Public Faces, Private Stories: Emma Dodge Hanson

May 16, 2011

Yesterday in the Greenwich Library's Meeting Room when the day was very monotone in shades of gray, photographer Emma Dodge Hanson talked fluidly about her brilliant black and white portraits from her book, Solo showcasing her portraits and interviews of best known women in the music world, to some of the war veterans and survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad when she travelled to Russia last year.

Emma also showed photos from her book, Faces of Layla, an orphanage in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Breaking away from her normal medium of black and white photography, Emma shot these photos in color to truly show the vividness of the orphanage and sense of hope instead of  the austerity and bleakness of the situations. The author David Guterson wrote of this book "... complex web of light and life that animates these resilient and heartbreakingly beautiful children. These photos offer up the grief, delight, perseverance that are so pervasive at Layla House."

Emma talked about her five Rules for a good photo - composition, tones, the moment, the story and the personal investment. For instance, look closely at Sheryl Crow in this photo. You know she is a serious female rock vocalist and has a tough side to her. But, you can see and feel the softness and tenderness  that was taken in a brief moment.  Emma always tries to distract the person's thinking from the photo shoot so that they will be relaxed and "in the moment." She may ask them about a child, or something funny that happened to them in the past, just something to get their mind off of being photographed.

Professionally, Emma always has her digital camera ready to capture the moments that are so fleeting and unexpected.  She also revealed that she doesn't use any photo software programs to change anything in her photos. And, her favorite time to shoot when the natural light is perfect - an hour before sunset. 

While in Russia last year, Emma experienced the tales of torture, death and grief from some of the 49 survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad ( a major battle of World War II in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia. It took place between July 17, 1942 and  February 2, 1943)  Even though Emma was unable to understand the Russian language, she understood their gestures, facial expressions and tears when retelling their life stories.

To see life through the camera lens is to see life's events for a moment but captured forever.

June Einhorn's Voice

ARTIST WALK AND TALK with Barbara Rothenberg

The Exhibit "JUNE EINHORN: A Retrospective"

March 24- April 27

Sunday, March 27

Last March after the devastating N'oreaster of 2010 that took the life of June Einhorn, the Flinn Gallery's Selection Committee approached June's husband, Eric about having an exhibit of her artwork as a tribute to her accomplishments but also for her being involved with the gallery in past years. Fortunately, Eric agreed and June's prolific integrative works grace the walls of the Flinn Gallery for the next five weeks to April 27th.

The curators, Linda Butler and Barbara Richards also asked Barbara Rothenberg, June's instructor at Silvermine Art Guild in New Canaan, CT, if she would give a talk about June and her collages. For 16 years, Barbara Rothenberg has taught her course called " Fragments Into Wholes" that teaches everything about mixed media/collage  From that collage class and through her paintings, June interpreted her life experiences with expressive and intellectual creativity.

Rothenberg started the talk by saying "Art is a way to find your yourself by using yourself, your experiences, environment and ideas…You need to find your voice."

"Sometimes in order to find your voice, you have to be specific and offbeat and may not be as pretty," she commented when analyzing Cupboard  and pointing out the image of the cracked cement.

Barbara felt that June's work showed real craftsmanship with watercolors, pastels and collages. In her early works from 1991-99, she critiqued that everything was well done but her voice was not there yet. But "There was poetry and good composition in all her works."

In the collages Fall Leaves 1 & 2, the June Einhorn style truly has evolved. The integration of the watercolors, cutout pieces is very smooth and pulled together.

For 18 months the Einhorn family lived in Singapore. While there June traveled to Cambodia and Thailand. An Asian inspiration is wonderfully woven into many of the collages that she did while living in Singapore. "Things relate to each other and are blended together exquisitely...June's use of pieces is done in a magical way in a manipulative manner to bring the East and the West together."

And Barbara pointed out that it looks like she used the tea staining method to "antique" some of her works, as seen in  Seascape. 

Eric offered a vignette of June's meticulousness and how she acquired her tea for such staining.  She demanded that all the used tea bags had to be removed from the brewed tea cup before anything was added to the tea. Then, the tea bag had to be put in a special container for her usage later.

Further, Eric stated that when June took photos of things, she looked for the details that made up the subject matter of her photo. Barbara quipped that is the artists' vocabulary  - "detail of details". 

When you can look at a collage and not know how it is done, then that is magical.

Barbara concluded her talk with an apropos quote from the late Italo Calvino, Italian journalist and writer ( 1923-1985) from Six Memos for the Next Millennium

"Who are we if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, an inventory of objects, a series of styles and everything can be constantly stuffed and removed in very way conceivable."

The talk took only a  couple of hours but the experience of learning about June's imagination and past life through her prolific paintings and collages will last much longer.