The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) presents an exhibition featuring the work of photographer Lisa Elmaleh, who documented her life in photographs in the rural outskirts of Paw Paw, West Virginia, as she learned to live more deliberately. “the Lightness and the Dark” will be on display in the Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery Oct. 28-Dec. 12, 2019.
“In 2014, I moved to the rural outskirts of Paw Paw, West Virginia, a town with a population of a little over 500,” shared Elmaleh. “I moved to a cabin with no running water, and found myself, in a Thoureauian sense, learning how to live more deliberately. I have documented my life here, photographing the people who are present in my life, the land, and life and decay as I find it, using an 8 x 10 camera. The 8 x 10 camera is deliberate and slow moving, a representational dance that directly reflects my life.”
On her website, www.lisaelmaleh.com, Elmaleh wrote, “Me and my large-format 8×10″ camera (named Fitzgerald Fitzwilliam Fitzgeorge) go on many adventures together. My portable wet plate darkroom is in the back of my truck, and my stationary black and white darkroom is located on Spring Gap Mountain. I teach at the School of Visual Arts and the Penumbra Foundation in New York City, and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in Lancaster. I am on the road a lot.”
Elmaleh will get on the road to be at CSM Nov. 5 at 3 p.m. to talk with everyone about her art, her experiences and her photographs at the La Plata Campus Fine Arts Center, Room 173. The exhibit and her lecture are free. The Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Center (FA Building) on CSM’s La Plata Campus, located at 8730 Mitchell Road in La Plata.