Rachel Phillips
Growing Pains
For this series I began with a few literal nods to the historical artifacts and symbols of the suffrage movement: the yellow envelope used by Phoebe Burns to write to her son asking him to vote for women and the symbolic yellow rose worn by suffragettes and their supporters. To these elements I added photographs made by pioneering professional photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston around 1899.
I chose to work with scans of Johnston’s photographs (including several antique cyanotype prints) for several reasons. First, I found them visually striking and in their own way representative of the strength, struggle and aspiration of the women’s movement. Also, I respected Johnston as a champion of photography as a profession for women. Finally, by looking at work made by Johnston two decades before the 19th amendment passed, I realized how that particular moment sits in a historical continuum: women worked to become self-realized and equal members of society long before suffrage, and ambiguity, imperfection and struggle toward that ideal still exists today, a hundred years on.
Rachel began photography while completing her undergraduate degree at Skidmore College, graduating in 2005. In numerous group and solo exhibitions she has presented a series of projects exploring the photograph as object, often resulting in unique works incorporating a specialized transfer printing technique as well as other processes like encaustic wax and materials ranging from old envelopes to 19th century cabinet cards. A frequent theme in the work is a desire to “reanimate” the vernacular photographs and paper ephemera in her collection by reworking them in a variety of ways to create imagery that is resonant with the past yet has a new vitality and reflection of our own time and perspective. She is represented by Catherine Couturier Gallery in Houston, Texas and Dina Mitrani Gallery in Miami, Florida.
In addition to photography, Rachel works in the San Francisco Bay Area as a tutor for children with learning differences.
instagram: @treadwellpress
