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Amy Burke
The Girls, 2021, tin type 5 x 7"
We are pleased to host Amy Burke for a solo exhibition in the Galleria Exhibition Space in the Baker Center for the Arts at Muhlenberg College. We will hold a public reception on Thursday September 9th, from 6:00 – 7:30pm in the Baker Center for the Arts. Additionally, Amy will give an artist talk in the Recital Hall, adjacent to the Gallery, on October 7th, at 6pm. Please note that masks are required of all visitors.
During the lockdown, Burke turned her camera inward, focusing on her family, specifically her three young daughters. Using traditional photographic processes such as wet collodion, tintype, pin-hole photography, and other filmic methods, she’s created a fantastical world of staged portraits of her girls. Victorian looking outfits and props are common, and the technique she’s using feeds into a romantic nostalgia for a pre-pandemic past.
Amy Burke is a Pennsylvania based artist working in photography. Her work is influenced by memory, storytelling, and play. She invites accidents into her practice by shooting with old cameras, some of which have light leaks; and by using historic photographic techniques. These accidents give her work an expressive, painterly quality. Amy first fell in love with photography as a child. She and her sister played dress-up, staged, and shot scenes with the family Polaroid camera. The spirit of her childhood is carried into this current body of work as her own children are cast in starring roles. Amy earned her BA in Photography from the Pennsylvania State University in 1998 and an MFA in Costume Design from the California Institute of the Arts in 2004. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally.
