Mother and daughter, in lace collars and with disheveled hair, look defiant and slightly frightened, as if they had been caught off guard during some secret ceremony
Matti is an opera composer. He was ten when his family left the USSR. He had been passionate about music since childhood, so they took his balalaika with them. Very few things from that first suitcase have survived — he was too young when he became an emigrant.
The project's participants gather with their old suitcases. Standing together in the middle of the road, they seem neither settled nor passing through. Each person lights another's face with a smartphone light
The image is composed of the portraits of all participants, made using double exposure with their home's window. The light from the window, dissolving the face features, alludes to the never-fully-closed window into the past that every immigrant carries, no matter how well they may have settled in a new country
May 20 - June 21 - "Change" (Juror's Prize winner) at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA
June 2 - Sep 13 - "Call and Response: Kindred" at Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
UPCOMING
June 12 - Sept 6 - "2026 Handmade Photobook Exhibition" (juror Caleb Cain Marcus) at Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
June 13 - Aug 30 - "2026 Danforth Annual Juried Exhibition" (jurors Rachel Passannante, Tim McDonald, Lauren Graves) at Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA
June 20 - Sep 13 - "90th Regional Exhibition of Art and Craft" (juror Lissa Cramer) at Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
July 9 - Aug 8 - "National Show: Intersections" (Juror Almitra Stanley) at CoISo Gallery, Boston, MA
June 20 - Aug 20 - "Emerging Voices Co|So & Harvard Club" (juror Dr. Lauren O'Neal) at Harvard Club of Boston, Boston, MA
July 15 - Aug 23 - "The Fourteenth Annual One" at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA
July 30 - Oct 17 - "Small Works: In Tandem" at CoISo Gallery, Boston, MA
July 31 - Sept 6 - "32nd Annual Members Juried Exhibition" (juror Barbara Tannenbaum) at Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
Nov 12 - Dec 13 - "2026 Worcester County cohort Grant Recepients Showcase", ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA
