dummy in one workshop and the next guest would completely contradict everything the one before said, so on and so on.

I had a lot of realizations during that period. The most important was that I had a very broad understanding of this project, and that it was me who needed to decide how to give life to this work. I had to make it into the experience this work meant in my personal life. After all, no matter what I did I wasn't going to please everyone. (I am getting closer to the title topic I promise). Long story short in the process of doing and redoing dummies over and over I realized the body of work I had was not enough for what I wanted to achieve. I then started creating work specifically for the book, and so, the book was actually able become its own living thing, separating itself from both my initial ideas and the body of work it's comprised of. I started implementing sequences and creating work thoughtfully, considering the experience of the pages. I also decided to implement a different layer and, for the first time, physically included the idea of the media into the universe of my characters. I wanted to have this personal world be subtly invaded by the media, almost impossible to escape. By this time I was on the right track and was sure that this book needed its own title.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

Most of my individual images have a title that describes an object in the scene, like Toaster (self-portrait) or Certain Action, small hints, but I try to keep enough room for interpretation. But there is one image in particular, when I made it I had the need to title it differently from the rest. I work a lot with the idea of dualities, transformation, and distortion, and this image had a very personal feel to my own story. By the time I made it, I already knew about the "Theory of Positive Disintegration" and it came back to me when I was choosing the name.

I felt very attracted by those two words together and the contrast they had with each other. I decided to not have any text inside the book and, rather, create an emotional experience with a non-linear narrative that could be taken into a lot of places, while maintaining the core of the project and immersing you into this universe of my own creation. For that reason, having a proper title that could sustain the feeling of the work without saying that much about the book itself became very essential. You don't need to know about Dabrowski's theory to get the sense of what the title is trying to tell you. Similarly, you don't need to read The Burnout Society to understand the concept of the work. On a deeper level, the process of making this project for me was my own Positive Disintegration.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

SS: My first thoughts about this work were “Oh, she speaks my language!!” (Color, Light, Texture, Drama, Solitude, Mystery, Story… I could go on but I won’t …)

Can you dive deeper into the ingredients you seek to make a great photograph?

TFK: Thank you!! Yes, all the elements you mentioned are ingredients into my photographs, but what I am constantly seeking is a certain emotion, somewhere in between stillness and tension. I wish I could better describe what I mean, but seeing the work is probably the easiest explanation. That being said, I think a very important element of my work is the performative side of it. Even though my "type" of work is considered staged photography, the element of surprise has become my most important ingredient. I try as much as possible to avoid my work feeling contrived. That happens a lot with staged work, and sometimes you feel as if you can even see a pre-production drawing turning into a photograph, which, for me, breaks a lot of the magic. So, I try to find some truth inside my fiction. I am always trying to get there, sometimes I am more successful than others, but it is certainly an infinite search.

My approach is based in playing, a lot. Making my images is a very ludic performance. I carry a lot of props and elements, then use one of them as a starting point and then improvise from there. Most of the time I don't have a clue what the final result will be once I start playing, and it is exciting. I get to discover the work in the moment.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

SS: The narrative in your book is wonderfully mysterious, like a circle with no beginning or end, is this your intention? I absolutely love the suspense, and how you gave us a pause of completely black pages with no images. This was a bold surprise. What inclined you do this?

TFK: The narrative was a very challenging part of sequencing and creating the whole experience of the book. It's exciting to see that you realized it is like a circle, and I couldn't have described it better myself. My work carries a very strong visual narrative, but at the same time, it carries with it an ambiguity. The logical thing with such narrative visuals is to try and make a story out of it. But there is not a linear story in my work. It is more of a Universe which exists all at the same time and repeats itself with no beginning or end. It has its own logic of existence and the context of the psychological world of my characters which in their own line of thought feels infinite.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

For that reason, I tried to work more with instinct, visual associations, and symbols throughout the book. The entrance of the book—the image of the exit sign—is symbolic, to create this sort of momentum where my characters are trapped. The same happens with the final two images; The train and then again the woman contained inside the television. The screen, and the sense of lost reality and time. For me, the whole book exists as a loop of time, but when working with design elements you enter into a certain rhythm, which little by little can lead to trying to create a story. I wanted to break the rhythm and change what your mind expects to come next, after getting used to the first pages. The black pages become a loud noise, or maybe, a deep silence. You expect to see images, and it is somehow relieving or maybe uncomfortable to not find them. After the second spread of purely black pages, you are already in a different rhythm, and allow for the sequences to happen and become a loop of its own. Maybe it's a cathartic moment inside the emotional catharsis of the rest of the book.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

SS: If you had to choose your favorite image from the book, which would it be?

TFK: I think my favorite images are Contained (self-portrait) and Toaster (self-portrait). They both have the characters completely melted into their spaces, you can only see them through their objects. In a way, they have reached the level of turning their mental invisibility into a physical one.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

SS: Can you talk about growing up in Mexico City and today’s challenges as a female artist making work there?

TFK: Mexico City is an extremely surrealist amazing place to grow up. I love Mexican culture and the chaotic-eclectic mix that somehow permeates the city. I think as a photographer, especially a female photographer, it very much depends on your personality, the type of work you can or cannot do in Mexico City and the country itself. I grew up with a lot of fear of violence and have developed certain routines that unconsciously permeate my everyday life when there. To be honest, that is probably why I feel so comfortable working in interior spaces. There is definitely a challenge, not only a psychological one, but a realistic one while creating work there. I truly admire the female photographers, but really, any photographer who puts their life on the line and creates work in places where violence permeates, or in which just having your camera outside could be an invitation for getting robbed.

It is very hard for me to create work in environments where I don't feel safe and can't let myself flow into the moment. For that reason, the few works I have done outdoors are outside Mexico. I don't feel confident of stopping in the middle of nowhere, getting down in the road and placing my tripod to take semi-naked photos of myself. I don't think I need to test my luck in those cases to be able to produce work. So I very much adapt to my circumstances.

SS: You credited both of your grandfathers and their contributions to photography and architecture, in what ways did their work inspire yours?

Work of Alex Klein, courtesy of Tania Franco Klein

TFK: Both my grandparents are incredible examples to me. One of them has unfortunately already passed away, but he was an incredible photographer. As a Hungarian orphan refugee in Argentina, he joined a creative group of photographers named La Carpeta de Los Diez. Then he moved to Mexico and was a pioneer working with color rayographs and transparencies very early on. He was also an interdisciplinary inventor and would turn any object into a piece of design-art. My other grandfather created along with two other Mexican architects the project of UNAM (the University of Mexico) when he was in his early 20s, he also made incredible mid-century furniture design which was just discovered and exhibited in Clasicos Mexicanos. He is 97 today and still teaches classes at the university and creates urban proposals to improve life in some neighborhoods in Mexico City. What inspires me most about them is their infinite curiosity and passion for life.

Work of Armando Franco, courtesy of Tania Franco Klein

SS: Who are your biggest influences in art today?

TFK: There are, of course, a lot of amazing photographers who have served as a big inspiration for my work like Larry Sultan, William Eggleston, Jimmy De Sana, Stephen Shore, Nan Goldin, Jo Ann Callis, etc. I also have a strong connection to multimedia—video artists whose work deeply inspired me, like Tony Oursler, Bill Viola, and Pipilotti Rist.

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

SS: In a beautiful credit page at the end of your book, you thank your loved ones for their support and encouragement to “make my life a work of art.” What a beautiful path and life to live. 

Do you have any closing notes or advice to other emerging artists? How can we all better make our lives a work of art?

TFK: I have had the most amazing and nurturing upbringing and my family is truly an example to me of what making your life a work of art really means. With this, I mean that their passion for life and love is bigger than anything and they have really given me the tools to do the same. I feel that human relationships and interaction have become secondary in terms of priority to other things like careers, success, etc. Nowadays is easy to put a lot of things above being a sensitive, humanitarian, loving person. I think keeping those things at the core of my everyday life has become a priority for me and living like that is a true work of art: in progress. Each time I do a project I feel that it becomes a very transformative process to my person too. Otherwise, it would make no sense to do it.

My advice to emerging artists is to not compromise your interests and your style to fit into whatever is trendy in the industry at the moment. Concentrate on whatever is important for you and be persistent and truthful to yourself. Passion is contagious.

Order your copy

Positive Disintegration. By Tania Franco Klein.

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Savannah Sakry is the Book Division Manager at photo-eye. She holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts. She was previously the Sales Director of form & concept and Zane Bennett Contemporary Art and former Gallery Associate of photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Tania Franco Klein (b. 1990) started her photography praxis while gaining her BA Architecture in Mexico City, which took her to pursue her Masters in Photography at the University of the Arts London. Franco Klein's work has been reviewed and featured by international publications, including Aperture Foundation, The British Journal of Photography, I-D Magazine (UK), The Guardian, The Paris Review, Der Greif, Fisheye Magazine, and has been commissioned by clients like The New Yorker, New York Magazine, and Dior.

Her work has been exhibited across Europe, the USA, and Mexico, including international fairs such as Photo Basel, Photo London, Photofairs SF, Getxo Photo, the Los Angeles Month of Photography, the Thessaloniki Museom of Photography, amongst others. She was recently selected by W Mag as one of the 9 photographers to follow, and has obtained the Sony World Photography Awards in two consecutive years, The Lensculture Exposure Awards, Lensculture Storytelling Awards, The Felix Schoeller Photo Award Nominee, FOAM Paul Huf Award nominee, and recently received the Photo London Artproof Schliemann Award as the best emerging artist during Photo London 2018.

Tania Franco Klein currently has a solo show, Proceed to the Route, at the Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, on view though January 18th, 2020. rosegallery.net

photo-eye Gallery Winter Group Show: John Delaney Included in photo-eye Gallery's current Winter Group Show are four exquisite gelatin silver prints by photographer John Delaney. If you love classic portraiture and traditional silver prints than Delaney's series Golden Eagle Nomads are not to be missed.

Adashkhan II, 1998 © John Delaney | Gelatin-Silver Print, 15x15", Ed. of 24, $1,500

Included in photo-eye Gallery's current Winter Group Show are four exquisite gelatin silver prints by photographer John Delaney. If you love classic portraiture and traditional silver prints than Delaney's series Golden Eagle Nomads are not to be missed. Last on view in the summer of 2013, we chose to revisit this series in the Winter Group Show due to Delaney's stunning print quality, majestic subjects, and masterful execution. Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry speaks about her favorite image from the exhibition below:

"Upon first viewing John Delaney's portaits of the ancient Kazakh Eagle Hunters of Mongolia, I stopped dead in my tracks. Their beauty instantly left me gasping for air. I was not previously familiar with the work, nor the nomadic hunters, but I knew what I seeing was something of extraordianry significance – historically, artisically, spiritually. As if looking into another era, or perhaphs realm, I asked in what world does man coexisit in such a symbiotic way with an animal as magnificent as the Golden Eagle? Who has photographed them with such elegance, reminiscent of my favorite portrait giants such as Penn and Avedon? I had to know more. I discovered Delaney had traveled to Mongolia with a portable studio, been warmly welcomed by the Kazakh nomads and captured these breathtaking portraits with a large format view camera, gift the families polaroids from the shoot and then return to the states to make these striking silver fiber prints. Each one near perfection with it's glistening range in tones. My very favorite image from the series, Son of Yuton - White Coat is remarkable not only for the rich textures and otherwordly fashion but mainly for the special bond between the young man and his eagle which Delaney has captured in it's entirety. Man and Eagle, eye to eye, soul to soul - in this moment they are equals." 

Son of Yuton - White Coat, 2008 © John Delaney | Gelatin-Silver Print, 19x15", Ed. of 24, $1,000

Kazakh Eagle Nomad #41, 2008 © John Delaney | Gelatin-Silver Print, 15x15", Ed. of 24, $1,000

Kazakh Eagle Nomad #2, 2008 © John Delaney | Gelatin-Silver Print,
19 x 14", Ed. of 24, $1,000

» View Golden Eagle Nomads Portfolio


» Read John Delaney's Project Statement


» Read Sarah Bradley's complete interview with John Delaney


» Behind the Photo with John Delaney


» John Delaney's Bio


» Read more about the Winter Group Show





For more information on John Delaney, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at 505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com.

photo-eye Gallery Interview: Chaco Terada Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry reaches out to Japanese artist Chaco Terada for more insight into her mesmerizing works on silk featured in our current exhibition Rendezvous with Light.

photo-eye Gallery's current exhibition, Rendezvous with Light has been extended through the new year until January 20th. If you are not yet familiar with photographers David H. Gibson and Chaco Terada we invite you to please come by the gallery and see these exquisite prints in person - they are not be missed! To follow Gallery Associate Lucas Shaffer's interview with David H. Gibson, we asked Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry to reach out to Japanese artist Chaco Terada for more insight into her mesmerizing works on silk. While Terada's one-of-a-kind pieces render as personal visual poems, her themes are universal in regards to the business of being human. Motifs of love, loss, family, and life's journey run deep, similar to the multiple layers of silk, images, and Sumi ink used to create her works.

Terada testing brushes at favorite calligraphy shop on a recent visit to her native Japan.

Savannah Sakry:  What drew you to incorporate silk with your photographs, or was it that you decided to incorporate photography into your works on silk?

Chaco Terada:  I decided to incorporate photography into my artwork on silk. I was seeking ways to express calligraphy as an art form.

SS:  Your use of calligraphy is more an artistic and expressionistic approach – not to be interpreted as traditional Japanese calligraphy. When did you first begin experimenting outside the boundaries of traditional Japanese calligraphy?

CT:  After I moved to the USA over 20 years ago, I received instructor qualifications of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and I took steps toward finding my own expression.

The Ceremony of Origin, 2017 © Chaco Terada, Sumi and Pigment Ink on Silk, 10x6", Unique

SS:  I understand your process is meditative, organic - there is no formula, your workflow is intuitive. Would you say your process is also healing or centering for you?

CT:  Yes, it happened to be a very healing process during the creation of the works in the exhibition. I was experiencing fear of death in addition, to the emotional pain from childhood.

SS:  What moves you or inspires you? Specifically which photographers have been the most influential?

CT:  I pay attention when I see the similar taste in someone’s photograph. I would not be influenced by it because I already have it. My works come from own experiences of daily life. Every day, I observe how all the elements surround me and interact with my feelings. The time comes when I naturally start making artworks.

Dew 1, 2017 © Chaco Terada, Sumi and Pigment Ink on Silk, 10x6", Unique

SS:  Do you have a favorite piece in the exhibition? If so, which one and why?

CT:  I would not use the word “favorite” but the work called “Dew 1” came to my mind. I had a unique experience with it. In the beginning, it was a casual self-portrait but when I saw my mother in it, everything changed. An old picture, of my young mother holding her newborn baby in her arms, mirrored my self-portrait. I returned to being that baby in her arms. My mother was making eye contact with me. I was trying to see the warm light falling from the above. Tears warmed my heart, became gentle rain over me.  I hear her life commitment with this little one and she kept it up to now. That was it. All hard drama in my life was based on love. It started as Love at first sight. I wrote my mother a letter to say thank you for giving all her life to protect me. I finally see it - love was there, it was always there!  This portrait shows this woman is in love with the world she is in.

SS:  Your work explores many themes such as nature, light, time, origin, and reflection. Is there one theme, in particular, you feel your work encompasses the most?

CT:  It could be “life”. All my mystery, wonder, and excitement are there.

Garden Without Spacetime F1, 2017 © Chaco Terada | Sumi and Pigment Ink on Silk, 10x7", Unique

Garden Without Spacetime F2, 2017 © Chaco Terada | Sumi and Pigment Ink on Silk, 10x7", Unique 

SS:  I love that each work is unique or one-of-kind and typically from a series of two to five pieces. When do you feel a series or individual piece is completed?

CT:  Usually, the original photo gives me the final image.  When I can manage the harmony in brush, ink, silk, and image to approach to that image I can sense the completion. When the photo gives me a poetry or a story it becomes a series. My sense will find the end of them.

SS:  What advise can you offer other artists and photographers?

CT:  Sorry Savannah, I have no idea what to say to other artists. To me, they are already the masters of their ways.

(*^^*)
Chaco Terada

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Read more about Chaco Terada

View Rendezvous with Light

For more information or to purchase prints, please contact the Gallery Staff at 505.988.5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

photo-eye Gallery Gallery Favorites: Three selections from Mitch Dobrowner's Tempest In this Gallery Favorites segment Anne, Savannah, and Lucas select works from our new Mitch Dobrowner exhibition Tempest.

When enjoying an exhibition, gallery clients often ask me which image is best to collect? When surrounded by work you love, sometimes deciding which image to take home and live with can feel overwhelming. One answer is to start with the work you most respond to and build a portfolio of that particular series by that artist, but most collectors we work with prefer some diversity in their collection. My best advice still circles back to our blog post on collecting photography – buy what you love. 

Some might come to find that they have a personal connection with the image – say a dirt road that takes them back to childhood, others might be operating purely on intuition and others on a certain aesthetics in mind. Part of the benefit of working at photo-eye Gallery is being surrounded by captivating images on a daily basis. This gives us the chance to live with the work – which is helpful in developing our own personal collecting strategy – and helping others find theirs.

In honor of our current exhibition, Tempest, this month we have turned our focus to Mitch Dobrowner and are recommending our favorite of his unique stormy landscapes.

 – Anne Kelly, Gallery Director

photo-eye Gallery Interview: Jennifer Greenburg on Revising History Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry interviews Jennifer Greenburg about her series Revising History.

They hired a few of us for the debut of egalitarian architecture in Chicago, 2017 © Jennifer Greenburg | Archival Pigment Print, 27 x 27", Edition of 3

photo-eye Gallery is delighted to have four works currently on view from Jennifer Greenburg's series Revising History above our flat files. These striking images have captivated Gallery visitors all summer with the questions – are these contemporary works, and how on earth does she place herself so seamlessly into a photograph which appears to have been taken decades ago? Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry asked Greenburg to share more on the provoking project and enlighten us on her process. Two new images are making their debut to the series and Greenburg notes her recent direction for the project is "images that are aesthetically beautiful, yet conceptually grotesque..." Works from Revising History are on display through September 9th, 2017.

Savannah Sakry:     When did you first fall in love with photography or decide on the medium?

Jennifer Greenburg:     I grew up around a lot of models, actors, and performers and therefore I grew up around a lot of photography.  I also experienced a lot of loss throughout my childhood due to various factors, including the AIDS crisis of the early 1980’s. I connected with photography because it was a way for me to hold on to those that I had lost.  Whenever I was sad, I would open up one of the many photo albums my mother had painstakingly compiled, and somehow I would feel a lot better after I looked at the photographs of those that I had lost. It was as though the person was there with me again.

I never really “decided” to be a photographer.  It was just something I knew I would do.  I never even talked about it with anyone until I began to apply to study photography in college. There was no choice, as far as I remember.

SS:     Your first project “The Rockabillies” is a thoughtfully composed series of portraits examining today’s rockabilly subculture. Shot in color, and with a 4 x 5 view camera, It’s my understanding the sittings were often a collaboration between you and the subjects, whom you are quite fond of. How did you arrive from “The Rockabillies” to “Revising History”? 

JG:     I began The Rockabillies early in 2001, right after September 11. I embarked on the project in order to discover contemporary methods for building communities that do not rely on birthrights, ethnicity, or station. It was a time when having a community was especially important as the nation forever changed that day and I wanted a way to make sense of a collective new reality.

At that time,  I believed in documentary photography as a method for conveying honest information. I spent ten years on that project, getting to know everyone I photographed in a deep and meaningful way. I collaborated with my subjects in an effort to be as fair and honest as possible. I thought the people and places I interacted with were remarkable. Everyone I photographed was open, honest and trusting.

Ultimately, however, my pictures were taken through the lens of my experience. I saw what I wanted to see. And I questioned if there was a difference between what I had done, and what FOX News does every day. Pictures convince us of truth more than words.

My affection for pre-war and mid-century America was, and is, rooted in clothing, design, and ephemera. The aesthetic rapture caused by the visual record of that time period easily allows us to forget the gender and racial inequality, the Anti-Semitism, and many other injustices. Noticing how easy it is to gloss over those realities when looking at old photographs allowed me to think of Revising History.

I wanted to meet a rich husband, so I modeled in auto shows, 2016 © Jennifer Greenburg | Archival Pigment Print, 24 x 30", Edition of 5

SS:     Your current project is mainly in black and white and you work initially from a found vernacular negative. It’s apparent, (though not actually), you are utilizing a digital technique to its full potential. Was this process or path something you were already exploring or was it a result of the initial conception of “Revising History”?

JG:     I thought of the concept for the project a long time before I knew how to execute the final form. I had the skills to make it happen, but, the complexities of production of Revising History exceed any one skill set. My images go far beyond digital image making. There is a lot involved!

I spent over a year making complete failures before I was able to come up with an acceptable final image. I still make a lot of images that end up being unseen failures, but, I had no successes in that first year. Something Funny Happened in the Kitchen, 2011, was the first image that worked. I am depicted hysterically laughing, in the image, because I was on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. I had been shooting for hours that day, and had shot every day that week. Everything had been garbage and I was at the end of my rope. I was laughing and crying from frustration and I was about to give up the entire endeavor. But I was laughing too hard to stop, and so I kept firing the trigger. Once I was able to review what I had done, I realized the image might work, and I persevered.

Something funny happened in the kitchen, 2011 © Jennifer Greenburg | Archival Pigment Print, 30 x 24", Edition of 4

SS:     While you replace the central figure of the original negative with a photograph of yourself, these works are not autobiographical, correct?

None of my images are self-portraits, however, I choose images that depict a character experiencing something that I find identifiable.  I study each image very closely and I try to figure out who the subject was, and what she was experiencing the moment the image was taken. I transform into the woman who was there, and I become a translation of her. In that, the work is more a performance than any other categorization.

The insurance agent told me to have my father or my husband call him, 2017 © Jennifer Greenburg | Archival Pigment Print, 32 x 40", Edition of 3

SS:     Each image must be very time-consuming. Can you briefly walk me through your process from start to finish? What are the required “ingredients”?

JG:     Each image takes several hundred hours to make after I have done the initial preparation.  The initial preparation takes years.  I have an archive of vernacular images that takes up an entire room in my house and I have to study and consider every frame.  I like to receive images in a big, dirty, box, fresh from a basement or an attic. I do not like anything to have been sorted.  I go through every frame, and put each strip or image into an archival sleeve.  I look for an image that can serve as a punctum and a symbol:  an image that a viewer would find relatable in its narrative. 

The image I choose dictates what happens next.  I could not walk you through my process because I have no process; every single image I have made presents new challenges and requires new solutions. Every time I think I know how to make something, or go in with a shred of self-confidence,  I either fail or the process takes longer than ever before. My newest image officially took longer than any previous image. I am very happy with the results, but I am not sure I would do it again if I had known what I was up against. 

SS:     When you are not in your studio or teaching, you are actively pursuing you first passion - vintage jewelry and clothing. Is it true your extensive collection began at the age of 4?

JG:     Yes, I was 4. My first purchase was made during a neighborhood indoor-yard sale on Astor street in Chicago. The famed Wrigley Mansion had rooms full of toys, but, I was only interested in a pair of 1940’s chandelier earrings, and an oversized rhinestone cocktail ring presented in a red-velvet celluloid box.  My parents asked me multiple times if I really wanted the jewelry, instead of a toy. Then they asked where I was going to wear the jewelry. I don’t remember my answer, but, apparently it was satisfactory because I still have both items.

It was finally my day! 2015 © Jennifer Greenburg | Archival Pigment Print, 40 x 32",  Edition of 3

SS:     In light of Cindy Sherman’s Instagram account recently going public (I see we are mutual followers) is her work inspirational to you? Either conceptually or for performative reasons?

JG:     Absolutely. Every photographer born in the latter half of the 20th century, or after,  should be inspired by Cindy Sherman. I remember, vividly, seeing her work for the first time when I was 17.  It was the first project that allowed me to understand what was involved in a contemporary body of work made with a camera.

SS:     Who are your largest influences and inspirations?

JG:     It’s hard for me to make lists and I hate putting things in hierarchies.  How can I choose between Diane Arbus and James Van Der Zee? Measure the personal impact Carrie Mae Weems has had on my work? Nan Goldin? Larry Sultan?  It’s impossible – I love it all.  And it’s all deeply important to me.

I was lucky enough to be friends with Greer Lankton in the last few years of her life, and her work and legacy has been a constant influence. 

I am also influenced by performance artists, writers, and comedians.  I am always trying to sculpt a humorous yet dark narrative in my work, and it is easier to find inspiration in arenas like comedy and performance. I utilize a lot of camp in my work to achieve that balance.  I am a lifelong fan of John Waters, RuPaul, Mae West, Divine, Angelyne, Orlan, Yoko Ono, Cher, Liberace… I could go on forever. 

SS:     Can you touch on your clever titles, and themes you wish to address? As a woman, your work resonates with me on several levels, and is one of the many reasons I fell in love with the project.

Portrait of Greenburg's Grandmother

JG:     My grandmother (pictured left) used to write funny things on the back of photographs.   She and I used to look through her photos together and she would editorialize the images and tell me all about the people and the places in the images.  She was born in 1905-ish and her entire life, in photographs, was one glamourous outfit after another, which is why I was, and still am,  deeply engrossed in looking at her pictures. 

We would come across “defaced” people in her photographs– images that had faces scratched right off the print!  I would ask my grandmother why she had done this and she would usually launch into an interesting story of betrayal and intrigue. I was fascinated that my grandma, who had only ever shown me unequivocal love, had been involved in this type of strive. I was also amused that she had no sense of sanctity for the original image. I am sure there is an obvious connection between her “defacement projects” and Revising History.

I got the initial captioning, and perhaps the underpinnings of the project from her tradition. 

However,  the captioning has evolved as I have grown more bold in my making of Revising History. During the first part of my career, I made joyous images. I did not want to be reminded of horrible things and therefore I only made images that were ebullient. But I was avoiding my reality.

My lifelong study of photography has lead me to conclude that photographs are the primary catalyst in allowing us to rewriting our history. All it takes is that glamourous outfit and a good hair-do to make us say, “Things used to be better!” I spent my childhood thinking that my grandmother had lived in better times.  The truth is that my grandmother had no college education because women, in her day, were not educated.  She experienced painful Anti-Semitism when in non-Jewish environments, and lost most of her cousins in the Holocaust. But she looked good through all of these hardships! And therefore we are duped by her remaining legacy: her photographs. 

My titles serve to peel back the artifice of my pictures. 

I have never been good at handling unwarranted attention, 2015 © Jennifer Greenburg | Archival Pigment Print, 24 x 30", Edition of 3

SS:     Of the four pieces currently on display, which is your favorite image and why?

JG:     I have a hard time picking favorites in any context, as I mentioned before. However, I would probably choose, I have never been good at handling unwarranted attention, 2015. Why? Because I have had a very hard time handling unwarranted attention over the course of my life, beginning when I was a small child. The image is probably the most autobiographical image in the series. I know every woman, and many men,  can relate to the uncomfortable moment depicted in the image. The image is aesthetically beautiful, yet conceptually grotesque. I like that tension and am creating all of my new works under that guise. 

SS:     Would you say this project is nearing an end or is there more history to be revised by Jennifer Greenburg?

JG:     I feel as though I haven’t even gotten started. The new work is more bold, and much darker. I am becoming less apprehensive to discuss challenging cultural realities. Stay tuned!

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Installation of Jennifer Greenburg's Revising History at photo-eye Gallery - On view through Sept. 9th, 2017

For more information or to purchase prints, please contact the Gallery Staff at 505.988.5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com. 

photo-eye Gallery Collecting Tips: Understanding the Print Process In the latest entry to our Collecting Series, photo-eye Gallery Staff describe four popular print types, what makes them special, and reasons to collect them.

For some time I've been ruminating on a series about collecting photography to help demystify the process. This summer we kicked off the series with a piece highlighting 5 basic tips to start your collection and then moved into some of our staff’s favorite images. Today we are going to bring our focus back to the basics by defining four common types of photographic prints, their strengths, and why to collect them.

NOW is a very exciting time for photography. New technologies have created unforeseen printing possibilities but have also caused a resurgence in classic processes — resulting in a slew of possibilities and a longer glossary of terms.  The range of what is considered 'photographic' has and is expanding. Occasionally, gallery visitors get caught up between the type of print and the process of creating the photographic image, and typically the two are related, although they don't need to be. This post is a guide to four of the most common types of photographic prints, how they are made, and why they may be a good fit for your collection.

– Anne Kelly, Gallery Director

Silver-Gelatin Prints

Capodacqua Lake, Capestrano, Abruzzo, Italy, 2016, Gelatin-Silver Print, 8x8" Image, Edition of 25, $3000 
© Michael Kenna

Silver-Gelatin prints are papers coated with a layer of gelatin emulsion containing light sensitive silver salts and typically made from a film negative in the black and white darkroom. Introduced in the 1870’s, these prints became a favorable black and white print type from the turn of the 19th century to present day.

Photographers and collectors alike can always appreciate a gorgeous gelatin silver print for its rich tonal value and unique surface. For over a century, the traditional silver print has remained as a fundamental printing method and quintessential representative for the medium’s history.

Select Artists making Silver-Gelatin Prints:
Michael Kenna
Pentti Sammallahti
Edward Ranney
Hiroshi Watanabe
David H. Gibson
Mark Klett
Raymond Meeks
John Delaney
Steve Fitch

Archival Pigment Prints

Cloud caster, 2013, Archival Pigment Print,8x8” Image, Edition of 15, $1500– © Maggie Taylor

Archival Pigment Prints are nearly ubiquitous these days as many photographers continue to move their work out of the darkroom and onto the computer. Originating as a digital file, either from a camera or scanner, Archival Pigment Prints are created on professional inkjet printers utilizing refined particles of tonal pigment resilient to degrading environmental elements. Ok, what does that mean? Essentially Archival Pigment Prints offer exquisite rich tone, black-and white or color, and can last for hundreds of years – far longer than the traditional chemical color C-Print.

In the past ten years, we've also seen a renaissance in paper choice for Archival Pigment Printers, including thick matte cotton rag and the introduction of a clay base just like Silver-Gelatin Prints. These papers have been especially freeing for color photographers who were previously limited to plastic based resin coated papers. We love materials at photo-eye and how they can affect the interpretation and feeling of an image.

Far from push-button, mastering Pigment Printing means possessing an intense understanding of your materials, including paper, ink choice, and the profiles used to transform a digital file into a physical object.

Select Artists Making Archival Pigment Prints:
Maggie Taylor
Julie Blackmon
Mitch Dobrowner
Tom Chambers
Jock Sturges
Jamie Stillings
Laurie Tümer
Richard Tuschman
Brad Wilson
Zoë Zimmerman


Chromogenic Prints

Red Curtain, 2016, Chromogenic Print, 14x14" Image, Edition of 10, $2500 – © Cig Harvey

Chromogenic Prints, or C-Prints, are made from a color negative, slide, or digital image (known as a digital C – print). A color photograph in which the paper has three emulsion layers of light sensitive silver salts. Each layer is sensitized to a different primary color - red, blue or green. During processing, chemicals are added that form dyes of the appropriate color in the emulsion layers. The silver salts are bleached out and only the color dyes remain. This process was developed in the 1930s and became quite popular upon Kodak’s introduction of Kodacolor film produced from 1942 to 1963. C – prints remained as the most common color printing method until the recent shift to archival pigment prints.

Chromogenic prints often speak to photographers and collectors with a more traditional or purist approach to the medium. What makes these color prints unique, or stand apart from more contemporary pigment prints, is that they are made from an exposure that requires light – photography’s key ingredient.

Select Artists Making C-Prints:
Cig Harvey
Terri Weifenbach
Carla van de Puttelaar
Liz Hickok


Platinum Prints

Dried Clematis Blossom, 1995, Platinum/Palladium Print, 10x8" Image, Edition of 25, $750 – © James Pitts 

Like most other alternative photographic processes, the Platinum Print's roots stretch back to the nineteenth century. Born of noble metals, platinum prints became prominent among photographers in the late 1800s and early 1900s as photographer's sought to elevate the medium's artistic status by creating images both elegant and handmade. 

The platinum printing technique consists of hand-sensitizing fine cotton rag paper with a custom emulsion cocktail built specifically for each image. Once dry, negatives are laid against the paper and contact printed via a UV light source — such as the sun. The procedure is specific, peculiar, and laborious, with a single platinum print sometimes taking up to eight hours to render.

Although complicated, the aesthetic and archival benefits of using platinum materials is astonishing. Compared to contemporary printing procedures, platinum prints exhibit a long and graceful tonal range, deep luscious blacks, a sense of three-dimensionality, and unique luminous quality. When properly cared for, platinum prints are also very permanent and can last thousands of years. 

Select Artists making Platinum Prints

•   James Pitts (above)

•   Ronald Cowie

•   Teri Havens

•   Nick Brandt
•   Bob Cornelis

For more information and to purchase prints please contact 

Gallery Staff at 505.988.5152 x 202 or gallery@photoeye.com