MAURA SULLIVAN: Things We Remember

Things We Remember, Maura Sullivan’s first monograph, invites viewers into the mysterious, elegant, and compelling world that the New York City-based photographer creates. By composing and integrating her subjects into atmospheric locations suffused with natural light, Sullivan’s analog black and white photographs seem to recall a lost time, a summoning from the past, a look beyond the surface, a revelation of the inner world. Each of the 70 eloquently sequenced and richly reproduced duotone plates in this volume tells its own story, conjuring deeply embedded memories and lost dreams. Yet as a collection, a larger, almost cinematic or literary narrative unfolds, leaving room for each viewer to reflect upon the work in their own way. In the end, Things We Remember is a captivating testament to Sullivan’s photographic artistry that further reveals itself with each repeated viewing, offering a spellbinding window into her extraordinary and poetic world.

PRESS:

Lenscratch｜Catalyst Interviews｜Juxtapoz｜Nowhere Diary｜Guillotine｜Bildersturm｜this isn’t happiness｜L’intervalle｜Audioteca Fotográfica

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“. . . Maura [Sullivan] makes the extraordinary from the ordinary. Her work is a lens to an unseen world that the photos make momentarily seen.” —May Kuckro, from the foreword in Things We Remember

“Maura Sullivan’s photographs have all the movement, graininess, and romance of Sarah Moon’s world yet they are not about style. They have all the surrealism and tragedy of Maya Deren’s films. They look like fleeting film stills where the narratives are dreamlike and unresolved. Presented with body parts, headless bodies, and figures in motion or turned away, we often don’t get to meet the characters. Things We Remember is a privileged world with mysteries to unravel where we don’t belong, but we are fortunate to visit.” —Amy Arbus

“Things We Remember is a book full of layers—of beauty, of dust, of time, of fabric, of mystery, of love.” —Michael Ackerman

“Things We Remember reads like a diary, images captured at the moment when dreams and memory collide—laced with symbols that call to the unconscious mind and the complexity of the human spirit. Her photographs, rich in texture, steeped in contrast, create personal and collective narratives—they embark on a nostalgic journey of the artist’s inner world.” —Polly Gaillard, Lenscratch

“Maura Sullivan’s enigmatic images seem strangely familiar yet similarly unknowable, much like a splintered dream or echoes from a faded memory.” —Susan Burnstine, Black + White Photography

“Maura Sullivan’s images are rich and timeless, full of poetic depth; a door opening to other worlds. [They are] haunting, lyrical, and beguiling manifestations of a singular and timeless esthetic.” —June Bateman

“Maura Sullivan is a master lenswoman with a vision, a true artist with a brilliant eye on a patient search. Her images emotionally speak to you; connect to you like a dream coming back to you. Her romantic searching and storytelling pierce you in the heart. Things We Remember is a treasure.” —Mark Sink, Curator

“We don’t always have to know what’s going on or what something means. Maura Sullivan keeps that feeling alive and draws us into her photographs one uncertain moment at a time.” —Michael Kirchoff, Catalyst Interviews

“Maura Sullivan’s photographs—like those of Sara Imloul in France—cast doubt on identity, disturb perception and explode the sugary family consensus by offering the feeling of communicating directly with the cruelty and fantasy of the unconscious.” —Fabien Ribery, L’intervalle

MAURA SULLIVAN was born in 1971 in Hartford Connecticut. She graduated from Syracuse University (B.F.A.) in 1993 and has also attended the International School of Photography. Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and has been widely exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Argentina, The Netherlands, Poland, and Turkey. She was the recipient of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award in 2011. Galleries representing Sullivan’s work include PG Art Gallery (Istanbul), Kahmann Gallery (Amsterdam), and June Bateman Fine Arts (NYC). Her photographs have been published in Art Forum, Black+White Photography, Shots Magazine, Private International Review of Photographs and Text, Fotoritim, New York Magazine, and the book Series of Dreams (SKP, 2018). Her photographs have also appeared in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. Sullivan lives and works in New York City.

Published by Skeleton Key Press, January 2021
ISBN 978-0-9997553-3-4
17 x 24.5 cm (6.7 x 9.7 in)
Hardcover, 96 pages, 70 duotone plates
Edited by Russell Joslin and Maura Sullivan
Book design by Russell Joslin
Cover design by Sheila Sullivan
Foreword by May Kuckro
Text in English