Entering Northampton
by Ellen Augarten

Main Street by Ellen Augarten

Contemporary Art at Historic Northampton is pleased to present Entering Northampton, an exhibit by Northampton photographer Ellen Augarten. Entering Northampton features contemporary photographic images based on the Howland Family Album (circa 1895-1900) and prints from Historic Northampton's permanent collection. Join artist Ellen Augarten at the opening reception on Friday, February 13, 2015 from 5 to 8 pm during Northampton's Arts Night Out.

Cyanotype of Forbes Library from the Howland Family Album

In 1998, a turn-of-the-century photograph album was found in the basement of the home of the late Agnes Wright Howland (1903-1995) on Lyman Road in Northampton. The album features candid snapshots of an unidentified family and of Northampton sites and events including Main Street, the Mill River, the Smith College campus and Forbes Library. The photographic prints are predominantly cyanotypes - a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Ten album pages have dates ranging from 1897 to 1900.

Forbes Library by Ellen Augarten

Though Augarten set out to discover the photographer/s of this collection, the early photo enthusiast/s remain unknown. But while researching featured sites such as Paradise Pond and the Three County Fairgrounds she did discover how little she knew of the town she has called home for more than forty years. So far she's merely scratched the surface of Northampton’s rich history, she says, but this project has already enriched her life as a (transplant) New Englander.

Smith College Plant House by Ellen Augarten

Her exhibit, Entering Northampton combines reprinted and mounted cyanotypes from the Howland Album, original pages from the album, and 15 new contemporary double exposures, together with brief histories. The exhibit will be on view from February 6 to March 8, 2015. In conjunction with the exhibit, Anthony Lee will give a public lecture, The Family Photo Album in late 19th Century America on Saturday, February 21st at 2 pm at Historic Northampton. Dr. Lee is Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art History at Mount Holyoke College.


About Ellen Augarten
Augarten's work has turned from portraiture toward the more spontaneous and serendipitous double exposure. For the past few years she has been making in-camera “doubles” of people, trees and flowers, roadways, bridges, buildings, train tracks, and more, combining and blending in both analogue and digital mediums. After working as a portrait photographer for twenty years, she received her MFA in Photography at Hartford Art School. Her photographs have appeared in both group and solo shows in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York City, but mostly in our hometown, Northampton.