In conjunction with the PRC’s “future-focused” 30th anniversary exhibition, PRC/POV, we are delighted to highlight an emerging photographer as well as a collective of emerging photographers entitled, “The Exposure Project.”  Conceived of as growing community and evolving support structure, these young photographers have come together, much like an artists’ collective, to assist in exposing and promoting new talent through exhibition and publication.

The Exposure Project’s first self-published book—which includes the work of New England School of Photography (NESOP) graduates Ben Alper, Anatasia Cazabon, Adam Marcinek, and Eric Watts—was released this fall. Work from the project will be featured in an exhibition at The Center for Photographic Exhibitions at NESOP in November. A 2005 NESOP graduate, Apler has been photographing the overlooked industrial spaces of New England. You can learn more about the project and explore each artists’ works online.

- Leslie K. Brown, PRC Curator

Click here for The Exposure Project website
Click here for Ben Alper’s website

The Exposure Project Statement

The Exposure Project is a collection of emerging photographers taking an active approach in exposing and promoting new talent through exhibition and publication. This group was founded to provide support and inspiration to photographers working on long-term projects. The crux of this project is to create a sustainable community in which every member is responsible, not only for their work, but for the success of their fellow members.

The Exposure Project is passionate about providing a forum for emerging photographers to share their vision of the world. Our collaborative efforts to publicly work enables members to become more intimately and artistically involved with each others’ vision.

Self-publishing affords us with a small but resonant artistic voice. As our project expands, periodic printed materials, exhibitions and on-line content will provide an outlet for the Exposure Project to engage a greater audience.

Ben Alper Statement
The Anonymous Landscape

This body of work explores the anonymity of the American industrial landscape. Vast, lonely and deteriorating, these areas have been deserted and left to decay. Industrial areas share an aesthetic; their architectural uniformity is accentuated by the repetition of lines, shapes and textures. The building themselves give the viewer no geographical cues as to where the images were taken. Presented as they are to the viewer, location is irrelevant, and an intellectual or emotional reaction to that location is avoided. What remains are the buildings themselves, constructed out of pure economic necessity to produce and distribute goods. These structures were erected in a utilitarian and institutional fashion, however, they have outlived their commercial use and been abandoned. This project finds new purpose for these derelict areas by giving them aesthetic relevance.

These industrial expanses are easily overlooked. Often isolated on the outskirts of cities and towns, these areas are largely uninhabited and unfrequented. The stark absence of people in these photographs emphasize the barrenness and anonymity of these places. Even so, there is a pervading sense of humanity in these images. These structures were built by people and once inhabited by workers for the sole purpose of serving an ever-growing community of consumers. Now discarded, the context has changed, and the interactions between people and these spaces has changed with it. The people who now wander through these areas leave subtler clues of their existence. I have become one of them, experiencing each anonymous place fully, trying to expose the intricate beauty of these forgotten landscapes.

- Ben Alper 2006

Click on each image for larger version and caption.

Ben Alper

Adam Marcinek

Anatasia Cazabon

Eric Watts