IMAGE CREDIT: Jaclyn Kain, Millie #45, 2005, Toned gelatin silver print, 19 x 19 inches, Copyright the artist and courtesy of Gallery NAGA (Boston, MA)

Jaclyn Kain
(Born 1977, Portland, ME; Lives Jamaica Plain, MA)
Nominated by Rick Grossman

In a 21st-century take on Pictorialism, Jaclyn Kain prints with paper negatives, allowing the natural texture and fibers to emerge. Some compositions verge on the sinister (one is reminded of Edward Steichen's nudes), while others take a more light-hearted approach. Kain's resulting massing of dark and light forms creates a veiled world that exists, elusively, somewhere between day and night, fantasy and reality.

Currently a freelance photographer, Jaclyn Kain received her BA from Simmons College (Boston, MA) in 1999 where she was the recipient of the Joshua D. Oppenheim Award and Trustman Art Fellowship. Kain is represented by Gallery NAGA (Boston, MA).

Artist Statement

I print my photographs using paper negatives because I find they help me to create a world completely removed from reality. I was inspired to photograph my friend Millie in this world where she would be free from context and assumptions. She simply emerges from the lights and darks of the background, the viewer unable to tell where her body begins and ends. In most photographs, her body and features melt into the textures of the paper fibers. Different aspects of her reveal themselves in the faint, invisible world where she appears trapped. Within this oblivion are hints of vulnerability, desire, and loneliness. When all reference to reality is stripped away from her, all that is left of Millie are the many different sides that exist within her soul, the thousands of pieces that she tries so very hard to hide.

Rick Grossman

(Born 1944, New York, NY: Lives Brookline, MA)

Rick Grossman has been the President of the PRC Board of Directors since 2001. A graduate of Haverford College (Haverford, PA) and Harvard Law School (Cambridge, MA), Grossman is the co-founder and CEO of Adesso in Boston and Ligne Roset in New York, retail showrooms for contemporary French furniture.

A patron of the arts and an active collector of photography, Grossman also serves on the Board of Directors of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre (Wellfleet, MA) and Snappy Dance Theatre (Boston, MA). He and his wife Ellen have participated in photography workshops with Joel Meyerowitz, Constantine Manos, Amy Arbus, Abelardo Morell, Lance Keimig, and Alex and Rebecca Webb.

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Artist Statement

Rick Grossman