Artist’s Statement

While some might consider me a photographer, I feel I am really more of an assembler of images and tableaux, which then come to exist as pinhole photographs of an interior landscape. The poetic aspects of pinhole photography are what draw me to it. Although the pinhole camera is “blind,” because it has no viewfinder or lens, I find that it “sees” in mysterious ways. The pinhole camera’s “sight” grants infinite depth of field to the object and images before it, thus allowing us to see the camera’s pinhole vision, which is characterized by the odd clarity of dreams or memory. Working without a viewfinder, I can’t know exactly what my pinhole camera will give me, thus my camera becomes my silent and enigmatic collaborator.Usually I work in my own studio, setting up arrangements of images and objects culled from my “museum of memory,” my personal collection of oddments, books, and artifacts. Using only natural light, my exposures often take several hours. I then contact print my images using 19th century techniques (or modern versions of antique processes) requiring ultra-violet light. My work is slow, hand-built, and cumulative, rather like the layering of dust or memories over time.

Books have long served as models, as raw material, and as sources for my pinhole images. The idea of the book and the secret world it opens out into is at the core of my work.. Since childhood I have been intrigued with books, especially those that catalogued the contents of great museums. These art books were, in effect, collections of art in and of themselves. When I work with books, I find myself taking pinhole photographs in a multi-layered “museum within a museum.”

The contemplation or reading of a book enables the mind’s eye to make an image, an odd sort of paperless photograph. In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes discussed “the melancholy of Photography” which, by representing that which has been, suggests that the subject is already dead, yet continues to “live” in the photograph. A book, like a photograph, can suggest the existence in the present (as the reader reads the text) of that which is irretrievably in the past, or that is outside time (as with a fictional character who comes alive on the page very time one opens the book and begins to read).

In The Immigrants, W.G. Sebold wrote: “…the memories, which at points were truly wonderful, had seemed to him like one of those evil German fairy tales in which, once you are under the spell, you have to carry on to the finish, till your heart breaks, with whatever work you have begun – in this case the remembering, writing, and reading.” This reminiscence by Sebold’s fictional painter Max Ferber echoes my process as an artist: my own museum of memory is created, entered, and revealed in my collecting and arranging of books and objects into tableaux to be photographed.

 

EDUCATION

1986 MFA, Tufts University, Medford, MA1981 BFA, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
1971 AB (magna cum laude), Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA
Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, MA
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Musée Arthur Batut, Labruguière, France
Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Pinhole Resource, San Lorenzo, NM
Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

AWARDS

2003 Stipend, Goethe-Institut, Berlin, Germany (language study, travel for the month of June)
01-02 Artist Support, Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA, pinhole photography project
2000 Guest Artist, Island Center for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
Artist Support, Polaroid Corporation, film grant for 4x5 pinhole project in Skopelos, Greece
1996 Artist Support, Boston University Art Gallery/Polaroid, film grant for Polaroid 20x24 pinhole project
1995 Artist's Residency, Engelhard Foundation, Bequia Island, West Indies (awarded 1994)
1994 Artist’s Fellowship, Art Matters, Inc., New York, NY
Faculty Enrichment Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1993 Artist Support (Polaroid 20x24 pinhole project), Polaroid Corporation
Artist's Residency, The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Honorable Mention, Photo Review Competition 1993 (Duane Michals, juror)
1992 Purchase Award, Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA
1991 Artist's Grant, St. Botolph Club Foundation, Boston, MA
Faculty Enrichment Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1988 Finalist Award (Drawing), Massachusetts Artist Fellowship Program
1985 Artist's Travel Grant, Boston/Strasbourg Sister City Association (awarded 1984)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2002 The Inner Eye: Pinhole Photographs by Jesseca Ferguson, The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
2001 Jesseca Ferguson: Fotografia, Galeria Pusta, Upper Silesian Center of Culture,
Katowice, Poland (catalogue), traveled to Muzeum Lubiskie, Gorzow, Poland
Jesseca Ferguson: Theatre of Memory, Beacon Gallery, Bellport, NY
1999 Epilogue Photographique: Pinhole Photographs by Jesseca Ferguson, Photography Gallery,
University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
1990 Built Drawings, University Gallery, Clark University, Worcester, MA
1988 Distant Views & Forgotten Dreams, U/Mass, Dartmouth, MA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2003 Visions and Revisions: Art on Paper since 1960, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Ensembles: Assemblages and Collages, Pepper Gallery, Boston, MA
MinneAperture: Contemporary Pinhole Photography, Minnesota Canter for Photography,
Minneapolis, MN
The Book Reconsidered, Mobius Gallery, Boston, MA
2002 Senza Obiettivo, Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, Italy; will tour Italy during 2003 (catalogue)
Contemporary Alternative Photography, White Room Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
Lightstruck: An Exhibition of Pinhole Photographs & Cameras, Emerge Gallery, Greenville, NC
First to See the Light 2002, Wanganui Polytechnic University, Wanganui, New Zealand
2001 The Crafted Image: Nineteenth-Century Techniques in Contemporary Photography,
Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
Why Pinhole?, Visual Studies Workshop Gallery, Rochester, NY
Sun Works: Contemporary Alternative Photography, The Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA
Pinhole Madness, Lillian Immig Gallery, Emmanuel College, Boston, MA (four person)
Skopelos: Two Views, Greek-Inspired Work by Jesseca Ferguson & Peter Madden,
The Greek Institute, Cambridge, MA
Second International Photography and Digital Image Biennial Exhibition,
Gray Gallery, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC (catalogue)
2000 Sténopéphotographie, Bibliothèque Municipale, Lille, France (catalogue)
Left Field: Photography as Fiction, Standpoint Gallery, London, England (three person)
Kontakty 2000, Galeria Pusta, Katowice, Poland; touring Poland/Czech Republic, 2000 - 02 (catalogue)
Moonlight Becomes You - A Thousand and One Nights of Peace on Earth,
The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Museum of Memory: Photography as Taxidermy, Ford Gallery,
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI (curator and exhibitor)
Dreamworlds: Neo-Surrealism at the Millennium, Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA (catalogue)
1999 New Artists, Old Techniques, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL
Personal Effects/Effets Personnels, Fort Point Arts Community Gallery, Boston, MA (three person)
The Boston Photographers Project, Wiggin Gallery, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
1998 Man at Play, Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark , March 1998-March 2000
Everyday Alchemy: Pinhole Photography by Carlos Jurado & Jesseca Ferguson,
Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA
Jesseca Ferguson & Gerd Kanz, Galerie Promotion de Contemporains, Gesves, Belgium
Gallery Artists, Galerie Promotion de Contemporains, Gesves, Belgium
Effets Personnels/Personal Effects, Musée Arthur Batut, Labruguière, France (three person)
A Salute to Boston, Wiggin Gallery, Boston Public Library
1997 Women in Photography: The Polaroid Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
The Camera Obscured, FotoCircle Gallery, Seattle, WA
The World in the Box: An Exhibition of Pinhole Photographs, New Bedford Art Museum,
New Bedford, MA (four person)
10 Artistes Américains, La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
1996 The Art of Photography '96, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL
The Presence of Absence, FPAC Gallery, Boston, MA (three person)
70th International Competition, The Print Club, Center for Prints and Photographs, Philadelphia, PA
Primary Subject, Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY
1995 Jesseca Ferguson & David Lubbers, Pepper Gallery, Boston, MA
Let's Play House: Artists and the Domestic Environment, Wustum Museum, Racine, WI
The Made Image, Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA
1994 Cumberland, Waterwheel Art Gallery, Fernandina Beach, FL
Woman, Grossman Gallery, Boston Museum School
Myths: New Form/New Function, Arrowmont, Gatlinburg, TN
View From A Small Opening/Contemporary Pinhole Photography,
Ford Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
1993 Lost and Found, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
Process & Product: Photographic Images, Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA
Through the Pinhole, Harbor Gallery, U/Mass, Boston
1992 Working Proof: Prints from Experimental Etching Studio, Wiggin Gallery, Boston Public Library
New Art/New England, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
New England Photographers '92, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA
1991 Architecture in Focus II, Oakland Museum Council on Architecture, Oakland, CA
Land, Sea, & Sky: Maps in Contemporary Art, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Expressive Alternatives: Photography, Atlantic Union College, South Lancaster, MA
National Art Review, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
1990 Jesseca Ferguson & Marjorie Lehan, Berkshire Artisans Gallery, Pittsfield, MA
In the Spirit, Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston , MA
The Inspiration of Music, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ
1989 allusion DIMENSION, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
New Artists, Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
Books, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
1988 Prints and Drawings, Artists Foundation Gallery, Boston, MA
Ninth Annual Drawing Show, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
Recent American Works on Paper, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA and
Palmer Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Mused Furniture, Framingham State College, Framingham, MA
Small but Monumental, Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI (juror's award)
Works on or of Paper, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
1987 Small Wall Works, Amos Eno Gallery, New York, NY
Eighth Annual Drawing Show, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
Boston Artists Abroad, Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, MA
1986 Monotypes, Galerie R. Werlé, Strasbourg, France
1985 Local Color, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
7th National Print Exhibition, Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Honolulu, HI
Boston Printmakers 37th National Exhibition, Rose Art Museum (Patron's Purchase Award)
1984 Works on Paper, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
Fifth Annual Drawing Show, Boston Center for the Arts
1979 Containers, Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA

REVIEWS, etc.
2003 Adventures with Pinhole and Home-made Cameras, John Evans, RotoVision, UK (July ‘03 publication)
AGNI, number 57, cover image, five additional images in “Art Feature”
Pinhole Journal, “The Enhanced Mishap,” vol. 19, no. 1
2002 Senza Obiettivo, exhibition catalogue, international exhibition of pinhole photography,
Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, Italy
Art New England, volume 23, issue 5, August/September 2002, “Photography: Found Gifts,” Sara Dassel
Pinhole Journal, “Contemporary Images 10,” vol. 18, no. 2
2001 Jesseca Ferguson Fotografia , exhibition catalogue, Galeria Pusta, Katowice, Poland; text by
Krzysztof Jurecki, Art Historian, Museum of Art, Lodz, Poland
Fotografia Kwartalnik, numer 6/2001, “O fotografii Jessiki Ferguson,” Jakub Byrczek interviewed by Zbigniew Tomaszczuk
The Book of Alternative Processes, Christopher James, Delmar Books, New York, NY
The Boston Globe, September 27, 2001, “Pinhole Vision,” Cate McQuaid
2000 Notes Diverses Pour Servir à l’Histoire de la Sténopé Photographie, Perlin Pinpin avec la collaboration de Hervé Flanquart, Bibliothèque Municipale, Lille, France
Format Pismo Artystcyzne, NR 4/2000, “Relikwiarz Jesseki Ferguson,” Bogdan Konopka
Pinhole Journal, vol.16, no. 2, Contemporary Issues 7 (cover)
Kontakty, exhibition catalogue, Katowice, Poland
Dreamworlds: Neo-Surrealism at the Millennium, Alicia Faxon, exhibition catalogue, Attleboro Museum
1999 Art On Paper, volume 3, number 5, May/June 1999, "New Artists, Old Techniques,” Schneider Gallery, Chicago,"Kristen Brooke Schleifer
The Boston Globe, January 17, 1999, "Three shows imprint photographic memory," Christine Temin
Chicago Reader, January 15, 1999, "Forward Into the Past," Mark Swartz
1998 The Boston Herald, October 2, 1998, Visual Arts, Joanne Silver
View Camera, volume XI, number IV, "Synchronicity: Pinhole Photography with the Polaroid 20x24," Jesseca Ferguson
Unpublished, "Trois Poétesses de la Lumière," Jean-Claude Lemagny, Conservateur général honoraire des Bibliothèques
La Dépêche, 30 mai, 1998, Castres, France, "'Effets Personnels' au Musée Arthur Batut," D.C.
1997 New Bedford Sunday Standard-Times, "Seeing the World Through a Pinhole," March 23, 1997, Tom Puryear
1996 The Boston Globe, March 29, 1996,"Mixing memory and surrealism to reinvent the past," Nancy Stapen
Art New England, "Profile: Jesseca Ferguson's Pinhole Photographs," February/March issue, Lois Tarlow
1995 The Boston Globe, December 21, 1995, Nancy Stapen
New Dimensions in Photo Imaging, Laura Blacklow (2nd and 3rd editions), Focal Press/Butterworth
Photography Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, "The Power of Grace," Center for Photography at Woodstock
Pinhole Photography, Rediscovering a Historic Technique, Eric Renner, Focal Press/Butterworth
1st and 2nd editions)
1993 Pinhole Journal, vol. 9, #3, Figure Studies 3
Radcliffe Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 3, September 1993
Art New England, October/November, Miles Unger, "Lost & Found"
The Photo Review, vol. 16, no. 3, summer issue
Wayland/Weston Town Crier, Marty Carlock, "Found Objects Exhibited at Clark Gallery"
Newton Graphic, Meredith Fife Day, "Picking Up the Pieces"
1992 Pinhole Journal, vol. 8, no. 3, Landscape Issue, December 1992
Art New England, July/August, Miles Unger, "Fitchburg Art Museum 'New Talent'"
1991 Radcliffe Quarterly, March, Rebecca Nemser, "Where All Ladders Start"
Worcester Magazine, Leon Nigrosh, "A Short Ride to New Visions"
The Boston Herald, Joanne Silver, "DeCordova Museum Exhibit Maps Out Land, Sea and Sky"
1990 Art New England, Alicia Faxon, "allusion DIMENSION"
New Times, Scottsdale, AZ, Heather Lineberry,"All that Matisse"
The Boston Phoenix, Rebecca Nemser, "Loss Art and Ritual: Visual Prayers for AIDS"
1989 Martha's Vineyard Times, Karen Mularedelis, "Artist Layers Memories in Boxes"
Art New England, Rebecca Nemser, "Distant Views and Forgotten Dreams"
The Boston Phoenix, R. Nemser, "Many Dimensions"
The Boston Herald, Nancy Stapen, "Isn't Art Romantic"
The Boston Globe, Robert Taylor, "Annual Lois Foster Exhibition at Brandeis is rich and evocative"
1988 Agni Review, no. 27, Thomas Frick, editor, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art"
1985 Agni Review, no. 22, drawing commissioned by Sven Birkerts
Fiberarts Magazine, March/April issue, Asheville, NC
1980 The Fiberarts Design Book, Asheville, NC

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

2001 Artist’s Talk, radio & press interviews, Gallery Pusta, Upper Silesian Center for Culture, Katowice, Poland
2000 Artist’s Lecture, “Light Conversations,” Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Slide Lecture, “Museum of Memory: Photography as Taxidermy,”
College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, NY
Images Commissioned for Membership Print Program, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA
Guest Curator, “Museum of Memory: Photography as Taxidermy, ” Ford Gallery,
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI (part of Detroit Focus 2000)
Curator’s Lecture, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
1999 Television interview, "Rediscovering Boston/News 4 This Morning," Channel 4, Boston, MA
1997 Visiting artist lecture, “The Alternative Voice in Photography,” University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1995 Pinhole images presented by Karen van Meenen, Assistant Editor, Afterimage, in Women and Animals: Oppression, Representation, and Resistance," SPE National Conference, Atlanta, GA
1993 Radio interview, "Inquiry," WICN, Worcester, MA
1990 Radio interview, "Inquiry," WICN, Worcester, MA
1988 Television interview, "Chronicle," Channel 5, Boston, MA
1987 Television interview, "Our Times," Channel 7, Boston, MA
Radio interview, "Art Bridge," WMBR, Cambridge, MA
Radio interview, "Performance Today," WBUR, Boston, MA
1986-present Artist talks, studio visits, etc.:
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
Groups from Des Moines Art Museums, Des Moines, IA, Chilton Club, Boston, MA
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Kieslowski University of Film, Radio, & Television, Katowice, Poland
Art Institute of Boston , Boston, MA
International Center for Photography, New York, NY
New England School of Art & Design/Suffolk University, Boston, MA
Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Nazareth College, Rochester, NY
UMass/Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Tufts University, Medford, MA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
UMass/Boston, Harbor Campus, Boston
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

TEACHING

1993- Lecturer, Massachusetts College of Art (since spring 1993), Boston, MA (Fibers, Photography)
1990- Associate Faculty, Crosscurrents, Museum School, Boston, MA
(Studio courses, team-taught PostBaccalaureate Seminar, Student Internships Program)
2000-01 on leave for academic year
1995-99 Associate Professor, Photography, Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA
1992-94 Associate Professor, Continuing Education, Massachusetts College of Art
92/93/98 Artist-Teacher, non-resident MFA program, Vermont College, Norwich, VT
various Instructor, Art New England Summer Workshops, Bennington, VT (90/91/95/01/03)
1989-92 Lecturer, Visual Arts, Clark University, Worcester, MA
1988-90 Lecturer, English Composition, Tufts University/Museum School
1985-86 Teaching Assistant, Art History Survey, Tufts University
1975-83 Freelance Teacher (adult education centers)

RELATED EXPERIENCE
1991-92 Occasional Freelance Interviewer, Horn Book Magazine, Boston, MA
1988-89 Regional Reviews Editor, Art New England , Brighton, MA
1986-89 Freelance Writer, Art New England, Brighton, MA
1987-89 Publications Officer, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1986-89 Alumni/ae Resources Coordinator, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1980-87 Gallery Assistant, Clarence Kennedy Gallery, Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, MA
1980-81 Cataloguer, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1979-80 Studio Assistant, Carriage House Handmade Paperworks, Brookline, MA
1972-78 Self-employed Hand Weaver