In the Interest of Time

Bringing together seven regional artists whose practices engage with the concept of time, In the Interest of Time was developed through a FotoFocus juried open call, led by independent curator Theresa Bembnister.

Joseph Vitone and Lynn Whitney document their subjects over extended periods of time. In 1998, Vitone began photographing relatives around his hometown of Akron, OH, which evolved into a series of intimate portraits recording nearly three decades of life transitions: birthdays, divorces, illnesses, children growing up to become parents themselves. Whitney photographed the shoreline of Lake Erie stretching between Cleveland and Toledo for more than a decade. Her work captures humanity’s complex relationship to this priceless natural resource.

For the series 1655 Ireland Rd., Jordanne Renner mailed prints of her family home to her father and stepmother, who added their observations to the photographs with markers and Post-its. Twenty-three years later, Renner revisits the work, inviting her brother and father to respond to the images following her stepmother’s passing, reflecting on the passing of time and loss.

Julie Renée Jones’ work in Hold Still marks a time of transition—a new mother’s psychological shift in identity—using visual characteristics of the horror genre, such as deep shadows and stark camera angles.

Robyn Moore’s Being in the Land functions as a visual metaphor for deep time, the temporal framework for slow-moving geological change. Spectral figures appear in her compositions, alluding to the ancient history of the surrounding landscapes.

Elijah Howe preserves a timeworn historical subject—the small town of Chained Rock, KY—through a trove of archival materials, handmade crafts, and contemporary photographs. A close look, however, may lead viewers to question their assumptions of photographic truth.

Through his series Witness Trees and Indelible Structures, Osamu James Nakagawa documents land once used as Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II. This work visually preserves physical histories at risk of being otherwise lost to time.

Artists: Elijah Howe, Julie Renée Jones, Robyn Moore, Osamu James Nakagawa, Jordanne Renner, Joseph Vitone, Lynn Whitney