Looking Both Ways

An excerpt of artist Myra Greene speaking to a group of students. This talk given at Hartnett Gallery, University of Rochester on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 11AM.

"Looking Both Ways" is an exhibition of two series of photographic work by Greene. In it she discusses her experience of looking as a black woman from a unique perspective as a minority in a traditionally white dominated field and upbringing. A dialogue on race is present in the "all of my white friends" portion of the exhibit yet diffused by Greene's intimate ambrotype self portraits adjacent to the work.

My take: Greene works to understand our identity through external identifiers that emerge through the process of photography, whether that process is a physical one as explored in the ambrotypes or a social one, as found in the idea of photographing friends on a concept of race identity. This exhibit is strong enough to sustain the conversation yet lacks a contemporary approach which may or may not be part of her point. In either case Greene's unique perspective fosters a useful dialogue.

Note: Apologies for the poor audio. Working on a solution currently.