Returning the Gaze - Web Archive

I created an online archive of the exhibition I curated last month, Returning the Gaze: Contemporary Portraits by Women Photographers.  The exhibition was on display at Northern Trust Bank from Feb. 28 - April 1, 2011, in conjunction with Women's History Month in March.

I tried to organize the archive to reflect the curation of the works in the gallery space.  Initially, I thought that I would arrange the works alphabetically by artist, but I decided the juxtapositions I created in the gallery space were integral to the experience of viewing the works.

You can view the works by visiting my website lilymayfield.com, then click on "Returning the Gaze Archive".  Click on individual images to view them larger with artist name and title.

Here are screen shots of the thumbnails as seen in the archive:

Dominican University Student Blogs

For my Digital Darkroom class at Dominican University, I asked my students to set up a blog with either Blogger, Wordpress, or Tumblr.  They are including posts about their new Blurb books as well as 5 images from their final projects. We just set these up today in class, so most have few posts as of now, but it's still fun to see what they are up to!

Karolina Aniol 
http://aniolphoto.tumblr.com/

Dorothy Bugalski
http://photodobu.blogspot.com/ 

Nicci Cisarik
http://niccicisarik.tumblr.com/

Barbara Garcia
http://blg-ikick.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Kaplan
http://jenniferkaplanphotography.blogspot.com/

Emily Karavas
http://emilykaravas.wordpress.com/

Jennie Left
http://jennieleftphotography.wordpress.com/

Mary Peterson
http://marypetersenphotography.blogspot.com/

Sandi Rodriguez
http://srodriguez09.tumblr.com

Samantha Sanchez
http://samanthadoes.wordpress.com/

Current Reads

I am currently reading Chicago's Jewish West Side by Irving Cutler.  I found this book among many others about various Chicago neighborhoods at The Chicago Cultural Center.

This book details the 50 year period from 1910-1960 when Lawndale (my neighborhood) was a Jewish community.  Many of the massive churches located on Independence and Douglas Boulevards were originally synagogues.  Even now, on closer inspection I can see traces of the former Jewish occupants on the houses of worship in the form of engraved stars of David, or yiddish writing.  There are many old photographs in this book that I find endlessly fascinating.  It restores the community to its former glory in my mind and instills hope in me that the neighborhood might eventually return to a community full of locally owned businesses, and people working together for prosperity and peace.

On another note, one of my students at Columbia, Heriberto Quiroz, has photographs that are included in a brand-spanking-new Chicago neighborhood book put out by Arcadia Publishing entitled, Chicago's Pilsen Neighborhood.  I can't wait to check out this new book too.  Heriberto lives in Pilsen and has been documenting his community for some time now.  What an accomplishment for a young photographer!