To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Phoenix Flies, the Atlanta Preservation Center (APC) initiated the Anniversary Photography Project (APP). For this project eight Atlanta area fine art photographers were asked to “focus their lens” on the sites celebrated during Phoenix Flies, thereby using the history and art of the built environment to create new art.
This body of more than 80 images is presented here in this catalog, on the Atlanta Preservation Center’s website, and in a book that will be given to each Preservation Partner and is available to the public for purchase. Select prints are on exhibit and available for purchase in the LP Grant Mansion’s Drawing Room Gallery during Phoenix Flies.
The gallery will be open 10 am to 2 pm, Monday-Friday, March 11 through 15 and March 18 through 22 and by appointment, 404-688-3353.
Please join us for the opening reception Friday, March 9, 5:30-9 pm, featuring entertainment by Granville Automatic.
The Drawing Room Gallery is in the APC’s Grant Mansion, 327 St Paul Ave.
The participating photographers are:
Shelia Pree Bright is a known voice in the contemporary art scene. Her Young Americans series has been honored with a show at the High Museum of Art and continues to have a life with public installations throughout the US. APP is her second project with the APC. Her focus with this project and the prior project is little-known African American historic sites.
Terrell Clark uses a pinhole camera for which he developed a passion in high school. He finds one of the most satisfying aspects of photography to be learning about cultures and bringing people of different cultures together.
John Dean’s edited work creates a superreal vision of its subjects, paring down the information so that intricacies of the subject can be appreciated. In addition to his accomplishments as a photographer, he is a master printer. This is his second project for the APC.
Stephanie Dowda is both a photographer and a curator. Her work examines how “memory builds our framework of the world.” This is her second project with the APC. She curated The Future is Behind Us, the inaugural exhibit in the Drawing Room Gallery.
Jody Fausett has been noted as an up-and-coming local talent by Museum of Modern Art Georgia. His striking use of light is distinctive and his composed images are intriguing. This is his second project with the APC.
Jeff Keesee works as a photographer because he “loves using his camera to interpret the world around him, creating work to be enjoyed.” For this project he specifically requested sites that are within walking distance of his home.
David Yoakley Mitchell is both an artist and a preservationist. He trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the National College of Art and Design. He directs M.H. Mitchell, Inc., a non-profit organization for the support of Georgia history. He is a member of APC.
Rob Simmons’ photographic work seeks to “capture the unguarded essence of his subjects.” His long exposure shots using ambient light create striking images that “open the viewer’s eyes to the art and beauty in the commonplace world around us.”