Lucid Dreams | RISD Photography MFA ‘25
New York, NY – Penumbra Foundation is pleased to host Lucid Dreams, a group exhibition by the Rhode Island School of Design MFA Photography Class of 2025: Ella Baum, Mengru Du, Zhu Gaocanye, Katelynn M. Rogers, Tam Stockton, and Yuchen Wang. Curated by Ella Baum.
Six photographers present stories of devotion, fervor, grief and the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Encompassing a wide variety of techniques and methodologies — including analog and digital photography, collage, video, installation and bookmaking — this exhibition is a testament to the broad spectrum of the photographic medium. In their images, Ella Baum, Mengru Du, Katelynn M. Rogers and Yuchen Wang engage with illusive landscapes of loss and developing relationships to self, family, and belonging, while Tam Stockton and Zhu Gaocanyue’s photographs explore constructed realities, the belief systems that anchor us within community and humanity’s eternal quest for meaning.
For artists everything is material. Even the most ephemeral sensations, thoughts, and emotions become fodder for the ineffable act of creation. The photographers in this exhibition immerse themselves within the slippery realm of the imagination and make real that which might otherwise have only been a dream.
Light in PHOCUS: Student Photographers respond to Shape of Light
Miscellany News Article, Written by: Carissa Clough 11/14/2019
https://miscellanynews.org/2019/11/14/arts/phocus-presents-power-of-photography/
BAU Gallery Presents: Photography in Phocus
An exhibition of images by Vassar College student photographers who continue to celebrate the medium of film, curated by Ella Baum. In the spirit of 20th century photographers like Minor White and Gary Winogrand who sought to capture the uncanny in their work, Baum has chosen a series of images that center the eye of the observer. This collection of photographs encourages its viewers to slow down, and question their understanding of place.
With accelerated developments in technology and the price margins per photograph narrowing due to digital imaging, digital cameras and iPhones have dominated the field of photography for the past decade. However, film as a medium is far from dead as young photographers continue to herald the beauty and depth of analog photography.
Ella Baum is a senior at Vassar College and recently studied photography at the Studio Arts College International (SACI) in Florence, Italy. She has been a teaching assistant at the International Center of Photography and at the Penumbra Foundation in New York City. She is co-editor of Vassar College’s annual student photography publication FIX and an executive member of the Vassar College photography club ‘PHOCUS’.