| Unexpected PerspectivesMay 22, 2008- June 21, 2008Reception: May 22, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
In Stephanie Lempert’s new series of photo based portraits the Artist goes far
beyond what we would normally expect to see as portraiture. By focusing on
her sitter’s life experiences and how they have affected that person’s aging
process, their faces have become for Lempert a true road map of each
person’s outlook on life. Inspired by the concept of a secret which is hiding in
plain sight, the Artist uses the tell-tale wrinkles on her subject’s faces to tell the
stories of their lives. Written in her sitter’s own hand, snippets of thier stories
are laid into the creases on their faces. Thus these wrinkles become part of a
canvas on which memories, pleasant or unpleasant, are indelibly etched, just
as our memories are etched into the recesses of our own minds.
Interviewing close to one hundred persons of “varied lifestyles and histories”,
and then interviewing those close to the final ten chosen subjects, Lempert
found the experience a confirmation of the adage “the face is a mirror to the
soul”. “Some people where incredibly open and honest in their stories, others where a complete
mystery” says Lempert. As examples, Ruby, photographed in a velour top and standing in front of a
matching blue afghan that she had just finished crocheting for her great granddaughter, has an open
countenance full of smile lines. Ruby’s stories are about her family, the gatherings they have had and
the importance of religion in her life. A woman in her late eighties, one would think racial overtones
would overshadow some of her memories but, as her smiling countenance portends, she is in mind and
body about positive stories and her family’s triumphs throughout their lives together. For Lempert’s photo
shoot Jane showed up with her makeup and hair professionally done. Frustrated for the first moment,
Lempert immediately realized that this highly orchestrated façade was in keeping with the memories this
sitter had written. Highly romanticized stories of Jane’s youth, growing up
in India on an enormous estate full of servants, where the exclusive
subject written about as Jane’s glamorous memories. A heavy smoker
and hard drinker, Jane is all alone now and dwells far in her past. Pearl,
another of Lempert’s subjects, appears scowling and closed; his are
shallow stories of a working class man’s day to day existence. It is only
through interviews with those closest to him that Lempert decerns life
has not been kind; Pearl’s wife died when their child was an infant and
that child almost died twice do to serious illness.
The Artist executes her compositions using a combination of
photography and digital manipulation; every inch of the photograph is
carefully scrutinized, adding text and shadow and changing color to
help tell the stories of her subjects. Often using humor, Lempert
attempts to stimulate the viewer to go beyond what they recognize as
reality by immersing them in a created environment. By having a set
story line, she allows the viewer to interact with the piece at their own
pace.
Lempert is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. The Artist is in the collections of Sagamore
Hotel, Miami, FL, the Stella Art Foundation, Moscow, Russian Federation, and the Rhode Island School of
Design, Woods-Gerry Gallery in Providence, RI. Lempert is a recipient of an Emerging Artist Fellowship,
Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY, an A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship, New York, NY and a Scope Emerging
Artist Grant, Scope Art Fair, New York, NY. The Artist is twenty five years old and this is Ms. Lempert’s first
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BE THERE
