January 30 – February 5: SV Showcase Review: Month of Photography LA, “Narratives”

 StandardVision continues its Month of Photography Los Angeles Showcase this week with photographs under the theme of “Narratives.” Five photographers from around the world share with us series of images that rely heavily on the narrative aspects of photography.https://vimeo.com/202103539 Caitlin Strom & Missy Washington’s Unchronicled Explorations is a multimedia project consisting of photographs, illustrations, and maps, telling the fictional story of two women explorers.Caitlin Strom spent ten years in the film industry working in the camera department and learning to make images from people like Harris Savides, Gus Van Sant, and Matthew Barney. These days she spends her time growing vegetables, teaching meditation, and setting up wacky photographic scenes in the woods with Missy Washington. Missy Washington studied illustration and graphics at Pratt Institute in New York. She has gone on to work for clients such as itunes, TED Global and Autodesk. She's now based in Los Angeles.  https://vimeo.com/202103612

Chloe Meynier’s June 17 is a series of colored images shot from unexpected angles, resembling retro movie stills. The carefully staged scenes explore women’s roles, vulnerability, and question identity. Each photograph offers a context and conveys a story yet leaves room for the imagination to fill in the gaps. 

Chloe Meynier is a San Francisco based photographer whose work focuses on women’s roles, gender identity and violence against women. In most of her series, she uses herself as her own model to portray different characters drawn from personal experiences. She graduated with an MFA in Photography from Academy of Art University, San Francisco.

 https://vimeo.com/202103630Elisabeth Caren’s Double Identity is inspired by the Film Noir genre and it’s archetypical characters often perpetuated by rigidly defined gender roles and singular representation of sexual identity, orientation, and relationships. The series examines realities of humanity that were consistently excluded from these films. Each photo mimics the aesthetic of a film production still photo with titles matching actual classic 1940s film noir films. Tension, suspicion, secrets, danger, deception and desire are all themes in Film Noir which typically lead to the destruction of the lives of the principal characters. Caren’s photography deviates from this through her vivid color photographs that represent a more modern society accepting diversoty in relationships and identity, illustrating that life is not as black and white as Hollywood often portrayed it.Los Angeles native Elisabeth Caren is an advertising, editorial and fine art photographer specializing in portraiture and entertainment photography. Elisabeth’s lifetime experiences in theatre and film heavily influence her work, which has been described as classic and cinematic. https://vimeo.com/202103646Kurt Simonson is an artist/educator whose work explores the longings and tensions that surround ideas of home, community, and identity.  Whether connecting the myth and memory of his own upbringing in Minnesota, wandering the globe in search of alternate forms of community, or taking intimate portraits of his closest friends, questions about family, story, and belonging remain at the heart of his curiosity.https://vimeo.com/202103671Maëlle Collin says about her series, "Shelter is a series I started after I found myself caught in a devastating storm in Belgium a few years ago. I consider it a journey through nature, the story of someone seeking refuge from nature exerting her power.”Maëlle Collin is a Belgian photographer currently based in New York City. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 2013 with an MFA in visual arts / photography.The works of these five photographers will be up on the #SVLA1 screen at the Courtyard Marriott (901 W Olympic Blvd / DTLA) every 10 minutes throughout the end of this week.The Month of Photography Los Angeles SV Showcase runs through February 12 and presents the work of both local and global photographers. Featuring a collection of themed work each week, Month of Photography Los Angeles aims to expose the public to the diversity of contemporary photography. This exhibition was curated from submissions to MOPLA’s annual Open Call.