Alumni in High Museum’s “Underexposed: Women Photographers”

The School of Art is pleased to announce the accomplishments of two alumni in relation to the exhibition Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection at the High Museum of Art. Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection was curated by the High Museum’s Sarah Kennel with Maria L. Kelly,  Lamar Dodd School of Art alumna (2011) and curatorial assistant for photography. Alumna Meghann Riepenhoff (2003) was among the artists selected for the exhibition and was one of the three artists selected to participated in “Conversations with Contemporary Artists”, a panel discussion of the exhibition. 

Conceived in conjunction with the centennial of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted suffrage for some women, this exhibition showcases more than one hundred photographs from the High’s collection, many of them never before on view, and charts the medium’s history from the dawn of the modern period to the present through the work of women photographers. Organized roughly chronologically, each section emphasizes a distinct arena in which women contributed and often led the way. Among the artists featured are pioneers of the medium such as Anna Atkins as well as more recent innovators and avid experimenters, including Betty Hahn, Barbara Kasten, and Meghann Riepenhoff. The exhibition also celebrates the achievements of numerous professional photographers, including Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, and Marion Post Wolcott, who worked in photojournalism, advertising, and documentary modes and promoted photography as a discipline. Underexposed is on view through August 1, 2021. 

Riepenhoff’s Eluvium series (pictured) is featured in the exhibition. Eluvium is comprised of  14″x11″ unique chromogenic photograms along with a book that contains hand-written notations of what the artist said or did to create each piece. “The word Eluvium describes residual deposits of soil and sand produced by wind. To create these images, I cast sand on sheets of light-sensitive paper in the dark. I then spoke, sang, cried, and otherwise generated breath in almost touching proximity to the paper, my actions moving the sand into formations. I exposed and processed the paper, titling each image after what I said or did to create it,” states Riepenhoff. 

Maria L. Kelly is the Curatorial Assistant of Photography at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, as well as the Collection Manager for The Sir Elton John Photography Collection. During her time at the High, Maria has helped organize more than twenty photography installations, including exhibitions featuring the work of Thomas Struth, Helen Levitt, Abelardo Morell, Wynn Bullock, and Gordon Parks, among others. Her most recent projects include her masters thesis at Columbia University, “The Unfixed Landscape: Meghann Riepenhoff & Matthew Brandt” (2018), which considered experimental bodies of work by both artists within the context of the history of photography and the Land Art movement, and an exhibition, “What Is Near: Reflections on Home” (2016), that featured the work of five southern women photographers exploring the notions of home and memory. Maria holds an M.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, both in art history. Previously, she worked at the Brooklyn Museum and has held internships at The Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Georgia Museum of Art.

Meghann Riepenhoff is a 2018-19 Guggenheim Fellow. Riepenhoff is based in Bainbridge Island, WA and San Francisco, CA. She received a BFA in Photography from the University of Georgia, and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. She is from Atlanta, GA. Her work has been exhibited and is held in the collections at the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), and the Worcester Art Museum. Additional collections include the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which holds Riepenhoff’s 12’x18’ unique cyanotype. Additional exhibitions include Yossi Milo Gallery, Jackson Fine Art, Galerie du Monde, Euqinom Projects, the Aperture Foundation, San Francisco Camerawork, the Denver Art Museum, the New York Public Library, and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). Publications include ArtForum, Aperture PhotoBook Review, The New York Times, Time Magazine Lightbox, Wallstreet Journal, The Guardian, Oprah Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, Wired Magazine, and Photograph Magazine. Riepenhoff is the recipient of a Fleishhacker Foundation grant, residencies at the Banff Centre, Rayko, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and an affiliate studio award at the Headlands Center for the Arts.