STONEHAM - Blake Ogden’s upcoming photography exhibition, Intimate History
at the Stoneham Theatre is both personal and public, capturing his family’s history while aiming to explore the overall passing of time.
The exhibition is comprised of more than 18 photos from Ogden’s body of work, “In My Grandmother’s House,” and will be on display at the Atelier Gallery beginning March 26. While the black-and-white photographs simply depict Ogden’s grandmother’s house in Manchester, Maine, and sentimental objects found within, the snapshots delve into a much deeper subject matter than what’s on the surface.
I tried to create a story about family relationships that are universal
said Ogden, 35, who currently resides in Cambridge. One story is the nature of family love and the second is mortality.
The idea for this ambitious project began nine years ago when Ogden had a common humanistic impulse
to document his grandmother, Jacqueline Vaughan. Soon after the start of his photographic journey, Ogden was struck by the pressing fact that his grandmother was aging, giving him the motivation to capture all that he could on camera.
My grandmother is in good health, but it’s like her mortality sort of dawned on me,
Ogden said. And, suddenly, I realized that I wanted to document the history of her house and the history of our family because I knew she wasn’t going to be around forever.
In Ogden’s photo, The Wedding Dress: Married in 1942, the passage of time is clear, as Vaughn’s aged hands are holding up her sheer wedding dress last worn more than 60 years ago. And in the image, A Pause in the Reading, the nurturing relationship between grandparents and their grandchild is represented through Vaughn’s hands holding open the page of a children’s book. Additional photos in the exhibition feature old family snapshots, dolls, uniforms, advertisements and postcards.
I hope this exhibition engages people ... and if it makes them have a bit of reverie within their own families and history, that would be great,
said Ogden, who used a Mamiya Camera RZ67 for all of the Intimate History images and Palm Press Inc. in Concord to print the photos.
Vaughn, 86, told the Sun that she is honored to be the subject of her grandson’s work.
I love the photos and I love to have him come visit me,
Vaughn said. He always surprises me with what he is interested in taking and I just enjoy having him here around the house
Ogden studied printmaking and painting at Bennington College in Vermont where he dabbled in a few photography courses. He later received a master’s from the University of Wisconsin — Madison, changing his medium from abstract art to photography. Ogden is now represented by Gallery Kayafas in Boston.
It’s important to look backward; art can do this, too,
Ogden said. [Intimate History] allows us a moment to reflect where we have been.
An opening reception for Ogden’s Intimate History exhibition will be held Thursday, April 2, 6-7:30 p.m., at Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main St.
For information, call the Griffin Museum at 781-729-1158 or visit www.griffinmuseum.org.