EYE / I OF THE STORM
This week’s blog isn’t really about music ... well maybe a little bit. There will be sing-along protest songs at the Opening Reception of my new solo photo show EYE/I OF THE STORM: PHOTOGRAPHS OF PROTEST AND RESISTANCE at Midway Gallery, 15 Channel Center Street, Fort Point, Boston, MA, June 9-July 29, Opening Reception June 11, 6-8 PM. Maybe a few rousing choruses of Blowin’ in the Wind or If I Had a Hammer?
We’re calling it an inter-activist experience, recreating the look and feel of a protest demonstration with show logo buttons to pin on, many photos mounted on protest signs to carry, live singer/songwriter protest music at the Opening Reception. The expansive gallery is located on the ground floor of Midway Artist Studios, at the hub of Boston’s art community, minutes from Seaport, Southie and Harborwalk. And the show is FREE to the public daily, 8 AM-8 PM. Lots to explore ... make a day of it!
We’re currently putting together signs with foam core and wood furring strips, printing and mounting the more than 40 images culled from decades of shooting protest movements. From Boston to DC to NYC, Iraq to Iran, human rights to government wrongs, I’ve always loved the adrenaline rush of finding the face in the crowd, capturing a moment in motion. As a writer and singer/songwriter, editing is very much a part of the process. I try to keep photography more spontaneous, with little editing and manipulation of images afterwards, so the viewer gets to experience what I did.
My co-curators have said some very nice things about the upcoming show. I’m blushing and wondering if I can really live up to all this, but here goes:
“The signs may hit the ground, but through Mirana’s lens, the people — and their message — endure and connect us here.” -Tina Chakarian, Curator
“In a time of wide AI usage, the truth of a single captured moment comes to eternal life through Mirana Comstock’s mastery of composition, intuition, and raw, mostly uncropped directness. Her photographs capture an enduring thread of human strength and the spirit of never-ending resistance.” -Petra Dankova, Curator
Images from some of my other PhotoJournals are in the collections of the 9/11 Memorial Museum and New-York Historical. When not making music, I have shown at, among others, Lincoln Center, the National Arts Club, Pfizer, Durst, and MoMA’s Here Is New York and Life of the City exhibits, as well as in Boston South Station’s Great Room. My work has also been featured in international Timberland Earth Day campaigns, the 9/11 documentary Witness, and I have curated Generations exhibits of my and my noted artist family’s work in Provincetown and Boston. (More about them in an upcoming blog.)
The largest artist building in the Boston area, Midway Artist Studios, where Midway Gallery is housed, has been fundamental to the arts as a cultural hub where artists live and work for 20 years, enabling the flow of ideas and skills between disciplines and generations.The expansive Midway Gallery on its first floor showcases local to global artists across an eclectic range of mediums and media. Come visit June 9-July 29 and put yourself in the EYE/I OF THE STORM!
