ABOUT REBECCA
| REBECCA NORRIS WEBB |
Originally a poet, Rebecca Norris Webb, has published two photography books which explore the complicated relationship between people and the natural world: The Glass Between Us and Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba (with Alex Webb), the latter which is on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, until January 16, 2012, and then travel to the Southeast Museum of Photography in Daytona, Florida, in 2013, among other venues. Her upcoming third book from Radius Books (May 2012), My Dakota –– an elegy for her brother who died unexpectedly –– interweaves her poetry and photographs from her home state of South Dakota. It will be exhibited at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, S.D. (June-Oct. 2012), and then travel to galleries and museums nationally and internationally. Her work is in the collections of such museums as the MFA, Boston, the George Eastman House, and numerous private collections, and has been published in Orion, Time, and other publications. Rebecca is currently working on a new collaboration in the U.S. with her husband and creative partner, the Magnum photographer Alex Webb. For the past 12 years, Rebecca and Alex have taught photography and bookmaking workshops for museums, universities, and other cultural institutions around the world. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS SOLO AND TWO-PERSON SHOWS --Violet Isle (with Alex Webb), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 2011-January 2012. --Violet Isle (with Alex Webb), University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Feb.-March 2010. --Violet Isle ((with Alex Webb), Ricco Maresca Gallery, NY, Nov. 2009-Jan. 2010. --The Glass Between Us, Festival of the Photograph, Charlottesville, June 2007. --The Glass Between Us, Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York, May 2006. --The Glass Between Us, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, September 2006. --The Glass Between Us, Griffin Museum, Winchester, Mass. 2005. --The Glass Between Us, Zucchi Museum, Milan, 2005. GROUP --The Changing Earth , Ansel Adams Gallery, Napa, California, Sept. 2009-March 2010. --Generations, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Mass., Dec. 2009-Feb. 2010.--All About Photography, ArtStrand Gallery, Provincetown, Mass., Sept. 2009 --Why Look at Animals? George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, 2006-2007: Museum of Contemporary Art/Jacksonville, January 24, 2009-April 5, 2009. --Song of Myself, Powerhouse Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, fall 2007.--Blue Earth Alliance, Anne Focke Gallery, Seattle, Washington, April-June 2008. --Blue Earth Alliance: Photographs that Make a Difference, TCC Photo Gallery, Longview, Texas, Oct.-Dec. 2007. --Selections, Fototeca de Veracruz (Mexico), January 2007. --Viajeros: North American Artist/Photographers’ Images of Cuba, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., 2005; Miami-Dade College, Miami, 2007. --Photography that Makes a Difference, traveling exhibition with venues in Seattle, Portland, Spokane, and Redmond, 2004-7. --Transparency, Beacon Firehouse Gallery, Beacon, NY, 2005. --Man and Beast, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, 2005. |
For the past 10 years, I've explored the complicated relationship between people and the natural world, and the underlying tensions —social, philosophical, and emotional—as this fragile bond is strained to the breaking point, which, for many of us may well be, to quote the writer Sebald, "where the sources of the pain are."—RNW Selected Reviews and Quotes: About VIOLET ISLE: Review of Violet Isle in the New Yorker: ALEX WEBB AND REBECCA NORRIS WEBB This married couple shows color photographs from several trips to Cuba that emphasize the easy compatibility of their distinct visual styles. Alex usually takes a broad view of streetscapes complicated by shadows, reflections, and arrested movement; he has a filmmaker’s ability to find the skewed but perfect balance in a scene that threatens to spin out of control. Rebecca tends to focus on details, framing intriguing still-lifes and capturing marvellous shots of birds, including a pigeon that appears to be flying away from a freshly laid egg. Both Webbs use color like the Fauves—in hot, vibrant swatches and pungent accents. The results are the opposite of tourist views: pictures that are generated and animated by their subjects, never imposed on them.--New Yorker, January 4, 2010 Collaborative photography books are difficult to pull off –– maybe even more so by a husband-and-wife team, and especially when each is offering pictures (as opposed to one providing the text.) Pick a popular, well-photographed subject like Cuba for even more of a challenge. Violet Isle (Radius Books, 2009), by Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, easily overcomes these difficulties. Made from 11 trips to Cuba over 15 years, the book alternates between his and her images almost page by page, mixing Rebecca's painterly vignettes with Alex's harder-edged narrative into a single, deep, organically cohesive vision of this iconic island." –– Orion Magazine, May-June 2010 Violet Isle is unlike anything I've seen before, transcending all the cliches of Cuba. Rebecca is a painter with her camera, Alex a cinematographer; together they've created a unique view into a complex and often misunderstood culture. Carol McCusker, Curator of Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego It's as if [Rebecca] captures the melancholy interiors, and all the quirky secrets kept there, one reason, perhaps, the island still survives in spite of everything. Pico Iyer, from "The Sunlight in Shade, the Stillness in Motion" About THE GLASS BETWEEN US: Rebecca Norris Webb photographs reflections in the glass walls separating us from captive animals: A chimpanzee seems to hug a little girl to his breast; a reclining orangutan is joined to a brunette-haired family, the image as darkly atmospheric as a Caravaggio; a beluga whale swims in the sky over the heads of bundled-up onlookers. Surreal and tinged with sadness, these images capture a fundamental, if unequal, communion. — R.C. Baker, Village Voice With intelligence and photographic confidence, Webb brings gravitas to the lives of these animals. In Webb’s work one can almost forget that these are pictures of animals because the dramas they enact feel so very human. — Jonathan Fardy, Big Red & Shiny How do we express a confusing emotion without words? How do we visually render a feeling of contradiction? A poet responds to these questions with an extraordinary project that fully exploits the grammar of the photographic medium. — Enrica Vigano, Zucchi Museum curator, Milan |
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