PRC | EXPOSURE 2011



>> Steven Beckly >> Eliot Dudik >> Tealia Ellis Ritter >> Elizabeth Libert >> Dina Litovsky >> Rania Matar >> Mary Beth Meehan >> Monika Merva >> Dana Mueller >> Jason Reblando >> EXPOSURE Home	Mary Beth Meehan Undocumented Click here to visit the artist's website >> Mary Beth Meehan, Guatemala - Providence, Rhode Island, Ultrachrome Print, 2010. Artist Statement Undocumented is a series of photographs made in the homes of undocumented immigrants living in Massachusetts and Rhode Island: people who, for legal and political reasons, must remain invisible. Questions I am exploring include: how can the two-dimensionality of photography be used to reflect a human life through environment alone? How do I visualize a space to evoke effort, intention, and hope, as well as marginalization or longing? Can I enter the home of a human being who is afraid to be identified and use photography to make him or her somehow seen, creating the possibility for intimacy and empathy on the part of the viewer? My goal is to use color, form, and light to open a window onto these almost forbidden spaces, ones that are, ironically, full of the daily ordinariness of life. Image titles refer to the country of origin of the people whose home is pictured and the location of that home in the United States where the photograph was made. Press Boston Sunday Globe >> Artist Bio Mary Beth Meehan is a Providence-based photographer whose current projects deal with immigration, culture, and community. Her goal is to create a connection with the people of those communities whose identities are often obscured by economics, politics, or race. Meehan’s work has been exhibited and published widely, including pieces in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. She has been honored by Pictures of the Year International and The National Conference for Community and Justice, and was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize. Her series entitled Undocumented was featured in the Boston Sunday Globe and has received financial support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities to mount a touring exhibition in the fall of 2011. She is currently working on a second long-term project entitled City of Champions: A Portrait of Brockton, Massachusetts, which responds to her changing, post-industrial hometown. That work received financial support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and recently won a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities to be installed as a large-scale public banner project in downtown Brockton. Meehan teaches Documentary Photography at the Massachusetts College of Art + Design and is director of the Documenting Cultural Communities program at the International Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.