about vivien

I was a large format black and white photographer for many years, influenced by the Modernist aesthetic of the f64 photographers. Ansel Adams and I grew up, decades apart, within a few city blocks of one another. Those West Coast images put me in mind of the landscapes of my youth.

I now have lived in New England for almost 40 years and my aesthetic and vision have changed, far away from the West coast mountains and ocean where I began. I am now drawn in the opposite direction, shooting often with limited depth of field, blurring backgrounds and edges, focusing close on details, on the ocean at ebb tide or things left lying scattered and forgotten inside abandoned structures, the remnants of lives as they once were lived.

I was an only child and spent many hours alone and daydreaming. Being an “only” left me with an interior landscape of images, and when I discovered photography I found a way to retrieve and render them. As with many photographers, memories drive my process, and the photograph often happens at a moment of recognition

selected honors, exhibitions, collections, and artist talks

2020 

• Hunneman Hall, Brookline Public Library | Tidelines | Solo exhibition

• Photoplace Gallery | The Poetry of the Ordinary | Online exhibition | Juror: Sarah Sudhoff

• The Gallery Upstairs | Cape Portfolio | Orleans, MA | Curator: Bob Korn

2019 

• Griffin Museum of Photography| Members’ Show | Winchester, MA

• Eastham Public Library | Tidelines at Nauset Inlet | Eastham, MA | Solo Exhibition

• PAAM: Provincetown Art Association and Museum | Members’ Show | Provincetown, MA

• 12th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers | Barcelona, Spain | Honorable Mention: Landscapes and Seascapes | Jurors: Andrea Star-Reese, Julia Fullerton-Batten, and Laura Pannack

2018

•  11th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers | Barcelona, Spain | Honorable mentions: Landscapes and Seascapes, Fine Art

• 2nd Robert Cornelius Portrait Award | Runner-up | Juror: Margarita Mavromichalis

• Griffin Museum of Photography | Critic's Pic: Tidelines | Winchester, MA | Curator: Paula Tongarelli

2017 

• Cultural Center of Cape Cod | Elements|Water | Yarmouth, MA 

• Darkroom Gallery | Passages and Pathways | Essex Junction, VT | Juror: Stephen Perloff

• Wellfleet Library | The Outermost Cape: Encountering Time, text by Marian Knapp | Wellfleet, MA | Curator: Rebecca Morrison

• Darkroom Gallery | Black & White & Blue | Essex Junction, VT | Juror: Michael Kirchoff

2016 

• Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute | solo exhibit | Newton, MA

• 4th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography | Berlin Biennial | Berlin, Germany

• Finalist, 7th and 8th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award

2015 

• Darkroom Gallery | H20 | Essex Junction, VT | Juror: Gary Braasch

• Griffin Museum of Photography | Photographing People | Winchester, MA | Juror: Harvey Stein 

• Griffin Museum of Photography | Annual Members’ Show | Winchester, MA

• PhotoPlace Gallery | Open Call 2015, Fine Art Category | Middlebury, VT | Juror: Jeff Curto

• Castle Hill Center for the Arts | juried show | Truro, MA

• Danforth Art Museum | Community of Artists annual juried exhibition | Framingham, MA | Juror: Jessica Roscio

• Danforth Art Museum | gallery talk | Framingham, MA

• Carnegie Visual Arts Center | Alabama Revisited: Recent Photographs of Alabama’s Past | Decatur, Alabama 

2014 

• Wallwork Gallery | Rockport, Maine

2013 

• Knox Mansion Photography Exhibition | Townsend, ME

• Southbridge Public Library | collaborative exhibition of photographs and prints with John Ferrara | Southbridge, MA

• Peter's Valley Craft Center | juried exhibition | Layton, NJ

• PhotoPlace Gallery | Sea and Mountains juried exhibition | Middlebury, VT

• Cape Cod Art Association | Winter Wonderland juried exhibition | Brewster, MA

2012 

• New York Photo Festival |  PRC in NYC exhibition | Brooklyn, NY | Juror: Glenn Ruga

• New England College Art Department | Visiting Artist Talk | Henniker, NH

• Southbridge Library | solo exhibition | Southbridge, MA

• Currier Musuem | juried group exhibition & artist talk | Manchester, NH

2011 

• PhotoPlace Gallery |  The Nature of Light juried exhibition | Middlebury, VT | Jurors: Kirsten Hoving and Rick Clark

• Brookline Public Library | solo exhibit | Brookline, MA

• National Steinbeck Center | permanent collection | Salinas, CA | Curator: Al Weber

• William Raveis Gallery | solo exhibit | Bristol, RI

2010 

• Town Hall Walls juried group exhibition | Brookline, MA

• Catskills Art Society |  Tillman Crane and Friends group exhibition | Livingston Manor, NY

2009

•  Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute | solo exhibit | Boston, MA 

2006 

• Brookline Open Studios

1999 

• Harvard University at the Boston Department of Transportation |  Harvard After Dark group exhibition | 1st Prize | Boston, MA