Simon and West, 2006 by Molly Landreth

Molly Landreth

Currently residing in: Seattle, WA

Website: http://www.mollylandreth.blogspot.com

Work Statement:
Embodiment:This series of photographs is an archive and a journey through a rapidly changing community and the lives of people who offer new visions of what it means to be young and queer today. Coming of age witnessing rapid changes in how gender and sexual minorities are viewed, I began this project as an investigation into the ways this generation of young people is continuing to challenge traditional life narratives within both straight and mainstream gay and lesbian communities. Even with today’s increasingly progressive attitudes, to be visible is to become both empowered and vulnerable. As a result, these images depict subjects who meet my gaze with a rare combination of forthright self-awareness and total abandon, like they are standing in for something much larger than themselves. Paying attention to carefully considered identities and surroundings, I find in a moment suspended, that an overlap is revealed, exposing the subtle outlines of who people are and more importantly, who they wish to become.

As I look from one image to the next I see that although my original investigation is the heart of this project, its blood is more universal. Embodiment, is about love and the process of growing up into ones self. It is about the complexity of relationships found between a diverse group of young people who playfully reveal unique and subtle shades of gender expression and with a glance or a touch re-assemble the sometimes-delicate anatomy of a family.

Bio:
b. 1978, lives and works in Seattle, WA. where she continues to create and exhibit new work, as well as shoot as one half of landreth+riffle.

EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts,
MFA, Photography and Related Media, 2005. New York, NY
Glasgow School of Art
Study Abroad, Commercial Photography, 1 semester, 2001. Glasgow, Scotland
Scripps College
BA, Studio Art with focus in Art History, Photography and Digital Art, 2001. Claremont, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
In a New Direction, wall space, Seattle, WA, February, 2007
Give us Your Best Shot, Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA, February 2007
Group Show #7, Humble Media, New York, NY 2006
Group Show Box Set, Auctioned by Ladies Lotto for Planned Parenthood, The Foundry, LIC, NY 2006
Online Exhibition, Photomedia Center, Erie, PA 2006
See What I Mean?, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY. 2005
Ladyfest Los Angeles Art Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA 2002
Vera Project Multi-Media Exhibition, Vera Project, Seattle, WA 2001
Scripps College Thesis Exhibition, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA 2001
Scripps College Junior Exhibition, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA 2000
New Work, The Motley Coffee Shop, Claremont, CA 1999

AWARDS
Finalist, Critical Mass, 2007
American Photo Image of the Year Competition, Honorable Mention, 2006
Photographic Center Northwest, Printing Sponsorship, 2006

PUBLICATIONS
Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, Oct. 2006