The Lens

Mysteries and Magic highlights the photographic work of Carol Golemboski, spanning two and a half decades. Golemboski’s creative process, defined by the use of black-and-white film and alternative darkroom printing, straddles the line between photography and drawing, fact and fiction. Viewers are invited to interpret arrangements of tarnished and weathered objects, relying on the talismanic powers inherent in the vestiges of human presence. These images suggest a world in which ordinary belongings transcend their material nature to evoke the elusive presence of the past. Golemboski photographs objects discovered in flea markets, estate sales, and antique... Continue reading Carol Golemboski: Mysteries and Magic

We have been asked to adapt a lot in the past few years…how do we embrace the pain, the loss, the reality of what has been taken from us? Many of us have turned to nature and its lessons during this time. Sonya Renee Taylor has an incredible quote: “We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to... Continue reading Current

Like much of the Midwest, the Miami Valley is considered part of the “rust belt,” having suffered economic decline due to deindustrialization. Beginning in the 1970s, the Miami Valley lost 40% of its manufacturing jobs, and, since then, the city of Dayton has lost nearly half of its population. This decline brought with it urban decay: abandoned factories, declining neighborhoods, and economic hardship. Dayton has watched some of its most beautiful neighborhoods deteriorate. It has seen the near-abandonment of its downtown. A once vibrant city center bustling with markets, retail activity, theaters, and pedestrian traffic became a... Continue reading Eyewitness

Utilizing our collective archive from the Cincinnati Public Library, City Under Exposure explores natural disasters that have affected our community. Eight photographs captured by citizens are selected to represent some of the most extraordinary moments from 140 years of Cincinnati’s past. From the devastating floods of 1883 and 1937 along with the tornados of 1969 and 1974, these historical images capture the (un)common experience that can sometimes evade the vernacular. These visual records are illuminated through unique soundtracks, created by artist Britni Bicknaver, that blend oral accounts with environmental sounds. This pairing of sound and image brings... Continue reading City Under Exposure

As a lover of nature and owner of multiple acres of protected grasslands in upstate New York, Susan Ferrari Rowley is particularly dialed into the heat index and temperature records our world continues to witness. This is one reason she chose to use photographs of the natural environment as her primary subject matter for Alterations in Dystopia . From depictions of thriving corn crops, to images of isolated pest-infected trees, Rowley's treatment of the recorded environment remains focused around changes she has witnessed as a long-term resident of a nature-leaning community. Representing... Continue reading Susan Ferrari Rowley: Alterations in Dystopia [Studio Views]