What’s Done in Shadows

Vignettes  from the Mary Heaton Vorse House

 

“This philosophy of hate, of religious and racial intolerance, with its passionate urge toward war, is loose in the world. It is the enemy of democracy; it is the enemy of all the fruitful and spiritual sides of life. It is our responsibility, as individuals and organizations, to resist this.”  Mary Heaton Vorse

 

This new and ongoing series of photographs represents the confluence and culmination of many forces and histories.  First and foremost the imagery is inspired by activist, journalist and novelist Mary Heaton Vorse (1874 – 1966) and the echo of her presence, that still exists within her historic home in Provincetown Massachusetts.  Vorse was a powerful supporter of the overlooked and defenseless.  She is widely recognized as an outspoken advocate for women’s rights  ( especially women’s suffrage), and the often marginalized immigrant worker.  Mary Heaton Vorse was a protester, a humanist.

 

Today The Vorse House is stewarded by designer Ken Fulk and home to the Provincetown Arts Society, which supports a wide range of artists as well as longstanding arts organizations.

 

I see these photographic vignettes as collaborations.  The images, primarily portraits, are made in and around the Vorse house; the environment rife with history and lives lived.  Heaton’s home has been lovingly restored to a version of her former tenancy, aided by the flair of a designers keen eye. Vorse, the house, interior restoration, diverse sitters, serendipity, gorgeous shifting light — all of these elements work in concert within the photos. The subjects are an eclectic cast of long-term Provincetown residents, summer workers, artists, writers, performers and other social orphans.  Most of them are women, and like Vorse, inextricably drawn to the town.  My process tends to be spontaneous. Together we chase light and navigate space and chemistry; chance dictating much of the outcome.   I seek to capture the spirit of individual presence and empowerment.  I hope that collectively my photographs begin to represent a complex community that Mary Heaton Vorse would have enjoyed sharing dinner with.

 

“Our houses are our biographies, the stories of our defeats and victories.”

Mary Heaton Vorse, Time and the Town; A Provincetown Chronicle

DAVID HILLIARD creates large-scale multi-paneled color photographs, often based on his life or the lives of people around him. His panoramas direct the viewer’s gaze across the image surface allowing narrative, time and space to unfold. The images take cues from storytelling, theater/performance and cinema. David received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design and MFA from the Yale University School of Art. He worked for many years as an assistant professor at Yale University where he also directed the undergraduate photo department. He is a regular visiting faculty at Harvard University, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts College of Art & Design and Lesley University College of Art & Design. David also leads a variety of summer photography workshops throughout the country.  Hilliard exhibits his photographs both nationally and internationally and has won numerous awards such as the Fulbright and Guggenheim. His photographs can be found in many important collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His is work is represented in galleries in New York, Boston, Atlanta, in Paris at La Galerie Particuliere and at The Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, MA. In 2005 a collection of his photographs was published in a monograph by Aperture Press.