Ann Mitchell

Photographers and Text

I searched for a wide range of approaches in putting this showcase together - much of the work is about exploration. We have a collaboration in the study of a relationship, as well as imagery that looks back at, or plays with the idea of, memories. One artist explores the marks of others. Another brings lives lived to the foreground, giving a voice to the silenced. Additionally, photobooks are such a perfect pairing of imagery and words and I'm so happy to have a guest contribution by  PhotoBook Journal with reviews of six books where text has played a strong role.

ThinkingAboutPhotography is a cross between a gallery and a journal, with bi-monthly thematic showcases featuring the work of visual artists connecting with photography.

Photography Looks at Structure: curated showcase

In this showcase, these five photographers have found very interesting ways to explore the subject. From intimate to urban to historic, we look at purpose, scale and the human cost of our domestic landscape. We look at what remains when a significant structure, one that changed the lives of a generation, is no longer present. We even see photographer as architect in the creation of mind-bending, often humorous, structures that challenge our assumptions.

ThinkingAboutPhotography is a bi-monthly showcase where I feature the work of artists working with photographic materials.

The Scribes: Artist's Books

Opening Reception: October 10th: 3-6pm
Webinar Virtual Walkthrough: October 24th 11am - 12:30pm
Closing Reception: November 7th, 11am - 1pm
The Five Elements: Form, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness.
In creating this book I drew inspiration from the Buddhist concept of the Five Sovereign Elements that make up our existence. I wanted to create a space for meditation and contemplation that could function as a tool or as an object.

This book is handmade in an edition of eight copies with two artist's proofs. The series is printed with cyanotype on Arches Watercolor paper by the artist. A video on the project can be viewed in my Experimental gallery.

Photography and Time, curated showcase

Time is one of the foundational mechanics of photography and, because of the ability to control time, it’s a discipline that has enlarged our capacity to see beyond our own eyes. There is an interesting range in the six photographers featured here. Utilizing the mechanics of photography, several artists have transcended the technical to create magical moments: from insomnia-driven wanderings, to examining what happens even before you shoot, to creating floating, ephemeral sculptures in the air. Exploring memory and the passage of time, several artists examine that experience and the sense of longing the journey can leave us with. Throughout the showcase you will find unique voices examining our relationship to time.

ThinkingAboutPhotography is a bi-monthly showcase where I feature the work of artists working with photographic materials.

Viewpoint Photographic Art Center 30th Anniversary Exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum.

Invisible Body of Realty was selected for the 30th Anniversary of Viewpoint Photographic Art Center’s exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento this summer. The exhibition, curated by Patty Felkner, will be up until August 1st. This image is from my Chance Chronicles series.

Photography and Nature, curated showcase

Just finished my third showcase for 
Thinkingaboutphotography.com where I’m curating bi-monthly showcases of artists working with photographic materials. Photography and Nature features six photographers working in thoughtful partnership with nature.

Each of the six artists featured here  have a very thoughtful partnership with nature. Some of the work has been a response to our last year, the forced isolation that we all found ourselves under and turning to nature as an inspirational resource. Others seek to connect us to nature’s magical world, or draw our awareness to the consequences of our actions. Throughout the showcase, there is an understanding that the world/space we inhabit is important and should be honored.

Long Beach Museum of Art, 19th biennial Art Auction

Exhibition preview: June 3 - 27
Online auction: June 12 - 27th, 2021
I'm very happy to support the LBMA's silent auction fundraiser with my donation of Low Tide, encaustic wax and pastel over pigment print, mounted on wood, 6".

Staged Photography, curated showcase

I've just finished my second showcase for ThinkingAboutPhotography.com - my online journal where I curate bi-monthly showcases of artists working with photographic materials. Staged features six amazing artists: Carol Erb, Mary Daniel Hobson, Lucas Leffler, Karen Neems, Marcy Palmer and Wendi Schneider.

These artists' work runs a wide gamut of what “staged imagery” can involve. Several have found imaginative ways to transform the everyday through reinvention and abstraction, finding the power in the ordinary. While others seek to evoke a mood,  capture vanishing moments of beauty, or even include the presentation of the print as part of their staging.

2021 Member's juried exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art,

Juror: Susan BurnstineExhibition
Dates: April 10 – May 9, 2021
Saturday, April 10, 4–6pm
Virtual opening and walk-through with Juror Susan Burnstine and Director Ann Jastrab.  Lost Light can be viewed online, while Like the Moon, Burning will be exhibited in the gallery space. Both images are from Chance Chronicles.

Dusk to Dawn, exhibition at Don't Take Pictures

March 21st - May 25th 2021
The Long Way Home from The Razor's Edge. "Between the last light of day and the first rays of dawn, the world as we normally see it transforms to one in which nightclubs, all-night stores, third shift workers, and nocturnal wildlife take center stage. Spaces abuzz with activity during the day become quiet and desolate, and artificial light transforms mundane spaces into something almost magical. Photographers who work at night experience a nocturnal world that most sleep through."

Photography As Object, curated showcase

February 14th - April 10th 2021
My new curatorial project, thinkingaboutphotography.com explores artists who favor  “creating” rather than “finding” in their photography, and who invent narratives rather than observe and record them.  For my first showcase, I’m looking at artists who free photographs from walls and release them into our three-dimensional world. Some give life to the paper itself - leading the viewer on a journey as it folds and warps. Others offer, even demand, interaction that grants viewers a share of authorship/ownership experiences.

Composite Imaging with Ann Mitchell

Webinar, March 6th 2021, 10:00am - 11:30am
Los Angeles Center of Photography
Fascinated by the idea of compositing, but not really sure how to get started? Perhaps you’ve tried a few and aren’t really sure why they’re not working, or how to make them better? In this webinar, Ann Mitchell will take you from initial concept through capture, editing and output, helping you understand the five key elements that are essential to a successful composite. For the past two decades, Ann Mitchell has been actively using and teaching digital editing using Adobe Photoshop. She has helped students of all skill and age level improve their techniques and develop their vision.

Photomontage: Constructed Realities, PhotoPlace Gallery

October 30th - November 20th, 2020
The Invisible Body of Reality from The Chance Chronicles

Juried by Tom Chambers, "Creating photomontage is much more than a mechanical process.  Rather, creating photomontage is expressing a personal vision or story in a unique way. The outcome is often one with an element of surprise, beauty, or unfinished story."

LACP Benefit Auction 2020

Bidding closes, Thursday, October 29th, 2020 5pm
Los Angeles Center of Photography
This is one of my favorite images because not only do I love the image - but it’s from a magical experience at a chateaux, L'Isle Marie in Normandy. This property has belonged to the same family for over 800 years, which is pretty staggering to imagine holding onto it through the dark ages into contemporary times. My favorite experience was our return each day as we drove through this allée of trees - I loved the sense of history and when I’d look to the right I’d often catch a glimpse of a group of slowly grazing race horses. Platinum Palladium print.

Novellas, Roswell Space

September 20th - October 11th, 2020
Siobhan McClure and Ann Mitchell
This encaustic series, Home and Away, was made during the Pandemic of 2020. In this time of crazy uncertainty, of anger, fear and unrest, I’ve found myself moved towards the eternal, finding ways to ground myself - to claim space that cannot be controlled by the chaos around me. Working in a dialog between confinement and wandering, the images have centered on capturing a sense of home as both shelter, and prison, and are then balanced by my dreamlike, escapist wandering through the woods.

Reimagined Landscapes, Center for Photographic Art

August 8 – September 13, 2020
Curated by Ann Jastrab. The Reimagined Landscapes exhibition features the work of 8 female artists, each reinterpreting the landscape genre. As August, 18, 2020 officially marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution, we honor this date with an exhibition of women photographers.
"I met Ann Mitchell at Photo Lucida, we sat across from each other and I looked at her platinum/palladium prints of scenes that she had created. Totally fictional. Sometimes terrifying. Almost always unsettling. At the very least strange. But because of her process, they were so beautiful that I believed them to be real. I still believe."
Work featured is from the Chance Chronicles series.

Meditations, Viewpoint Photographic Art Center

March 10th - April 4th, 2020
In this series of constructed images, Ann Mitchell has created a world that feels somewhere between a dream and a cinematic still. A world where we have a sense that the space and narrative continues beyond the frame, with echoes from a past existence. The title, Chance Chronicles, comes from the process Mitchell used to create the images, starting with a randomly selected written meditation prompt. She states, “I then start writing and the writing process leads to me images…which are the basis for the work you see here.” Features both stills and animations.