Fern L. Nesson: TILT! (September 1 – October 29, 2023)

Opening Reception: September 01, 2023 5-8 pm

October First Friday: October 06, 2023 5-8 pm

With the tilt of her camera, Nesson’s photographs of architecture evoke scientist and philosopher, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), who first theorized that the planets orbit the sun rather than the reverse. Copernicus’ innovative thoughts were thanks to his ability to shift perspective. He imagined how one’s perspective might change if Mars, rather than the Earth, was at the center of the universe. Nesson, too, takes standard perspective and shifts it to give viewers a new paradigm of understanding. Places are infused with qualities beyond their practical uses by translating functional architecture into undulating lines, and luminescent dimensionality with a monochromatic palette. Nesson’s tilt of the camera reinterprets and holds reverence for familiar places and objects, while also questioning the notion of maintaining a singular outlook on the world.

Nesson’s work will be on view from September 1st through October 29th, with an opening reception on the first of September from 5-8 pm. An online talk with Griffin Museum of Photography Executive Director, Crista Dix, will occur at 7 pm on Tuesday, September 12th. A second reception will be hosted on October 6th from 5-8 pm in conjunction with SOWA’s First Friday. A final closing reception and exhibition walkthrough with Crista Dix will occur at 2 pm on Saturday, October 28th. 

In Conversation: Fern L. Nesson & Crista Dix REGISTER

Closing Reception & Walkthrough REGISTER

The exhibition is free and open to visitors Thursdays through Saturdays 12-5 pm, Sundays 11-4, and by appointment. 

About Fern L. Nesson

Fern L. Nesson is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and received an MA in American History from Brandeis and an M.F.A in Photography from the Maine Media College. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She practiced law in Boston for twenty years and subsequently taught American History and Mathematics at the Cambridge School of Weston and the Commonwealth School in Boston. Nesson wrote Great Waters: A History of Boston’s Water Supply (1982), Signet of Eternity (2017) and Word (2020) and she has published numerous books of her photography including, Tilt! (2023). She is currently working on a combined history and photography book on the WPA’s American Guide Series. 

Nesson's photographs have been shown in solo shows internationally at the Politecnico University in Torino, Italy, Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France, Ph21 Gallery in Budapest, Hungary, and at The University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. 

In the United States, Nesson has had solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography,  the MIT Museum, The MetaLab at Harvard, the Beacon Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, the Pascal Gallery in Rockport, Maine, and at Through This Lens Gallery in Durham, NC. 

Additionally, her work has been selected for numerous juried exhibitions in the U.S., Barcelona, Rome and Budapest. Her photobooks, Signet of Eternity and WORD, won the 10th and the 12th Annual Photobooks Award from the Davis-Orton Gallery. Fern is a contributing editor of FranceToday.com and BonjourParis.com where her cultural/photo essays appear regularly as well as the author of a regular column for The LivingNewDeal.com entitled : “On the Road: Travels with the WPA State Guides.” Collections of her photographs may be found on her website: fernlnesson.com