Joni Sternbach
"Woman to primitive man is . . . at once weak and magical,
oppressed, yet feared. She is charged with powers of childbearing
denied to man, powers only half understood . . . forces that all over
the world seem to fill him with terror. The attitude of man to woman,
and, though perhaps in a lesser degree, of woman to man,
is still today essentially magical."
This series of color photographs are entitled "Something Between The Two Of Them." They were made between 1983-1986, after the birth of my first born child, who was two months premature.
It is a narrative series based on Motherhood (as a personal and institutional experience) and locates these issues about women in the culture of the 1980's. The relationship between personal and institutional is crucial in this work. The role of the Mother suggests different notions, many fiction as well as real, yet both are often misconstrued and/or judged.
Specific signifiers placed within the frame of each photograph attempt to magnify the struggle against the coded persona implied by our very strict notion of Mother and her role. These signifiers at times may appear obvious or even stereotypical. This was done to engage the viewer in the "known". Once engaged the viewer can then attempt to define or redefine this 'privileged position' granted to those that are female.
Jane Harrison, "Themis: A study of the social origins of Greek religion"
Images 1983-86
Joni Sternbach is an artist and educator based in New York. She received a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and a Master of Arts from New York University and International Center of Photography in 1987, where she taught for over a decade. She is an an advisory board member and founding faculty at Penumbra Foundation in NYC, where she teaches wet plate collodion.
Sternbach uses large format cameras and early photographic processes to explore the present-day landscape and environmental portraits. Her work centers on our relationship with water. Her long-term projects involve the pursuit and understanding of the Western landscape and the series Surfland, which captures portraits of surfers in tintype.
Sternbach’s work is part of many international and public collections including the National Portrait Gallery in London, Joslyn Museum, MOCA Jacksonville, Nelson Atkins Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She is the recipient of several grants including NYFA and CAPS and Santo Foundation. Her monograph Surf Site Tin Type was published in the Spring 2015 by Damiani Editore. Her next book will be released in 2021.
She is represented in Los Angeles by Von Lintel Gallery and in London by Black Box Projects.
Portrait by Eric Taubman
instagram: @jstersurf