Can community-based photography alter or contribute to the narrative of a place? Mission Hill: Presence, Absence and Transformation served as the exhibition catalogue for the 2019 community-based photography exhibition of the same name. The photography project was led by Dragan Grujic, the founder of Boston-based INFocus Camera Club. The exhibition opened in June of 2019 and was presented in two galleries located in Boston’s Brigham Circle.
As curator of the exhibition, Grujic assembled a group of local photographers—charging them to see and capture a diverse community that has been undergoing and grappling with dynamic change to its environment, identity, and population for years. As contributing photographer Chris Lovett states in the Forward, “To see Mission Hill is to look beyond the surface, to overlays of space and time, sign and signified, presence and absence.”
Now in its second printing, this 50-page, limited-edition volume showcases various works from the exhibition and includes brief statements from all five contributors. The hard-bound book is printed on acid-free premium matte paper and features an image-wrap cover. Dan Vlahos served as the book designer but was also one of the contributing photographers with the inclusion of his Just Numbers photographic series.
In May of 2022 I was asked to sign copies of this book at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In June of 2022, Mission Hill: Presence, Absence and Transformation was entered into the permanent collection of the Boston Public Library. A copy is also housed in special collections within the Tolle Lege Collection at Merrimack College. Copies of the second edition can be purchased through Mission Hill Main Streets.
Credits—
Contributing Photographers: Dragan Grujic, Kay Mathew, Christopher Lovett, Doina Iliescu, Dan Vlahos
Book Design: Dan Vlahos
Publisher: INFocus
Case Studies—
Arts Engagement for Healing and Transformation in Mission Hill, 2009–2023.
Press—
What’s Happening on Main Streets, Mission Hill Gazette, Walker, October 2022.
FILED IN: Design Research
