Exhibit Statement

What do we see when we see the elderly? As we breeze by we may observe stooped shoulders, crooked backs, gnarled hands, uncertain gaits, wrinkled skin. What do we see when we see women who once walked with a confident stride now shuffling, grasping their walkers as their balance leaves them?

Do we see our mothers as accumulations of books read, tears wiped, dishes cooked, jobs well done, families held together, countries traveled, wars fought, and peace kept? Or do we miss this when we glance around them instead of at them?

This was a shared project with my mother, Irma, during the final year of her life, where I photographed her in a century’s worth of hats. Irma was born in 1923. For 96 years she savored all that life had to offer. To say that “Irma G.” was an animated subject for this project would be an understatement. When she donned a hat, her sadness and anger disappeared and she beamed. In front of the lens, her moodiness dissipated like heavy fog. She laughed, she posed, she flirted and teased. The project transported her back in time physically and spiritually.

My mother delighted in preparing for these photo shoots and in concocting creative poses. Whether she was wearing a beret, a straw hat, or a kerchief, she reveled in seeing herself in the photos and noted how lovely she looked. She especially loved sharing those photos with others; these photos were a gift that validated both her past and her current identity. Most of all, the project gave her the gift of time with her daughter, and to her daughter, the gift of spending meaningful time with her mother during her final year. Irma G died three months after the last of these photos were taken, in January 2020.

https://www.leannshamashphotography.com/anonymous

Bio

Leann Shamash, a Newton, Massachusetts based photographer, hopes to visually follow the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, that objects and individuals help to create wonder and radical amazement. Her subjects are varied, with the objective of finding the spark of life evident in people and objects.

Leann’s work in the field of Jewish education has helped to lend a spiritual lens to her photography. Her work with her mother, called “Irma G: A Century of Hats and Spirit,” has been shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography through their atelier program, the Daniels Art Gallery, The Jack Satter House, and the Newton Free Library. Photos from the collection and descriptions of the project have been written up in the French weekly L’Intimiste, and the blog Better After Fifty, the weekly newspaper, Jewish Boston and Hebrew College’s Koleinu. Leann has also done an artist talk through The Jewish Arts Collective on both the work with her mother and another project, The Beauty of Aging, where Leann photographed individuals in their nineties along with advice for young people. Leann presented an artist talk at Orchard Cove and at Tamarisk Nursing Home on this work.

During Covid Leann curated a photographic record of the lives of eight women, aged 19-95, called Eight Women, which included a year’s record of their photos and reflections of their lives. In addition, during Covid she photographed the Zoom room where she prayed the Memorial prayer for her mother along with mementos of other participants praying together, in a project called The Memory Room.

Leann’s latest work has been to integrate photography with classical Jewish texts. She is working on a series of images from the code of Jewish law, The Talmud. Leann has also taught courses for Hebrew College in Newton on integrating images in themes of Biblical texts, teaching classes on finding meaning through images in the book of Genesis and also the book of Esther.

The blog Words Have Wings (www.wordshavewings.net) has been an online presence for three years. In this blog Leann combines her photography with her poetry on the weekly Torah portions. A collection of her poems was recently published, Words Have Wings.

Leann’s work has been shown at the Newton and Brewster Ladies’ Library, New England Biolabs, Zullo Gallery, Brickbottom Gallery, Bromfield Gallery, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and Indalo Gallery. She has participated in Newton Open Studios and her work has twice been featured in Art Bingo from the Art Connection. She has a photo in the New England Biolab’s collection. She has been interviewed for her work on Seasonal Bouquets and Irma G: A Century of Hats and Spirit by NewTV.

Image caption: “Irma G.,” photograph