CLOSER : Photographs by Ranee Palone Flynn

May 26 — July 17, 2005

Reception May 26, 2005, 6 – 8 p.m.

As a completely self-taught photographer, Ranee Palone Flynn embraces life on Boston’s North Shore. Transplanted from New York City over ten years ago, Flynn found herself among strangers in a foreign environment, a situation which she relates to her choice of models. She photographs strangers in their own clothes in their personal environments, finding the majority of her subjects by placing ads in Cape Ann newspapers. Occasionally, she will approach people on the street.

Upon selecting a model, Flynn spends sixty to ninety minutes with the individual in his or her bedroom, living room, backyard or street in order to capture an appropriate setting. Drawn to the natural light of each specific setting, Flynn eschews the use of studio lighting. Images of young girls with defiant stares, a housewife in a see-through nightgown, a man contemplating life while splayed on his bed, are some of the many images included in this show. During the brief sitting, Flynn is able to capture an intimacy, the comfort and freedom that a stranger can sometimes afford. Her intent is not to create sexual images, nor are the photographs obviously sexual. However, the artist believes that “sexuality is core to humanity and becomes more evident in some people than others.” Flynn works alone without an assistant, making each session an uninterrupted, one-on-one experience between photographer and subject. Her photographic portraits of people from her community are timeless, the images are a contemporary take on turn of the century portraiture. The children and adults in Flynn’s photographs convey the social dichotomies of the North Shore, once known as the Gold Coast of New England.

Ranee Flynn has exhibited widely in the Boston area and currently teaches design at Massachusetts College of Art and Montserrat College of Art. She is included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where, as a recipient of the Maud Morgan Prize, she had a solo-exhibition in 2003.